[CW] Thorn Mayes, W6AX Early Wireless History

[D.J.J. Ring, Jr.]

Thorn Mayes, (b. 1903, d. 1987), W6AX, W9AX, 6BDQ, 6AX, K6BI, K2CE, and
W1CX (SK)

My friend Thorn Mayes, W6AX (SK) along with two of my other friends, Art
Goodnow, W1DM (SK) and Bob Merriam, W1NTE (SK) (curator of the New England
Wireless and Steam Museum in Rhode Island) wrote a excellent book on the
early days of Wireless which is sold at the NEWSM Museum.

BOOK: https://newsm.org/shop/
RECORDINGS of Lectures: Thorn also gave many lectures on early wireless,
some of which have been preserved:
https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Thorn+Mayes%22

OOTC listing:
Thorn L. Mayes, W6AX, Ex-W9AX, Ex-6BDQ, 6AX, K6BI, K2CE, W1CX. Handle
"Thorn". Born April 19, 1903. First 2-way wireless contact 1921. Retired
Manager-Engineering-General Electric Co., Indiana Heating. 1921-23 operated
6BDQ and 6AX Coalinga High School Rig. Graduated from Univ. of California
1927 BSEE. 1949 obtained call K6BI used G09 xmtr Oakland. 1949 K2CE using
TDE-2 xmtr from Schenectady. 1950-52 call W1CX using TDE-2 from Marblehead.
1952-56 call W9AX from Fort Wayne. 1958-63 W9AX using DX-100 from
Shelby-ville, Indiana. Is collecting antique gear (prior to 1922), books
and magazines. Has built spark set, experimenting with Tesla coils. Member
IEEE-ASME-OOTC-AWA-SOWP-QCWA and ARAL.

[image: 1.jpg][image: 2.jpg]
[image: 3.jpg]

Thorn Mayes (Courtesy of the New England Wireless and Steam Museum) Thorn
Mayes, born April 19, 1903, graduated from the University of California in
1927 with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. He was an avid amateur radio
operator, working W6AX, W9AX, 6BDQ, 6AX, K6BI, K2CE, and W1CX under the
handle “Thorn.” His first 2-way wireless contact was in 1921, and he was
member #229 of the Old Old Timers Club. After retiring from his managerial
position at General Electric Company, Mayes became a serious collector of
antique gear (prior to 1922), books and magazines, as well as an historian
of early wireless in the United States. In his own words1,

"After spending about 38 years with the General Electric Company, I retired
in 1963. The last 20 years with the company was in the East, so in ‘63 we
moved back to California and I set up my machine shop, electronics
laboratory, and became interested in recreating the history of the three
main, early, commercial wireless stations on the West Coast. KPH, which I
think is by far the most important of all; KFS who was a competitor, and
NPG, which is sometimes called the NAA of the West Coast because of the
similarity in transmission equipment used at NPG and also at NAA."

Mayes published numerous papers in the amateur radio press, as well as
several publications, including:

The Federal Telegraph Company, 1909-1920 ([Rochester, N.Y] : Antique
Wireless Association, c1979)
Brief history of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America:
1899-1919 (1972)
Wireless communication in the United States : the early development of
American radio operating companies, prepared for publication by Arthur C.
Goodnow, Robert W. and Nancy A. Merriam (East Greenwich, R.I. : New England
Wireless and Steam Museum, c1989).

Mayes was able to draw on his many friends and contacts within the amateur
radio and electronics community for his research. As part of his work, he
recorded a large number of interviews with names familiar to students of
early electronics, particularly in the Western United States, including
Ralph Heintz, Haraden Pratt, Richard Johnstone, and Robert Palmer. Mayes
also recorded many of his talks at amateur radio associations. These
recordings are part of the Perham Collection of Early Electronics, and the
majority of these interviews and talks have been transcribed by History San
Jose. A full list of recordings is available below, and copies of
transcripts can be requested through the Curator of Library and Archives
(research @ historysanjose.org).


Thorn L. Mayes was an electrical engineer who grew up in the time he wrote
about. He knew wireless and many of the people who developed it. The book
is a factual account of alternators, arcs and sparks, and coherers,
barretters and tikkers! It tells of great engineering achievements. It
describes unscrupulous stock promotions that by chance yielded some
technical breakthroughs.

This book covers the glory days of high powered wireless, three hundred
thousand watt spark transmitters, one million watt arc transmitters, and
the mighty Alexanderson alternators with antennas as long as nine
miles–systems that gave dependable world wide radio communication over
seventy years ago–as well as the business history of early radio.

The appendix includes fresh opinions from excerpts of unpublished letters
of pioneers, and early drawings of well designed, quenched gap spark
transmitters, which are far more than the blunderbuss static generators
that they have been taken for.

73

DR
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