Gugliemo Marconi – 1896
The main achievements of his life and of the scientific and experimental activities of Guglielmo Marconi; the man who ushered in the modern Wireless universe in which we all live.
Guglielmo Marconi is comparable to the mysterious and vital centre of an immense galaxy from which infinite systems of bodies in continuous motion radiate and live together.
Guglielmo Marconi represents the uninterrupted progression of human research in its journey from the past to the future of modern civilization.
The Marconi Magic Box Project, was created for the centenary of the Nobel Prize for Physics awarded to the scientist, from Bologna (Stockholm, 10 December 1909).
A brief summary of Guglielmo Marconi’s life and work, appears below.
Guglielmo Marconi (1874, Bologna; 1937, Roma)
Biographical outline, notes on his scientific and technical activities
1874, April 25
Guglielmo Marconi was born in Bologna; his father was Giuseppe Marconi and his mother, Annie Jameson, was a young Irish Protestant. His mother grew him as a Protestant Christian, teaching him the English language. In a second phase of his life, Guglielmo Marconi was converted to Catholicism.
1880/1894
Guglielmo Marconi did not accomplished regular studies and did not attend the university. He received his education privately at Bologna, Florence and Livorno. The privileged place for his early experiments remains the famous “bug room” at the family estate in today Sasso Marconi. Among his “guardians”, Vincenzo Rosa and Augusto Righi are particularly reported. Especially, Augusto Righi – a scientist and university professor – was publicly thanked and praised by Marconi for his contribution to his education and scientific activity, introducing him almost as “mentor”.
Righi and his laboratory
1894
1895, September
1897, July 2
Guglielmo Marconi received his first patent for the system of wireless telegraphy –British Patent No. 12. 039 Improvements in Transmitting Electrical Impulses and Signals, and in Apparatus therefore, applied on June 2, 1896 – opened in fact, the Wireless Universe and its career as an entrepreneur of Communications.
Patent of 1897 – Diagrams
1897
In this important year, Gugliemo Marconi also founded the company “The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company Limited”, later renamed “Marconi’s Telegraph Company Limited” (1900), in Chelmsford (Essex, England) and made demonstrative transmissions for the Italian government in Rome and La Spezia, coming to transmit signals to a distance of about 30 km.
1898, July
Guglielmo Marconi followed the Sailing Ragattas of Dublin on board a ship and sent the news in real time to the Dublin’s Daily Express, which managed to publish the results before the boats’ return.
1898
Two British ships equipped with Marconi’s radiotelegraphic appliances, exchanged radio signals from 140 Km away.
1898, August
Marconi was commissioned by the Queen Victoria to maintain her residence in the Isle of Wight in connection with the royal yacht cruising in the Channel, on which was the Prince of Wales, injured a leg: in 16 days 150 messages were sent.
1898, Autumn
Guglielmo Marconi duplicated the experiment of sport “commentary” in the United States, that made him very popular.
1900
Guglielmo Marconi ottiene il famoso brevetto 7777 (tuned or syntonic telegraphy) legato al sistema che permette di assegnare determinate frequenze a diverse stazioni radio.
Patent 7777 – Patent and Transmitter
1901, December 12
After successfully transmitted signals from the Island of Wight to the tip of Cornwall (approximately 300 km), Gugliemo Marconi made a transatlantic link of nearly 3400 km, between Poldhu (Cornwall, UK) and St. John’s Newfoundland (Canada), showing empirically that the earth curvature does not affect radio transmissions.
1902
Marconi performed experiments with the detector equipment aboard the armoured cruiser Carlo Alberto, placed at his disposal by the Italian government; the same year he patented the “magnetic detector”, a step towards the “fine tuning” radio.
1902
Conducting experiments aboard the U.S. liner Philadelphia, Guglielmo Marconi first demonstrated the “daylight effect” on radio, until then only theorized by the scientific world, thus contributing to research in different fields.
1903, January 18
Marconi opened the station of Cape Cod, near Boston, with a radio telegram of President Thodore Roosevelt to S.M. King Edward VII of England.
1903, September
During the voyage from England to the United States on board the liner “Lucanian”, Marconi provided the first Press Service between Europe and United States: it began the regular publication of newspapers on board ships crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
1904
Guglielmo Marconi received the honorary degree by the University of Bologna. At the end of his long life and scientific activity, Guglielmo Marconi would have achieved 16 honorary degree from prestigious universities around the world.
1904
The “Daily Telegraph” for the first time received meteorological information by means of wireless. It was the dawn of the meteorological service in real time that today helps to save a large number of human lives and production activities.
1905
Guglielmo Marconi married to Beatrice O’Brien, a Scottish noble, with whom he had four children. The marriage was celebrated with Protestant Christian rite.
1906
First regular radio transmission between Poldhu and Cape Cod.
1907
Guglielmo Marconi established the first radiotelegraph intercontinental service between Europe and United States with an exchange of official messages between the King of England and the Governor of Canada.
1908
The “Marconi’s Wireless Co.” opened to the public the service for the transmission of radio telegrams between the United Kingdom and Canada: the Commercial Application of Wireless was born.
1909, January
The general public was impressed by the providential and essential contribution of the Marconi wireless telegraph in the rescue of more than 2,000 survivors of the steamer Republic sinking, collided with the Italian steamer Florida.
The Republic
1909, December 10
Guglielmo Marconi, along with Ferdinand Braun, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for the following reason:
«in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy»
1910, April
First regular communication between Australia and New Zealand.
1911, February
The ruling in favour of the Marconi Company was issued in the case brought against the “British Radiotelegraph and Telephone Com” for the infringement of patent No. 7777 of 1900. The court decides in favour of the Marconi Company recognizing the validity of his patent: The Worldwide Markets opened to communications.
1911
The radiotelegraphic station in Coltano (Pisa), which would have linked the stations of Ireland, Canada and Massawa was inaugurated in the presence of the King of Italy.
1912, April 15
The transatlantic Titanic sinked. Over 1,000 passengers died, while 700 survivors were rescued by the steamers “Carpathia” and “Olympic”, rushed for the request for assistance launched by the Titanic radio operator. In New York, the public opinion tributes hero and salvator’s honours to Guglielmo Marconi.
Titanic’s radiotelegraphic Cabin
Marconi lost an eye, as a consequence of a car accident near La Spezia.
1914, March
Marconi ran experiments with radio telegraphy apparatus valves in the port of Augusta and he obtained decisive results with radio-telephony on the ship “Regina Elena”.
1914, December
Guglielmo Marconi was elected Senator of the Kingdom of Italy and Knight Grand Cross.
1915
World War I broke out and Guglielmo Marconi volunteered. He was awarded the rank of First Lieutenant of Engineers, but he was then transferred to the dependencies and orders of the Navy.
1915-1918
Guglielmo Marconi offered its contribution to the war effort by assisting the installation of Marconi radio equipment on board ships and – for the first time – planes. Following several incidents during the war in the use of long-wave radio systems, Marconi began the construction of the first short-wave devices in Genoa: This opened a vast horizon in the development of Radio. Here came the creation of the new-wave beam that could solve the problem of multiple and current services at very great distances.
1919, February
Guglielmo Marconi bought the yacht “Rowenska” – luxury boat that had already belonged to Archduke of Austria – renaming it ELECTRA and transforming it into its personal floating laboratory.
Marconi in Elettra’s Radio Lab
1919, June
1919, June 3
1919, June 8
1919, June 15
1922, June 20
1923, June/July
1924, May 30
1924, June
1924, October
1926 – October 21
1927
1927, June 15
1928, January 1
1928, Spring
1929, June 17
1930, March 26
1930, September 19
1931, February 12
1931, October 12
1931, October/November
1932, May
1933, August 2-5
1933, September/October
1934, May 5
1934, Summer
1934
1934, October 28
1935
Guglielmo Maconi made some significant studies on the reflection of microwaves in Rome on the Via Aurelia. From these contributions (and those of other scientists like Christian Hülsmeyer and Nikola Tesla) the British were able to realize the radar.
1937, July 20
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Thanks go to the webmasters at http://www.marconimagicbox.net for providing the information and chronology of Mr Marconi’s life. Please visit their site for much more information.