সিনিয়র শিক্ষক
২১ জুলাই, ২০২২ ০৯:৩৪ অপরাহ্ণ
uglielmo Marconi
uglielmo Marconi
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The Marchese
Guglielmo Marconi |
|
Born |
Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi
|
Died |
20 July 1937 (aged 63) |
Nationality |
Italian |
Alma mater |
|
Known for |
Radio |
Awards |
·
Matteucci Medal (1901) ·
Nobel
Prize for Physics (1909) ·
Albert Medal (1914) ·
Franklin Medal (1918) ·
IEEE
Medal of Honor (1920) ·
John Fritz Medal (1923) |
Scientific career |
|
Academic advisors |
|
Signature |
|
Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquis of Marconi FRSA (Italian: [ɡuʎˈʎɛlmo marˈkoːni]; 25 April 1874 – 20 July 1937) was
an Italian[1][2][3][4] inventor
and electrical engineer, 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 he shared the
1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun "in recognition of their contributions to the development of
wireless telegraphy".[7][8][9]
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.
Contents
§ 1.3.1Developing
radio telegraphy
§ 1.3.2Transmission
breakthrough
§ 1.3.3Demonstrations
and achievements
§ 1.3.4Transatlantic
transmissions
o 3.4Places
and organisations named after Marconi
·
4Patents
·
7Sources
Biography[edit]
Early years[edit]
Marconi was born into the Italian nobility as Guglielmo
Giovanni Maria Marconi[10] in Palazzo Marescalchi in Bologna on 25 April 1874, the second son of
Giuseppe Marconi (an Italian aristocratic landowner from Porretta Terme) and his Irish wife Annie Jameson (daughter of
Andrew Jameson of Daphne Castle in County Wexford, Ireland, and granddaughter of John Jameson, founder of whiskey distillers Jameson & Sons).[11][12] Marconi had a
brother, Alfonso,
and a stepbrother, Luigi. Between the ages of two and six, Marconi and his
elder brother Alfonso lived with their mother in the English town of Bedford.[13][14]
Education[edit]
Marconi did not attend school as a child and did not go
on to formal higher education.[15][16][17] 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 Guglielmo
in the winter when they would leave Bologna for the warmer climate of Tuscany or Florence.[17] Marconi noted an
important mentor was professor Vincenzo Rosa, a high school physics teacher in Livorno.[18][16] 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.[19]
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 proven
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.[20]
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
signaling.[21] 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,[22] a line of
inquiry that Marconi noted other inventors did not seem to be pursuing.[23]
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 (center) 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.[24] 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.[25][24] 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,[23] turning what was
essentially a laboratory experiment into a useful communication system.[26] Marconi came up
with a functional system with many components:[27]
·
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.[28]
Transmission breakthrough[edit]
A breakthrough came in the summer of 1895, when Marconi
found that 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.[29][30] 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.[31][32][33]
Marconi wrote to the Ministry of Post and Telegraphs,
then under the direction of Pietro Lacava, explaining his wireless telegraph machine and asking for funding. He
never received a response to his letter, which was eventually dismissed by the
Minister, who wrote "to the Longara" on the document, referring to
the insane asylum on Via della Lungara in Rome.[34]
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 apparatus. The customs officer immediately contacted the Admiralty in
London. While there, Marconi gained the interest and support of William Preece, the Chief Electrical Engineer of
the General Post Office (the GPO). During this time Marconi decided he should patent his
system, which he applied for on 2 June 1896, British Patent number 12039 titled
"Improvements in Transmitting Electrical impulses and Signals, and in
Apparatus therefor", which would become the first patent for a radio wave
based communication system.[35]
Demonstrations and achievements[edit]
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British Post Office engineers inspect Marconi's radio equipment during
a demonstration on Flat Holm Island, 13 May 1897. The transmitter is at 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.[36] 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 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".[37] 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.[38][39]
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.[40] 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.[41]
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 SOS message, 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.[42][43]
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.[44] 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. Prior to this voyage the Second Boer War had begun, and Marconi's wireless
would bring news of the conflict to passengers at the request of "some of
the officials of the American line."[45] 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
onboard the SS Saint Paul prior to its arrival.[46]
Transatlantic transmissions[edit]
Marconi watching associates raising the kite (a
"Levitor" by B.F.S. Baden-Powell[47]) 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 meters (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 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.[48][49]
Marconi demonstrating apparatus he used in his first long-distance
radio transmissions in the 1890s. The transmitter is at right, the receiver
with paper tape recorder at left.
Marconi caricatured by Leslie Ward for Vanity
Fair, 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 in 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.[50]
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[51][52] 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 the RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912 and the RMS Lusitania on 7 May 1915.[53]
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 on 15 April 1912, survivors were rescued
by the RMS Carpathia of the Cunard Line.[54] The Carpathia
took a total of 17 minutes to both receive and decode the SOS signal sent by the
Titanic. There was a distance of 58 miles between the two ships.[55] When Carpathia docked
in New York, Marconi went aboard with a reporter from The New York Times to talk with Bride, the surviving operator.[54] After this
incident, Marconi gained popularity and became more recognised for his
contributions to the field of radio and wireless technology.[56]
On 18 June 1912, Marconi gave evidence to the Court of Inquiry
into the loss of the Titanic regarding the marine telegraphy's
functions and the procedures for emergencies at sea.[57] 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."[58] Marconi was
offered free passage on the Titanic before she sank, but had
taken the Lusitania three
days earlier. As his daughter Degna later explained, he had paperwork to do and
preferred the public stenographer aboard that vessel.[59]
Continuing work[edit]
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).[60]
Later years[edit]
Have I done the world good, or have I
added a menace?[61]
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.[62]
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.[63] 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".[64] 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.[65] The British Post
Office also sent a message requesting that all broadcasting ships honour
Marconi with two minutes of broadcasting silence.[64] 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.[66]
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.[67][68] The decision was
not about Marconi's original radio patents[69] 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.[70] 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.[67]
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.[71] They had three
daughters, Degna (1908–1998), Gioia (1916–1996), and Lucia (born and died
1906), 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.[72] Marconi and
Beatrice had divorced on 12 February 1924 in the free city of Fiume (Rijeka).
Guglielmo and Beatrice Marconi c. 1910
On 12 June 1927 Marconi went on to marry Maria
Cristina Bezzi-Scali (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.[73] 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.[74]
Marconi joined the Italian Fascist party in 1923.[75] 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.[76]
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".[77]
Marconi wanted to personally introduce in 1931 the first
radio broadcast of a Pope, Pius XI, and did announce 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]
Legacy and honours[edit]
Orders and decorations[edit]
Italian
·
Knight of the Order of Merit for Labour (26 October 1902)[79]
·
Knight of the Civil Order of Savoy (1 June 1905)[79]
·
Grand Cordon of the Order of the Crown of Italy (7 April 1913; Grand Officer: 30 October 1902; Officer: 6 January
1898)[79]
·
Grand Cordon of the Order of Saints
Maurice and Lazarus (14 January 1932; Grand Officer: 30
May 1912; Commander: 12 January 1902)[79][80][62]
·
Marquis of Marconi (17 July 1929)[79]
Others
·
Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Anna of the Russia Empire (1902)[81][62]
·
Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order of the United Kingdom (GCVO, 1914)[62]
·
Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso XII of Spain[79]
·
Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun of Japan (1933)[82]
Honours and awards[edit]
Memorial plaque in the Basilica Santa Croce, Florence. Italy
·
In 1901, he was elected as a member of
the American Philosophical Society.[83]
·
In 1903, Marconi also received the freedom
of the City of Rome.[62]
·
In 1909, Marconi shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun for their "contributions to the development of wireless
telegraphy" (radio communications).[7]
·
In 1914, Marconi was named senator by the
king of Italy Vittorio Emanuele III[62]
·
In 1918, he was awarded the Franklin Institute's Franklin Medal.[84]
·
In 1920, he was awarded the IRE Medal of Honor,
now the IEEE Medal of Honor.[85]
·
In 1931, he was awarded the John Scott Medal by the Franklin Institute and
the City Council of Philadelphia.[86]
·
In 1934, he was awarded the Wilhelm Exner Medal.[87]
·
In 1974, Italy marked the birth centennial
of Marconi with a circulating commemorative 100-lira coin.[88]
·
In 1975, Marconi was inducted into
the National Inventors Hall of Fame.[89]
·
In 1978, Marconi was inducted into
the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame.[90]
·
In 1988, the Radio Hall of Fame (Museum of Broadcast
Communications, Chicago) inducted Marconi as a Pioneer
(soon after the inception of its awards).[91]
·
In 1990, the Bank of Italy issued a 2,000 lire banknote featuring his portrait on
the front and on the back his accomplishments.[92]
·
In 2001, Great Britain released a
commemorative British two-pound coin celebrating the 100th anniversary of Marconi's first wireless
communication.[93]
·
Marconi's early experiments in wireless
telegraphy were the subject of two IEEE Milestones;
one in Switzerland in 2003[94] and most
recently in Italy in 2011.[95]
·
In 2009, Italy issued a commemorative silver
10 Euro coin honouring the centennial of Marconi's Nobel Prize.[96]
·
In 2009, he was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.[97]
·
The Dutch radio academy bestows the Marconi
Awardsnl annually for outstanding radio
programmes, presenters and stations.[98]
·
The National Association of Broadcasters
(US) bestows the annual NAB Marconi Radio Awards also for outstanding radio programmes and stations.[99]
Tributes[edit]
Guglielmo
Marconi Memorial in Washington,
D.C.
Bronze statue of Guglielmo Marconi, sculpted by
Saleppichi Giancarlo erected 1975 Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
·
A funerary monument to the effigy of
Marconi can be seen in the Basilica of Santa
Croce, Florence, but his remains are in the Mausoleum of Guglielmo Marconi in Sasso Marconi,
Italy. His former villa, adjacent to the mausoleum is the Marconi Museum (Italy) with much of his equipment.
·
A statue of Guglielmo Marconi stands
in Church Square Park in Hoboken, NJ.[100]
·
A Guglielmo Marconi sculpture by Attilio Piccirilli stands
in Washington, D.C.[101]
·
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.[102] 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.[103] Following three
years' work at the Bodleian, an Online Catalogue to the Marconi Archives was
released in November 2008.
·
A granite obelisk stands on the cliff top
near the site of Marconi's Marconi's Poldhu Wireless Station in Cornwall, commemorating the first transatlantic transmission.
·
An urban park square named in 1937
located Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania at Oregon Ave and South Broad Street, including later in 1975 a
bronze statue erected of Marconi on the east side of Marconi Plaza Park.
Places and organisations named after Marconi[edit]
Outer space[edit]
The asteroid 1332 Marconia is named in his honour. A large crater on the far side of the moon is also named after him.
Europe[edit]
Marconi building at DRA at the University of St. Andrews
Italy
·
Bologna Guglielmo
Marconi Airport (IATA: BLQ – ICAO: LIPE), of Bologna,
is named after Marconi, its native son.
·
Open University Guglielmo Marconi in Rome, Italy (Università Telematica "Guglielmo Marconi")
·
Ponte Guglielmo Marconi, bridge that connects Piazza Augusto Righi with Piazza Tommaso Edison, in
Rome
Oceania[edit]
Australia
·
Australian football (soccer) and social
club Marconi Stallions.
North America[edit]
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.[104] In 1925 the
company was renamed to the 'Canadian Marconi Company', which was acquired
by English Electric in
1953.[104] The company name
changed again to CMC Electronics Inc. (French: CMC Électronique) in
2001. In 2002, the company 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[edit]
California[edit]
·
Marconi
Conference Center and State Historic Park,
site of the transoceanic Marshall Receiving Station, Marshall.
Hawaii[edit]
·
Marconi
Wireless Telegraphy Station on Oahu's North Shore,
briefly the world's most powerful telegraph station.[105]
Massachusetts[edit]
·
Marconi Beach in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, part of the Cape Cod National Seashore, located near the site of his first transatlantic wireless signal from the
United States to Britain. There are still remnants of the wireless tower at
this beach and at Forest Road Beach in Chatham, Massachusetts.[106]
New Jersey[edit]
·
New Brunswick Marconi Station, now the Guglielmo Marconi Memorial Plaza in Somerset, NJ. President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen
Points speech was transmitted from the site in 1918.
·
Belmar Marconi Station, now the InfoAge Science History Center in Wall Township, NJ.
New York[edit]
·
La Scuola d'Italia
Guglielmo Marconi on New York City's Upper East Side.
Pennsylvania[edit]
·
Marconi
Plaza, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Roman terrace-styled
plaza originally designed by the architects Olmsted Brothers in 1914–1916, built as the grand
entrance for the 1926 Sesquicentennial Exposition and renamed to honour Marconi.
Patents[edit]
British patents[edit]
·
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.
US patents[edit]
·
U.S. Patent 586,193 "Transmitting electrical signals",
(using Ruhmkorff coil and Morse code key)
filed December 1896, patented July 1897
·
U.S. Patent 624,516 "Apparatus employed in wireless telegraphy".
·
U.S. Patent 627,650 "Apparatus employed in wireless telegraphy".
·
U.S. Patent 647,007 "Apparatus employed in wireless telegraphy".
·
U.S. Patent 647,008 "Apparatus employed in wireless telegraphy".
·
U.S. Patent 647,009 "Apparatus employed in wireless telegraphy".
·
U.S. Patent 650,109 "Apparatus employed in wireless telegraphy".
·
U.S. Patent 650,110 "Apparatus employed in wireless telegraphy".
·
U.S. Patent 668,315 "Receiver for electrical oscillations".
·
U.S. Patent 676,332 "Apparatus for wireless telegraphy"
(later practical version of system)
·
U.S. Patent 757,559 "Wireless telegraphy system".
Filed 19 November 1901; Issued 19 April 1904.
·
U.S. Patent 760,463 "Wireless signaling system". Filed
10 September 1903; Issued 24 May 1904.
·
U.S. Patent 763,772 "Apparatus for wireless telegraphy"
(Four tuned system; this innovation was predated by N. Tesla, O. Lodge, and J.
S. Stone)
·
U.S. Patent 786,132 "Wireless telegraphy". Filed 13
October 1903
·
U.S. Patent 792,528 "Wireless telegraphy". Filed 13
October 1903; Issued 13 June 1905.
·
U.S. Patent 884,986 "Wireless telegraphy". Filed 28
November 1902; Issued 14 April 1908.
·
U.S. Patent 884,987 "Wireless telegraphy".
·
U.S. Patent 884,988 "Detecting electrical oscillations".
Filed 2 February 1903; Issued 14 April 1908.
·
U.S. Patent 884,989 "Wireless telegraphy". Filed 2
February 1903; Issued 14 April 1908.
·
U.S. Patent 924,560 "Wireless signaling system". Filed
9 August 1906; Issued 8 June 1909.
·
U.S. Patent 935,381 "Transmitting apparatus for wireless
telegraphy". Filed 10 April 1908; Issued 28 September 1909.
·
U.S. Patent 935,382 "Apparatus for wireless telegraphy".
·
U.S. Patent 935,383 "Apparatus for wireless telegraphy".
Filed 10 April 1908; Issued 28 September 1909.
·
U.S. Patent 954,640 "Apparatus for wireless telegraphy".
Filed 31 March 1909; Issued 12 April 1910.
·
U.S. Patent 997,308 "Transmitting apparatus for wireless
telegraphy". Filed 15 July 1910; Issued 11 July 1911.
·
U.S. Patent 1,102,990 "Means for generating alternating electric
currents". Filed 27 January 1914; Issued 7 July 1914.
·
U.S. Patent 1,226,099 "Transmitting apparatus for use in wireless
telegraphy and telephony". Filed 31 December 1913; Issued 15 May 1917.
·
U.S. Patent 1,271,190 "Wireless telegraph transmitter".
·
U.S. Patent 1,377,722 "Electric accumulator". Filed 9
March 1918
·
U.S. Patent 1,148,521 "Transmitter for wireless telegraphy".
Filed 20 July 1908; Issued 3 August 1915.
·
U.S. Patent 1,981,058 "Thermionic valve". Filed 14
October 1926; Issued 20 November 1934.
Reissued (US)[edit]
·
U.S. Patent RE11913 "Transmitting electrical impulses and
signals and in apparatus, there-for". Filed 1 April 1901; Issued 4
June 1901.
See also[edit]
·
List of people on stamps
of Ireland
·
List of covers
of Time magazine during the 1920s –
6 December 1926
uglielmo Marconi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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"Marconi" redirects here. For
other uses, see Marconi (disambiguation).
The Marchese
Guglielmo Marconi |
|
Born |
Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi
|
Died |
20 July 1937 (aged 63) |
Nationality |
Italian |
Alma mater |
|
Known for |
Radio |
Awards |
·
Matteucci Medal (1901) ·
Nobel
Prize for Physics (1909) ·
Albert Medal (1914) ·
Franklin Medal (1918) ·
IEEE
Medal of Honor (1920) ·
John Fritz Medal (1923) |
Scientific career |
|
Academic advisors |
|
Signature |
|
Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquis of Marconi FRSA (Italian: [ɡuʎˈʎɛlmo marˈkoːni]; 25 April 1874 – 20 July 1937) was
an Italian[1][2][3][4] inventor
and electrical engineer, 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 he shared the
1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun "in recognition of their contributions to the development of
wireless telegraphy".[7][8][9]
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.
Contents
§ 1.3.1Developing
radio telegraphy
§ 1.3.2Transmission
breakthrough
§ 1.3.3Demonstrations
and achievements
§ 1.3.4Transatlantic
transmissions
o 3.4Places
and organisations named after Marconi
·
4Patents
·
7Sources
Biography[edit]
Early years[edit]
Marconi was born into the Italian nobility as Guglielmo
Giovanni Maria Marconi[10] in Palazzo Marescalchi in Bologna on 25 April 1874, the second son of
Giuseppe Marconi (an Italian aristocratic landowner from Porretta Terme) and his Irish wife Annie Jameson (daughter of
Andrew Jameson of Daphne Castle in County Wexford, Ireland, and granddaughter of John Jameson, founder of whiskey distillers Jameson & Sons).[11][12] Marconi had a
brother, Alfonso,
and a stepbrother, Luigi. Between the ages of two and six, Marconi and his
elder brother Alfonso lived with their mother in the English town of Bedford.[13][14]
Education[edit]
Marconi did not attend school as a child and did not go
on to formal higher education.[15][16][17] 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 Guglielmo
in the winter when they would leave Bologna for the warmer climate of Tuscany or Florence.[17] Marconi noted an
important mentor was professor Vincenzo Rosa, a high school physics teacher in Livorno.[18][16] 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.[19]
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 proven
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.[20]
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
signaling.[21] 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,[22] a line of
inquiry that Marconi noted other inventors did not seem to be pursuing.[23]
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 (center) 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.[24] 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.[25][24] 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,[23] turning what was
essentially a laboratory experiment into a useful communication system.[26] Marconi came up
with a functional system with many components:[27]
·
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.[28]
Transmission breakthrough[edit]
A breakthrough came in the summer of 1895, when Marconi
found that 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.[29][30] 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.[31][32][33]
Marconi wrote to the Ministry of Post and Telegraphs,
then under the direction of Pietro Lacava, explaining his wireless telegraph machine and asking for funding. He
never received a response to his letter, which was eventually dismissed by the
Minister, who wrote "to the Longara" on the document, referring to
the insane asylum on Via della Lungara in Rome.[34]
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 apparatus. The customs officer immediately contacted the Admiralty in
London. While there, Marconi gained the interest and support of William Preece, the Chief Electrical Engineer of
the General Post Office (the GPO). During this time Marconi decided he should patent his
system, which he applied for on 2 June 1896, British Patent number 12039 titled
"Improvements in Transmitting Electrical impulses and Signals, and in
Apparatus therefor", which would become the first patent for a radio wave
based communication system.[35]
Demonstrations and achievements[edit]
This
section needs additional citations for verification.improve this articleadding citations to reliable sources (December 2016)Learn how and when to remove this template
message |
British Post Office engineers inspect Marconi's radio equipment during
a demonstration on Flat Holm Island, 13 May 1897. The transmitter is at 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.[36] 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 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".[37] 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.[38][39]
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.[40] 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.[41]
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 SOS message, 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.[42][43]
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.[44] 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. Prior to this voyage the Second Boer War had begun, and Marconi's wireless
would bring news of the conflict to passengers at the request of "some of
the officials of the American line."[45] 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
onboard the SS Saint Paul prior to its arrival.[46]
Transatlantic transmissions[edit]
Marconi watching associates raising the kite (a
"Levitor" by B.F.S. Baden-Powell[47]) 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 meters (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 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.[48][49]
Marconi demonstrating apparatus he used in his first long-distance
radio transmissions in the 1890s. The transmitter is at right, the receiver
with paper tape recorder at left.
Marconi caricatured by Leslie Ward for Vanity
Fair, 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 in 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.[50]
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[51][52] 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 the RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912 and the RMS Lusitania on 7 May 1915.[53]
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 on 15 April 1912, survivors were rescued
by the RMS Carpathia of the Cunard Line.[54] The Carpathia
took a total of 17 minutes to both receive and decode the SOS signal sent by the
Titanic. There was a distance of 58 miles between the two ships.[55] When Carpathia docked
in New York, Marconi went aboard with a reporter from The New York Times to talk with Bride, the surviving operator.[54] After this
incident, Marconi gained popularity and became more recognised for his
contributions to the field of radio and wireless technology.[56]
On 18 June 1912, Marconi gave evidence to the Court of Inquiry
into the loss of the Titanic regarding the marine telegraphy's
functions and the procedures for emergencies at sea.[57] 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."[58] Marconi was
offered free passage on the Titanic before she sank, but had
taken the Lusitania three
days earlier. As his daughter Degna later explained, he had paperwork to do and
preferred the public stenographer aboard that vessel.[59]
Continuing work[edit]
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).[60]
Later years[edit]
Have I done the world good, or have I
added a menace?[61]
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.[62]
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.[63] 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".[64] 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.[65] The British Post
Office also sent a message requesting that all broadcasting ships honour
Marconi with two minutes of broadcasting silence.[64] 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.[66]
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.[67][68] The decision was
not about Marconi's original radio patents[69] 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.[70] 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.[67]
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.[71] They had three
daughters, Degna (1908–1998), Gioia (1916–1996), and Lucia (born and died
1906), 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.[72] Marconi and
Beatrice had divorced on 12 February 1924 in the free city of Fiume (Rijeka).
Guglielmo and Beatrice Marconi c. 1910
On 12 June 1927 Marconi went on to marry Maria
Cristina Bezzi-Scali (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.[73] 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.[74]
Marconi joined the Italian Fascist party in 1923.[75] 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.[76]
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".[77]
Marconi wanted to personally introduce in 1931 the first
radio broadcast of a Pope, Pius XI, and did announce 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]
Legacy and honours[edit]
Orders and decorations[edit]
Italian
·
Knight of the Order of Merit for Labour (26 October 1902)[79]
·
Knight of the Civil Order of Savoy (1 June 1905)[79]
·
Grand Cordon of the Order of the Crown of Italy (7 April 1913; Grand Officer: 30 October 1902; Officer: 6 January
1898)[79]
·
Grand Cordon of the Order of Saints
Maurice and Lazarus (14 January 1932; Grand Officer: 30
May 1912; Commander: 12 January 1902)[79][80][62]
·
Marquis of Marconi (17 July 1929)[79]
Others
·
Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Anna of the Russia Empire (1902)[81][62]
·
Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order of the United Kingdom (GCVO, 1914)[62]
·
Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso XII of Spain[79]
·
Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun of Japan (1933)[82]
Honours and awards[edit]
Memorial plaque in the Basilica Santa Croce, Florence. Italy
·
In 1901, he was elected as a member of
the American Philosophical Society.[83]
·
In 1903, Marconi also received the freedom
of the City of Rome.[62]
·
In 1909, Marconi shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun for their "contributions to the development of wireless
telegraphy" (radio communications).[7]
·
In 1914, Marconi was named senator by the
king of Italy Vittorio Emanuele III[62]
·
In 1918, he was awarded the Franklin Institute's Franklin Medal.[84]
·
In 1920, he was awarded the IRE Medal of Honor,
now the IEEE Medal of Honor.[85]
·
In 1931, he was awarded the John Scott Medal by the Franklin Institute and
the City Council of Philadelphia.[86]
·
In 1934, he was awarded the Wilhelm Exner Medal.[87]
·
In 1974, Italy marked the birth centennial
of Marconi with a circulating commemorative 100-lira coin.[88]
·
In 1975, Marconi was inducted into
the National Inventors Hall of Fame.[89]
·
In 1978, Marconi was inducted into
the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame.[90]
·
In 1988, the Radio Hall of Fame (Museum of Broadcast
Communications, Chicago) inducted Marconi as a Pioneer
(soon after the inception of its awards).[91]
·
In 1990, the Bank of Italy issued a 2,000 lire banknote featuring his portrait on
the front and on the back his accomplishments.[92]
·
In 2001, Great Britain released a
commemorative British two-pound coin celebrating the 100th anniversary of Marconi's first wireless
communication.[93]
·
Marconi's early experiments in wireless
telegraphy were the subject of two IEEE Milestones;
one in Switzerland in 2003[94] and most
recently in Italy in 2011.[95]
·
In 2009, Italy issued a commemorative silver
10 Euro coin honouring the centennial of Marconi's Nobel Prize.[96]
·
In 2009, he was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.[97]
·
The Dutch radio academy bestows the Marconi
Awardsnl annually for outstanding radio
programmes, presenters and stations.[98]
·
The National Association of Broadcasters
(US) bestows the annual NAB Marconi Radio Awards also for outstanding radio programmes and stations.[99]
Tributes[edit]
Guglielmo
Marconi Memorial in Washington,
D.C.
Bronze statue of Guglielmo Marconi, sculpted by
Saleppichi Giancarlo erected 1975 Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
·
A funerary monument to the effigy of
Marconi can be seen in the Basilica of Santa
Croce, Florence, but his remains are in the Mausoleum of Guglielmo Marconi in Sasso Marconi,
Italy. His former villa, adjacent to the mausoleum is the Marconi Museum (Italy) with much of his equipment.
·
A statue of Guglielmo Marconi stands
in Church Square Park in Hoboken, NJ.[100]
·
A Guglielmo Marconi sculpture by Attilio Piccirilli stands
in Washington, D.C.[101]
·
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.[102] 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.[103] Following three
years' work at the Bodleian, an Online Catalogue to the Marconi Archives was
released in November 2008.
·
A granite obelisk stands on the cliff top
near the site of Marconi's Marconi's Poldhu Wireless Station in Cornwall, commemorating the first transatlantic transmission.
·
An urban park square named in 1937
located Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania at Oregon Ave and South Broad Street, including later in 1975 a
bronze statue erected of Marconi on the east side of Marconi Plaza Park.
Places and organisations named after Marconi[edit]
Outer space[edit]
The asteroid 1332 Marconia is named in his honour. A large crater on the far side of the moon is also named after him.
Europe[edit]
Marconi building at DRA at the University of St. Andrews
Italy
·
Bologna Guglielmo
Marconi Airport (IATA: BLQ – ICAO: LIPE), of Bologna,
is named after Marconi, its native son.
·
Open University Guglielmo Marconi in Rome, Italy (Università Telematica "Guglielmo Marconi")
·
Ponte Guglielmo Marconi, bridge that connects Piazza Augusto Righi with Piazza Tommaso Edison, in
Rome
Oceania[edit]
Australia
·
Australian football (soccer) and social
club Marconi Stallions.
North America[edit]
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.[104] In 1925 the
company was renamed to the 'Canadian Marconi Company', which was acquired
by English Electric in
1953.[104] The company name
changed again to CMC Electronics Inc. (French: CMC Électronique) in
2001. In 2002, the company 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[edit]
California[edit]
·
Marconi
Conference Center and State Historic Park,
site of the transoceanic Marshall Receiving Station, Marshall.
Hawaii[edit]
·
Marconi
Wireless Telegraphy Station on Oahu's North Shore,
briefly the world's most powerful telegraph station.[105]
Massachusetts[edit]
·
Marconi Beach in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, part of the Cape Cod National Seashore, located near the site of his first transatlantic wireless signal from the
United States to Britain. There are still remnants of the wireless tower at
this beach and at Forest Road Beach in Chatham, Massachusetts.[106]
New Jersey[edit]
·
New Brunswick Marconi Station, now the Guglielmo Marconi Memorial Plaza in Somerset, NJ. President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen
Points speech was transmitted from the site in 1918.
·
Belmar Marconi Station, now the InfoAge Science History Center in Wall Township, NJ.
New York[edit]
·
La Scuola d'Italia
Guglielmo Marconi on New York City's Upper East Side.
Pennsylvania[edit]
·
Marconi
Plaza, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Roman terrace-styled
plaza originally designed by the architects Olmsted Brothers in 1914–1916, built as the grand
entrance for the 1926 Sesquicentennial Exposition and renamed to honour Marconi.
Patents[edit]
British patents[edit]
·
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.
US patents[edit]
·
U.S. Patent 586,193 "Transmitting electrical signals",
(using Ruhmkorff coil and Morse code key)
filed December 1896, patented July 1897
·
U.S. Patent 624,516 "Apparatus employed in wireless telegraphy".
·
U.S. Patent 627,650 "Apparatus employed in wireless telegraphy".
·
U.S. Patent 647,007 "Apparatus employed in wireless telegraphy".
·
U.S. Patent 647,008 "Apparatus employed in wireless telegraphy".
·
U.S. Patent 647,009 "Apparatus employed in wireless telegraphy".
·
U.S. Patent 650,109 "Apparatus employed in wireless telegraphy".
·
U.S. Patent 650,110 "Apparatus employed in wireless telegraphy".
·
U.S. Patent 668,315 "Receiver for electrical oscillations".
·
U.S. Patent 676,332 "Apparatus for wireless telegraphy"
(later practical version of system)
·
U.S. Patent 757,559 "Wireless telegraphy system".
Filed 19 November 1901; Issued 19 April 1904.
·
U.S. Patent 760,463 "Wireless signaling system". Filed
10 September 1903; Issued 24 May 1904.
·
U.S. Patent 763,772 "Apparatus for wireless telegraphy"
(Four tuned system; this innovation was predated by N. Tesla, O. Lodge, and J.
S. Stone)
·
U.S. Patent 786,132 "Wireless telegraphy". Filed 13
October 1903
·
U.S. Patent 792,528 "Wireless telegraphy". Filed 13
October 1903; Issued 13 June 1905.
·
U.S. Patent 884,986 "Wireless telegraphy". Filed 28
November 1902; Issued 14 April 1908.
·
U.S. Patent 884,987 "Wireless telegraphy".
·
U.S. Patent 884,988 "Detecting electrical oscillations".
Filed 2 February 1903; Issued 14 April 1908.
·
U.S. Patent 884,989 "Wireless telegraphy". Filed 2
February 1903; Issued 14 April 1908.
·
U.S. Patent 924,560 "Wireless signaling system". Filed
9 August 1906; Issued 8 June 1909.
·
U.S. Patent 935,381 "Transmitting apparatus for wireless
telegraphy". Filed 10 April 1908; Issued 28 September 1909.
·
U.S. Patent 935,382 "Apparatus for wireless telegraphy".
·
U.S. Patent 935,383 "Apparatus for wireless telegraphy".
Filed 10 April 1908; Issued 28 September 1909.
·
U.S. Patent 954,640 "Apparatus for wireless telegraphy".
Filed 31 March 1909; Issued 12 April 1910.
·
U.S. Patent 997,308 "Transmitting apparatus for wireless
telegraphy". Filed 15 July 1910; Issued 11 July 1911.
·
U.S. Patent 1,102,990 "Means for generating alternating electric
currents". Filed 27 January 1914; Issued 7 July 1914.
·
U.S. Patent 1,226,099 "Transmitting apparatus for use in wireless
telegraphy and telephony". Filed 31 December 1913; Issued 15 May 1917.
·
U.S. Patent 1,271,190 "Wireless telegraph transmitter".
·
U.S. Patent 1,377,722 "Electric accumulator". Filed 9
March 1918
·
U.S. Patent 1,148,521 "Transmitter for wireless telegraphy".
Filed 20 July 1908; Issued 3 August 1915.
·
U.S. Patent 1,981,058 "Thermionic valve". Filed 14
October 1926; Issued 20 November 1934.
Reissued (US)[edit]
·
U.S. Patent RE11913 "Transmitting electrical impulses and
signals and in apparatus, there-for". Filed 1 April 1901; Issued 4
June 1901.
See also[edit]
·
List of people on stamps
of Ireland
·
List of covers
of Time magazine during the 1920s –
6 December 1926