Guglielmo Marconi

Profession: Inventor and Nobel Laureate

Nationality:

Biography: Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor and electrical engineer. He is recognized for creating a practical radio wave-based wireless telegraph system, leading to his acknowledgment as the inventor of radio. Marconi shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun for their contributions to wireless telegraphy.

Marconi was born into the Italian nobility, the second son of Giuseppe Marconi, an Italian aristocrat, and Annie Jameson, an Irishwoman. He did not attend formal schooling but was educated at home by private tutors. Among his influential mentors was the physicist Augusto Righi.

Interested in science and electricity from a young age, Marconi began working on wireless telegraphy in the early 1890s. He built on Heinrich Hertz's work on electromagnetic radiation, later known as radio waves. Marconi's experiments culminated in a breakthrough in 1895 when he discovered that increasing the height of his antenna extended the transmission range of his system.

In 1897, Marconi founded The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company in the United Kingdom. His work gained international attention, and he conducted numerous demonstrations, including a notable transmission over the Bristol Channel in 1897. Marconi continued to enhance his system, achieving a transmission across the English Channel in 1899.

Marconi's most significant achievement came in 1901 when he claimed to have received a transatlantic radio signal in Newfoundland, Canada, sent from Cornwall, England. This feat was met with some skepticism but marked a pivotal moment in long-distance wireless communication.

Marconi was ennobled as a Marchese by the Italian king in 1929 and set up Vatican Radio for Pope Pius XI in 1931. He was also actively involved in applying radio technology during World War I.

Marconi's personal life included marriage to Beatrice O'Brien in 1905 and later to Maria Cristina Bezzi-Scali in 1927. He had four children with Beatrice and one with Maria Cristina.

Born: April 25, 1874
Birthplace: Bologna, Italy
Star Sign: Taurus

Died: July 20, 1937 (aged 63)
Cause of Death: Heart attack