ResonantLive Sound Archive

Equipment file · Wireless telegraph detector

Magnetic detector receiver

Marconi · 1902

Evidence status · documented

Identity and core specifications are documented; some historical fields remain unavailable.

Marconi's magnetic detector, the 'Maggie', used a moving iron-wire band passing magnets; radio currents disturbed its magnetisation, producing clicks in headphones. It was the standard Marconi shipboard detector until valve detectors took over around 1912.

Introduced
1902
Category
Wireless telegraph detector
Intended use
Receiving spark-gap Morse signals, especially at sea
Production
Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company

Equipment photographs · 1

Marconi magnetic detector

1 / 1 · Marconi magnetic detector

Marconi magnetic detector·Archie Frederick Collins·Public domain

Why it mattered

  1. 01

    Far steadier than the coherer, it made shipboard wireless dependable.

  2. 02

    It was replaced by the valve detectors that grew out of the [[fleming-valve|Fleming valve]].

Engineering record

Detection principle
A continuously moving iron-wire band in a magnetic field; incoming radio currents changed its magnetisation, heard in headphones[1]

Original pricing

No reliable period price located

2026 equivalent

Not calculated without a reliable original price.

Public price evidence was not sufficient to publish a defensible original figure.

Use in the field

No named deployment could be tied to this exact item by a checked source yet. Know of one? Suggest it on the contribute page.

Manuals & original documents

No authoritative manual or original document has been located for this profile.

Sources

  1. 1Magnetic detector 'Maggie' 101RRadiomuseum.org · reference

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