A HUNDRED YEARS AGO The first weather report from the Eiffel Tower

 Where to place the date of the birth of radio in France? A consensus seems to have been reached on the first concert broadcast by the Poste de la Tour Eiffel on December 22, 1921. The Tower then carried out tests almost daily. But the establishment of a real regular, fixed program dates from Monday February 6 when the military post offers a daily program with a little news, a little music but above all a weather report. Until then, these were transmitted only in Morse code by the Tower.

The first broadcast forecasts

A small revolution announced at the beginning of February 1922 by the ancestor of Météo-France. “From Monday, February 6, the National Meteorological Office will draw up a forecast every afternoon for agriculture, relating to the night and the next day's tour, which will be transmitted immediately by wireless telephony, by the TSF station. of the Eiffel Tower. This mission will take place every non-holiday day, at 4:30 p.m., on 2,600 meters of wavelength. »

What can we learn from hearing this forecast? The newspaper l'Intransigeant has the answer: "It will concern the following day and will relate to each of the following twelve regions: North-East, North, North-West, Parisienne, Brittany, West, South-West, Centre, Massif Central , South-East, South and East. This forecast will include these various elements: wind direction and strength, state of the sky, probability of precipitation, possibilities of phenomena dangerous for agriculture (frost, storm, hail, etc.), temperature variation, minimum night temperature. “

​“The Tower will speak”

During these broadcasts broadcast every day between 4:30 p.m. and 5 p.m., you can hear the weather forecast repeated twice followed by news provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as a small concert or records. A journalist from the Echo de Paris listened and gave his testimony: “The triple heralding vibration came to surprise us. “The Tower is going to speak,” said my host gravely, who urged me to set my watch to the time: 4:30 p.m. Then he solemnly put on his headphones, and, leaning towards him, I could hear, despite the noise carts and the cracking of whips - return from the market - which made the windows ring, the mysterious voice which spelled out the forecasts. Those who have attended a TSF concert have the memory of a large, nasal voice quite reminiscent of that of a giant photographer. This is the effect of the “speaker” which must distribute the sound in a large room. Nothing similar with the headset: the voice is distinct, clearly detached, as it can be in a very good telephone device.

Commander Jullien, who directs this military post at the Eiffel Tower, gives his comments to the newspaper l'Œuvre: “As far as wireless telephony is concerned, anyone can hear it, on small galena posts that you can find it on the market for around a hundred francs. With this modest and inexpensive equipment, we will very clearly hear the men talking, singing or playing music,” the soldier rightly prophesies.

What scope for these broadcasts?

It adds details on the reception of these programs. “But our broadcast is too weak to be heard throughout France. We are told to have seen it 285 kilometers away with an 80 meter three-wire antenna suspended 20 meters high. This is exceptional. In Luxembourg, it can be faintly seen on a galena with a 120 meter two-wire antenna placed 36 meters from the ground. On the other hand, at 150 kilometers, we can see it perfectly, with a 37-meter three-wire antenna placed 7 meters from the ground.

By the way, what was the weather like that day?

The first weather forecast broadcast announced severe cold, as we can read in the press of the day.

Source https://www.radiotsf.fr/tag/tour-eiffel/

Since November 1921, the military post of the Eiffel Tower (code FL) has been carrying out broadcasting tests every day from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. on a wavelength of 2,600 meters. The power is low, 400 to 600 watts, but the waves are far from crowded. The signal therefore carries very far. During these tests, we read newspapers, novels and some amateurs sing a song or play their instrument. Sometimes series of numbers are broadcast for the purpose of verifying reception by military stations. Regularly, an announcer announces: “Hello, hello, this is the Eiffel Tower station”.

A microphone in front of the phonograph

In December, two concerts, one for Lille then another for Brussels (in the presence of Belgian sovereigns) were broadcast. The tests continue every day from 4:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. and on January 6, the Eiffel Tower broadcasts a concert from the office of Commander Julien, the station director. A phonograph has been installed and a soldier holds a microphone in front of the pavilion. Thus, some records by Italian tenor Enrico Caruso are broadcast: Madame Butterfly, Paillasse (Pagliacci). And finally, La Marseillaise. These are the first records on French radio!

A nice link http://leradiofil.com/tour_eiffel.htm

First radio link in 1898

Eugène Ducretet succeeded on November 5, 1898 in establishing a radio link in Morse code from the Eiffel Tower with the Pantheon four kilometers away. A transmitter station is then permanently installed. In 1899 it enabled connections with London. The military authority was also interested in the emerging radio. She commissioned Engineering Captain Gustave Ferrié, a 31-year-old polytechnician, to carry out experiments. Since 1897 he has commanded the newly created Military Telegraph School, published a reference work on the subject in 1900 and perfected the receiving devices in 1903.

6000 kilometers range from 1908

Gustave Eiffel then proposed to make the Tower available to him and to finance the installation at the top of the Tower of an antenna support which would make it possible to stretch a cable between the Tower and the middle of the Champ-de-Mars. Ferrié moved into a barracks at the foot of the southern pillar to continue his experiments, surrounded by a small team of specialists. From the following year, it could communicate with the forts in the East 400 kilometers away, then with the naval base of Bizerte in Tunisia and up to 6000 kilometers in 1908. In 1909, a permanent station was set up under the Champ-de-Mars. The strategic interest of the Tower is confirmed and this will earn Gustave Eiffel an extension of his concession for a period of 70 years from January 1, 1910.

Radio at the Eiffel Tower

Totally different and yet inseparable, radio and the Tower have a rich common past! Radio was born at the Eiffel Tower at the beginning of the 20th century thanks to the work of French engineers such as Eugène Ducretet, precursor of the TSF, General Ferrié, pioneer of radio broadcasting or Gustave Eiffel, who supported all scientific experiments. This is how the first French radio station was born under the name Radio Tour Eiffel and took up residence at the Tower for almost 20 years.

Let us remember that the dismantling of the Eiffel Tower was planned for 1909 but that its heroine, who is none other than the radio, saved it!

The first steps of Radio Tour Eiffel

Created at the instigation of General Ferrié who wanted to test an application of civil radio, Radio Tour Eiffel takes up residence in the heart of the tallest monument in the world! Used as a giant antenna, the Eiffel Tower houses the studios of Radio Tour Eiffel in its northern pillar, the first radio broadcasts of which were broadcast in November 1921. Only Parisians equipped with galena sets were able to witness the birth of radio, these Wireless radio receivers were not widely available at the time, so listeners were few. The first broadcasts become frequent but discreet, they allow the equipment to be perfected and the quality of the sound emitted to be improved. The broadcasts mainly consist of music and weather reports.

December 22, 1921 is a historic date for the station! It marks the debut of Radio Tour Eiffel which will broadcast for the first time a major public broadcast from the Eiffel Tower and recorded at the Lille theater. On this occasion, singers Jane Hato and Dutreix perform live and offer the French a unique concert which marks the beginning of the daily broadcasts.

These first successful attempts led to the official opening of Radio Tour Eiffel, on February 6, 1922. The inauguration attracted star artists of the time: Yvonne Printemps, Sacha Guitry and his father, Lucien Guitry who were present for the grand debut radio broadcasts.

The Eiffel Tower military post is the first radio station to broadcast regularly on French territory.

In 1898, the engineer Eugène Ducretet proved, by transmitting a Morse code signal between the Eiffel Tower and the Pantheon, that the monumental construction of the Champ-de-Mars could prove useful. It was in 1903 that Gustave Eiffel offered the services of his metal tower to Gustave Ferrié, pioneer of wireless telegraphy, who until then used balloons which unfolded antennas connected to the ground in the air. Ferrié therefore stretched, from 1903, six antenna wires which start from the top of the tower. In order to avoid the crackling sparks of the transmitter, which are annoying for the neighborhood, the radio station is buried under the Champ-de-Mars. The army carried out the first tests of the Eiffel Tower post on April 24, 1910 by transmitting signals intended for the Navy. The war comes and the process proves its worth. It makes it easier to communicate with the troops. Ferrié is covered in decorations, while Eiffel sees its tower become a permanent installation. It remains to be proven that this new means of communication can be used by the general public.

The Eiffel Tower post is officially transferred from the Ministry of War to that of the P.T.T. on January 15, 1920, but all military personnel and General Ferrié remained in place. At the beginning of November 1921, the Eiffel Tower station discreetly began to broadcast musical broadcasts on the 2650 m wavelength more frequently in order to perfect its equipment, which was still poorly suited to broadcasting voice and even less music. . The program generally consists, at the beginning of the evening, of the reading of a bulletin from the National Meteorology, followed by a small violin concert and a press review. After the first French public broadcasting experiment carried out on November 26, 1921 from the Sainte-Assise transmitter, the Eiffel Tower station broadcast its first radio broadcast on December 24, 19211 which was only received by a very limited number of people without -ropists informed on their posts in Galena. The first French radio presenter was a telegraph engineer whose first words were: “Hello, hello, this is the military post of the Eiffel Tower”. The official inauguration took place on February 6, 1922 in the presence of the Under-Secretary of State of the P.T.T. Paul Laffont, actors Yvonne Printemps, Sacha Guitry and Lucien Guitry who, for the occasion, read into the microphone a poem by Victor Hugo "O Soldiers of the Year II". The daily broadcasts, which initially begin modestly at 4:30 p.m. for half an hour per day1, offer Parisians equipped with TSF receivers the opportunity to read weather forecasts intended mainly for farmers and prices on the Paris Stock Exchange.

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Maurice Privat (1889-1949) was a French writer and journalist, precursor of the spoken word newspaper.

The Eiffel Tower station was rented on May 27, 1924 to the Association of Friends of the Tower (founded by Maurice Privat) which was responsible for organizing broadcasts and information there. Its director, Maurice Privat, put on the air on November 3, 1925 the first “talking newspaper” in the world,