Reading Questions
Susan Douglas, Inventing American Broadcasting,
Chapters 3 & 4

Chapter 3

1. In this chapter Douglas tracks Marconi, Fessenden, De Forest and Stone between 1899 and 1905 in terms of their competition in the three arenas of the technological, the corporate and the journalistic. Evaluate the success of each inventor in each arena.

2. What was happening in the stock market for the time period in question, and why does Douglas mention it?

3. What, according to Douglas, was the ultimate goal of Marconi and his company? What were the "two entrepreneurial strategies" (p.67) by which this goal was pursued? Douglas states that these two strategies "were sometimes at odds" (p. 67) in the short term. In what way?

4. Several of the Marconi company's policies which may seem strange to us from today's perspective, obviously seemed justified to Marconi and his associates at the time. Explain how it was that the company came to sell "not apparatus, but service" (p.69).

5. How did the "nonintercommunication rule" fit into this approach and the company's long term goal? What were the official justifications for the rule?

6. What problems did the nonintercommunication rule pose for one of Marconi's major clients, and why?

7. What, according to Douglas, were the strengths and weaknesses of the American Marconi Company, (i.e. the American subsidiary of the parent company based in Britain)?

8. Douglas note's several different strategies pursued by NESCO, Fessenden's and his associates' company, between 1902 and 1906. What were these strategies?

9. What were the differences between Marconi Co.'s and De Forest & White's approach to seeking investors?

10. How and why did United Fruit Company get involved with wireless?

11. Was Stone's greatest strength technical, organizational or promotional? Explain.

Chapter 4

1. What was "the rationale for American naval expansion" (p. 103) in the late 19^th & early 20^th centuries, and who is associated with it?
2. Trace the development of the "conception of ether as territory" (p. 106) as argued by Douglas in this chapter.
3. Douglas argues that "Marconi's determination to establish" his system as monopoly "was a political time bomb" (p. 106). Trace the development of this "political time bomb" across the chapter.
4. Douglas argues that while the Navy had modernized its technology form sail to steam, its bureaucratic organization "lagged behind" (p. 107). Explain.
5. In what ways did the bureaucratic organization of the navy hinder adoption of wireless?
6. Who was Francis Barber, and in what ways was he significant to the Navy's developing policy on wireless?
7. How were the first (1903) and second International Wireless conferences similar and different from each other in terms of issues and outcomes?
8. What was the U.S.'s role in the second conference and what was ironic about this?
9. How and why did individual commanders and other shipboard officers in the Navy resist introduction of wireless?
10. How did the navy and private entrepreneurs differ in their organizational outlooks, and how did this affect development of naval wireless policies?

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