Editing Guglielmo Marconi (section)

==Biography==
===Early years===
Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QA0oAQAAIAAJ|title=Atti della Accademia di scienze, lettere e arti di Palermo: Scienze|publisher=Presso l'accademia|year=1974|page=11|issn=0365-6322|oclc=4272244}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{cite web|url=https://antenati.cultura.gov.it/ark:/12657/an_ua35877952/Lynox99|title=Marconi Birth Certificate}}</ref> was born in [[Palazzo Dall'Armi Marescalchi, Bologna|Palazzo Marescalchi]] in [[Bologna]] on 25 April 1874, the second son of Giuseppe Marconi (an [[Italians|Italian]] aristocratic landowner from [[Porretta Terme]] who lived in the countryside of [[Sasso Marconi|Pontecchio]]) and his [[Irish people|Irish]] wife Annie Jameson (daughter of Andrew Jameson of Daphne Castle in [[County Wexford]], a land agent, and wife Margaret, daughter of James Cochrane of Glen Lodge, [[Sligo]], and sister of [[Scottish people|Scottish]] [[naturalist]] [[James Sligo Jameson]], and granddaughter of John Jameson of [[Dublin]], the [[Scottish people|Scottish]] founder of [[whiskey]] distillers [[Jameson Irish Whiskey|Jameson & Sons]]).<ref>{{cite book|last=Sexton|first=Michael|year=2005|title=Marconi: the Irish connection|publisher=Four Courts Press|isbn=9781851828418}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Raboy|first=Marc|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RqVHDAAAQBAJ&q=marconi+Marescalchi&pg=PA19|title=Marconi: The Man Who Networked the World|page=19|place=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2016|isbn=9780199313587|via=Google Books}}</ref> His father, who was a widower with a son, Luigi, married Jameson on 16 April 1864 in [[Boulogne-sur-Mer]], France. Alfonso, Marconi's older brother, was born in 1865. Between the ages of two and six, Marconi and Alfonso lived with their mother in the English town of [[Bedford]]. Having an Irish mother helped explain Marconi's many activities in [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Great Britain and Ireland]]. When Guglielmo was three years old, on 4 May 1877, Giuseppe Marconi decided to obtain British citizenship. Marconi could have thus also opted for British citizenship anytime, as both his parents had British citizenship.<ref>{{cite web |title=Guglielmo Marconi |url=https://www.biography.com/inventors/guglielmo-marconi |website=Biography |date=22 January 2021 |publisher=A&E Television Networks}}</ref>

===Education===
Marconi did not attend school as a child and did not go on to formal higher education.<ref>
{{cite encyclopedia
|editor-first=Robert
|editor-last=McHenry
|editor-link=Robert McHenry
|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica
|title=Guglielmo Marconi
|year=1993
}}
</ref><ref name="marconisociety.org">{{Cite web|url=http://marconisociety.org/marconi-biography/|title=The Marconi Society, book synopsis – Marc Raboy, The Discovery that Continues to Change the World|access-date=13 September 2018|archive-date=3 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191003014822/http://marconisociety.org/marconi-biography/|url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Dunlap, Orrin Elmer 1937, page 10">{{cite book|isbn=9780343022693|last=Dunlap|first=Orrin Elmer|title=Marconi, the man and his wireless|publisher=Macmillan|year=1937|page=10}}</ref> Instead, he learned chemistry, mathematics, and physics at home from a series of private tutors hired by his parents. His family hired additional tutors for Marconi in the winter when they would leave Bologna for the warmer climate of [[Tuscany]] or [[Florence]].<ref name="Dunlap, Orrin Elmer 1937, page 10"/> Marconi noted an important mentor was professor Vincenzo Rosa, a high school physics teacher in [[Livorno]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.fgm.it/en/marconi-en/profiles/vincenzo-rosa.html|title=Vincenzo Rosa|website=fgm.it}}</ref><ref name="marconisociety.org"/> Rosa taught the 17-year-old Marconi the basics of physical phenomena as well as new theories on electricity. At the age of 18 and back in Bologna, Marconi became acquainted with [[University of Bologna]] physicist [[Augusto Righi]], who had done research on [[Heinrich Hertz]]'s work. Righi permitted Marconi to attend lectures at the university and also to use the university's laboratory and library.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.scienzagiovane.unibo.it/English/scientists/marconi-1.html|title=Guglielmo Marconi|first1=Fabrizio|last1=Bònoli|first2=Giorgio|last2=Dragoni|website=Scienzagiovane.unibo.it|access-date=10 June 2016}}</ref><ref name = Sakalis>{{Cite news|url=https://www.italymagazine.com/featured-story/bologna-celebrates-150-years-guglielmo-marconi-and-his-global-legacy|title=
Bologna Celebrates 150 Years of Guglielmo Marconi and His Global Legacy|last=Sakalis|first=Alex|date=18 April 2024|work=Italy Magazine|access-date=25 March 2025}}</ref>

===Radio work===
From youth, Marconi was interested in science and electricity. In the early 1890s, he began working on the idea of "[[wireless telegraphy]]" – i.e., the transmission of telegraph messages without connecting wires as used by the [[electric telegraph]]. This was not a new idea; numerous investigators and inventors had been exploring wireless telegraph technologies and even building systems using electric [[Electrical resistivity and conductivity|conduction]], [[electromagnetic induction]] and optical (light) signalling for over 50 years, but none had proved technically and commercially successful. A relatively new development came from [[Heinrich Hertz]], who, in 1888, demonstrated that one could produce and detect [[electromagnetic radiation]], based on the work of [[James Clerk Maxwell]]. At the time, this radiation was commonly called "Hertzian" waves, and is now generally referred to as [[radio waves]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://earlyradiohistory.us/sec022.htm|title=22. Word Origins|work=earlyradiohistory.us}}</ref>

There was a great deal of interest in radio waves in the physics community, but this interest was in the scientific phenomenon, not in its potential as a communication method. Physicists generally looked on radio waves as an invisible form of light that could only travel along a [[Line-of-sight propagation|line of sight]] path, limiting its range to the visual horizon like existing forms of visual signalling.<ref>{{cite book|last=Regal|first=Brian|year=2005|title=Radio: The Life Story of a Technology|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|page=22|isbn=0313331677}}</ref> Hertz's death in 1894 brought published reviews of his earlier discoveries including a demonstration on the transmission and detection of radio waves by the British physicist [[Oliver Lodge]] and an article about Hertz's work by [[Augusto Righi]]. Righi's article renewed Marconi's interest in developing a wireless telegraphy system based on radio waves,<ref>[[#Hong|Hong]], p. 19</ref> a line of inquiry that Marconi noted other inventors did not seem to be pursuing.<ref name="ABC-CLIO">{{cite book|title=Icons of Invention: The Makers of the Modern World from Gutenberg to Gates|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WKuG-VIwID8C&pg=PA162|year=2009|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-34743-6|page=162}}</ref>

====Developing radio telegraphy====
[[File:Marconi's first radio transmitter.jpg|thumb|Marconi's first transmitter incorporating a [[monopole antenna]]. It consisted of an elevated copper sheet ''(top)'' connected to a Righi spark gap ''(left)'' powered by an [[induction coil]] ''(centre)'' with a [[telegraph key]] ''(right)'' to switch it on and off to spell out text messages in [[Morse code]].]]

At the age of 20, Marconi began to conduct experiments in radio waves, building much of his own equipment in the attic of his home at the Villa Griffone in Pontecchio (now an administrative subdivision of [[Sasso Marconi]]), Italy, with the help of his butler, Mignani. Marconi built on Hertz's original experiments and, at the suggestion of Righi, began using a [[coherer]], an early detector based on the 1890 findings of French physicist [[Édouard Branly]] and used in Lodge's experiments, that [[Electrical resistance and conductance|changed resistance]] when exposed to radio waves.<ref name="Brown141">{{cite book|last=Brown|first=Antony|title=Great Ideas in Communications|publisher=D. White Co.|year=1969|page=141}}</ref> In the summer of 1894, he built a storm alarm made up of a battery, a coherer, and an electric bell, which went off when it picked up the radio waves generated by lightning.

Late one night, in December 1894, Marconi demonstrated a radio transmitter and receiver to his mother, a set-up that made a bell ring on the other side of the room by pushing a telegraphic button on a bench.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.radiomarconi.com/marconi/xmarconi.html|title=Guglielmo Marconi, padre della radio|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130602093434/http://www.radiomarconi.com/marconi/xmarconi.html|archive-date=2 June 2013|website=Radiomarconi.com|url-status=usurped|access-date=12 July 2012}}</ref><ref name="Brown141"/> Supported by his father, Marconi continued to read through the literature and picked up on the ideas of physicists who were experimenting with radio waves. He developed devices, such as portable transmitters and receiver systems, that could work over long distances,<ref name="ABC-CLIO"/> turning what was essentially a laboratory experiment into a useful communication system.<ref>[[#Hong|Hong]], p. 22</ref> Marconi came up with a functional system with many components:<ref>Marconi delineated his 1895 apparatus in his Nobel Award speech. See: Marconi, "[http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1909/marconi-lecture.html Wireless Telegraphic Communication: Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1909.]" Nobel Lectures. Physics 1901–1921. Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing Company, 1967: 196–222. p. 198.</ref>
* A relatively simple [[oscillator]] or [[spark-gap transmitter|spark-producing]] radio transmitter;
* A [[wire]] or metal sheet capacity area suspended at a height above the ground;
* A [[coherer]] receiver, which was a modification of [[Édouard Branly]]'s original device with refinements to increase sensitivity and reliability;
* A [[telegraph key]] to operate the transmitter to send short and long pulses, corresponding to the dots-and-dashes of [[Morse code]]; and
* A telegraph register activated by the [[coherer]] which recorded the received [[Morse code]] dots and dashes onto a roll of paper tape.

In the summer of 1895, Marconi moved his experiments outdoors on his father's estate in Bologna. He tried different arrangements and shapes of antenna but even with improvements he was able to transmit signals only up to one half-mile, a distance Oliver Lodge had predicted in 1894 as the maximum transmission distance for radio waves.<ref>[[#Hong|Hong]], p. 6</ref>

====Transmission breakthrough====

A breakthrough came in the summer of 1895, when Marconi found that a much greater range could be achieved after he raised the height of his antenna and, borrowing from a technique used in wired telegraphy, [[Ground (electricity)|grounded]] his transmitter and receiver. With these improvements, the system was capable of transmitting signals up to {{Convert|2|mi}} and over hills.<ref>[[#Hong|Hong]], pp. 20–22</ref><ref>{{cite speech|last=Marconi|first=Guglielmo|title=Wireless Telegraphic Communication|event=Nobel Lecture|date=11 December 1909|location=Amsterdam|publisher=Elsevier Publishing Company|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1909/marconi-lecture.html|pages=196–222}}</ref> The [[monopole antenna]] reduced the frequency of the waves compared to the [[dipole antenna]]s used by Hertz, and radiated [[vertical polarization|vertically polarized]] radio waves which could travel longer distances. By this point, he concluded that a device could become capable of spanning greater distances, with additional funding and research, and would prove valuable both commercially and militarily. Marconi's experimental apparatus proved to be the first engineering-complete, commercially successful [[radio transmission]] system.<ref name="SaturdayThompson">The Saturday review of politics, literature, science and art, Vol. 93. "[https://books.google.com/books?id=gHVHAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA556 The Inventor of Wireless Telegraphy: A Reply. To the Editor of the Saturday Review]" Guglielmo Marconi and "[https://books.google.com/books?id=gHVHAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA598 Wireless Telegraphy: A Rejoinder. To the Editor of the Saturday Review]," [[Silvanus P. Thompson]].</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.radiomarconi.com/marconi/stravolgimento1.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120907033444/http://www.radiomarconi.com/marconi/stravolgimento1.html|url-status=usurped|archive-date=7 September 2012|title=Narconi e Lo Stravolgimenti Della Verità Storica Sulla Opera|author=Gualandi, Lodovico|date=26 June 2000|work=radiomarconi.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Wireless Telegraphy|last=Marconi|first=G|journal=Proceedings of the Institution of Electrical Engineers|volume=28|issue=139|publisher=Institution of Electrical Engineers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-ZYZAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA294|page=294|date=March 1899}}</ref>

Marconi applied to the Italian Ministry of Post and Telegraphs, then under the direction of Maggiorino Ferraris,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://notes9.senato.it/Web/senregno.NSF/d7aba38662bfb3b8c125785e003c4334/fdbbeb0aa5d227f44125646f005baf3f?OpenDocument |title=Senato della Repubblica "Ferraris Maggiorino" |access-date=2 April 2022 |archive-date=3 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231003023704/https://notes9.senato.it/Web/senregno.NSF/d7aba38662bfb3b8c125785e003c4334/fdbbeb0aa5d227f44125646f005baf3f?OpenDocument |url-status=dead }}</ref> explaining his wireless telegraph machine and asking for funding, but never received a response. An apocryphal tale claims that the minister (incorrectly named first as Emilio Sineo, later as Pietro Lacava<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.icsm.it/articoli/ri/marconisiluro.html#1|last=Finizio|first=Giuseppe|title=Guglielmo Marconi and the radio-guided torpedo|date=29 January 2024 }}</ref>) wrote "to the Longara" on the document, referring to the insane asylum on Via della Lungara in Rome, but the letter was never found.<ref>Solari, Luigi (February 1948) "Guglielmo Marconi e la Marina Militare Italiana", ''Rivista Marittima''</ref>

In 1896, Marconi spoke with his family friend Carlo Gardini, Honorary Consul at the United States Consulate in Bologna, about leaving Italy to go to [[Great Britain]]. Gardini wrote a letter of introduction to the Ambassador of Italy in London, Annibale Ferrero, explaining who Marconi was and about his extraordinary discoveries. In his response, Ambassador Ferrero advised them not to reveal Marconi's results until after a patent was obtained. He also encouraged Marconi to come to Britain, where he believed it would be easier to find the necessary funds to convert his experiments into practical use. Finding little interest or appreciation for his work in Italy, Marconi travelled to [[London]] in early 1896 at the age of 21, accompanied by his mother, to seek support for his work. (He spoke fluent English in addition to Italian.) Marconi arrived at [[Dover]], and the Customs officer opened his case to find various apparatuses. The customs officer immediately contacted [[Admiralty (United Kingdom)|the Admiralty]] in London. With worries in the UK about Italian anarchists and suspicion Marconi was importing a bomb, his equipment was destroyed.

While in the UK, Marconi gained the interest and support of [[William Preece]], the Chief Electrical Engineer of the [[General Post Office]] (the GPO). Marconi applied for a patent on 2 June 1896. British Patent number 12039 titled "Improvements in Transmitting Electrical impulses and Signals, and in Apparatus therefor", which became the first patent for a communication system based on radio waves.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.seas.columbia.edu/marconi/history.html|title=Marconi – Marconi History|website=seas.columbia.edu}}</ref>

====Demonstrations and achievements====
{{more citations needed section|date=December 2016}}
[[File:Post Office Engineers.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|[[General Post Office|British Post Office]] engineers inspect Marconi's radio equipment during a demonstration on [[Flat Holm]] Island, 13 May 1897. The transmitter is at the centre, the coherer receiver below it, and the pole supporting the wire antenna is visible at top.]]

Marconi made the first demonstration of his system for the British government in July 1896.<ref>{{cite web|title=Flickr Photo|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/psd/164193649/|date=9 June 2006}}</ref> A further series of demonstrations for the British followed, and, by March 1897, Marconi had transmitted Morse code signals over a distance of about {{convert|3|mi|km|0}} across [[Salisbury Plain]]. On 13 May 1897, Marconi sent the first ever wireless communication over the open sea – a message was transmitted over the [[Bristol Channel]] from [[Flat Holm]] Island to [[Lavernock Point]] near [[Cardiff]], a distance of {{convert|3|mi|km}}. The message read "Are you ready".<ref>BBC Wales, {{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/historyhunters/locations/pages/3_1_flatholm.shtml|title=Marconi's Waves|access-date=20 January 2007|url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070120163444/http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/historyhunters/locations/pages/3_1_flatholm.shtml|archive-date=20 January 2007 }}</ref> The transmitting equipment was almost immediately relocated to [[Brean Down Fort]] on the [[Somerset]] coast, stretching the range to {{convert|10|mi|km}}.

[[File:Marconi in London.jpg|left|thumb|upright=0.8|Plaque on the outside of the [[BT Centre]] commemorates Marconi's first public transmission of wireless signals.]]

Impressed by these and other demonstrations, Preece introduced Marconi's ongoing work to the general public at two important London lectures: "Telegraphy without Wires", at the [[Toynbee Hall]] on 11 December 1896; and "Signalling through Space without Wires", given to the [[Royal Institution]] on 4 June 1897.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=23 January 1897|title=Telegraphy Without Wires|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/26120030|journal=[[Scientific American]]|volume=76|issue=4|pages=55–56|jstor=26120030}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|date=17 December 1897|title=Signalling Through Space Without Wires|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1623911|journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]]|volume=6|issue=155|pages=889–896|doi=10.1126/science.6.155.889|jstor=1623911|pmid=17740846|bibcode=1897Sci.....6..889.|last1=Preece|first1=W.H.}}</ref>

Numerous additional demonstrations followed, and Marconi began to receive international attention. In July 1897, he carried out a series of tests at [[La Spezia]], in his home country, for the Italian government. A test for [[Lloyd's of London|Lloyd's]] between The Marine Hotel in [[Ballycastle, County Antrim|Ballycastle]] and [[Rathlin Island]], both in [[County Antrim]] in [[Ulster]], [[Ireland]], was conducted on 6 July 1898 by [[George Stephen Kemp|George Kemp]] and [[Edward Edwin Glanville]].<ref name="Mollan">{{cite book|last1=Mollan|first1=Charles|title=It's Part of What We Are: Volume 1|date=2007|publisher=Royal Dublin Society|isbn=9780860270553|location=Dublin|page=1407}}</ref> A transmission across the [[English Channel]] was accomplished on 27 March 1899, from [[Wimereux]], France to [[South Foreland Lighthouse]], England. Marconi set up an experimental base at the [[Haven Hotel]], [[Sandbanks]], [[Poole Harbour]], [[Dorset]], where he erected a 100-foot high mast. He became friends with the van Raaltes, the owners of [[Brownsea Island]] in Poole Harbour, and his steam yacht, the ''[[Elettra (ship 1904)|Elettra]]'', was often moored on Brownsea or at The Haven Hotel. Marconi purchased the vessel after the Great War and converted it to a seaborne laboratory from where he conducted many of his experiments. Among the ''Elettra''{{'}}s crew was [[Adelmo Landini]], his personal radio operator, who was also an inventor.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Risi|first=Giacomo Bortolotti, Fabio|title=Adelmo Landini "Sasso Marconi Foto|url=https://www.sassomarconifoto.it/index.php/personaggi-del-sasso/adelmo-landini/|access-date=21 October 2020|language=it}}</ref>

In December 1898, the British lightship service authorised the establishment of wireless communication between the [[South Foreland]] lighthouse at [[Dover]] and the East Goodwin [[Lightvessel|lightship]], twelve miles distant. On 17 March 1899, the East Goodwin lightship sent the first [[CQD#History of wireless distress rescues|wireless distress signal]], a signal on behalf of the merchant vessel ''Elbe'' which had run aground on [[Goodwin Sands]]. The message was received by the radio operator of the South Foreland lighthouse, who summoned the aid of the [[Ramsgate]] lifeboat.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015030656105;view=1up;seq=117|title=Marconi's Wireless Telegraph|first=Cleveland|last=Moffett|journal=McClure's Magazine|date=June 1899|pages=99–112}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/connecting-britain/first-ever-radio-distress-call/|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/connecting-britain/first-ever-radio-distress-call/|archive-date=11 January 2022|url-access=subscription|url-status=live|title=This week in tech|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=17 March 2017|location=London}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
[[File:SS Ponce Entering New York Harbor 1899, by Milton J. Burns.jpg|thumb|SS ''Ponce'' entering New York Harbor 1899, by Milton J. Burns]]

In 1899, Marconi sailed to the United States at the invitation of ''[[The New York Herald]]'' newspaper to cover [[1899 America's Cup|that year's America's Cup]] international yacht races off [[Sandy Hook, New Jersey]]. His first demonstration was a transmission from aboard the SS ''Ponce'', a passenger ship of the [[Porto Rico Line]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Helgesen|first=Henry N.|title=Wireless Goes to Sea: Marconi's Radio and SS Ponce|journal=Sea History|issue=Spring 2008|page=122}}</ref> Marconi left for [[England]] on 8 November 1899 on the [[American Line]]'s {{SS|Saint Paul}}, and he and his assistants installed wireless equipment aboard during the voyage. Marconi's wireless brought news of the [[Second Boer War]], which had begun a month before their departure, to passengers at the request of "some of the officials of the American line."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Marconi|first=Guglielmo|date=2 February 1900|title=Wireless Telegraphy|url=https://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/annualreportofbo1901smit|journal=Smithsonian Annual Report, 1901|pages=294}}</ref> On 15 November the ''SS Saint Paul'' became the first ocean liner to report her imminent return to Great Britain by wireless when Marconi's Royal Needles Hotel radio station contacted her 66 nautical miles off the English coast. The first ''Transatlantic Times'', a newspaper containing wireless transmission news from the Needles Station at the Isle of Wight, was published on board the SS ''Saint Paul'' before its arrival.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Westman|first=Harold|title=Radio Pioneers 1945|publisher=Lindsey Publications|year=2006|isbn=1-55918-346-2|location=Bradley, IL|pages=25}}</ref>

====Transatlantic transmissions====
[[File:Marconi at newfoundland.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Marconi watching associates raising the kite (a "Levitor" by [[Baden Baden-Powell]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.carnetdevol.org/Wireless/marconi-transatlantique.html|title=First Atlantic Ocean crossing by a wireless signal|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130130034523/http://www.carnetdevol.org/Wireless/marconi-transatlantique.html|archive-date=30 January 2013|website=Carnetdevol.org.|accessdate=12 July 2012}}</ref>) used to lift the antenna at [[St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador|St. John's, Newfoundland]], December 1901]]

[[File:Detector magnetico Marconi 1902 - Museo scienza e tecnologia Milano.jpg|thumb|left|Magnetic detector by Marconi used during the experimental campaign aboard a ship in summer 1902, exhibited at the [[Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci]] of Milan]]

At the turn of the 20th century, Marconi began investigating a means to signal across the Atlantic to compete with the [[transatlantic telegraph cable]]s. Marconi established a wireless transmitting station at Marconi House, [[Rosslare Strand]], [[County Wexford]], in 1901 to act as a link between [[Poldhu]] in [[Cornwall]], England, and [[Clifden]] in [[Connemara]], [[County Galway]], Ireland. He soon made the announcement that the message was received at [[Signal Hill (Newfoundland and Labrador)|Signal Hill]] in [[St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador|St. John's]], [[Newfoundland and Labrador|Newfoundland]] (now part of [[Canada]]), on 12 December 1901, using a {{convert|500|ft|m|adj=on}} kite-supported antenna for reception – signals transmitted by the company's new high-power station at [[Poldhu]], Cornwall. The distance between the two points was about {{convert|2200|mi|km}}. It was heralded as a great scientific advance, yet there also was – and continues to be – considerable scepticism about this claim. The exact wavelength used is not known, but it is fairly reliably determined to have been in the neighbourhood of 350 metres (frequency ≈ 850&nbsp;kHz). The tests took place at a time of day during which the entire transatlantic path was in daylight. It is now known (although Marconi did not know then) that this was the worst possible choice. At this medium wavelength, long-distance transmission in the daytime is not possible because of the heavy absorption of the skywave in the ionosphere. It was not a blind test; Marconi knew in advance to listen for a repetitive signal of three clicks, signifying the Morse code letter ''S''. The clicks were reported to have been heard faintly and sporadically. There was no independent confirmation of the reported reception, and the transmissions were difficult to distinguish from atmospheric noise. A detailed technical review of Marconi's early transatlantic work appears in John S. Belrose's work of 1995. The Poldhu transmitter was a two-stage circuit.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1109/MAP.2004.1305565|year=2004|journal=IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine|volume=46|issue=2|page=130|title=Marconi and the History of Radio}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|doi=10.1049/cp:19950787|chapter=Fessenden and Marconi: Their differing technologies and transatlantic experiments during the first decade of this century|title=International Conference on 100 Years of Radio|date=1995|last1=Belrose|first1=J.S.|volume=1995|pages=32–43|isbn=0-85296-649-0 }}</ref>

[[File:Guglielmo Marconi 1901 wireless signal.jpg|thumb|Marconi demonstrating apparatus he used in his first long-distance radio transmissions in the 1890s. The transmitter is at the right, the receiver with paper tape recorder at the left.]]
[[File:Guglielmo, Marchese Marconi. Colour lithograph by Sir L. War Wellcome V0003849.jpg|upright|thumb|Marconi caricatured by [[Leslie Ward]] for ''[[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'' magazine, 1905]]

Feeling challenged by sceptics, Marconi prepared a better-organised and documented test. In February 1902, the SS ''Philadelphia'' sailed west from Great Britain with Marconi aboard, carefully recording signals sent daily from the Poldhu station. The test results produced [[Magnetic detector|coherer-tape]] reception up to {{convert|1550|mi|km}}, and audio reception up to {{convert|2100|mi|km}}. The maximum distances were achieved at night, and these tests were the first to show that radio signals for [[medium wave]] and [[longwave]] transmissions travel much farther at night than during the day. During the daytime, signals had been received up to only about {{convert|700|mi|km}}, less than half of the distance claimed earlier at Newfoundland, where the transmissions had also taken place during the day. Because of this, Marconi had not fully confirmed the Newfoundland claims, although he did prove that radio signals could be sent for hundreds of kilometres (miles), despite some scientists' belief that they were limited essentially to line-of-sight distances.

On 17 December 1902, a transmission from the Marconi station in [[Glace Bay]], Nova Scotia, Canada, became the world's first radio message to cross the Atlantic from North America. In 1901, Marconi built a station near [[Wellfleet, Massachusetts|South Wellfleet, Massachusetts]], that sent a message of greetings on 18 January 1903 from United States President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] to King [[Edward VII]] of the United Kingdom. However, consistent transatlantic signalling was difficult to establish.<ref>{{Cite web|title=TR Center – Talking Across the Ocean|url=https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Blog/Item/Talking%20Across%20the%20Ocean|access-date=2021-03-12|website=theodorerooseveltcenter.org}}</ref>

Marconi began to build high-powered stations on both sides of the Atlantic to communicate with ships at sea, in competition with other inventors. In 1904, he established a commercial service to transmit nightly news summaries to subscribing ships, which could incorporate them into their on-board newspapers. A regular transatlantic radio-telegraph service was finally begun on 17 October 1907<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Clifden Station of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph System|journal=Scientific American|date=23 November 1907}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://marconi100.ca/clip/marconi-sydpost19071024.html|title=Second Test of the Marconi Over-Ocean Wireless System Proved Entirely Successful|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019025942/http://marconi100.ca/clip/marconi-sydpost19071024.html|archive-date=19 October 2013|newspaper=Sydney Daily Post|date=24 October 1907}}</ref> between [[Clifden]], Ireland, and [[Glace Bay]], but even after this the company struggled for many years to provide reliable communication to others.

====''Titanic''====
The role played by Marconi Co. wireless in maritime rescues raised public awareness of the value of radio and brought fame to Marconi, particularly the sinking of [[RMS Titanic|RMS ''Titanic'']] on 15 April 1912 and [[RMS Lusitania|RMS ''Lusitania'']] on 7 May 1915.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Who was Guglielmo Marconi? Guglielmo Marconie was the first to patent (though not invent) a wireless system for communications.|url=https://www.curriculumvisions.com/search/M/marconi/marconi.html|access-date=2021-03-09|website=curriculumvisions.com}}</ref>

[[RMS Titanic|RMS ''Titanic'']] radio operators [[Jack Phillips (wireless operator)|Jack Phillips]] and [[Harold Bride]] were not employed by the [[White Star Line]] but by the [[Marconi International Marine Communication Company]]. After the sinking of the ocean liner, survivors were rescued by the [[RMS Carpathia|RMS ''Carpathia'']] of the [[Cunard Line]].<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite book|isbn=978-0857330246|title=Titanic Triumph and Tragedy: Third Edition|last1=Eaton|first1=John P.|last2=Haas|first2=Charles A.|date=December 2011|publisher=Haynes Publishing UK }}</ref> ''Carpathia'' took a total of 17 minutes to both receive and decode the SOS signal sent by ''Titanic''. There was a distance of 58 miles between the two ships.<ref>"Marconi: The Man Who Networked the World|CBC Radio." CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 10 Nov. 2016, www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/marconi-the-man-who-networked-the-world-1.3845164.</ref> When ''Carpathia'' docked in New York, Marconi went aboard with a reporter from ''[[The New York Times]]'' to talk with Bride, the surviving operator.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> After this incident, Marconi gained popularity and became more recognised for his contributions to the field of radio and wireless technology.<ref>RMS Titanic, Inc. "Recovery Expedition to Titanic Sets Target Departure Date for 2021." PR Newswire: News Distribution, Targeting and Monitoring, 22 July 2020,</ref>

On 18 June 1912, Marconi gave evidence to the Court of Inquiry into the loss of ''Titanic'' regarding the marine telegraphy's functions and the procedures for emergencies at sea.<ref>Court of Inquiry ''Loss of the S.S. Titanic'' 1912</ref> Britain's [[Postmaster-General]] summed up, referring to the ''Titanic'' disaster: "Those who have been saved, have been saved through one man, Mr. Marconi ... and his marvellous invention."<ref name="whf">{{cite web|url=http://www.wirelesshistoryfoundation.org/blog/titanics-wireless-connection|title=Titanic's Wireless Connection|date=April 2012|publisher=Wireless History Foundation|access-date=7 October 2013}}</ref> Marconi was offered free passage on ''Titanic'' before she sank, but had taken [[RMS Lusitania|''Lusitania'']] three days earlier. As his daughter Degna later explained, he had paperwork to do and preferred the public stenographer aboard that vessel.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Seven Famous People Who Missed the Titanic|author=Daugherty, Greg|magazine=Smithsonian Magazine|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/seven-famous-people-who-missed-the-titanic-101902418/|date=March 2012|access-date=26 February 2023}}</ref>

====Continuing work====
[[File:Marconi Wireless Telegraph 1913 x.jpg|thumb|Share of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America, issued 20 August 1913]]
Over the years, the Marconi companies gained a reputation for being technically conservative, in particular by continuing to use inefficient spark-transmitter technology, which could be used only for radio-telegraph operations, long after it was apparent that the future of radio communication lay with [[continuous-wave]] transmissions which were more efficient and could be used for audio transmissions. Somewhat belatedly, the company did begin significant work with continuous-wave equipment beginning in 1915, after the introduction of the oscillating vacuum tube (valve). The [[New Street Works]] factory in [[Chelmsford]] was the location for the first entertainment radio [[Broadcasting|broadcast]]s in the [[United Kingdom]] in 1920, employing a vacuum tube transmitter and featuring [[Dame Nellie Melba]]. In 1922, regular entertainment broadcasts commenced from the [[Marconi Research Centre]] at [[Great Baddow]], forming the prelude to the [[BBC]], and he spoke of the close association of aviation and wireless telephony in that same year at a private gathering with [[Florence Tyzack Parbury]], and even spoke of interplanetary wireless communication. In 1924, the Marconi Company co-established the [[Unione Radiofonica Italiana]] (now [[RAI]]).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.storiadellaradio.rai.it/dl/portali/site/articolo/ContentItem-d3384361-91fc-4b38-b8ab-9ec4031ec7aa.html|title=Storia della Radio dal 1924 al 1933|website=Storia della radio|publisher=Rai|language=it|access-date=2020-02-16}}</ref>

===Later years===
<div style="font-size:115%">
{{quote box|align=left|width=33%|quote=Have I done the world good, or have I added a menace?<ref>{{cite book|isbn=9781134526147|page=296|title=A History of the Marconi Company 1874–1965|last1=Baker|first1=W. J.|date=16 October 2013|publisher=Routledge }}</ref>}}</div>

In 1914, Marconi was made a Senator in the [[Senate of the Kingdom of Italy]] and appointed Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the [[Royal Victorian Order]] in the UK. During [[World War I]], Italy joined the Allied side of the conflict, and Marconi was placed in charge of the Italian military's radio service. He attained the rank of lieutenant in the [[Italian Royal Army]] and of commander in the ''[[Regia Marina]]''. In 1929, he was made a [[marquess]] by King [[Victor Emmanuel III]].<ref name=":0" />

[[Image:Villa Marconi.jpg|thumb|Villa Marconi, with Marconi's tomb in foreground]]
While helping to develop microwave technology, the ''[[Marchese]]'' Marconi suffered nine [[heart attack]]s in the span of three years preceding his death.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Invisible Rainbow|last=Firstenberg|first=Arthur|publisher=AGB Press|year=2017|isbn=978-0-692-68301-9|page=99}}</ref> Marconi died in Rome on 20 July 1937 at age 63, following the ninth, fatal, heart attack, and Italy held a [[state funeral]] for him. As a tribute, shops on the street where he lived were "Closed for national mourning".<ref name=guard>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/1937/jul/21/mainsection.fromthearchive|title=Radio falls silent for death of Marconi|website=The Guardian|date=21 July 1937|access-date=10 June 2016}}</ref> In addition, at 6&nbsp;pm the next day, the time designated for the funeral, transmitters around the world observed two minutes of silence in his honour.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23130862-900-marconi-forged-todays-interconnected-world-of-communication/|title=Marconi forged today's interconnected world of communication|first=Andrew|last=Robinson|website=New Scientist}}</ref> The British Post Office also sent a message requesting that all broadcasting ships honour Marconi with two minutes of broadcasting silence.<ref name=guard /> His remains are housed in the [[Mausoleum of Guglielmo Marconi]] in the grounds of Villa Griffone at [[Sasso Marconi]], Emilia-Romagna, which assumed that name in his honour in 1938.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://markpadfield.com/marconicalling/museum/html/places/places-i=13.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140906064514/http://markpadfield.com/marconicalling/museum/html/places/places-i=13.html|archive-date=2014-09-06|title=Villa Griffone, Near Bologna, Italy |website=markpadfield.com}}</ref>

In 1943, Marconi's elegant sailing yacht, the ''[[Elettra (ship 1904)|Elettra]]'', was commandeered and refitted as a warship by the German Navy. She was sunk by the [[Royal Air Force|RAF]] on 22 January 1944. After the war, the Italian Government tried to retrieve the wreckage, to rebuild the boat, and the wreckage was removed to Italy. Eventually, the idea was abandoned, and the wreckage was cut into pieces which were distributed amongst Italian museums.

In 1943, the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] handed down a decision on Marconi's radio patents restoring some of the prior patents of [[Oliver Lodge]], [[John Stone Stone]], and [[Nikola Tesla]].<ref name="LQsxMxEUC page 3">{{cite book|author1=Redouté, Jean-Michel |author2=Steyaert, Michiel|title=EMC of Analog Integrated Circuits|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c92LQsxMxEUC&pg=PA3|date=2009|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-90-481-3230-0|page=3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Meadow, Charles T.|title=Making Connections: Communication through the Ages|url=https://archive.org/details/makingconnection00mead|url-access=registration|date=2002|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-1-4617-0691-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/makingconnection00mead/page/193 193]}}</ref> The decision was not about Marconi's original radio patents<ref>{{cite web|url=https://earlyradiohistory.us/tesla.htm|title=Nikola Tesla: The Guy Who DIDN'T "Invent Radio|author=White, Thomas H.|date=1 November 2012|publisher=Earlyradiohistory.us }}</ref> and the court declared that their decision had no bearing on Marconi's claim as the first to achieve radio transmission, just that since Marconi's claim to certain patents was questionable, he could not claim infringement on those same patents.<ref>{{cite book|author=Sobot, Robert|title=Wireless Communication Electronics: Introduction to RF Circuits and Design Techniques|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SdGaiV6iup0C&pg=PA4|date=2012|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-1-4614-1116-1|page=4}}</ref> There are claims the high court was trying to nullify a World War I claim against the United States government by the Marconi Company via simply restoring the non-Marconi prior patent.<ref name="LQsxMxEUC page 3"/>