One night, a man went and woke his mother, and brought her to his secret attic. He wanted to show her something unique. An electric key was lying on a table. He pressed it. Instantly, in the next attic, at some distance, a bell sounded. There were no wires connected to the key, and electric impulse alone made the bell ring across the space. This had never happened before. A new age was born. The man of the moment was none other but Guglielmo Marchese Marconi, born on April 25, 1874 in Bologna, Italy.
FAMILY HISTORY
Guglielmo Marconi was born to Giuseppe and Annie Marconi on April 25, 1874. Giuseppe Marconi came from the Apennines, mountains between Florence and Bologna in Italy. As a young man, he moved to Bologna where in 1855, he married a local girl, who died a year later, giving birth to their son. Giuseppe, a widower with an infant son, was joined by his father, who bought the Villa Griffone at Pontecchio, 11 miles out of Bologna. Giuseppe managed the land while his father raised silk worms. His wife Annie Jameson, was born in Ireland in the 1840s. Her father, Andrew had migrated with his brothers from Scotland where they had established the famous Jameson Whiskey Distillery, in Dublin.
It was here whilst staying in Bologna that Annie fell in love with Giuseppe Marconi. Giuseppe was a foreigner, a widower with a small child and 17 years her senior. The conservative Jamesons were outraged. Despite being forbidden by her parents to marry, Giuseppe and Annie kept contact through smuggled letters and on April 16, 1864, they married in France and settled in Bologna, after Annie had come of age. In 1865, they had a son Alfonso, born at the Villa Griffone.
CHILDHOOD
Guglielmo inherited his mother's fair hair and blue eyes and although baptized a Roman Catholic, he was brought up in her Anglican faith. Annie had a great deal of influence over Marconi. He inherited the qualities of tenaciousness and perseverance from Annie. He spent his childhood at the family house, Villa Griffone, in Pontecchio, just outside Bologna, and also at Florence and Leghorn, in the winters. She preferred Leghorn, because one of her two sisters, Elisabeth Prescott, lived there. Annie spent long breaks at Leghorn and Florence, but often went to the spa at Porretta, a village near the Marconi's old family house. It was only on these trips that the father accompanied his family. Normally, Annie and the boys went on their own. The longest stay away from home, was a three-year trip to Britain, beginning when Guglielmo was three.
EDUCATION
Annie then brought him to England for two years' elementary schooling, and later they moved to Florence, where she preferred to spend her winters. Marconi soon learned to become self-reliant, not by choice but by the combination of his parents' geographically separate lives and his education at the hands of a successive tutors. There was a scientific library nearby and little Marconi delved into the books to his heart’s content. He loved reading chemistry. He read almost all the books about steam engines and burrowed into electricity. He also read about Benjamin Franklin and his experiments with static electricity.
Marconi's schooling was intermittent, often interrupted and full of failures. Marconi was a reserved child, who had difficulty in making friends. He loved building scientific toys and gadgets, most often in isolation. He had made a miniature still that really distilled alcohol, built a roasting spit (skewer for holding meat over fire) out of his cousin Daisy's sewing machine, and an electric bell with metal wires and batteries. All his inventiveness apparently did not help elevate his school performance.
Though he was obedient, he also became introvert and spoke of "my electricity" before he was even 10 years old. Left to his own devices, he invented scientific toys and developed an aptitude for dismantling and re-assembling mechanical objects. The young Marconi often ran foul with his father who was strict with his children and was frustrated by the way Guglielmo seemed to waste away the hours in the attic. But such act hardly belied the future that had in store for this young boy,Marconi.
Sometimes, he used to climb the trees in front of his house and fall asleep on its branches. He enjoyed horse riding and swimming. He used to get embarrassed when people twitted him about his experiments. He would shut up his mouth and go off to fish … and think.
YOUNG EXPERIMENTER
Once, Marconi set up a strange device of zinc on the roof of the house. It was like a spear and was wired in such a way that when enough static electricity was collected, a bell would ring. This was perhaps the first step towards the invention of radio, for which the world recognized him.
MARCONI AND HERTZ
When Marconi was 20, he and his brother Luigi were spending their summer vacation at the little village of Biellese, in the Italian Alps. While reading a scientific magazine, Marconi came across an article, which carried detailed information about the work of Hertz, who had died just a few months ago. Hertz was able to send sparks from one room to the other, with nothing to connect the separate pieces of apparatus. Marconi at once got an inkling, "If you can send them across the room, why can’t you send them across the ocean ?" This increased the curiosity and for Marconi the vacation was over. Marconi was unable to sleep. His mind repeatedly went back to Hertz. Now the time in Alps was spent at drawing plans and diagrams, in immediate succession. Suddenly, Marconi’s face lit up with an idea. He couldn’t believe that hitherto, nobody had thought of such a simple and obvious thing. He wrote, "I knew there were many clever men in the world experimenting with waves, and I thought someone would quickly work out the problem." But nobody was able to do it.
BACK TO WORK
On returning to Villa Griffone, he first rushed to the old attic laboratory where his father used to store silk cocoons. The place was now set aside for Marconi’s experiments and except for servants, only two persons ever saw the rooms from inside, Marconi himself and his mother Annie. Marconi collected a variety of electrical equipment : batteries, transformers, oscillators, bells and wires. Then night after night, while everybody slept, young Marconi kept his light burning in the silence of December darkness, working with the doors locked and eating practically nothing. He devoted all his attention trying to produce a radio signal strong enough to be detected by a very crude receiver. Finally everything was in place for the first attempt. He pressed the key of the transmitter. The spark flashed and buzzed. But at the receiving end nothing happened. Something was wrong with the receiver itself. Again and again he re-arranged the apparatus, but silence persisted indicating perhaps some more work and investigations were required. Marconi labored away without taking any rest, until his face had such a hollow look that his mother became worried. At last, once again when everything was set he called his mother to his room and this time the pressing of the key rang an unconnected bell on the ground floor. It was early 1895 and Marconi wrote – "I at once obtained results, which surprised me, and which I realized were new".Later on, Marconi increased the intervening distance, and conducted the same experiment on the front lawn.
MOVE TO LONDON
Now Marconi had something that deserved attention. But the Italian government had no faith in Marconi’s invention and refused to acknowledge it. Marconi was not one to lose hope and cleverly thought of England, which was a great naval power then. Furthermore, Marconi’s cousin, Jameson Davis was now an engineer living in London. Marconi went to Davis and there he met Sir William Precee, for whom he had a letter of introduction. Sir William invited the young man to use his own laboratory. Sir William also helped Marconi to get the British customs authorities clear his strange instruments. Sir William gave a lecture on Telegraphing Without Wires in December 1896, which revealed his complete faith in Marconi and his work.
Meanwhile, the Italian government insisted Marconi to enroll for three years military training as it was compulsory for all Italian citizens even if they resided outside Italy. Marconi, engaged in his scientific work, appealed to Italian Embassy to accept him as a naval student in training to facilitate his experiments in London.
A COMPANY ESTABLISHED
Now the wheels were set in motion and Marconi began by transmitting signals from a room in the London General Post Office, first to a neighboring roof, then to Salisbury Plain. His next place for experiment was Bristol Channel. By July 1897, a company was formed, which was later on known as Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Co. Ltd. The company helped to install wireless on lightships and lighthouses along the coast. The company acquired patent in every country except Italy and her dependencies, as Italy was the birthplace of Marconi. This showed Marconi’s love towards his motherland.
DREAM REALIZED
Now, Marconi concentrated on sending signals across the Atlantic. This required better and efficient apparatus especially for aerial matter. Initially, balloons were sent up but thereafter, Marconi thought of 10-foot balloons covered with tinfoil to make a good antenna. In the next experiments, tinfoil was affixed to long-tailed kites. With this the range was now of eight to nine miles during the day but Marconi was not aware about the fact that this distance doubled or trebled during night. Later, the aerials were modified to get better results.
Lloyds of London, installed Marconi instruments in all their lighthouse posts, and Marconi stations were erected at several locations. Marconi envisioned a world of safe navigation by sea and by air through things like wireless lighthouse, the radio direction finder, and the radio beacon. The shipping companies started using wireless. In 1900, the British Admiralty used the Marconi’s set up in its fleet of 26 warships.
Marconi’s parents, in fact, were startled by his keen interest in experiments and science. When Marconi was seven, he attended school in Florence, and it was there that he studied each winter. Marconi learned Physics under Professor Rosa.
While still a youngster, Marconi made some keen observations about the puzzling electric impulses, better known as Hertzian waves. He concluded that Hertzian waves and ordinary electric currents had distinctive characteristics. The waves produced by a spark were able to travel through a medium without wires, unlike alternating currents, which travel through a wire or some conductor. Marconi gave a good distinction through this comparison that : A bell may swing to and fro without producing a sound. Strike it with a hammer and it transmits sound waves in every direction. The spark is the hammer blow and the sound waves, the Hertzian oscillations.
BRIDGING THE ATLANTIC
The next problem was the overcoming obstacle in wireless by individuals due to interference of the signals. Sir Oliver Lodge helped Marconi to make series of improvements in the apparatus. He proved his point by demonstrating successfully the reception of messages from different transmitting stations with separate receivers. The great moment of Marconi’s life came in 1901, when he bridged Atlantic. Marconi continued his successful journey, now receiving signals 2,000 miles from the coast of Cornwall, while on a steamship bound for New York. Once, a ship called La Bourgogre sunk with nearly all her passengers and Marconi remarked that, had the ship been equipped with wireless, aid could have been summoned from nearby Newfoundland, saving life and personal belongings.
PATENT NO. 7777
In 1904, wireless was successfully demonstrated at St Louis World’s Fair, where amateurs and engineers all, tested this new sensational invention. As the value of the invention was perceived, dubious attempts by others, were made to get awards for its discovery and the invention of the necessary apparatus. Even an attempt was made to discredit the Marconi Company, but Marconi won the dispute in court. Judge Van Vechten Veeder stated that all patents filed in the US by Marconi were valid. He even cited the evidence that Marconi was undoubtedly, "the first to discover and use any practical means for effective telegraphic transmission and intelligible reception of signals produced by artificially formed Hertz oscillations". The famous Patent No. 7777 was now secure.
Edison had also recognized the talent of Marconi and always stood behind in his entire research to one of the patents, for which Edison had applied in 1885, showing high pole aerials. Edison allowed the Marconi Company to use it.
SAVING LIVES
The life-saving possibilities of wireless were realized in 1899 when a wireless message was received from the East Goodwin lightship equipped with Marconi wireless apparatus. It had rammed in a steamship R F Matthews passing through a dense fog. An emergency request was made for a lifeboat.
In January 1909, over 1,700 people were rescued at sea when the S S Republic collided with an Italian steamer, the Florida in thick fog, off the eastern coast of US. For two days on a trot, Jack Binns, the Marconi radio operator aboard the Republic, sent out a total of two hundred messages to help guide rescuing ships to his stricken vessel’s position. Thanks to his messages, all the passengers who survived the initial impact were rescued. Binns received a special medal for his services and Marconi himself presented him with a gold watch.
In 1912, the Titanic, with 2,000 people on board was heading towards New York. The wireless apparatus though of latest design, was not powerful enough to remain in communication with the shore directly and only other ships in near vicinity could relay its messages to shore. The weather was clear, but the icebergs were reported near the shipping lane that it was following. The captain despite prior information, the ship was allowed to forge ahead at the speed of nearly 25 miles an hour. The night was quiet and cold. Suddenly, at half past eleven the crow’s nest signaled that a large iceberg was looming ahead. "Hail starboard, full speed astern !" shouted the officer, but the speed was uncontrollable. In a few seconds, the ship struck the iceberg. Like a million panes of splitting glass, the iceberg tore the ship apart.
In next three hours, the game was supposed to be over. The ship was 600 miles away from Cape Race. The ship began to tilt forward. The red light flares by rockets to catch attention of passing vessels were fired, but unfortunately no ship was nearby. The frantic men and sobbing women tried to seek the board deck. The senior wireless operator, John G Phillips, gripped his key, "Come at once," the message was sent, "We’ve struck a berg ! Sinking fast," he inserted CQD SOS with the latitude and longitude of the Titanic.
The wireless had gone weak. The flooded engine rooms made the ship tremble even more. Carpathia, the nearest ship was far enough to reach Titanic, not before next morning. Now the decks were steep in water. The Captain told the wireless operators, "Men, you have your full duty. You can do no more. Now its every man for himself." Phillips did not stop. The instrument kept up its "SOS CQD SOS – Titanic Sinking …." At last there were many left to die when the great ‘Titanic’ took its last plunge, but many others were saved because of wireless. Many ships steamed to Titanic’s rescue, of which ‘Carpathia’ was the first to arrive. When the Titanic sank on April 14, 1912, the loss of life was truly terrible, but those who survived owed their lives to the distress calls from the Marconi wireless equipment on board. As Lord Samuel, Postmaster General at the time, stated : 'Those who have been saved have been saved through one man, Mr. Marconi and ...his wonderful invention.'
THE MARCONI SCANDAL
In 1912, the Liberal government of Britain, after two years' of deliberations, agreed in principle that the Marconi Company should build six of the 18 stations proposed earlier for the Imperial Wireless Scheme. The announcement was made on March 7, 1912 and indicated that the installations would be state-owned and would earn the company royalties.
During months of unpublicized negotiations, the price of Marconi shares on public offer had sky rocketed. Gossip was doing the rounds that certain ministers and friends with inside knowledge had been buying the shares secretly with a view of making substantial gains later. Marconi was not accused personally, but the alleged 'Marconi Scandal' broke in the press during July, before the first Imperial Wireless contract could be signed and then ratified by Parliament. This hurt Marconi a lot, both psychological and physical. Escaping with his wife to Italy, later in September, he lost his right eye in a head-on car crash.
In 1919, Marconi bought a yacht called 'Elettra' and made it a floating laboratory. In 1922, "Western Electric Company" bought some of its broadcasting time from the "American Telephone and Telegraph Company", sponsoring and entertaining program over station WEAF in New York. Marconi’s crystal detector was greeted by the press as "Radio for Everybody". Then, Marconi devised a vacuum tube, which was like an Aladdin’s Lamp to the radio. In 1922, when Marconi sailed to America, he was greeted by the wireless waves of music from New York, and the Institute of Radio Engineers gave him a standing ovation.
TYING THE NUPTIAL KNOT
Marconi presented a complex character. His manner was often cold and distant, yet he also displayed his mother's irreverent Irish sense of humor. Elegant in dress and bearing, also an accomplished piano player, he could easily charm women. He had been engaged to rich American girls twice. Their attraction could not compete with wireless. On reaching the age of 30, he remarked sadly: "A man cannot live on glory alone." Within a year, he had fallen in love once more, and married the Honorable Beatrice O'Brien (Bea), the 19-year-old daughter of the late 13th Lord Inchiquin, descendant of a warrior king of Ireland. Bea had met Marconi while he was in Poole in 1904. On meeting Bea, Marconi broke up his relationship with an American girl and spent as much time as possible pursuing her. Daunted by his celebrity status, Bea declined Marconi's first proposal of marriage, that left him distraught.
Her Anglican family had also initially disapproved of their match, as Marconi was a commoner and foreigner. In his favor, by contrast, he was not a practicing Catholic, but he charmed Bea's mother. The wedding duly took place on March 16, 1905 in the fashionable Mayfair church of St George's, Hanover Square. He gave Bea two presents, a coronet of Brazilian diamonds and a bicycle, and then curtailed their honeymoon at her family castle in County Clare, to return to work. In the spring, he took her to Glace Bay, and left her there, while he planned his next project – a transatlantic station at Clifden, on Ireland's west coast. For Marconi, wireless still came first and the pattern was unchanged.
The Marconi's had four children. Luicia, a daughter born in February 1906 lived only a few weeks. Degna was born in 1908, Giulio in 1910 and Gioia in 1916. The family lived for a time at a rented house called Eaglehurst, near Southampton, though Marconi spent most of the time away. In 1913, they moved to Rome where Bea took up her position as lady-in-waiting to Queen Elena and reveled in Italian society functions. With the outbreak of war, they moved back to England, though returned to Italy in 1916. The war provided time for the family to be together, however, after the war, the relationship between Guglielmo and Bea deteriorated.
DIVORCE
Marconi's life began to suffer as rumors of his affairs were rife. In 1923, Bea asked Marconi for a divorce, for she had fallen in love with the Marchese Liborio Marignoli. Bea had a daughter with her husband, Flaminia, born in 1926. Marconi continued to write to his ex-wife and seek her opinion, the children shared their time between parents and spent happy holidays onboard the Elettra.
SECOND MARRIAGE
In 1925, he met Maria Cristina Bezzi-Scali, half his age and the daughter of Vatican nobility. The following summer, having entertained her aboard the Elettra. He proposed to her and she accepted conditionally, since the Vatican recognized neither his Protestant upbringing nor his divorce. Bea, happy with her new husband and daughter, graciously assisted Marconi in obtaining an annulment on the grounds of lack of consent. Bea never saw Marconi again after 1928, but she remained in contact with him, trying without success to secure financial arrangements for the children's future. Maria and Marconi's only child, a daughter, was born on July 20, 1930, and given the same name as his yacht – Elettra.
In November 1927, Marconi suffered his first attack of angina in London and his attention concentrated increasingly on Maria Cristina and his native Italy, where she nursed him through his illness. While he was still convalescing in 1929, the year of the Wall Street Crash, he was awarded the hereditary title of Marchese or Marquis by King Victor Emmanuel III. His health improved and late, in 1930, he was sufficiently fit to work again, installing a short-wave station in the Vatican.
WORLDWIDE RECOGNITION
After Pope Pius XI made the opening broadcast in February 1931, Marconi again felt the lure of the sea and scientific adventure. He was also reminded of past glories. December saw him in London, celebrating the 30th anniversary of his first transatlantic signal with a broadcast of his own. In the biggest international live radio broadcast yet attempted, his words traveled around the world. Afterwards, as soon as other commitments allowed, he traveled around the world, taking Maria with him and making personal appearances. Their journey began in mid-September 1933 and during the four months following, they were feted wherever they went.
At the White House in Washington, they dined with President Roosevelt, who put at their disposal a special train for crossing the United States. At a major exhibition in Chicago, they were guests of honor. In Hollywood, they met a galaxy of stars including Charlie Chaplin. In Tokyo, they were welcomed by Emperor Hirohito at his palace, in Nanking by the president of China, in Hong Kong, Singapore and Bombay by colonial dignitaries.
DEATH
Marconi moved to Rome in 1935, never to leave Italy again. On 19 July 1937, at his office in Rome, he discussed with Luigi Solari (closest friend, a naval lieutenant and fellow wireless pioneer) the microwave experiments he was planning on the yacht. "There is a great deal yet to do in this field," he declared. "I wish I had the energy I used to have ... the energy I no longer have." His wife was away overnight and the next day was their daughter's seventh birthday. Returning to their apartment in Via Condotti, he cancelled a Royal Academy appointment with Benito Mussolini and went to bed.
The last person to see him alive was his physician, Professor Cesare Frugone. "How is it," Marconi asked, "that my heart has stopped beating and I am still alive?" But he died soon afterwards, in the early hours of July 20, 1937, aged 63 and his body was laid to rest at the mausoleum in the grounds of Villa Griffone. At his funeral in Rome the next evening, thousands of mourners lined the streets. In a fitting tribute, all around the world, wireless operators stood to attention and wireless stations fell silent for two minutes and it resembled the silence prior to Marconi's arrival.
AN OVERVIEW
Marconi is rightly called the Pioneer of Wireless, freeing communications from the constraints imposed by fixed cable and visible distance. He facilitated commercial and mass communication, bringing all parts of the world closer together. In an era when all intercontinental transport was marine, Marconi's achievements in wireless technology made ships at sea within the reach of communication once they left the shores.
The air is full of promises of miracles", a man wrote in London. Soon after, three dots and the letter S sputtered across the Atlantic Ocean. The New York Times ran a front-page story, which began with – "St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, December 12, 1901 – Guglielmo Marconi announced tonight the most wonderful scientific development of recent times." Thus the age of long-distance communication was born.
Almost hundred years have passed since then, and many key points in the propagation of information through radio, has come to an advanced stage. But for Marconi, life would not have been the same.
The story of Guglielmo Marconi is of a person who never went to public school, never went to a university but was predominantly interested in the practical applications of scientific knowledge. He was an engineer in the definition of the Institution of Civil Engineers : One who utilizes and controls the energies of Nature for the noble cause of benefit of mankind.
April 25, 1874
Guglielmo Marconi born in Bologna, Italy.
1879
Attended elementary school in England.
1884
Began inventing scientific toys.
1890
Attended technical college.
Built his first Morse telegraph transmitter.
1894
Began experiments and worked on receiver, spark transmitter and antenna.
1896
Arrived in England. Received first patent for wireless instrument.
1897
Went to Italy to demonstrate his equipment.
July 1897
The Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company was formed in England.
1899
Established America Marconi Company for ship-to-shore radio communication.
1900
Formed Marconi Wireless Telegraph company and Marconi International Marine company for ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore communication.
1901
Sent message across the Atlantic.
1904
Received American Patent # 7777.
March 16, 1905
Married Beatrice O'Brien.
1909
Received Nobel Prize in Physics.
1913
Moved to Rome.
1919
Converted his yacht 'Elettra' into a floating laboratory.
1922
Marconi sailed to America and was greeted by the wireless waves of music from New York.
1924
Signed a contract with British Postal Service to set up radio communication.
1925
Met Maria Cristina Bezzi-Scali in England.
April 27, 1927
Divorced O'Brien.
June 15, 1927
Married Maria Cristina Bezzi-Scali.
November 1927
Suffered first attack of angina.
1928
Experimented with very high frequencies.
1929
Awarded the hereditary title of Marchese or Marquis by King Victor Emmanuel III.
1930
Elected President of Royal Italian Academy.
September 1933
Left on a world tour.
July 20, 1937
Marconi died in Rome.
In his father's library, Marconi's imagination was nourished by Greek myths and by the works of great scientists such as Benjamin Franklin and Michael Faraday. In Leghorn, he learned the theoretical discipline needed for further study. The practical methods enabled him to build his first Morse telegraph transmitter at the age of 16.
In 1894, Marconi learned of Hertz’s experiments with electromagnetic waves. This led the young man to think as to how far waves could travel, by the account given by Hertz and became confident that Hertzian waves might be used in communication. Marconi began to experiment with the assistance of Professor Righi (a family friend and a physicist who taught at Bologna and Palermo Universities). He worked on his apparatus for sending and receiving telegraph messages through the air and soon was able to transmit coded signals across a distance of more than a mile. When the Italian government refused to acknowledge Marconi’s work, he went to England in 1896 and successfully, demonstrated his apparatus. In 1897, a message was sent from Queen Victoria to the Prince of Wales on the royal yacht. Marconi took a patent, which was the first ever granted for a practical system of wireless telegraphy. The same year, a company, later known as Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Company Ltd. was formed for the commercial use of wireless. Marconi earned money through this company.
The first practical application of wireless was done in 1898, when Marconi followed the Kingstown Regetta in a tugboat and flashed the results in code to the offices of Dublin newspapers. The importance of wireless telegraphy in saving lives at sea was first demonstrated in 1899. The East Goodwin Sands lightship was stuck in a fog, and aid was summoned by wireless.
The year 1901 saw the greatest moment of Marconi’s life, when he transmitted signals across the Atlantic Ocean by wireless. This facilitated the daily news service for Trans Atlantic liners in 1904. The transmission of signal was made possible by the refraction and reflection of the signal in a conduction layer in the upper atmosphere, called the Ionosphere. Everybody thought that this was impossible. Believing that the radio waves traveled only in a straight line and followed the curvature of earth would not allow this. Marconi on December 12, 1901 proved that signals would follow the curvature of earth, by receiving the signals in St John, Newfoundland sent from a transmitter in Poldhu, at the southwestern tip of England.
Marconi increased the range of the spark coil transmitter by earthing one terminal and connecting the other to a tall antenna. He gave a tunable, systonic system by inserting capacitance and variable inductance between earth and the antenna. He shaped his antenna to beam the signals. This helped sending messages farther to larger distances. With this, Marconi was able to receive signals at Buenos Aires, Argentina, from Clifden, Ireland, and in 1918, he sent a message from England to Australia.
Later in 1921, Marconi’s wireless telegraphy had become wireless telephony, the voice radio of today. When the long wave broadcasting became practical, Marconi thought of short waves. The application of the transmission of short waves by focusing the waves with a parabolic reflector behind the antenna started in 1922. This system is today employed by almost all communication systems. Marconi’s other important invention was the Radio Direction Finder (RDF) through which ships and airplanes can fix their positions using radio signals.
On June 20, 1922, while addressing American radio engineers in New York, Marconi made announcements about new types of marine radio apparatus that would emit electrical waves and then detect those reflected back from metallic objects, and reveal the presence of other ships.
Stemming from his earlier observations, his speech heralded the technology of what later came to be called 'radio detection and ranging' or RADAR for short. Advances made by the Marconi company in marine direction-finding helped the development of these techniques.
The plan to link the British Empire by a network of wireless communication stations was first thought of in 1906. The project had been delayed by war and political conflict until 1924, but by this time, on board Elettra, his floating laboratory, Marconi had developed short-wave directional transmission. This new development, far superior to the long-wave high power system he had originally specified, was known as the Beam System. It was adopted by Canada, Australia, South Africa and India and the foundations were laid for the Imperial Wireless Chain - a revolution in world-wide communication.
Marconi returned to the study of very short wavelengths and in 1932, Marconi personally supervised the installation of the first microwave telephone link which connected the Vatican City with the Pope's summer residence, Castle Gandolfo.
In 1934, Marconi demonstrated equipment that helped navigation of ships possible. Marconi’s auto-alarm picked up distress signals when radio operators were off duty with sounds of a loud alarm. He was also first to use the ultra high frequency (UHF) waves for voice radio communication over short distances.
"Long experience has taught me not always to believe in the limitations indicated by purely theoretical considerations. These, as we well know, are based on insufficient knowledge of all the relevant factors."
"Every day sees humanity more victorious in the struggle with space and time."
"I do not feel any useful purpose would be served by discussing at the present time."
"I consider that the most fertile fields of radio for the amateur experimenter and young engineer just out of college are short waves, directive transmission, and television. I believe television is finally emerging from the laboratory. It will be seen in homes throughout the land, but I do not know how soon."
