guglielmo marconi

Guglielmo Marconi

Guglielmo Marconi 1st Marquis of Marconi was an Italian inventor and electrical engineer,
21. Further transmissions
The main area of business for Marconis company was to provide communications systems for ships. With the transatlantic link established more ships took the Marconi system on board. The first commercial installation on a merchant ship was completed in 1900, and by 1902 seventy ships had Marconi systems on board.The initial long distance transmissions had been made using very long wavelengths, typically in excess of 2000 metres. Then in the early 1920s the short wave bands were starting to be exploited. Many professionals including Marconi started to experiment with these bands carrying out many experiments.

With proof that the short wave bands could provide reliable communication over long distances the British Government decided that it needed to install an Imperial Wireless Network. The Marconi Company approached the British Government and offered to link up the Empire with short wave stations in England, Canada, India, South Africa and Australia. As the technology was very new and there was a high risk of failure the Government insisted that Marconi bore all the risk of failure. Once installed the system was very successful, and very reliable.

22. Marconi 7777 patent
One of Marconis most famous inventions was that of tuning. The famous Marconi 7777 patent for Improvements in Apparatus for Wireless Telegraphy was granted on 26 April 1901. It arose out of the need to separate signals from each other because one of the major problems Marconi faced was that of interference between different transmitting stations. Using the concept behind the Marconi 7777 patent tuning of the transmitter, receiver and antenna enabled interference to be considerably reduced.The new invention was based in part on earlier work by Sir Oliver Lodge where Lodge had tuned the sending and receiving aerials. Lodge was unhappy as he felt it infringed his work and litigation followed. However the 7777 patent gave Marconi a significant edge over the competition Using concept of the patent allowed simultaneous transmissions on different frequencies something which was revolutionary in these early days of radio communications.The result was that radio communications stations close to one another were able to operate with reduced levels of interference and as a result ranges could be increased.
23. Magnetic detectors
The coherer had long been used but was a particularly insensitive element within the overall radio communications system. It needed a very large spark discharge to cohere. As a result new forms of detector were investigated and after much work Marconi patented the magnetic detector as an invention.From around 1902 ships that had Marconi radio communications equipment installed on them used the magnetic detector. It provided a higher level of sensitivity, better discrimination of interference, and faster signalling speeds.The magnetic detector had been developed by Marconi from an original experimental detector that had been used by Rutherford in 1985 as part of his radio communications experiments.
24. Marconi business growing pains
The business model Marconi used for his radio communications equipment was to charge a rental fee. This also included the fees for the use of a trained radio operator and the use of the Marconi shore based stations. In this way he did not infringe the monopoly held at that time by the British General Post Office.This arrangement also enabled the company to restrict competition as users with equipment from competitors could not use the shore stations except for emergency communications.With the Marconi company possessing a large number of strategically located stations, this provided a strong incentive for ships to use the Marconi equipment rather than that of a competitor.There was a growing call for international cooperation and legislation in view of the degree of chaos on the radio bands with some operators even deliberately jamming or interfering with the transmissions of others. International agreements were drawn up and it became necessary for all radio communications stations to be licensed by the various countries of origin.

As a result, on 1 January 1905 radio communication within Great Britain came under the control of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1904. All radio communications stations were licensed including the shore stations which were given a licence for eight years.Under the terms of the agreement telegraph messages or Marconigrams could be sent to and from the ships at sea and then relayed through the standard land based telegraph system operated by the British General Post Office or GPO.Ultimately the government owned GPO required that the shore stations were sold to them, and this meant that Marconi had to further improve his commercial offerings.

25. Transmitter improvements
Early transmitter technology used a spark discharge connected to an aerial to provide the signal. Today this seems a particularly crude form of radio communications technology. Marconi had noted that the technology had been in use for a number of years and needed improving to ensure the continued development of the overall radio communications technology.One of the key issues was that once the spark was struck, and remained conductive, the radio frequency energy created by the spark transferred from the spark circuit to the antenna and back many times with much of the RF energy being absorbed in the spark rather than being radiated.In addition to this the signal was very broadband in nature and also gave a very rough sound in the operators headphones.To improve the overall efficiency of these early radio communications transmitters, Marconi invented a system whereby the spark was struck and extinguished in a more controlled manner using a studded disc to vary the length of the spark.

As each stud on the wheel came towards the stationary electrode, the gap narrowed and the spark struck. As it then moved away the length of the spark increased and eventually it extinguished.This development or invention had a number of advantages. Firstly, the signal received by the operator had a far more musical note and was easier to copy. Secondly the extinction of the spark was timed to occur as the reflected power was returned from the aerial circuit. As the oscillations from the spark were unable to return to the now extinguished spark, the oscillations reduced slowly increasing the efficiency and also reducing the signal bandwidth.The result was that Marconi introduced the system onto his transatlantic transmitters in 1907 thereby increasing the reliability, although in reality, messages often needed to be transmitted several times to prevent errors.

26. Marconis father
Marconis father Guiseppe was much older than his mother and in 1904 Guiseppe died.The time when he died was an important time for Guglielme Marconi, and in addition to this the young Marconi was very focussed on his long distance radio communications business that was experiencing difficult times. It took up all of his time and thought because although he was a leader in technology, radio communications was a new area and was only giving a very small return on the huge investments made.As a result, Guglielmo did not attend the funeral in Bologna a decision he much regretted later.
27. Marconi marries
In many ways, Marconi was a very eligible bachelor. Twice he became engaged to American girls while he was on one of his many transatlantic voyages to test out or monitor the progress of his radio communications equipment.When he eventually married, it was on 16 March 1905 to a nineteen year old Irish girl named Beatrice OBrien who was known as Bea for short. Although she was the daughter of late 13th Lord lnchiquin, a descendant of Brian Boru, warrior king of Ireland, the family was poor.Beas family was Anglican (Protestant) and initially disapproved of Marconi because he was not from an aristocratic line, but as he was not a practising Catholic he became accepted, his motherinlaw calling him Marky.Although smitten with Bea, the business pulled him away on many occasions even their honeymoon was curtailed so he could return.
28. Titanic journey narrowly avoided
Marconi was a frequent transatlantic traveller in support of all the transatlantic radio communications links. In view of their status and frequent travel, they had been invited to be guests on the illfated maiden voyage of the new prestige liner.However Marconi himself had to transfer to an earlier sailing to enable him to meet his business commitments leaving Bea to travel on the Titanic.Fortunately at the last moment Bea had to cancel her place because their two and a half year old son was taken ill. Marconi and his wife had four children, three girls and one son. Of these, their first daughter, Luicia only lived a few months. Their other two daughters were named Degna and Gioia, and their son was Vittorio.Despite the fact that Bea frequently travelled with her husband their relationship was on a downward trend. Marconi always put his radio communications business first and this placed a considerable strain on their marriage.
29. Honours and rejections
With the many successes of Marconis radio communications business he received many honours. The greatest of these was in 1909 when he was presented with the Nobel Prize in physics which shared with Karl Ferdinand Braun, who had modified Marconis transmitters to increase their range and practicality.In July 1914, Marconi was honoured in Britain by King George V with the honorary title of Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order. However as war was declared his situation changed considerably. Being an Italian he was treated as an alien because Italy was diplomatically linked to Germany.After a time Marconi was able to move to Rome and as he was now over forty, the minimum age, he was able to take up his seat on the Italian Senate having been appointed as a Senator in the spring of that year.Later when Italy entered the war on the allies side he was able to return to Britain where he served as a radio communications consultant. Initially he was given the rank of Lieutenant, later being promoted to LieutenantCommander in the navy.
30. Marriage breakup and a new start
In 1924 Marconis marriage to Bea broke up. With Marconis devotion to his business, life had never made his marriage easy.Nevertheless a few years after the breakup Marconi married an Italian named Cristina BezziScali. It was not easy to arrange the marriage because Marconi was a divorcee and she was a Catholic. Also around this time, Marconi himself became a Catholic.Then in 1930, a daughter was born to the couple. She was named Elettra and was their only child.