The magnetic detector or Marconi magnetic detector, sometimes called the "Maggie", was an early radio wave detector used in some of the first radio receivers to receive Morse code messages during the wireless telegraphy era around the turn of the 20th century. Developed in 1902 by radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi from a method invented in 1895 by New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford it was used in Marconi wireless stations until around 1912, when it was superseded by vacuum tubes. It was widely used on ships because of its reliability and insensitivity to vibration. A magnetic detector was part of the wireless apparatus in the radio room of the RMS Titanic which was used to summon help during its famous 15 April 1912 sinking.
Marconi's wireless magnetic detector (London)
One of the first prototype magnetic detectors built by Marconi in 1902, in Milan museum. The sensing coils on this instrument are removed.
Recreation of a Marconi ship radio room at the Aalborg Maritime Museum, Aalborg, Denmark. A magnetic detector is on the desk to right of the Marconi tuner receiver, which provided the signal for the magnetic detector.
(A) Antenna wire, (B,B) Iron band around pulleys, (C, C) RF excitation winding on glass tube through which the iron band travels, (D) Audio pickup winding, (E) Ground-plate, (S, N) Permanent magnets, (T) Telephone receiver.
In radio, a detector is a device or circuit that extracts information from a modulated radio frequency current or voltage. The term dates from the first three decades of radio (1888-1918). Unlike modern radio stations which transmit sound on an uninterrupted carrier wave, early radio stations transmitted information by radiotelegraphy. The transmitter was switched on and off to produce long or short periods of radio waves, spelling out text messages in Morse code. Therefore, early radio receivers did not have to demodulate the radio signal, but just distinguish between the presence or absence of a radio signal, to reproduce the Morse code "dots" and "dashes". The device that performed this function in the receiver circuit was called a detector. A variety of different detector devices, such as the coherer, electrolytic detector, magnetic detector and the crystal detector, were used during the wireless telegraphy era until superseded by vacuum tube technology.
A coherer detector, useful only for Morse code signals.