Wikipedia

Guglielmo Marconi

(Redirected from Marconi Wireless)
"Marconi" redirects here. For other uses, see Marconi (disambiguation).

Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquis of Marconi GCVO FRSA (Italian: [ɡuʎˈʎɛlmo marˈkoːni]; 25 April 1874 – 20 July 1937) was an Italian[1][2][3][4] inventor, electrical engineer, physicist and politician known for his creation of a practical radio wave-based wireless telegraph system.[5] This led to Marconi being credited as the inventor of radio,[6] and winning the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun "in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy".[7][8][9] His work laid the foundation for the development of radio, television, and all modern wireless communication systems.[10]

Marquis
Guglielmo Marconi
GCVO FRSA
Marconi in 1908
Member of the Senate of the Kingdom
In office
30 April 1914 – 20 July 1937
Appointed byVictor Emmanuel III
Born
Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi

(1874-04-25)25 April 1874
Bologna, Kingdom of Italy
Died20 July 1937(1937-07-20) (aged 63)
Rome, Kingdom of Italy
Alma materUniversity of Bologna
Occupations
  • Inventor
  • engineer
Known for
Political partyPNF (1923–1937)
Spouses
Beatrice O'Brien
​
​
(m. 1905; div. 1924)​

Maria Cristina Bezzi-Scali
​
​
(m. 1927)​
Children5
Awards
Engineering career
DisciplineElectrical engineering
Employer(s)Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company
Significant advanceRadio
Signature

Marconi was also an entrepreneur, businessman, and founder of The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company in the United Kingdom in 1897 (which became the Marconi Company). In 1929, Marconi was ennobled as a Marchese (marquis) by King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, and, in 1931, he set up Vatican Radio for Pope Pius XI.

Biography

edit

Early years

edit

Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi[11][12] was born in Palazzo Marescalchi in Bologna on 25 April 1874, the second son of Giuseppe Marconi (an Italian aristocratic landowner from Porretta Terme who lived in the countryside of Pontecchio) and his Irish wife Annie Jameson (daughter of Andrew Jameson of Daphne Castle in County Wexford, and granddaughter of John Jameson, the Scottish founder of whiskey distillers Jameson & Sons).[13][14] His father, who was a widower with a son, Luigi, married Jameson on 16 April 1864 in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France. Alfonso, Marconi's older brother, was born in 1865. Between the ages of two and six, Marconi and Alfonso lived with their mother in the English town of Bedford. Having an Irish mother helped explain Marconi's many activities in Great Britain and Ireland. When he was three years old, on 4 May 1877, Giuseppe Marconi decided to obtain British citizenship. Marconi could have thus also opted for British citizenship anytime, as both his parents had British citizenship.[15]

Education

edit

Marconi did not attend school as a child and did not go on to formal higher education.[16][17][18] Instead, he learned chemistry, mathematics, and physics at home from a series of private tutors hired by his parents. His family hired additional tutors for Marconi in the winter when they would leave Bologna for the warmer climate of Tuscany or Florence.[18] Marconi noted an important mentor was professor Vincenzo Rosa, a high school physics teacher in Livorno.[19][17] Rosa taught the 17-year-old Marconi the basics of physical phenomena as well as new theories on electricity. At the age of 18 and back in Bologna, Marconi became acquainted with University of Bologna physicist Augusto Righi, who had done research on Heinrich Hertz's work. Righi permitted Marconi to attend lectures at the university and also to use the university's laboratory and library.[20]

Radio work

edit

From youth, Marconi was interested in science and electricity. In the early 1890s, he began working on the idea of "wireless telegraphy" – i.e., the transmission of telegraph messages without connecting wires as used by the electric telegraph. This was not a new idea; numerous investigators and inventors had been exploring wireless telegraph technologies and even building systems using electric conduction, electromagnetic induction and optical (light) signalling for over 50 years, but none had proved technically and commercially successful. A relatively new development came from Heinrich Hertz, who, in 1888, demonstrated that one could produce and detect electromagnetic radiation, based on the work of James Clerk Maxwell. At the time, this radiation was commonly called "Hertzian" waves, and is now generally referred to as radio waves.[21]

There was a great deal of interest in radio waves in the physics community, but this interest was in the scientific phenomenon, not in its potential as a communication method. Physicists generally looked on radio waves as an invisible form of light that could only travel along a line of sight path, limiting its range to the visual horizon like existing forms of visual signalling.[22] Hertz's death in 1894 brought published reviews of his earlier discoveries including a demonstration on the transmission and detection of radio waves by the British physicist Oliver Lodge and an article about Hertz's work by Augusto Righi. Righi's article renewed Marconi's interest in developing a wireless telegraphy system based on radio waves,[23] a line of inquiry that Marconi noted other inventors did not seem to be pursuing.[24]

Developing radio telegraphy

edit
 
Marconi's first transmitter incorporating a monopole antenna. It consisted of an elevated copper sheet (top) connected to a Righi spark gap (left) powered by an induction coil (centre) with a telegraph key (right) to switch it on and off to spell out text messages in Morse code.

At the age of 20, Marconi began to conduct experiments in radio waves, building much of his own equipment in the attic of his home at the Villa Griffone in Pontecchio (now an administrative subdivision of Sasso Marconi), Italy, with the help of his butler, Mignani. Marconi built on Hertz's original experiments and, at the suggestion of Righi, began using a coherer, an early detector based on the 1890 findings of French physicist Édouard Branly and used in Lodge's experiments, that changed resistance when exposed to radio waves.[25] In the summer of 1894, he built a storm alarm made up of a battery, a coherer, and an electric bell, which went off when it picked up the radio waves generated by lightning.

Late one night, in December 1894, Marconi demonstrated a radio transmitter and receiver to his mother, a set-up that made a bell ring on the other side of the room by pushing a telegraphic button on a bench.[26][25] Supported by his father, Marconi continued to read through the literature and picked up on the ideas of physicists who were experimenting with radio waves. He developed devices, such as portable transmitters and receiver systems, that could work over long distances,[24] turning what was essentially a laboratory experiment into a useful communication system.[27] Marconi came up with a functional system with many components:[28]

  • A relatively simple oscillator or spark-producing radio transmitter;
  • A wire or metal sheet capacity area suspended at a height above the ground;
  • A coherer receiver, which was a modification of Édouard Branly's original device with refinements to increase sensitivity and reliability;
  • A telegraph key to operate the transmitter to send short and long pulses, corresponding to the dots-and-dashes of Morse code; and
  • A telegraph register activated by the coherer which recorded the received Morse code dots and dashes onto a roll of paper tape.

In the summer of 1895, Marconi moved his experiments outdoors on his father's estate in Bologna. He tried different arrangements and shapes of antenna but even with improvements he was able to transmit signals only up to one half-mile, a distance Oliver Lodge had predicted in 1894 as the maximum transmission distance for radio waves.[29]

Transmission breakthrough

edit

A breakthrough came in the summer of 1895, when Marconi found that a much greater range could be achieved after he raised the height of his antenna and, borrowing from a technique used in wired telegraphy, grounded his transmitter and receiver. With these improvements, the system was capable of transmitting signals up to 2 miles (3.2 km) and over hills.[30][31] The monopole antenna reduced the frequency of the waves compared to the dipole antennas used by Hertz, and radiated vertically polarized radio waves which could travel longer distances. By this point, he concluded that a device could become capable of spanning greater distances, with additional funding and research, and would prove valuable both commercially and militarily. Marconi's experimental apparatus proved to be the first engineering-complete, commercially successful radio transmission system.[32][33][34]

Marconi applied to the Italian Ministry of Post and Telegraphs, then under the direction of Maggiorino Ferraris,[35] explaining his wireless telegraph machine and asking for funding, but never received a response. An apocryphal tale claims that the minister (incorrectly named first as Emilio Sineo, later as Pietro Lacava[36]) wrote "to the Longara" on the document, referring to the insane asylum on Via della Lungara in Rome, but the letter was never found.[37]

In 1896, Marconi spoke with his family friend Carlo Gardini, Honorary Consul at the United States Consulate in Bologna, about leaving Italy to go to Great Britain. Gardini wrote a letter of introduction to the Ambassador of Italy in London, Annibale Ferrero, explaining who Marconi was and about his extraordinary discoveries. In his response, Ambassador Ferrero advised them not to reveal Marconi's results until after a patent was obtained. He also encouraged Marconi to come to Britain, where he believed it would be easier to find the necessary funds to convert his experiments into practical use. Finding little interest or appreciation for his work in Italy, Marconi travelled to London in early 1896 at the age of 21, accompanied by his mother, to seek support for his work. (He spoke fluent English in addition to Italian.) Marconi arrived at Dover, and the Customs officer opened his case to find various apparatuses. The customs officer immediately contacted the Admiralty in London. With worries in the UK about Italian anarchists and suspicion Marconi was importing a bomb, his equipment was destroyed.

While in the UK, Marconi gained the interest and support of William Preece, the Chief Electrical Engineer of the General Post Office (the GPO). Marconi applied for a patent on 2 June 1896. British Patent number 12039 titled "Improvements in Transmitting Electrical impulses and Signals, and in Apparatus therefor", which became the first patent for a communication system based on radio waves.[38]

Demonstrations and achievements

edit
 
British Post Office engineers inspect Marconi's radio equipment during a demonstration on Flat Holm Island, 13 May 1897. The transmitter is at the centre, the coherer receiver below it, and the pole supporting the wire antenna is visible at top.

Marconi made the first demonstration of his system for the British government in July 1896.[39] A further series of demonstrations for the British followed, and, by March 1897, Marconi had transmitted Morse code signals over a distance of about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) across Salisbury Plain. On 13 May 1897, Marconi sent the first ever wireless communication over the open sea – a message was transmitted over the Bristol Channel from Flat Holm Island to Lavernock Point near Cardiff, a distance of 6 kilometres (3.7 mi). The message read "Are you ready".[40] The transmitting equipment was almost immediately relocated to Brean Down Fort on the Somerset coast, stretching the range to 16 kilometres (9.9 mi).

 
Plaque on the outside of the BT Centre commemorates Marconi's first public transmission of wireless signals.

Impressed by these and other demonstrations, Preece introduced Marconi's ongoing work to the general public at two important London lectures: "Telegraphy without Wires", at the Toynbee Hall on 11 December 1896; and "Signalling through Space without Wires", given to the Royal Institution on 4 June 1897.[41][42]

Numerous additional demonstrations followed, and Marconi began to receive international attention. In July 1897, he carried out a series of tests at La Spezia, in his home country, for the Italian government. A test for Lloyd's between The Marine Hotel in Ballycastle and Rathlin Island, both in County Antrim in Ulster, Ireland, was conducted on 6 July 1898 by George Kemp and Edward Edwin Glanville.[43] A transmission across the English Channel was accomplished on 27 March 1899, from Wimereux, France to South Foreland Lighthouse, England. Marconi set up an experimental base at the Haven Hotel, Sandbanks, Poole Harbour, Dorset, where he erected a 100-foot high mast. He became friends with the van Raaltes, the owners of Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, and his steam yacht, the Elettra, was often moored on Brownsea or at The Haven Hotel. Marconi purchased the vessel after the Great War and converted it to a seaborne laboratory from where he conducted many of his experiments. Among the Elettra's crew was Adelmo Landini, his personal radio operator, who was also an inventor.[44]

In December 1898, the British lightship service authorised the establishment of wireless communication between the South Foreland lighthouse at Dover and the East Goodwin lightship, twelve miles distant. On 17 March 1899, the East Goodwin lightship sent the first wireless distress signal, a signal on behalf of the merchant vessel Elbe which had run aground on Goodwin Sands. The message was received by the radio operator of the South Foreland lighthouse, who summoned the aid of the Ramsgate lifeboat.[45][46]

 
SS Ponce entering New York Harbor 1899, by Milton J. Burns

In the autumn of 1899, his first demonstration in the United States took place. Marconi had sailed to the U.S. at the invitation of The New York Herald newspaper to cover the America's Cup international yacht races off Sandy Hook, New Jersey. The transmission was done aboard the SS Ponce, a passenger ship of the Porto Rico Line.[47] Marconi left for England on 8 November 1899 on the American Line's SS Saint Paul, and he and his assistants installed wireless equipment aboard during the voyage. Before this voyage the Second Boer War had begun, and Marconi's wireless was to bring news of the conflict to passengers at the request of "some of the officials of the American line."[48] On 15 November the SS Saint Paul became the first ocean liner to report her imminent return to Great Britain by wireless when Marconi's Royal Needles Hotel radio station contacted her 66 nautical miles off the English coast. The first Transatlantic Times, a newspaper containing wireless transmission news from the Needles Station at the Isle of Wight, was published on board the SS Saint Paul before its arrival.[49]

Transatlantic transmissions

edit
 
Marconi watching associates raising the kite (a "Levitor" by Baden Baden-Powell[50]) used to lift the antenna at St. John's, Newfoundland, December 1901
 
Magnetic detector by Marconi used during the experimental campaign aboard a ship in summer 1902, exhibited at the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci of Milan.

At the turn of the 20th century, Marconi began investigating a means to signal across the Atlantic to compete with the transatlantic telegraph cables. Marconi established a wireless transmitting station at Marconi House, Rosslare Strand, County Wexford, in 1901 to act as a link between Poldhu in Cornwall, England, and Clifden in Connemara, County Galway, Ireland. He soon made the announcement that the message was received at Signal Hill in St. John's, Newfoundland (now part of Canada), on 12 December 1901, using a 500-foot (150 m) kite-supported antenna for reception – signals transmitted by the company's new high-power station at Poldhu, Cornwall. The distance between the two points was about 2,200 miles (3,500 km). It was heralded as a great scientific advance, yet there also was – and continues to be – considerable scepticism about this claim. The exact wavelength used is not known, but it is fairly reliably determined to have been in the neighbourhood of 350 metres (frequency ≈ 850 kHz). The tests took place at a time of day during which the entire transatlantic path was in daylight. It is now known (although Marconi did not know then) that this was the worst possible choice. At this medium wavelength, long-distance transmission in the daytime is not possible because of the heavy absorption of the skywave in the ionosphere. It was not a blind test; Marconi knew in advance to listen for a repetitive signal of three clicks, signifying the Morse code letter S. The clicks were reported to have been heard faintly and sporadically. There was no independent confirmation of the reported reception, and the transmissions were difficult to distinguish from atmospheric noise. A detailed technical review of Marconi's early transatlantic work appears in John S. Belrose's work of 1995. The Poldhu transmitter was a two-stage circuit.[51][52]

 
Marconi demonstrating apparatus he used in his first long-distance radio transmissions in the 1890s. The transmitter is at the right, the receiver with paper tape recorder at the left.
 
Marconi caricatured by Leslie Ward for Vanity Fair magazine, 1905

Feeling challenged by sceptics, Marconi prepared a better-organised and documented test. In February 1902, the SS Philadelphia sailed west from Great Britain with Marconi aboard, carefully recording signals sent daily from the Poldhu station. The test results produced coherer-tape reception up to 1,550 miles (2,490 km), and audio reception up to 2,100 miles (3,400 km). The maximum distances were achieved at night, and these tests were the first to show that radio signals for medium wave and longwave transmissions travel much farther at night than during the day. During the daytime, signals had been received up to only about 700 miles (1,100 km), less than half of the distance claimed earlier at Newfoundland, where the transmissions had also taken place during the day. Because of this, Marconi had not fully confirmed the Newfoundland claims, although he did prove that radio signals could be sent for hundreds of kilometres (miles), despite some scientists' belief that they were limited essentially to line-of-sight distances.

On 17 December 1902, a transmission from the Marconi station in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada, became the world's first radio message to cross the Atlantic from North America. In 1901, Marconi built a station near South Wellfleet, Massachusetts, that sent a message of greetings on 18 January 1903 from United States President Theodore Roosevelt to King Edward VII of the United Kingdom. However, consistent transatlantic signalling was difficult to establish.[53]

Marconi began to build high-powered stations on both sides of the Atlantic to communicate with ships at sea, in competition with other inventors. In 1904, he established a commercial service to transmit nightly news summaries to subscribing ships, which could incorporate them into their on-board newspapers. A regular transatlantic radio-telegraph service was finally begun on 17 October 1907[54][55] between Clifden, Ireland, and Glace Bay, but even after this the company struggled for many years to provide reliable communication to others.

Titanic

edit

The role played by Marconi Co. wireless in maritime rescues raised public awareness of the value of radio and brought fame to Marconi, particularly the sinking of RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912 and RMS Lusitania on 7 May 1915.[56]

RMS Titanic radio operators Jack Phillips and Harold Bride were not employed by the White Star Line but by the Marconi International Marine Communication Company. After the sinking of the ocean liner, survivors were rescued by the RMS Carpathia of the Cunard Line.[57] Carpathia took a total of 17 minutes to both receive and decode the SOS signal sent by Titanic. There was a distance of 58 miles between the two ships.[58] When Carpathia docked in New York, Marconi went aboard with a reporter from The New York Times to talk with Bride, the surviving operator.[57] After this incident, Marconi gained popularity and became more recognised for his contributions to the field of radio and wireless technology.[59]

On 18 June 1912, Marconi gave evidence to the Court of Inquiry into the loss of Titanic regarding the marine telegraphy's functions and the procedures for emergencies at sea.[60] Britain's Postmaster-General summed up, referring to the Titanic disaster: "Those who have been saved, have been saved through one man, Mr. Marconi ... and his marvellous invention."[61] Marconi was offered free passage on Titanic before she sank, but had taken Lusitania three days earlier. As his daughter Degna later explained, he had paperwork to do and preferred the public stenographer aboard that vessel.[62]

Continuing work

edit
 
Share of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America, issued 20 August 1913

Over the years, the Marconi companies gained a reputation for being technically conservative, in particular by continuing to use inefficient spark-transmitter technology, which could be used only for radio-telegraph operations, long after it was apparent that the future of radio communication lay with continuous-wave transmissions which were more efficient and could be used for audio transmissions. Somewhat belatedly, the company did begin significant work with continuous-wave equipment beginning in 1915, after the introduction of the oscillating vacuum tube (valve). The New Street Works factory in Chelmsford was the location for the first entertainment radio broadcasts in the United Kingdom in 1920, employing a vacuum tube transmitter and featuring Dame Nellie Melba. In 1922, regular entertainment broadcasts commenced from the Marconi Research Centre at Great Baddow, forming the prelude to the BBC, and he spoke of the close association of aviation and wireless telephony in that same year at a private gathering with Florence Tyzack Parbury, and even spoke of interplanetary wireless communication. In 1924, the Marconi Company co-established the Unione Radiofonica Italiana (now RAI).[63]

Later years

edit

Have I done the world good, or have I added a menace?[64]

In 1914, Marconi was made a Senator in the Senate of the Kingdom of Italy and appointed Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order in the UK. During World War I, Italy joined the Allied side of the conflict, and Marconi was placed in charge of the Italian military's radio service. He attained the rank of lieutenant in the Italian Royal Army and of commander in the Regia Marina. In 1929, he was made a marquess by King Victor Emmanuel III.[65]

 
Villa Marconi, with Marconi's tomb in foreground.

While helping to develop microwave technology, the Marchese Marconi suffered nine heart attacks in the span of three years preceding his death.[66] Marconi died in Rome on 20 July 1937 at age 63, following the ninth, fatal, heart attack, and Italy held a state funeral for him. As a tribute, shops on the street where he lived were "Closed for national mourning".[67] In addition, at 6 pm the next day, the time designated for the funeral, transmitters around the world observed two minutes of silence in his honour.[68] The British Post Office also sent a message requesting that all broadcasting ships honour Marconi with two minutes of broadcasting silence.[67] His remains are housed in the Mausoleum of Guglielmo Marconi in the grounds of Villa Griffone at Sasso Marconi, Emilia-Romagna, which assumed that name in his honour in 1938.[69]

In 1943, Marconi's elegant sailing yacht, the Elettra, was commandeered and refitted as a warship by the German Navy. She was sunk by the RAF on 22 January 1944. After the war, the Italian Government tried to retrieve the wreckage, to rebuild the boat, and the wreckage was removed to Italy. Eventually, the idea was abandoned, and the wreckage was cut into pieces which were distributed amongst Italian museums.

In 1943, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down a decision on Marconi's radio patents restoring some of the prior patents of Oliver Lodge, John Stone Stone, and Nikola Tesla.[70][71] The decision was not about Marconi's original radio patents[72] and the court declared that their decision had no bearing on Marconi's claim as the first to achieve radio transmission, just that since Marconi's claim to certain patents was questionable, he could not claim infringement on those same patents.[73] There are claims the high court was trying to nullify a World War I claim against the United States government by the Marconi Company via simply restoring the non-Marconi prior patent.[70]

Personal life

edit
 
American electrical engineer Alfred Norton Goldsmith and Marconi on 26 June 1922.

Marconi was a friend of Charles van Raalte and his wife Florence, the owners of Brownsea Island; and of Margherita, their daughter, and in 1904 he met her Irish friend, The Hon. Beatrice O'Brien (1882–1976), a daughter of The 14th Baron Inchiquin. On 16 March 1905, Beatrice O'Brien and Marconi were married, and spent their honeymoon on Brownsea Island.[74] They had three daughters, Lucia (born and died 1906), Degna (1908–1998), and Gioia (1916–1996), and a son, Giulio, 2nd Marchese Marconi (1910–1971). In 1913, the Marconi family returned to Italy and became part of Rome society. Beatrice served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elena. At Marconi's request, his marriage to Beatrice was annulled on 27 April 1927, so he could remarry.[75] Marconi and Beatrice had divorced on 12 February 1924 in the free city of Fiume (Rijeka).[12]

 
Guglielmo and Beatrice Marconi c. 1910

Marconi went on to marry Maria Cristina Bezzi-Scali [it] (2 April 1900 – 15 July 1994), the only daughter of Francesco, Count Bezzi-Scali. To do this he had to be confirmed in the Catholic faith and became a devout member of the Church.[76] He was baptised Catholic but had been brought up as a member of the Anglican Church. On 12 June 1927, Marconi married Maria Cristina in a civil service, with a religious ceremony performed on 15 June. Marconi was 53 years old and Maria Cristina was 26. They had one daughter, Maria Elettra Elena Anna (born 1930), who married Prince Carlo Giovannelli (1942–2016) in 1966; they later divorced. For unexplained reasons, Marconi left his entire fortune to his second wife and their only child, and nothing to the children of his first marriage.[77]

Marconi wanted to personally introduce in 1931 the first radio broadcast of a Pope, Pius XI, and announced at the microphone: "With the help of God, who places so many mysterious forces of nature at man's disposal, I have been able to prepare this instrument which will give to the faithful of the entire world the joy of listening to the voice of the Holy Father".[78]

Fascism

edit

Marconi joined the National Fascist Party in 1923.[79] In 1930, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini appointed him President of the Royal Academy of Italy, which made Marconi a member of the Fascist Grand Council. Marconi was an apologist for fascist ideology and actions such as the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War.[80]

In his lecture he stated: "I reclaim the honour of being the first fascist in the field of radiotelegraphy, the first who acknowledged the utility of joining the electric rays in a bundle, as Mussolini was the first in the political field who acknowledged the necessity of merging all the healthy energies of the country into a bundle, for the greater greatness of Italy".[81] Not one Jew was allowed to join the Royal Academy during Marconi's tenure as president from 1930, three years before Adolf Hitler took power in Germany and eight years before Benito Mussolini's race laws brought his regime's antisemitism into the open.[82]

Legacy and honours

edit

Archives

edit
  • A large collection of Marconi artefacts was held by The General Electric Company, plc (GEC) of the United Kingdom which later renamed itself Marconi plc and Marconi Corporation plc. In December 2004 the extensive Marconi Collection, held at the former Marconi Research Centre at Great Baddow, Chelmsford, Essex UK was donated to the nation by the Company via the University of Oxford.[83] This consisted of the BAFTA award-winning MarconiCalling website, some 250+ physical artefacts and the massive ephemera collection of papers, books, patents and many other items. The artefacts are now held by The Museum of the History of Science and the ephemera Archives by the nearby Bodleian Library.[84] Following three years' work at the Bodleian, an Online Catalogue to the Marconi Archives was released in November 2008.
 
Italian lira banknote, 1990 issue

Orders and decorations

edit
Italian
Others

Honours and awards

edit
 
Memorial plaque in the Basilica Santa Croce, Florence. Italy

Tributes

edit
 
Guglielmo Marconi Memorial in Washington, D.C.
 
Bronze statue of Guglielmo Marconi, sculpted by Saleppichi Giancarlo erected 1975 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
 
Italian 100 lire coin from 1974 commemorating the centenary of Marconi's birth

Places and organisations named after Marconi include:

Outer space

The asteroid 1332 Marconia is named in his honour. A large crater on the far side of the Moon is also named after him.

Italy
Australia
Canada
  • The Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company of Canada (now CMC Electronics and Ultra Electronics), of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, was created in 1903 by Guglielmo Marconi.[107] In 1925 the company was renamed to the 'Canadian Marconi Company', which was acquired by English Electric in 1953.[107] The company name changed again to CMC Electronics Inc. (French: CMC Électronique) in 2001. In 2002, the company's historical radio business was sold to Ultra Electronics to become Ultra Electronics TCS Inc., now doing business as Ultra Communications. Both CMC Electronics and Ultra Communications are still located in Montreal.
  • The Marconi National Historic Sites of Canada was created by Parks Canada as a tribute to Marconi's vision in the development of radio telecommunications. The first official wireless message was sent from this location by the Atlantic Ocean to England in 1902. The museum site is located in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, at Table Head on Timmerman Street.
United States

The Marconi Wireless Company of America, the world's first radio company, was incorporated in Roselle Park New Jersey, on West Westfield Avenue, on 22 November 1899.

Patents

edit
United Kingdom
  • British patent No. 12,039 (1897) "Improvements in Transmitting Electrical impulses and Signals, and in Apparatus therefor". Date of Application 2 June 1896; Complete Specification Left, 2 March 1897; Accepted, 2 July 1897 (later claimed by Oliver Lodge to contain his own ideas which he failed to patent).
  • British patent No. 7,777 (1900) "Improvements in Apparatus for Wireless Telegraphy". Date of Application 26 April 1900; Complete Specification Left, 25 February 1901; Accepted, 13 April 1901.
  • British patent No. 10245 (1902)
  • British patent No. 5113 (1904) "Improvements in Transmitters suitable for Wireless Telegraphy". Date of Application 1 March 1904; Complete Specification Left, 30 November 1904; Accepted, 19 January August 1905.
  • British patent No. 21640 (1904) "Improvements in Apparatus for Wireless Telegraphy". Date of Application 8 October 1904; Complete Specification Left, 6 July 1905; Accepted, 10 August 1905.
  • British patent No. 14788 (1904) "Improvements in or relating to Wireless Telegraphy". Date of Application 18 July 1905; Complete Specification Left, 23 January 1906; Accepted, 10 May 1906.
United States

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ "Guglielmo Marconi | Italian physicist". Encyclopædia Britannica. 21 April 2023.
  2. ^ "This week in tech". The Daily Telegraph. London. 28 April 2017. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022.
  3. ^ "Guglielmo Marconi". History. 27 March 2023.
  4. ^ Gavin Weightman, The Industrial Revolutionaries: The Making of the Modern World 1776–1914, Grove/Atlantic, Inc. 2010. p. 357.
  5. ^ Bondyopadhyay, Prebir K. (1995). "Guglielmo Marconi – The father of long-distance radio communication – An engineer's tribute". 25th European Microwave Conference, 1995. p. 879. doi:10.1109/EUMA.1995.337090. S2CID 6928472.
  6. ^ Hong, p. 1
  7. ^ a b "Guglielmo Marconi: The Nobel Prize in Physics". nobelprize.org. 1909.
  8. ^ Bondyopadhyay, P. K. (1998). "Sir J.C. Bose diode detector received Marconi's first transatlantic wireless signal of December 1901 (the 'Italian Navy Coherer' Scandal Revisited)". Proceedings of the IEEE. 86: 259. doi:10.1109/5.658778.
  9. ^ Roy, Amit (8 December 2008). "Cambridge 'pioneer' honour for Bose". The Telegraph. Kolkota. Archived from the original on 23 January 2009. Retrieved 10 June 2010.
  10. ^ "Marconi forged today's interconnected world of communication". New Scientist. New Scientist Ltd. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  11. ^ Atti della Accademia di scienze, lettere e arti di Palermo: Scienze. Presso l'accademia. 1974. p. 11. ISSN 0365-6322. OCLC 4272244.
  12. ^ a b "Marconi Birth Certificate".
  13. ^ Sexton, Michael (2005). Marconi: the Irish connection. Four Courts Press. ISBN 9781851828418.
  14. ^ Raboy, Marc (2016). Marconi: The Man Who Networked the World. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 19. ISBN 9780199313587 – via Google Books.
  15. ^ "Guglielmo Marconi". Biography. A&E Television Networks. 22 January 2021.
  16. ^ McHenry, Robert, ed. (1993). "Guglielmo Marconi". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  17. ^ a b "The Marconi Society, book synopsis – Marc Raboy, The Discovery that Continues to Change the World". Archived from the original on 3 October 2019. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  18. ^ a b Dunlap, Orrin Elmer (1937). Marconi, the man and his wireless. Macmillan. p. 10. ISBN 9780343022693.
  19. ^ "Vincenzo Rosa". fgm.it.
  20. ^ Bònoli, Fabrizio; Dragoni, Giorgio. "Guglielmo Marconi". Scienzagiovane.unibo.it. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  21. ^ "22. Word Origins". earlyradiohistory.us.
  22. ^ Regal, Brian (2005). Radio: The Life Story of a Technology. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 22. ISBN 0313331677.
  23. ^ Hong, p. 19
  24. ^ a b Icons of Invention: The Makers of the Modern World from Gutenberg to Gates. ABC-CLIO. 2009. p. 162. ISBN 978-0-313-34743-6.
  25. ^ a b Brown, Antony (1969). Great Ideas in Communications. D. White Co. p. 141.
  26. ^ "Guglielmo Marconi, padre della radio". Radiomarconi.com. Archived from the original on 2 June 2013. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
  27. ^ Hong, p. 22
  28. ^ Marconi delineated his 1895 apparatus in his Nobel Award speech. See: Marconi, "Wireless Telegraphic Communication: Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1909." Nobel Lectures. Physics 1901–1921. Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing Company, 1967: 196–222. p. 198.
  29. ^ Hong, p. 6
  30. ^ Hong, pp. 20–22
  31. ^ Marconi, Guglielmo (11 December 1909). Wireless Telegraphic Communication (Speech). Nobel Lecture. Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing Company.
  32. ^ The Saturday review of politics, literature, science and art, Vol. 93. "The Inventor of Wireless Telegraphy: A Reply. To the Editor of the Saturday Review" Guglielmo Marconi and "Wireless Telegraphy: A Rejoinder. To the Editor of the Saturday Review," Silvanus P. Thompson.
  33. ^ Gualandi, Lodovico (26 June 2000). "Narconi e Lo Stravolgimenti Della Verità Storica Sulla Opera". radiomarconi.com.
  34. ^ Marconi, G (March 1899). "Wireless Telegraphy". Proceedings of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. 28 (139). Institution of Electrical Engineers: 294.
  35. ^ "Senato della Repubblica "Ferraris Maggiorino"". Archived from the original on 3 October 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  36. ^ Finizio, Giuseppe (29 January 2024). "Guglielmo Marconi and the radio-guided torpedo".
  37. ^ Solari, Luigi (February 1948) "Guglielmo Marconi e la Marina Militare Italiana", Rivista Marittima
  38. ^ "Marconi – Marconi History". seas.columbia.edu.
  39. ^ "Flickr Photo". 9 June 2006.
  40. ^ BBC Wales, "Marconi's Waves". Archived from the original on 20 January 2007. Retrieved 20 January 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  41. ^ "Telegraphy Without Wires". Scientific American. 76 (4): 55–56. 23 January 1897. JSTOR 26120030.
  42. ^ Preece, W.H. (17 December 1897). "Signalling Through Space Without Wires". Science. 6 (155): 889–896. Bibcode:1897Sci.....6..889.. doi:10.1126/science.6.155.889. JSTOR 1623911. PMID 17740846.
  43. ^ Mollan, Charles (2007). It's Part of What We Are: Volume 1. Dublin: Royal Dublin Society. p. 1407. ISBN 9780860270553.
  44. ^ Risi, Giacomo Bortolotti, Fabio. "Adelmo Landini "Sasso Marconi Foto" (in Italian). Retrieved 21 October 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  45. ^ Moffett, Cleveland (June 1899). "Marconi's Wireless Telegraph". McClure's Magazine: 99–112.
  46. ^ "This week in tech". The Telegraph. London. 17 March 2017. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022.
  47. ^ Helgesen, Henry N. "Wireless Goes to Sea: Marconi's Radio and SS Ponce". Sea History (Spring 2008): 122.
  48. ^ Marconi, Guglielmo (2 February 1900). "Wireless Telegraphy". Smithsonian Annual Report, 1901: 294.
  49. ^ Westman, Harold (2006). Radio Pioneers 1945. Bradley, IL: Lindsey Publications. p. 25. ISBN 1-55918-346-2.
  50. ^ "First Atlantic Ocean crossing by a wireless signal". Carnetdevol.org. Archived from the original on 30 January 2013. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
  51. ^ "Marconi and the History of Radio". IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine. 46 (2): 130. 2004. doi:10.1109/MAP.2004.1305565.
  52. ^ Belrose, J.S. (1995). "Fessenden and Marconi: Their differing technologies and transatlantic experiments during the first decade of this century". International Conference on 100 Years of Radio. Vol. 1995. pp. 32–43. doi:10.1049/cp:19950787. ISBN 0-85296-649-0.
  53. ^ "TR Center – Talking Across the Ocean". theodorerooseveltcenter.org. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  54. ^ "The Clifden Station of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph System". Scientific American. 23 November 1907.
  55. ^ "Second Test of the Marconi Over-Ocean Wireless System Proved Entirely Successful". Sydney Daily Post. 24 October 1907. Archived from the original on 19 October 2013.
  56. ^ "Who was Guglielmo Marconi? Guglielmo Marconie was the first to patent (though not invent) a wireless system for communications". curriculumvisions.com. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  57. ^ a b Eaton, John P.; Haas, Charles A. (December 2011). Titanic Triumph and Tragedy: Third Edition. Haynes Publishing UK. ISBN 978-0857330246.
  58. ^ "Marconi: The Man Who Networked the World|CBC Radio." CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 10 Nov. 2016, www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/marconi-the-man-who-networked-the-world-1.3845164.
  59. ^ RMS Titanic, Inc. "Recovery Expedition to Titanic Sets Target Departure Date for 2021." PR Newswire: News Distribution, Targeting and Monitoring, 22 July 2020,
  60. ^ Court of Inquiry Loss of the S.S. Titanic 1912
  61. ^ "Titanic's Wireless Connection". Wireless History Foundation. April 2012. Retrieved 7 October 2013.
  62. ^ Daugherty, Greg (March 2012). "Seven Famous People Who Missed the Titanic". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
  63. ^ "Storia della Radio dal 1924 al 1933". Storia della radio (in Italian). Rai. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  64. ^ Baker, W. J. (16 October 2013). A History of the Marconi Company 1874–1965. Routledge. p. 296. ISBN 9781134526147.
  65. ^ a b c d e f Nobel Foundation (1967). Nobel Lectures Physics 1901–1921. Elsevier. ISBN 978-981-02-3401-0.
  66. ^ Firstenberg, Arthur (2017). The Invisible Rainbow. AGB Press. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-692-68301-9.
  67. ^ a b "Radio falls silent for death of Marconi". The Guardian. 21 July 1937. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  68. ^ Robinson, Andrew. "Marconi forged today's interconnected world of communication". New Scientist.
  69. ^ "Villa Griffone, Near Bologna, Italy". markpadfield.com. Archived from the original on 6 September 2014.
  70. ^ a b Redouté, Jean-Michel; Steyaert, Michiel (2009). EMC of Analog Integrated Circuits. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 3. ISBN 978-90-481-3230-0.
  71. ^ Meadow, Charles T. (2002). Making Connections: Communication through the Ages. Scarecrow Press. p. 193. ISBN 978-1-4617-0691-5.
  72. ^ White, Thomas H. (1 November 2012). "Nikola Tesla: The Guy Who DIDN'T "Invent Radio". Earlyradiohistory.us.
  73. ^ Sobot, Robert (2012). Wireless Communication Electronics: Introduction to RF Circuits and Design Techniques. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 4. ISBN 978-1-4614-1116-1.
  74. ^ Padfield, Mark. "Beatrice O'Brien". Marconi Calling. Archived from the original on 24 June 2013. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
  75. ^ Marconi, Degna (3 October 2023). My Father, Marconi. Guernica Editions. pp. 218–227. ISBN 978-1550711516.
  76. ^ Marconi, Maria Cristina (3 October 2023). Marconi My Beloved. Branden Books. pp. 19–24. ISBN 9780937832394.
  77. ^ Marconi, Degna (3 October 2023). My Father, Marconi. Guernica Editions. p. 232. ISBN 978-1550711516.
  78. ^ "80 Years of Vatican Radio, Pope Pius XI and Marconi. .. and Father Jozef Murgas?". Saint Benedict Center. 18 February 2011.
  79. ^ Physicsworld.com, "Guglielmo Marconi: radio star", 2001 Archived 14 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  80. ^ "Marconi to Join Italian Forces in Ethiopia; Likely to Direct Communications Service". The New York Times. Associated Press. 29 August 1935.
  81. ^ Franco Monteleone, La radio italiana nel periodo fascista: studio e documenti, 1922–1945, Marsilio Editore, 1976, p. 44.
  82. ^ Roy Carroll (19 March 2002). "Marconi blocked Jews from Il Duce's academy". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
  83. ^ UK|England|Berkshire|Marconi archives move to Oxford. BBC News (6 December 2004). Retrieved on 10 June 2016.
  84. ^ Catalogue of the Marconi Archive now available online. bodleian.ox.ac.uk (7 November 2008)
  85. ^ a b c d e f "Senato della republica: MARCONI Guglielmo". Senato della republica. Government of Italy. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
  86. ^ "Signor Marconi". The Times. No. 36878. 20 September 1902. p. 5.
  87. ^ Marconi, Maria Cristina (2011). Marconi My Beloved. Dante University of America Press. ISBN 978-0-9378-3236-3.
  88. ^ Raboy, Marc (2016). Marconi: The Man Who Networked the World. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-931358-7 – via Google Books.
  89. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  90. ^ "Guglielmo Marconi". The Franklin Institute. 15 January 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  91. ^ "The List of IEEE Medal of Honor Recipients" (PDF). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
  92. ^ "John Scott Award Recipients". garfield.library.upenn.edu. Archived from the original on 15 June 2021. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  93. ^ "Guglielmo Marconi". Wilhelm Exner Medaillen Stiftung (in Austrian German). Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  94. ^ "This Day in History: April 25". CoinWorld. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  95. ^ "Search for Famous Inventors | National Inventors Hall of Fame". invent.org. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  96. ^ Broadcasters, National Association of. "NAB Awards | Past Award Recipients". National Association of Broadcasters. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  97. ^ "Pioneer: Guglielmo Marconi". radiohof.org. Archived from the original on 5 May 2012. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
  98. ^ Italy 2,000 lira banknote (1990) Banknote Museum (banknote.ws). Retrieved on 17 March 2013.
  99. ^ "Two Pound Coin Designs and Specifications | The Royal Mint". royalmint.com. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  100. ^ "Milestones:Marconi's Early Wireless Experiments, 1895". IEEE Global History Network. IEEE. Retrieved 29 July 2011.
  101. ^ "List of IEEE Milestones". IEEE Global History Network. IEEE. Retrieved 29 July 2011.
  102. ^ "Italy (1861–Now) – Italy Silver Coin – 7 – Vatican". vatican.com. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  103. ^ New Jersey to Bon Jovi: You Give Us a Good Name. accesshollywood.com (2 February 2009).
  104. ^ Freek (13 October 2014). "Nominaties Marconi Awards bekend". RadioFreak.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 2 January 2021.
  105. ^ Broadcasters, National Association of. "NAB Awards | Overview". National Association of Broadcasters. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
  106. ^ "Guglielmo Marconi, (sculpture)". siris-artinventories.si.edu. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  107. ^ a b "CMC Electronics' Profile". CMC Electronics Inc. Archived from the original on 24 September 2006. Retrieved 12 January 2007.
  108. ^ Honolulu Star-bulletin. 24 September 1914. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
  109. ^ "Chatham Marconi Maritime Center". arrl.org. Retrieved 9 November 2015.

Sources

edit

Further reading

edit
  • Bussey, Gordon, Marconi's Atlantic Leap, Marconi Communications, 2000. ISBN 0-9538967-0-6
  • Isted, G.A., Guglielmo Marconi and the History of Radio – Part I, General Electric Company, p.l.c., GEC Review, Volume 7, No. 1, p. 45, 1991, ISSN 0267-9337
  • Isted, G.A., Guglielmo Marconi and the History of Radio – Part II, General Electric Company, p.l.c., GEC Review, Volume 7, No. 2, p110, 1991, ISSN 0267-9337
  • Marconi, Degna, My Father, Marconi, James Lorimer & Co, 1982. ISBN 0-919511-14-7 (Italian version): Marconi, mio padre, Di Renzo Editore, 2008, ISBN 88-8323-206-2
  • Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company, Year book of wireless telegraphy and telephony, London: Published for the Marconi Press Agency Ltd., by the St. Catherine Press / Wireless Press. LCCN 14-17875
  • Simons, R.W., Guglielmo Marconi and Early Systems of Wireless Communication, General Electric Company, p.l.c., GEC Review, Vol. 11, No. 1, p. 37, 1996, ISSN 0267-9337
  • Ahern, Steve (ed), Making Radio (2nd Edition) Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2006 ISBN 9781741149128.
  • Aitken, Hugh G.J., Syntony and Spark: The Origins of Radio, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1976. ISBN 0-471-01816-3
  • Aitken, Hugh G.J., The Continuous Wave: Technology and American Radio, 1900–1932, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1985. ISBN 0-691-08376-2.
  • Anderson, Leland I., Priority in the Invention of Radio – Tesla vs. Marconi
  • Baker, W. J., A History of the Marconi Company, 1970.
  • Brodsky, Ira. The History of Wireless: How Creative Minds Produced Technology for the Masses (Telescope Books, 2008)
  • Cheney, Margaret, Tesla: Man Out of Time Laurel Publishing, 1981. Chapter 7, esp pp. 69, re: published lectures of Tesla in 1893, copied by Marconi.
  • Clark, Paddy, "Marconi's Irish Connections Recalled," published in 100 Years of Radio, IEE Conference Publication 411, 1995.
  • Coe, Douglas and Kreigh Collins (ills), Marconi, pioneer of radio, New York, J. Messner, Inc., 1943. LCCN 43-10048
  • Garratt, G.R.M., The early history of radio: from Faraday to Marconi, London, Institution of Electrical Engineers in association with the Science Museum, History of technology series, 1994. ISBN 0-85296-845-0 LCCN 94-11611
  • Geddes, Keith, Guglielmo Marconi, 1874–1937, London : H.M.S.O., A Science Museum booklet, 1974. ISBN 0-11-290198-0 LCCN 75-329825 (ed. Obtainable in the United States. from Pendragon House Inc., Palo Alto, CA.)
  • Hancock, Harry Edgar, Wireless at sea; the first fifty years: A history of the progress and development of marine wireless communications written to commemorate the jubilee of the Marconi International Marine Communication Company, Limited, Chelmsford, Eng., Marconi International Marine Communication Co., 1950. LCCN 51040529 /L
  • Homer, Peter and O'Connor, Finbar, Marconi Wireless Radio Station: Malin Head from 1902, 2014.
  • Hughes, Michael and Bosworth, Katherine, Titanic Calling : Wireless Communications During the Great Disaster, Oxford, WorldCat.org, 2012, ISBN 978-1-85124-377-8
  • Janniello, Maria Grace, Monteleone, Franco and Paoloni, Giovanni (eds) (1996), One hundred years of radio: From Marconi to the future of the telecommunications. Catalogue of the extension, Venice: Marsilio.
  • Jolly, W.P., Marconi, 1972.
  • Larson, Erik, Thunderstruck, New York: Crown Publishers, 2006. ISBN 1-4000-8066-5 A comparison of the lives of Hawley Harvey Crippen and Marconi. Crippen was a murderer whose Transatlantic escape was foiled by the new invention of shipboard radio.
  • MacLeod, Mary K., Marconi: The Canada Years – 1902–1946, Halifax, Nova Scotia: Nimbus Publishing Limited, 1992, ISBN 1551093308
  • Masini, Giancarlo, Guglielmo Marconi, Turin: Turinese typographical-publishing union, 1975. LCCN 77-472455 (ed. Contains 32 tables outside of the text)
  • Mason, H.B. (1908). Encyclopaedia of ships and shipping, Wireless Telegraphy. London: Shipping Encyclopaedia. 1908.
  • Paul M. Hawkins – "Point to Point – A History of International Telecommunications During the Radio Years" ISBN 978-178719-6278 pub. by New Generation Publishing.
  • Paul M. Hawkins & Paul G. Reyland – "Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Stations in Essex – The Centenary of Brentwood and Ongar Radio Stations" ISBN 978-180369-3828 by – pub.2022 by New Generation Publishing.
  • Perry, Lawrence (1902). "Commercial Wireless Telegraphy". The World's Work: A History of Our Time. V: 3194–3201. Retrieved 10 July 2009.
  • Raboy, Marc. Marconi: The Man Who Networked the World (Oxford University Press, 2016) 872 pp. online review
  • Stone, Ellery W., Elements of Radiotelegraphy
  • Weightman, Gavin, Signor Marconi's magic box: the most remarkable invention of the 19th century & the amateur inventor whose genius sparked a revolution, 1st Da Capo Press ed., Cambridge, MA : Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0-306-81275-4
  • Winkler, Jonathan Reed. Nexus: Strategic Communications and American Security in World War I. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008). Account of rivalry between Marconi's firm and the United States government during World War I.
edit
 
Wikiquote has quotations related to Guglielmo Marconi.
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Guglielmo Marconi.
Academic offices
Preceded by Rector of the University of St Andrews
1934–1937 		Succeeded by

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Guglielmo_Marconi&oldid=1259327122"