My Father Marconi

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.

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This accessible work provides a detailed picture of the history of one of the most important companies in the electronic industry.

The science and history of what lies between us and space: “I never knew air could be so interesting.” —Bill Bryson, New York Times bestselling author of The Body: A Guide for Occupants A flamboyant Renaissance Italian discovers how heavy our air really is (the air filling Carnegie Hall, for example, weighs seventy thousand pounds). A one-eyed barnstorming pilot finds a set of winds that constantly blow five miles above our heads. An impoverished American farmer figures out why hurricanes move in a circle by carving equations with his pitchfork on a barn door. A well-meaning inventor nearly destroys the ozone layer (he also came up with the idea of putting lead in gasoline). A reclusive mathematical genius predicts, thirty years before he’s proven right, that the sky contains a layer of floating metal fed by the glowing tails of shooting stars. We don’t just live in the air; we live because of it. It’s the most miraculous substance on earth, responsible for our food, our weather, our water, and our ability to hear. In this exuberant book, science writer Gabrielle Walker peels back the layers of our atmosphere with the stories of the people who have uncovered its secrets. “A sense of wonder . . . animates Ms. Walker’s high-spirited narrative and speeds it along like a fresh-blowing westerly.” —The New York Times “A fabulous introduction to the world above our heads.” —Daily Mail on Sunday “A lively history of scientists’ and adventurers’ exploration of this important and complex contributor to life on Earth . . . readers will find this informative book to be a breath of fresh air.” —Publishers Weekly

This book offers a readable narrative of the science and technology of early radio combined with sociological and economic analysis of how radio changed our lives. Originally published in 1985. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

When in 1895 twenty-one-year-old Guglielmo Marconi made his first wireless transmission over land, he became the boy wonder of the world. When subsequently, he made similar transmissions across the Atlantic Ocean, thus proving to the world that his radio-related inventions had immediate and wide-spread applications for all of humanity, young Marconi ushered in the Age of Communication. The life, the works, the character of one of the greatest scientists of this Century, Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of the Radio, are described in this carefully documented, impassioned and deeply involved book by an exceptional witness: his wife Maria Cristina. He was called 'The genius who gave a voice to silence'. Acclaimed by the whole world, the recipient of the most prestigious honours and decorations, he never lost his innate modesty and discretion even at the height of his success.

At age 38, Marconi dominated pre-WWI long distance wireless. The prize: forced divestiture to RCA. Undaunted, he developed new technology that is the basis of today's wireless world.

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.