This paper, based on unpublished documents of the International Telecommunication Union’s archive and radio amateurs' magazines, discusses the multiform relationships between wireless telegraphy and time at the beginning of the 20th century. Specifically, it aims to analyze how time synchronization and wireless telegraphy depend on and refer to each other, explicitly and implicitly.
First, wireless became an essential infrastructure for time synchronization, when in 1912 the International Time Conference inaugurated the network of signaling stations with the Eiffel tower. Second, radio time signals brought forward the development of wireless and became one of the first widely accepted forms of radio broadcasting. Finally, this relation between time and wireless later evolved in new unforeseen applications that led to the development of other technologies, such as aviation and seismology. In conclusion, wireless generated new ideas, affected different technological fields, and changed the perception of distance and time.