Wireless Radio History, Thorn L. Mayes, W6AX

[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.

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