Guglielmo Marconi

Guglielmo Marconi was born in Bologna, Italy. His father Giuseppe Marconi was Italian but his mother Annie Jameson came from County Wexford in Ireland.  As a boy he was very interested in physical and electrical science and in 1895 he succeeded in sending wireless signals over a distance of 1.5 miles on his father’s estate at Pontecchio near Bologna.

In 1896 Marconi brought his equipment to England because the Italian government was not interested in his work.  He was introduced to Sir William Preece, who was Chief Engineer at the Post Office.  In the same year he was granted the world’s first patent for a system of wireless telegraphy.  He demonstrated his system successfully in London and on Salisbury Plain.

On 13^th May 1897 Marconi and his assistant George Kemp successfully transmitted long wave wireless messages between Lavernock Point on the coast of South East Wales and Flat Holm Island in the Bristol Channel, a distance of 3 miles. These were the first ever wireless messages to travel over open water.  On 18^th May 1897 they succeeded in transmitting wireless messages from Lavernock Point across the Bristol Channel to Brean Down, a distance of nearly 9 miles.

In July 1897 Marconi formed the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company Limited This was re-named Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company Limited in 1900. 

In 1899 Marconi established wireless communication between France and England across the English Channel. In December 1901, in order to prove that wireless waves are not affected by the curvature of the Earth, Marconi transmitted the first wireless signals across the Atlantic between Poldhu in Cornwall and St. John's in Newfoundland, Canada - a distance of 2100 miles.  In 1907 he opened the world’s first commercial transatlantic wireless telegraph service between Glace Bay in Nova Scotia and Clifden in County Galway, Ireland.

In 1909 Marconi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with German physicist Ferdinand Braun, "in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy".  He served in the Italian Army during the First World War and during this time and afterwards he continued his experiments into short wave wireless communication. In 1923 he successfully conducted trials between Poldu in Cornwall and his yacht Elettra, which was cruising in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea over 1,400 miles away.  This began the development of shortwave wireless communication, which is the basis of most modern long-distance radio communication. In 1924 Marconi’s company obtained a contract from the Post Office to establish shortwave communication between England and the countries of the British Empire.

In the 1930s Marconi conducted experiments in Italy using microwaves and in 1935 he gave a practical demonstration in Italy of the principles of radar.  He died at his home in Rome on 20th July 1937 following a series of heart attacks.

Guglielmo Marconi’s achievements are commemorated by numerous monuments and plaques in various locations around the UK where he lived, worked and conducted experiments.  He has at least 26 roads named after him in Great Britain, including ones in Weston-super-Mare, Portishead, Highbridge and Penarth.

Further Reading:

Marconi: A Biography: W.P. Jolly.  Constable, 1972

My Father, Marconi: Degna Marconi.  Frederick Muller, 1962

Marconi Road, Portishead

Plaque in the Italian Gardens, Weston-super-Mare 

It commemorates Marconi’s achievements in the area in 1897.

Brean Down

Monument on Flat Holm commemorating Marconi's visit in 1897