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Apr 18, 2024 · Guglielmo Marconi altered the course of human history forever when he sent the first radio signal from his home in the Bologna countryside in 1894. Now, 150 years after his birth, his homeland is paying tribute in a big way. “Marconi Days” — a program of concerts, shows and talks — will culminate with a large celebration on the inventor ...
Biography Early years. Marconi was born as Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi in Palazzo Marescalchi in Bologna on 25 April 1874, the second son of Giuseppe Marconi (an Italian aristocratic landowner from Porretta Terme) and his Irish wife Annie Jameson (daughter of Andrew Jameson of Daphne Castle in County Wexford, Ireland, and granddaughter of John Jameson, the Scottish founder of whiskey ...
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- Education and early radio work
Guglielmo Marconi (born April 25, 1874, Bologna, Italy—died July 20, 1937, Rome) Italian physicist and inventor of a successful wireless telegraph, or radio (1896). In 1909 he received the Nobel Prize for Physics, which he shared with German physicist Ferdinand Braun. He later worked on the development of shortwave wireless communication, which con...
Marconi’s father was Italian and his mother Irish. Educated first in Bologna and later in Florence, Marconi then went to the technical school in Leghorn, where, in studying physics, he had every opportunity for investigating electromagnetic wave technique, following the earlier mathematical work of James Clerk Maxwell and the experiments of Heinrich Hertz, who first produced and transmitted radio waves, and Sir Oliver Lodge, who conducted research on lightning and electricity.
In 1894 Marconi began experimenting at his father’s estate near Bologna, using comparatively crude apparatuses: an induction coil for increasing voltages, with a spark discharger controlled by a Morse key at the sending end and a simple coherer (a device designed to detect radio waves) at the receiver. After preliminary experiments over a short distance, he first improved the coherer. Then, by systematic tests, he increased the range of signaling by using a vertical aerial with a metal plate or cylinder at the top of a pole connected to a similar plate on the ground. The range of signaling was thus increased to about 2.4 km (1.5 miles), enough to convince Marconi of the potentialities of this new system of communication. During this period he also conducted simple experiments with reflectors around the aerial to concentrate the radiated electrical energy into a beam instead of spreading it in all directions.
Receiving little encouragement to continue his experiments in Italy, he went in 1896 to London, where he was soon assisted by Sir William Preece, the chief engineer of the post office. Marconi filed his first patent in England in June 1896 and, during that and the following year, gave a series of successful demonstrations, in some of which he used balloons and kites to obtain greater height for his aerials. He was able to send signals over distances of up to 6.4 km (4 miles) on the Salisbury Plain and to nearly 14.5 km (9 miles) across the Bristol Channel. These tests, together with Preece’s lectures on them, attracted considerable publicity both in England and abroad, and in June 1897 Marconi went to La Spezia, where a land station was erected and communication was established with Italian warships at distances of up to 19 km (11.8 miles).
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There remained much skepticism about the useful application of this means of communication and a lack of interest in its exploitation. But Marconi’s cousin Jameson Davis, a practicing engineer, financed his patent and helped in the formation of the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company, Ltd. (changed in 1900 to Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Company, Ltd.). During the first years, the company’s efforts were devoted chiefly to showing the full possibilities of radiotelegraphy. A further step was taken in 1899 when a wireless station was established at South Foreland, England, for communicating with Wimereux in France, a distance of 50 km (31 miles); in the same year, British battleships exchanged messages at 121 km (75 miles).
Apr 2, 2014 · He died in Rome in 1937. Early Life and Education Born on April 25, 1874, in Bologna, Italy, into a wealthy family, and educated largely at home, Guglielmo Marconi possessed a strong interest in ...
Bologna is an important city located in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. A lively city, Bologna is also one of the most attractive cities in Italy, and has the largest medieval centre of any Italian town except Venice, despite substantial damage during WWII. Bologna is less visited than cities such as Florence and Venice, making it ...
He was later promoted to Captain and, in 1916, became a Commander in the Navy. In 1919, he received the Italian Military Medal for his war service. His systems had gradually made their way into the workings of the military. Meanwhile he continued to experiment, opening the world’s first microwave radiotelephone link in 1932.
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May 4, 2024 · Bologna, city, capital of Emilia-Romagna region, in northern Italy, north of Florence, between the Reno and Savena rivers. It lies at the northern foot of the Apennines, on the ancient Via Aemilia, 180 ft (55 metres) above sea level. Originally the Etruscan Felsina, it was occupied by the Gallic.
