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Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937), an Italian inventor, photographed at 22 years of age, looks out from behind his first patented wireless receiver (1896). He detected radio waves beamed across the Atlantic in 1901, thus giving his telegraph system credibility. In 1909, Marconi shared the Nobel Prize for physics. (The Bettmann Archive)
Guglielmo Marconi, b. Apr. 25, 1874, d. July 20, 1937, is known as the father of wireless. He was the son of Giuseppe Marconi of Bologna, Italy, and Annie Jameson, daughter of an Irish family. The young Marconi developed a deep interest in electrical phenomena. When he read of the experiments of Heinrich HERTZ on electromagnetic waves, he became obsessed with the idea that such waves could be used for transmitting information without the need for the wire connection of the electric TELEGRAPH. In 1894, Marconi began his wireless telegraphy project by repeating some of Hertz's experiments with a number of improvements. Marconi offered his wireless communication system to the Italian government, but it was refused. In London in 1896 he first patented his system and then secured backing for it. In 1897, Marconi formed his wireless telegraph company. His four-circuit tuning, patented in 1900, led to widespread use of his system. Universal adoption of wireless telegraphy was rendered even more certain by Marconi's famous experiment in December 1901. In St. John's, Newfoundland, he received a radio-wave signal sent out from Cornwall, England.
As an Italian national, Marconi played an active role in World War I and represented Italy at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. Although he continued to perform experiments in the new field of RADIO, which evolved from wireless telegraphy, his later efforts were mainly directed to affairs of state. He received many honors, including sharing the Nobel Prize for physics in 1909. When he died in Rome, he was accorded the unique tribute of a two-minute silence by all radio stations throughout the world.
Eric Eastwood
Bibliography: Aitkin, Hugh G. J., Syntony and Spark: The Origins of Radio (1976); Dunlap, Orrin E., Marconi: The Man and His Wireless, rev. ed. (1937; repr. 1971); Jolly, W. P., Marconi (1972).