RadCom April 2024, Vol. 100, No. 4

68 April 2024 Feature G uglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi was born on 25 April 1874 in Bologna Italy and became, from an early age, fascinated by the then novel technology of ‘Hertzian Waves’ and telegraphic communication. Although without a formal education, he was fortunate to have distinguished tutors and access to the academic insights of the day. This, combined with a business background from his mother’s family and the aristocratic inheritance of his father’s, enabled a youthful Marconi to blossom as an entrepreneur in this newly-discovered area of science. In 1896, and aged only twenty-one, he came to London and demonstrated his wireless telegraphic apparatus to the British government and also applied for a patent to protect his rights. In the following year, he founded the Wireless Telegraph and Signals Company thus securing his capitalisation of ‘wireless’ communication as a saleable product. By 1901 Marconi, the ambitious inventor and businessman, had already disproved the leading academics of the day who said that over-the- horizon wireless communication was impossible. Marconi set out to demonstrate that wireless transmission was not limited to short distances and the funding for an experimental station at Poldhu on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall was obtained. Notwithstanding his yet unstated aim of achieving transatlantic communication and despite considerable setbacks in construction, the Poldhu wireless station, together with its ambitious high-power transmitter, was ready to test by the end of 1901. Marconi travelled to North America and on 12 December, despite further travails, received at St Johns Newfoundland the three dots of the Morse code letter ‘S’ which changed forever the way in which the world would communicate. Transatlantic communication Achieving reliable and commercially- exploitable wireless communications between North America and Europe proved difficult. In December 1902 the first message was transmitted from Canada to Poldhu followed in early 1903 by a message from President Roosevelt to King Edward VII. However, for technical reasons, the King’s return greeting was sent by cable. In 1904 a service transmitting daily news bulletins from Poldhu to ships making passage in the North Atlantic was commenced but it was not until 1907 that a reliable telegraph service was established between Clifden in Ireland and Glace Bay in Canada. In 1909 Marconi was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy. However, it was his association with the Titanic disaster on 15 April 1912 which brought Marconi to the forefront of public attention. It was Marconi marine radio operators and Marconi wireless apparatus that transmitted the distress call which notified the RMS Carpathia of the sinking and enabled a rescue to be initiated. Marconi was credited personally with having saved the 706 survivors with his ‘marvellous invention’. Ironically, Marconi had turned down the offer of a free passage on the Titanic for himself and his family and had instead, due to work schedules, travelled across the North Atlantic Ocean on the Lusitania liner only three days earlier. By the time the First World War had been declared Marconi had been made an Italian senator. The British authorities, under the Defence of the Realm Act, took over the station at Poldhu which was used for military communications for the period of the hostilities. When Italy joined the conflict Marconi travelled there with his family and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Italian army in charge of military radio, later rising to the rank of Commander in the Navy. Meanwhile, the Marconi Company, which had also been taken over by the British government, was working hard to equip its military with wireless communication equipment. After the War, Poldhu resumed experiments with beam antennas for the Imperial Wireless Chain – a short-wave system for communication within the British Empire. Marconi turned his attention to telephony, the transmission of speech, and the nascent idea of broadcast radio which was to become the British Broadcasting Company, and in 1926 the subsequent British Broadcasting Corporation. Personal development Marconi had married Beatrice O’Brien, a daughter of the 14th Baron Inchiquin in March 1905 and by 1910 they had two surviving daughters and a son. In 1913 the family had moved to Italy and become part of Rome society with Beatrice becoming a Lady in Waiting to Queen Elena wife of King Victor Emmanuel III. Due to a number of factors, including his commitment to work and frequent absences, Guglielmo’s marriage to Beatrice was not an easy one and, despite attempts to save it, they were divorced in 1924. In 1919 Marconi had purchased a steam yacht had re-named it ‘Elettra’ and converted it into a floating home and laboratory. Marconi continued with his research into wireless propagation over long distances which was still not fully understood. This was the era where the medium of ‘the ether’ was proffered as a convenient explanation. Alongside the research and ocean cruising, many eminent guests were entertained aboard Elettra including statesmen, royalty and nobility. Marconi was a friend and supporter of Benito Mussolini as well as a long-time friend of the Italian King who in 1902 had lent him his royal yacht to continue his propagation experiments from Poldhu. In July 1929 Marconi was made a Marquis and in June 1927 he married Contessa Maria Cristina Bezzi-Scali. He was fifty-three years old and she twenty-six. Their daughter Elettra was born in 1930. Maria Christina’s family had strong ties to the Vatican nobility and Marconi was confirmed into the Catholic faith before the marriage, and his first marriage annulled. He became a devout follower and introduced Pope Pius XI’s first broadcast on Vatican Radio in 1931. Marconi’s 150 th birthday celebration FIGURE 1: Icon derived from a logo used by the Marconi Company PHOTO 1: The Marconi Centre at Poldhu.