bragg departed adelaide in december 1897, and spent all of 1898 on a 12-month leave of absence, touring great britain and europe and during this time visited marconi and inspected his wireless facilities. he returned to adelaide in early march 1899, and already by 13 may 1899 bragg and his father-in-law sir charles todd were conducting preliminary tests of wireless telegraphy with a transmitter at the observatory and a receiver on the south road (about 200 metres). experiments continued throughout the southern winter of 1899 and the range was progressively extended to henley beach. in september the work was extended to two way transmissions with the addition of a second induction coil loaned by james oddie of ballarat. it was desired to extend the experiments across a sea path and todd was interested in connecting cape spencer and althorpe island, but local costs were considered prohibitive while the charges for patented equipment from the marconi company were exorbitant. at the same time bragg's interests were leaning towards x-rays and practical work in wireless in south australia was largely dormant for the next decade.