A little over a century ago, the world went wireless. Cables and all their limiting inefficiencies gave way to a revolutionary means of transmitting news and information almost everywhere, instantaneously. By means of "Hertzian waves," as radio waves were initially known, ships could now make contact with other ships (saving lives, such as on the doomed S.S. Titanic); financial markets could coordinate with other financial markets, establishing the price of commodities and fixing exchange rates; military commanders could connect with the front lines, positioning artillery and directing troop movements. Suddenly and irrevocably, time and space telescoped beyond what had been thought imaginable. Someone had not only imagined this networked world but realized it: Guglielmo Marconi. As Marc Raboy shows us in this enthralling and comprehensive biography, Marconi was the first truly global figure in modern communications. Born to an Italian father and an Irish mother, he was in many ways stateless, working his cosmopolitanism to advantage. Through a combination of skill, tenacity, luck, vision, and timing, Marconi popularized--and, more critically, patented--the use of radio waves. Soon after he burst into public view at the age of 22 with a demonstration of his wireless apparatus in London, 1896, he established his Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company and seemed unstoppable. He was decorated by the Czar of Russia, named an Italian Senator, knighted by King George V of England, and awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics--all before the age of 40. Until his death in 1937, Marconi was at the heart of every major innovation in electronic communication, courted by powerful scientific, political, and financial interests. He established stations and transmitters in every corner of the globe, from Newfoundland to Buenos Aires, Hawaii to Saint Petersburg. Based on original research and unpublished archival materials in four countries and several languages, Raboy's book is the first to connect significant parts of Marconi's story, from his early days in Italy, to his groundbreaking experiments, to his protean role in world affairs. Raboy also explores Marconi's relationshps with his wives, mistresses, and children, and examines in unsparing detail the last ten years of the inventor's life, when he returned to Italy and became a pillar of Benito Mussolini's fascist regime. Raboy's engrossing biography, which will stand as the authoritative work of its subject, proves that we still live in the world Marconi created.

Discusses the inventor's life, his early influences, his applications of theories in physics to discover radio, and his contributions to the science of communication

Guglielmo Marconi was a young man fascinated with the recently discovered phenomenon of electricity. Telegraph wires were already being used to send messages with electricity-there was even a cable under the Atlantic Ocean making communication between continents possible. But when Marconi learned about the electromagnetic waves scientists had discovered, he thought that they could be used to send messages without wires. In 1894, when he was 20 years old, Marconi began his experiments in sending messages: first a few feet, next a few yards, then over a mile, and at last across the Atlantic Ocean. Marconi's wireless telegraphy made it possible, for the first time, for ships at sea to communicate with the land and with each other. Marconi's work provided the foundation for the amazing developments in electronic technology that occurred in the 20th century-radio, television, radar, sonar, microwave ovens-and are still occurring at dizzying speed. Book jacket.

A new look at the early history of wireless communication.

The story of how Nikola Tesla and Guglielmo Marconi faced off in a race to invent the radio will have readers at the edge of their seats!

Guglielmo Marconi is one of the most important inventors of the modern age. Prior to Marconi's work, telegraph signals had to be transmitted through electric wires, but in 1895, Marconi successfully sent the first telegraph signals through the air. In 1901, Marconi transmitted the first wireless communication across the Atlantic Ocean. For his groundbreaking work with wireless transmissions, Marconi was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1909. In addition to the development of radio, Marconi would also do pioneering work with short waves and microwaves. Marconi was born in Bologna, Italy. As a child, Marconi demonstrated a strong interest in science. Although he failed the University of Bologna entrance exam, he decided to continue pursuing scientific studies on his own. In addition to the Nobel Prize he later earned, Marconi also won many other honors for his revolutionary work in electronic communication. Book jacket.

The daughter of Guglielmo Marconi draws upon her father's personal journals and letters as well as from scientific and historical records to chronicle the life and profession of the internationally known inventor.

Radio was as much the culmination of the work of a series of scientists in the 19th Century, starting with Faraday, as it was an invention by Marconi. This book aims to illustrate the contributions made by these scientists and show how each was dependent upon the work and ideas of his predecessors; Faraday, Henry, Maxwell, Hughes, Fitzgerald, Hertz, Lodge and Marconi.

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The world at the turn of the twentieth century was in the throes of "Marconi-mania"-brought on by an incredible invention that no one could quite explain, and by a dapper and eccentric figure (who would one day win the newly minted Nobel Prize) at the center of it all. At a time when the telephone, telegraph, and electricity made the whole world wonder just what science would think of next, the startling answer had come in 1896 in the form of two mysterious wooden boxes containing a device one Guglielmo Marconi had rigged up to transmit messages "through the ether." It was the birth of the radio, and no scientist in Europe or America, not even Marconi himself, could at first explain how it worked -- it just did. And no one knew how far these radio waves could travel, until 1903, when a message from President Theodore Roosevelt to the king of England flashed from Cape Cod to Cornwall clear across the Atlantic.Here is a rich portrait of the man and his era-and a captivating tale of science and scientists, business and businessmen. There are stories of British blowhards, American con artists-and Marconi himself: a character par excellence, who eventually winds up a virtual prisoner of his worldwide fame and fortune.