The next big breakthrough was in 1895 when Marconi achieved wireless radio transmissions from Italy to America. The equipment he used consisted of a relatively simple oscillator (very similar to the one that Hertz used), a coherer and a telegraph key and register. At first Marconi could only transmit signals over a very short distance, but after many trials and errors he was finally able to send a long range signal from Italy to America. This was the birth of radio as we know it today.