Long-Distance Radio Communication 100 Years Ago: The Alexanderson System at Radio Central [Historically Speaking]

About one hundred years ago, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) set out to build a complex called <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Radio Central</i> at Rocky Point, Long Island, NY that was supposed to be the “last word” in long-distance, trans-oceanic radio communication. The facility for transmission was based on a system, remarkable for the time, developed at the General Electric Company (GE), principally by Ernst F. W. Alexanderson, and therefore often referred to as the <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Alexanderson System for Radio Communication</i>. The main objective for this article is to provide the reader with a simple description of the basic physics, principally the electromagnets, underpinning a few of the key components of this historically important system. In addition, the circumstances that made RCA decide to build this facility as well as those that caused RCA to eventually limit its development are discussed.