Manley, Edward Bosworth, 1904-1982

Edward B. Manley; b. Apr. 8, 1904; d. Apr. 20, 1982, Cincinnati, Ohio)

Edward Bosworth Manley attended Marietta College
earning
a degree in
English.
During
his time at Marietta College,
he
buil
t
a radio station for the college
out of his own radio
set and spare parts.
He
also joined the Delta Upsilon Fraternity with other not
able alumni
of Marietta College
,
Edward McTagga
rt and Charles Gates Dawes. During college,
Manley spent his summers working aboard the
Effie M. Morrissey
a
s
a
radio technician
and deckhand under
Captain Robert A. Bartlett.
After graduating from Marietta College
in
1926, he left Marietta, Ohio
for New York City to report for duty upon the
Morrissey
.
Manley acted as the head radio operator for Captain
Robert
A.
Bartlett’s arctic
explorations. Because of the Radio Act of 1912, every vessel on the ocean needed to have
a two radio operators
.
Manley would often take over twelve hour shifts in the “booth
,
”
and other crew members would split the rest of the time wat
ching the radio. Bartlett’s
expeditions were funded almost entirely by
museums such as the Smithsonian
and the
Natural History Museum or companies with an interest in exploration
,
like National
Geographic. Manley worked on every one of these missions from
1925
–
1931. The
expeditions explored the area
s
of Newfoundland
,
Greenland
,
Alaska
,
Siberia
, and
Labrador
.
T
he expeditions
were to gather
animal specimens and
artifacts from the ancient
settlers in those areas
as well as photograph and film the native inh
abitants
.
Manley, inspired by the work of preceding and contemporary radio engineers like
Guglielmo
Marconi, Reginald Fessendan,
and
Lee De Forest, began to push the
capabilities of radio while on his explorations.
He
made three significant breakthroughs
in radio technology during his missions.
First, Manley discovered a mapping error, which proved Newfoundland to be missing
over
2,000 square miles. Honing in p
hysicist Nikola Tesla’s 1917 experiment with
tracking vessels at sea, Manley recorded the dist
ances of ra
dio stations from their signals
and was able to create a “radar
-
like” effect.
Next, Manley was able to transmit voices over the radio from within the Arctic Circle.
Using long wave technology,
he
wished t
o perfect oversea communication
. A
ttem
pts had
2
been made before at oversea
s
communication
.
During the 1927 expedition to East
Greenland and Baffin Bay
,
Manley arranged for George Palmer Putnam, who led the
expedition, to speak to his wife in New York while aboard the
Morrissey
near the Arctic
C
ircle via the onboard Radio (call sign VOQ).
Finally, on Manley’s last mission aboard the
Morrissey
in 1930
,
he
wished to test the
limits of radio communication.
He
spent full days at the radio desk trying to direct his
signal to each time zone
.
He
calle
d t
hese “‘round the world checks.”
While reaching
Great Britain and Russia had been previously accomplished,
he
was able to reach as far
as South Africa and New Zealand, which lay on the opposite side of the globe of his
position in the Arctic.
Because
of his work
aboard the
Morrissey
, Manley was
invited to become
a member of
the New York
-
based Explorers Club
.
The Explorers Club is a prestigious organization
that promotes scientific expeditions of all shapes and kinds
.
His
fellow member
in the
Explorers
Club
included
Capt
ain
Robert Peary, Sir Ernest Shackle
ton, Charles Lindberg,
t
he Prince of Monaco,
Theodore Roosevelt
,
and
Capt
ain Bartlett
.
M
ember
ship
meant
Manley was one of the most intelligent, influential and popular scientists at the time.
In 1932
,
Manley
retire
d
from his Radio Operator position aboard the
Morrissey
and move
back to New York.
He
took on a job
RCA Photophone as a technician
. In 1934,
he
took
his knowledge and passion for radio technology into the emerging field of aviation
when
he
t
ook a job as an air
-
traffic controller for Pan
-
American Airlines.
While working
for
the airline
,
he returned
to school for a Masters in Physics from Columbia University.
After receiving his
degree, Manley began flying for Pan
-
American Airlines. After a sh
ort
time,
he
returned home and began
flying
private
planes for
g
overnment
o
fficials out of
Antoinette Airport in Marietta, OH. Manley passed away
on
April 20, 1
982 at his home
in Florida