Guglielmo Marconi is an electrical engineer known throughout the world for his inventions in the field of wireless communications. Marconi transmitters have become a real breakthrough in telegraphy and navigation, and also became the prototype of modern signaling.

Guglielmo Marconi was born in Bologna (Italy) on April 25, 1874. His father - Giuseppe Marconi - was a landowner and Italian by nationality. Mother - Annie Jameson - Irish. Guglielmo also had an older brother.

First, Guglielmo was educated at home. He studied with teachers in his hometown and also in Florence. In 1887, the boy moved to Livorno, where he entered a technical school. Here he got his hands on the works of Heinrich Hertz and Nikola Tesla. They aroused in Marconi a serious interest in physics, in particular, in methods of transmitting electromagnetic signals over a distance.

In 1894, Marconi managed to find a mentor for himself. The renowned Italian scientist, professor of physics Augusto Riga, who was dealing with the theory of electricity, became him. The young man enthusiastically studies the works of his teacher and other luminaries of science of that time: Maxwell, Branly and Lodge.

In 1895, Marconi went from theory to practice, trying to use Hertz waves to transmit signals over long distances. At his father's estate, he is trying to create a kind of analogue of modern signaling. To do this, he used a Hertz vibrator and a Branly coherer, which caught Hertz's waves and turned them into an electric current. With their help, the young scientist managed to transmit an impulse to the bell located on the other side of the estate.

With the results of his experiment, Marconi went to the Ministry of Post and Telegraph, where he proposed using a similar system for wireless communication. At that time, the works of the scientist were not appreciated, and he was refused.

The first failure did not stop Marconi's scientific experiments, but only intensified their intensity. The scientist decided to improve the previously used coherer. For this, he included a telegraph key in the transmitter circuit, and grounded Hertz's vibrator and connected it to a thin metal plate located at a high altitude. This makeshift antenna increased the transmission range to 1.5 miles.

Desperate to receive the well-deserved dividends from the Italian government, in 1896 Marconi went to Great Britain. Here, with the help of a cousin, he obtained a patent for his wireless device. Immediately after that, he clearly demonstrated his work, transmitting signals from the post office building in London at a distance of up to 1.5 km.

The demonstration did not go unnoticed - the young scientist was noticed by the famous physicist V. Pryce, who, concurrently, was the director of the British Telegraph. He helped Marconi improve his invention and file a second patent application, which dates from June 2, 1896. Like the first time, it was not without a demonstration performance - Marconi transmitted a 3 km radiogram in the Salisbury Valley.

At the same time, Marconi receives a summons to the army from the Italian government, according to which he must serve in his homeland for three years. The scientist miraculously managed to avoid moving, getting a job as a cadet at the naval school, which was opened at the Italian embassy.

Remaining in London, Marconi continued to perfect his invention and in 1897 his signals crossed the Bristol Bay, which meant an extension of the distance to 9 miles. In July of the same year, the scientist managed to find a use for his "brainchild" - it was decided to use the Marconi device for communication between land-based and floating lighthouses along the entire coast of England. For the production and distribution of his devices, Marconi, together with several contributors, organized a joint stock company called "Marconi K °".

In October 1897, the remote response of the device was expanded to 21 km. In November, under the leadership of Marconi, a radio station was built on the Isle of Wight, which made it possible to connect it to the mainland. The distance between them is 23 km. The next step was the transmission of the signal across the English Channel (28 miles). To do this, Marconi needed powerful antennas, each of which reached a height of 150 feet.

In 1898, taking advantage of the work of Oliver Lodge and Ferdinand Brown, Marconi upgraded his transmitter to include a tuning coil and capacitor. Thanks to these innovations, the scientist practically eliminated signal attenuation and increased its energy many times over. In addition, it became possible to more accurately tune the device to a certain vibration frequency, ignoring the signals of all other antennas. This version of the device was patented by Marconi in 1900.

At the end of 1900, the range of Marconi's transmitter was already 150 miles, and in 1901 - 186. This made it possible to provide wireless communication between many settlements in England. By the end of the year, using Morse code, the message was transmitted from Cornwall to the island of New Foundland. The signal crossed the Atlantic Ocean, which was 2,100 miles.

In 1905, Marconi patented directional signal transmission, and two years later founded the first transatlantic wireless communications service of its kind.

In the same year, Marconi married an Irish woman, Beatrice O'Brien. They had three children in the marriage.

For his discoveries in 1909, Marconi received the Nobel Prize. Together with him, Ferdinand Braun was awarded the high award. The main merit of Marconi was not so much the development of wireless communication as the creation of a compact, easy-to-use transmitter model.

In 1914, Marconi became a senator and received the title of Marquis.

During the First World War, Marconi's designs were used for the needs of the Italian armed forces. He personally directed the telegraphy program and carried out a number of other military missions. As a result, he was awarded the title of Commander of the Navy.

Since 1921, the scientist spent most of his time on his own steam yacht - "Electra". On it he equipped a modern laboratory, where he conducted research in the field of short-wave telegraphy. Six years of scientific experimentation allowed Marconi to create an international shortwave telegraph network.

In 1923, Marconi joined the Fascist Party, and in 1930, with the support of Benito Mussolini, became the head of the Royal Academy of Italy and a member of the Fascist Grand Council.

In 1924, Marconi divorced his first wife and, three years later, married the Countess of Bezzi-Scali. Soon they had a daughter.

The next stage in Marconi's scientific career was the study of microwaves. In 1931 he investigated their transmission and, a year later, used them for radiotelephone communications. In 1934, microwave communications began to be used for navigation at sea.

Marconi died in Rome on July 20, 1937 under rather strange circumstances. Some scientists and biographers still believe that his death was only a talented performance. There is an assumption that after his demonstrative death, Marconi went to the forests of Venezuela, where he organized a secret laboratory together with other prominent scientists.

Such a turn of events is quite possible, given Marconi's craving for unearthly civilizations and attempts to establish a connection with the afterlife. According to some reports, Marconi more than once tried to get in touch with an unearthly mind and even create a new high-tech civilization. Nuggets of information obtained during the investigation of his disappearance indicate that it is possible the existence of a whole underground city, in which not only Marconi conducted secret research, but also about 100 other scientists of that time.

An airport in Bologna was named posthumously in honor of Marconi, a commemorative postage stamp and a 2-pound coin were issued.

The son of a large landowner from Bologna, Guglielmo Marconi was interested in radio technology from childhood. Apparently, he was a child prodigy, so at the age of 13 he already became a student at a technical institute in Livorno. Reading the works of Heinrich Hertz and Nikola Tesla, the young man tried to independently conduct experiments to establish communication using electromagnetic waves. The experiments were crowned with success: in 1895, 21-year-old Marconi was the first to transmit a wireless signal over a three-kilometer distance. After that, the young man applied to the Ministry of Post and Telegraph with a proposal to use wireless communication. But there he was brushed aside.

Then Guglielmo decided to leave for the UK. It was 1896. The young radio technician demonstrated the work of his apparatus to the specialists by sending a signal through the Morse code from the roof of the London post office to another building located one and a half kilometers from the post office. This time Marconi was more fortunate. The invention interested the then director of the British Post and Telegraph V.G. Pris, and he offered cooperation to the young inventor.

On September 2, 1896, Marconi's invention was first demonstrated to the general public. The experiment took place on the Salisbury Plain. The transmitter was a modified Hertz generator, and the receiver was an improved Popov device. This time the radiogram was transmitted over a distance of three kilometers.

In July 1897, Marconi finally succeeded in patenting his invention. In addition, he created the joint stock company "Marconi & Co." The company's shares were acquired by many prominent scientists and engineers of the time. That summer, Guglielmo and his team were able to transmit radio signals across the Bay of Bristol over a distance of 14 kilometers. In October, the signal was transmitted over a distance of 21 kilometers. In November of the same year, the first fixed radio station appeared on the Isle of Wight, which maintained communication with the mainland at a distance of 23 kilometers.

In 1900, Marconi patented a radio tuning system. Soon the first wireless telegraph office was opened in Chelmsford.

In December 1901, the radio signal crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the first time, and by the end of 1902 regular transatlantic radio communications were established. In 1905, Marconi and his colleagues received a patent for directional communications.

On this Marconi did not rest. In 1932, he was able to establish microwave radiotelephone communication for the first time, and in 1934 he demonstrated how it can be used for navigation on the high seas.

Marconi Guglielmo- a famous scientist, inventor of radio (regardless of Popova). For the creation of radio Guglielmo Marconi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics (together with Alexander Stepanovich Popov).

Detailed biography

Guglielmo Marconi was born on April 25, 1874 in Bologna (Italy). Guglielmo's father was a landowner Giuseppe Marconi, and his mother - Annie Marconi (Jameson) from Ireland. As a child, Guglielmo Marconi studied with home teachers in Bologna and Florence, then entered the technical school in Livorno. At the age of 20, Marconi took up physics, especially the study of electricity.

In 1894, Guillelmo Marconi learned about the experiments of Henry Hertz (a spark between two metal balls caused periodic oscillations called Hertz waves). He decided to use this effect for a wireless telegraph, to which he devoted his whole life. After consulting with Augusto Rigi Marconi tried using a vibrator Hertz as transmitter and coherer Branly as a receiver. With the help of these devices and an electric bell on the other side of the lawn, Marconi was able to transmit the signal. By the middle of 1895, Guglielmo Marconi connected a telegraph key to the circuit and created a more sensitive coherer (by grounding the vibrator and connecting one of its ends to a metal plate located high above the ground, that is, Marconi made the simplest antenna). With this system, Guglielmo Marconi was able to transmit a signal over a distance of 1.5 miles. The Italian government showed little interest in Marconi's invention, so he traveled to England, where in 1896 (with the help of Henry's cousin James Davis) he filed his first patent application for an invention in the field of radiotelegraphy. In September 1896, Marconi improved his system and was able to transmit the signal over a distance of about two miles. When the Italian government drafted Marconi into military service, he was able to secure himself a formal passage of service, numbered as the curator of the naval school at the Italian embassy in London.

In May 1897, Guglielmo Marconi succeeded in transmitting a message over a distance of 9 miles, across the Bay of Bristol. In July 1897, Marconi founded the Wireless Telegraph and Signals Company, which installed devices on floating and land-based lighthouses along the coast of England. Guglielmo Marconi found that the transmission range is proportional to the length and number of antennas. Therefore, to transmit information across the English Channel (28 miles), Marconi used several antennas 150 feet (about 50 meters) high. In 1900, Marconi took advantage of Ferdinand Brown's discovery and incorporated a capacitor and a tuning coil (oscillating circuit) into the transmitter. This made it possible to amplify the signal energy. And because he included the tuning coil in the receiver, he was able to get several sets of transmitters / receivers working in close proximity to each other. He received a patent for this in April 1900. This patent granted Guglielmo Marconi a moopoly on the use of tuned transmitters and receivers. Around this time, the Marconi company was renamed the Marconi Wireless Telegraphy Company. By the end of 1900, Guglielmo Marconi had managed to increase the signal transmission range to 150 miles.

In January 1901, Marconi made wireless contact 186 miles away. By the end of 1901, Marconi was able to receive a signal transmitted from Cornwall (UK) across the Atlantic Ocean to St. John (on the island of New Foundland), at a distance of 2,199 miles. In 1905, Marconi received a patent for directional signal transmission. In 1905, Guglielmo Marconi married Beatrice O'Brien... They had three children. In 1907, Marconi opened the first transatlantic wireless communications service. Guglielmo Marconi and Ferdinand Brown received the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1909 "in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy." In 1912, the inventor received a patent for "an improved time-controlled spark system for generating transmitted waves." During the First World War, Marconi was involved in the use of wireless telegraph for the needs of the Italian armed forces. In 1919, Marconi became a plenipotentiary Of Italy at the Paris Peace Conference. The scientist signed contracts with Austria and Bulgaria on behalf of Italy. In 1921, Marconi began researching shortwave telegraphy (on his steam yacht " Elettru»).

In 1924, Gode Marconi divorced his wife, and three years later entered into a second marriage, with the Countess Bezzi Scali... They had a daughter. In 1927, the Marconi firm launched an international commercial shortwave telegraph network. In 1931, Guglielmo Marconi investigated the transmission of microwaves. In 1932, the inventor established the first microwave radiotelephone communication. In 1934, Marconi demonstrated the use of microwave telegraphy for navigation on the high seas. July 20, 1937 Guglielmo Marconi died in Rome.

Marconi was awarded a medal Franklin(Franklin Institute) and the Albert Medal (Royal Society of Arts in London), awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown Of Italy... In Italy, Gulelmo Marconi received the hereditary title of marquis and was a senator.

(1874 - 1937)

Italian electrical engineer and inventor Guglielmo Marconi was born on April 25, 1874 in Bologna to the family of a landowner. Before entering the technical school in Livorno, Marconi was educated at home. At the age of 20, he became fascinated with physics. Influenced by the works of G. Hertz and A. Richi on electromagnetic waves, he conducts experiments in this area and designs wireless telegraph devices.

1896 Marconi moved to England hoping to find funds there to continue research and commercialize his invention, as the Italian government did not show proper interest. Marconi submitted a patent application for an invention in the field of radiotelegraphy and in 1897 received a patent for the use of electromagnetic waves for wireless communication (the Russian inventor of radio O. Popov did not patent his discovery). The scheme of the Marconi's receiver was the same as the scheme of the receiver of O. Popov.

In May 1897, Marconi transmitted signals across the Bay of Bristol over a distance of 9 miles.

In 1900, relying on the discovery of Ferdinand Brown, Marconi incorporated a capacitor and a tuning coil into his transmitter, which increased the signal energy. At the same time, he also improved the signal reception by adding a tuning coil to the receiver, as a result of which only the oscillations of the transmitter come from the received signal to the receiver. 1900 Marconi received patent No. 7777, which secured him a monopoly on the use of tuned transmitters and receivers.

1901 Marconi made radio communications across the Atlantic Ocean. The signal traveled 2,100 miles. 1905 Marconi took out a patent for directional signal transmission.

In 1907 he opened the first transatlantic wireless communications service, and in 1912 received a patent for an improved time-controlled spark system for generating transmitted waves.

1909 Marconi and Brown were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy."

During the First World War, Marconi commanded the navy, directed the telegraphy program for the needs of the Italian armed forces.

1919 Marconi was the plenipotentiary representative of Italy at the Paris Peace Conference, signed an agreement with Austria and Bulgaria.

1921 Marconi began intensive research on shortwave telegraphy.

1932 Marconi established the first microwave radiotelephone communication, and 1934 demonstrated the possibility of using microwave telegraphy for navigation on the high seas.

1905 Marconi married Irish woman Beatrice Obrayan. They had three children. Three years after the break of the marriage in 1924, Marconi remarried with Countess Beatty-Scali, who bore him a daughter. Marconi died on July 20, 1937 in Rome.