Today, when Marconi hopefully emerges once again into a great company, we might want to recognize its namesake. Guglielmo Marconi became the inventor of the first practical system of wireless telegraphy. He developed the short wave wireless communication that constitutes the basis of al modern long-distance radio. Over time, the telephone and email have replaced the telegraph. However, for some fifty years, the telegraphy was the dominant form of long distance communication.

 

In 1895, Marconi began laboratory experiments at his father’s country estate at Pontecchio where he succeeded in sending wireless signals over a distance of one and half-miles; thus, becoming the investor of the first practical system of wireless telegraphy. He was awarded the world’s first patent of a system of wireless telegraphy.

 

In 1907 he founded the Wireless Telegraphy Company, later renamed Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Company.  

 

In 1900 he took out his famous patent No. 7777 for “ tuned or syntonic telegraphy” and on an historic day in December 1901, he proved that wireless waves were not affected by the curvature of the Earth. He used his system for transmitting the first wireless signals across the Atlantic between Poldhu, Cornwall, and St. John’s Newfoundland, a distance of 2100 miles.

 

Between 1902, he patented his magnetic detector, which then became the standard wireless receiver for many years. He started the first commercial transatlantic service between Europe and the United States.

 

In 1909 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his pioneering work.

 

During World War II, he contributed significant efforts for the Allies. In 1919 he was one of Italy’s representatives to Versailles. 

 

Continuing his work with electricity, Marconi created in 1932 the first microwave radiotelephone link between the Vatican City and the Pope’s summer residence at Castel Gandolfo.

 

In an interview with his daughter on the hundredth anniversary of the first transatlantic radio telegraph with Princess Elettra Elena Marconi, she spoke about her father. She said that he was a most attentive man who always wanted to know her reactions to new events. She made a dubious claim “ that he extracted gold from the sea.” In order to support my own daughters in the style that they desire, I might need to resort to this invention.

 

He died in Rome on July 20,1937.