William Marconi

Guillermo Marconi (in Italian, Guglielmo Marconi, Bologna, April 25, 1874 - Rome, July 20, 1937) was an engineer Italian electronic, known as one of the most prominent promoters of long-distance radio transmission, for the establishment of Marconi's Law, as well as for the development of a system of wireless telegraphy (TSH) or radiotelegraphy.

He is sometimes credited as the inventor of radio, although this is really a collective invention, and he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Carl Ferdinand Braun in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy.

He was also one of the most recognized inventors and, in addition to the Nobel Prize, received the Franklin Medal, was president of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and was named a marquis by King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, with which he went on to receive the treatment of "Most Illustrious Sir". In addition, he is inducted into the Chicago Museum of Telecommunications and Broadcasting Hall of Fame, and the NAB Marconi Radio Awards are presented annually in his honor by the National Broadcasting Association of the United States.

Biography

Second son of Giuseppe Marconi, an Italian landowner, and his Irish-born wife, Annie Jameson, he studied at the University of Bologna. It was there that he carried out the first experiments on the use of electromagnetic waves for telegraphic communication. In 1896 the results of these experiments were applied in Great Britain, between Penarth and Weston, and in 1898 in the Italian naval arsenal at La Spezia. At the request of the French government, in 1899 he made a practical demonstration of his discoveries, and established wireless communications across the English Channel, between Dover and Wimereux.

Attracted by the idea of transmitting radio waves across the Atlantic, he went to San Juan (Newfoundland), where, on December 12, 1901, he received the letter "S" in Morse Code, transmitted at his request from Poldhu (Cornwall) by one of his helpers, across 3,360 km of ocean. However, the first complete transatlantic communication was not made until 1907. Reginald Aubrey Fessenden had already transmitted the human voice with radio waves on December 23, 1900.

In 1903, he established the WCC station in the United States, to transmit messages from East to West, at the inauguration of which President Theodore Roosevelt and King Edward VII of the United Kingdom exchanged greeting messages. In 1904, he entered into an agreement with the British Post Office for the commercial transmission of messages by radio. That same year, he launched the first ocean newspaper aboard Cunard Line ships, which received news by radio. Around 1908 he created a branch of his company in the suburban town of Bernal, 17 km south of Buenos Aires, managed by relatives. From there he managed to communicate with Canada and Europe, making the first South American wireless telecommunication.

Marconi, Cardinal Pacelli and Pius XI at the opening of Vatican Radio (1931)

His name became world famous as a result of the role radio played in saving hundreds of lives on the occasion of the sinkings of the Republic (1909) and the Titanic (1912).

The value of radio in warfare was first demonstrated during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911. With Italy's entry into World War I in 1915, he was appointed responsible for wireless communications for all the armed forces, and visited the United States in 1917 as a member of the Italian delegation.

After the war, he spent several years working on his laboratory-fitted yacht, the Elettra, on experiments involving shortwave conduction and testing directed wireless transmission, which he shared with Carl Ferdinand Braun. He was made a life member of the Senate of the Kingdom of Italy in 1918 and in 1929 he received the title of marquis. It is believed that Nikola Tesla refused the Nobel Prize because he said precisely that Marconi had taken his patents to make his invention, and that until Marconi's prize was withdrawn he would not accept it. History that is rejected by the Nobel foundation, since there is no record of letters where it demonstrates this fact.

Vatican Radio was founded by Guillermo Marconi and inaugurated by Pius XI (with the radio message Qui arcano Dei) on February 12, 1931.

Disputes

It is common to attribute the invention of the radio to him, it really was a collective invention. In addition to Marconi's patent, predecessor devices of what we know today as radio apparatus were patented in a short period of time in different places, such as the cases of Alexander Popov or Julio Cervera, who registered it on July 2, 1897 in the United Kingdom.

A year after the first wireless transmission, Marconi patented his invention, and the English awarded the twenty-two-year-old inventor a grant of 15,000 francs. From then on, success was not long in coming. At the request of the French government he made a practical demonstration of his discoveries in 1899, establishing wireless communications across the English Channel. On March 27, 1899, he achieved the link through the channel between Dover (England) and Boulougne (France), at a distance of 48 km, in what was the first transmission between the two countries.

The Marconi Wireless Tel. Co. brought a contentious judicial process against the Government of the United States of America for the use of transmission equipment of the United States Army, built without paying the patent rights to the Marconi Co. In The judgment of June 21, 1943 establishes government compensation for the use of patents, mainly during the First World War, but not for the original patents that cover radio transmission and reception, but for those that cover later improvements. Some mistakenly believe that this ruling gave Tesla precedence over Marconi in the invention of the radio. In fact, the Supreme Court of the United States of America upheld a lower court ruling, in 1935, which ruled that the earlier work of Oliver Joseph Lodge - and especially that of John Stone Stone - had priority. The Supreme Court's decision did not overturn Marconi's original patents, nor his reputation as the first person to develop practical radiotelegraphic communication. It simply clarified that the adoption of adjustable transformers in transmit and receive circuits, which was an improvement on the initial invention, was fully anticipated by the patents issued to Oliver Joseph Lodge and John Stone Stone. The sentence did NOT determine "who invented the radio".

Marconi's Law

Marconi's Law is the relationship between the height of the antennas and the maximum signaling distance of radio transmissions. The maximum distance with good signaling varies directly as the square of the height of the transmitting antenna.

It is defined like this:

If H is the height of the antenna and D is the maximum signaling distance, then we have that.

H=cD{displaystyle H=c{sqrt {D}}},

Where c is a constant.

Personal life

• Marconi had a brother (Alfonso Marconi) and a stepbrother, Luigi. Marconi plotted friendship with Charles van Raalte and his wife Florence, the owners of Brownsland Island; and Margarita, his daughter. In 1904 she met her friend, Beatrice O'Brien (1882–1976), daughter of Edward O'Brien, 14th Baron of Inchiquin. On March 16, 1905, Beatrice O'Brien and Marconi married, and passed their honeymoon on Brownsland Island. They had 3 daughters, Degna (1908–1998), Gioia (1916–1996), and Lucia (born and died in 1906), and a son, Giulio, II Marquis Marconi (1910–1971). In 1913, the Marconi returned to Italy and became part of Roman society. Beatrice served Queen Elena as a maid of company. The Marconis divorced in 1924 and, at the request of Marconi, the marriage was annulled on 27 April 1927, so that it could remarry. On 12 June 1927 (religiously 15 June), Marconi married Cristina Bezzi-Scali (1900–1994). Together they had a daughter, Maria Elettra Elena Anna (born in 1930), who would marry Prince Carlo Giovannelli (1942–2016) in 1966; although they would then divorce.
• In 1923, Marconi was one of the first to join the Italian Fascist Party, becoming a fascist and fierce defender of its ideology and actions such as the attack of the Italian troops in Ethiopia.
• In his speech to the Party he said: "I vindicate the honor of being the first fascist in the X-ray, the first to recognize the usefulness of joining the electric rays in a beam, as Mussolini has for the first time recognized in the political field the need to gather in a beam the healthy energies of the Country, for the greatest grandeur of Italy."
• Marconi wanted to present in 1931 the first radio locution of a Pope, Pius XI, and announced on the microphone: "With the help of God, who places so many mysterious forces of nature at the disposal of man, I have been able to prepare this instrument which will give the faithful of the whole world the joy of listening to the voice of the Holy Father."

Contributions to science

• Telegraph using the Morse code (invented by Samuel Morse) without driver cables;
• the Antena Marconi;
• radio marketing;
• the Marconi Act.

Honors

• In 1902 he was appointed Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown of Italy.
• In 1909, Marconi shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Carl Ferdinand Braun for his contributions to radio programming.
• In 1914 he was appointed senator by the king of Italy Victor Manuel III.
• In 1918, the Franklin Medal was delivered by the Franklin Institute.
• In 1920, he was awarded the IREE medal of honor.
• In 1929, he was named Marquis by King Victor Manuel III, thus becoming the Marquesse Marconi.
• In 1931, he was rewarded with the John Scott Medal medal for wireless telegraphing.
• In 1934, he was rewarded with the Wilhelm Exner medal.
• In 1975, Marconi was introduced into the Hall of the Fame of National Inventors.
• In 1977, Marconi was introduced to the Hall of the Fame of National Locutores.
• In 1990, the Bank of Italy issued a 2000 lire ticket including its portrait on the front and its achievements on the back.
• In 2001, England issued a two-pound coin celebrating the centenary of the invention of wireless communication by Marconi.
• In 2009, Italy issued a commemorative silver coin with the value of 5 euros in honor and memory of the Centenary of the Nobel Prize in Marconi.
• In 2009, it was introduced into the New Jersey Fame Hall.
• The Dutch radio academy annually awards the Marconi Award to the most outstanding radio programmes.
• The U.S. National Locutor Association annually grants the NAB Marconi Radio Awards, also to the most outstanding radio programs and stations.

Eponymy

• The lunar crater Marconi bears this name in his memory.
• The asteroid (1332) Marconia also commemorates its name.
• In the city of Resistencia, Argentina, one of its avenues bears the name of this physicist and inventor. This avenue changes its name when it comes to Alberdi Avenue, its continuation being baptized in honor of the also physical and inventor Thomas Alva Edison.

Additional bibliography

• Birch, Beverley (1991). Guglielmo Marconi. Fundación Santa María-Ediciones SM. ISBN 978-84-348-3406-4.
• Lazarus Flowers, Jesus (1983). Guillermo Marconi. Editions Auriga. ISBN 978-84-7281-115-7.
• Marconi, María Cristina (1996). My husband Guillermo Marconi. Aguilar. ISBN 978-84-03-59735-8.
• Parker, Steve (1994). Guglielmo Marconi and the radio. Celeste Editions. ISBN 978-84-87553-64-6.
• Rodríguez Lazaro, Jesus (1981). Guillermo Marconi. Afha International. ISBN 978-84-201-0441-6.
• Marconi, Maria Cristina; Marconi, Elettra (2002). Marconi My Beloved. Branden Books. ISBN 9780937832394.