Guglielmo Marconi

Creator of practical wireless telegraphy

Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian electrical engineer and inventor who created a practical radio wave-based wireless telegraph system.^[1] He shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Ferdinand Braun for their contributions to wireless telegraphy.^[1] The University of Bologna account notes that he was self-taught and pioneered the entrepreneurial scope of radio signals.^[2]

Quick Facts

Took office: 1914
Left office: 1937
Appointer: Victor Emmanuel III
Birth name: Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi
Born: 25 April 1874
Birthplace: Bologna, Italy
Died: 20 July 1937
Place of death: Rome, Italy

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

Marconi was born on 25 April 1874 in Bologna, Italy, to landowner Giuseppe Marconi and Annie Jameson, granddaughter of the Jameson whiskey founder.^[3] He received no formal education as a youth, learning chemistry, mathematics, and physics from private tutors at home.^[4] At age 20, Marconi began radio wave experiments in the attic of Villa Griffone, building much of his own equipment.^[5] In summer 1895, he achieved a breakthrough by raising his antenna height and grounding his transmitter and receiver, transmitting signals over about 2 km.^[6]

He applied to the Italian Ministry of Post and Telegraphs for funding but never received a response.^[7] On 2 June 1896, he filed British patent number 12039, the first patent for a radio wave communication system.^[8] He died in Rome on 20 July 1937 at age 63 after suffering from heart disease.^[9] At age 17, Marconi was taught the fundamentals of physical phenomena and emerging electrical theories by his mentor Vincenzo Rosa, a high school physics teacher in Livorno.^[4]

What the cited sources add

The Guardian reported that on 21 July 1937, shops on Marconi's street bore signs "Closed for national mourning" and radio transmitters worldwide observed two minutes of silence.^[10] The Fondazione Guglielmo Marconi states that Villa Griffone was declared a national monument in 1939 and became property of the foundation in 1941.^[11] The University of Bologna account notes that Marconi assigned his patents free of charge to the Italian Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs on condition that national stations use only his equipment.^[2] The same source states that in 1933, Marconi presented a primitive radar to high-ranking officers but found no support and abandoned the project.^[2]

References

Wikipedia, "Guglielmo Marconi" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Guglielmo Marconi | Italian physicist", Encyclopædia Britannica, 2023-04-21; "This week in tech", The Daily Telegraph, 2017-04-28; "Guglielmo Marconi", History, 2023-03-27; Gavin Weightman, The Industrial Revolutionaries: The Making of the Modern World 1776–1914, Grove/Atlantic, Inc. 2010. p. 357.; Bondyopadhyay, "25th European Microwave Conference, 1995", 1995, p. 879; Hong, p. 1; "Nobel Prize in Physics 1909", Nobel Foundation (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
"Guglielmo Marconi", University of Bologna. facts only, no text reused. unibo.it
Wikipedia, "Guglielmo Marconi" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Atti della Accademia di scienze, lettere e arti di Palermo: Scienze", Presso l'accademia, 1974, p. 11; "Marconi Birth Certificate"; Sexton, "Marconi: the Irish connection", Four Courts Press, 2005; Raboy, "Marconi: The Man Who Networked the World", Oxford University Press, 2016, p. 19; "For a Marconian digital archival biography", Fondazione Guglielmo Marconi; "Capugnano (Porretta Terme), Borghetto "Le Croci": casa natale di Giuseppe Marconi", Digital Humanities, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Guglielmo Marconi" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Guglielmo Marconi", 1993; "The Marconi Society, book synopsis – Marc Raboy, The Discovery that Continues to Change the World"; Dunlap, "Marconi, the man and his wireless", Macmillan, 1938, p. 10; Dunlap, "Marconi, the man and his wireless", Macmillan, 1938, p. 10; "Vincenzo Rosa", fgm.it; "The Marconi Society, book synopsis – Marc Raboy, The Discovery that Continues to Change the World" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Guglielmo Marconi" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Laboratorio", Museo Marconi; "Villa Griffone", Fondazione Guglielmo Marconi; Brown, "Great Ideas in Communications", D. White Co., 1969, p. 141 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Guglielmo Marconi" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hong, pp. 20–22; Marconi, "Wireless Telegraphic Communication", Elsevier Publishing Company, 11 December 1909, p. 196–222; "Antenna 1895", Museo Marconi; "Milestones IEEE", Museo Marconi (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Guglielmo Marconi" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Senato della Repubblica "Ferraris Maggiorino"" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Guglielmo Marconi" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Marconi – Marconi History", seas.columbia.edu (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Guglielmo Marconi" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Smulyan, "Wireless: The Life and Death of Guglielmo Marconi", The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, 2017, p. 97–101; "Guglielmo Marconi", University of Bologna (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
"Radio falls silent for death of Marconi", The Guardian, 21 July 1937. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
"Villa Griffone", Fondazione Guglielmo Marconi. facts only, no text reused. fondazioneguglielmomarconi.it

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Guglielmo Marconi (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.