A Dublin newspaper, the Daily Express, was the first in the world to publish news received by radio broadcast. An inventor, Guglielmo Marconi, wanted to prove the value of his new-fangled radio equipment, so he broadcast the winner of the 1898 Kingstown Regatta back to land from his yacht while still out at sea.
Some of the radio apparatus associated with this historic event now resides in a little-known yet remarkable collection at the new National Science Museum at NUI Maynooth.
"It is a priceless collection," said its curator, Dr Niall E. McKeith, of the Department of Experimental Physics.
The museum started life as the Museum of Ecclesiology in 1934, a reflection of the college's beginnings as a seminary. While it retains an extensive assemblage of ecclesiastical objects, the scientific side has grown, and now dominates the museum, Dr McKeith explained.
While Marconi and his wireless might be better known to many, the real core of the collection revolves around one of Maynooth's most famous sons, the Rev Prof Nicholas Callan (1799-1864).
Born in Dromiskin, Co Louth, Callan studied for the clergy in Rome where he learned about Alessandro Volta's electrical battery. He returned to Maynooth in 1826 and there contributed several distinguished decades to science.
Electricity at the time was something of a novelty, but it made for exciting experiments for those involved in the sciences. Callan began by improving battery designs and successfully sold his "Maynooth Battery" commercially.
He also made what was then the world's largest, most powerful battery by linking 577 individual cells. So new was the technology that the voltmeter had yet to be invented, so there was no accurate measure of its capabilities.
Callan used his batteries to make powerful electromagnets, one of which could lift two tons, landing him in the 8th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
His greatest discovery, however, was the induction coil, the world's first transformer.
The coils were made by insulating and wrapping miles of hand-drawn metal wire. His best induction machine could generate sparks 15 inches long, producing an estimated 600,000 volts.
Callan also put on a great show for visitors and at lectures, delivering shocks to unsuspecting volunteers and killing turkeys with his bolts of artificial lightning.
Many of Callan's inventions are found in the museum at Maynooth, priceless artifacts but also historically important given the significance of his discoveries.
The manufacture of scientific equipment flourished in Dublin at the end of the 1800s, Dr McKeith explained, led by companies such as Yeates & Son, Spencer & Son, Grubb and Robinson.
The large collection includes devices for chemical analysis, electricity and magnetism, heat studies, hydrostatics, meteorology, surveying and navigation.
An outstanding catalogue of the devices, The Scientific Apparatus of Nicholas Callan and other Historic Instruments, was prepared by Dr Charles Mollan and Dr John Upton. This gives full descriptions of the equipment and where it came from.
The museum received funding worth £100,000 and raised matching funds to transform the museum into a modern display facility, Dr McKeith explained.
The oldest devices date back to the 1600s, he said, and the rarest piece is probably Callan's Giant Coil.
The museum hasn't the money to stay open all year. It typically opens from May to September on Tuesdays and Thursdays 2 p.m.4 p.m. and on Sunday 2 p.m.6 p.m. Special visitor provisions are also made outside this time for groups, Dr McKeith added.
The museum website gives more information about the collection: http://www.may.ie/museum/