Marconi Museum |
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visits: Sunday at 10 am
working days on reservation
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 info visits
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Heinrich Hertz died in Bonn on January 1st 1894, due to a serious illness, at the young age of 36. A brilliant career, already recognized by great international distinctions, was suddenly interrupted. In the same year, the twenty-year-old Guglielmo Marconi devised his audacious project: utilizing electromagnetic waves (at the time called “Hertzian” waves) for telegraphic transmissions. Some see in this chronologic coincidence a sign of destiny, almost as if the baton had been handed over unknowingly. Hertz was born in Hamburg in 1857. He soon displayed a keen interest for laboratory research, which led him to study engineering (in Dresden) and later physics (in Munich and Berlin). He studied under Hermann von Helmholtz, and collaborated as an assistant in Berlin before going on to teach at Kiel, Karlsruhe and Bonn. His research received international attention when, between 1887-8, he demonstrated that electrical energy travels in waves with a frequency that can be calculated. Maxwell's theory, which was arousing much skepticism in the scientific realm, finds confirmation. More research ensued, further exploring the behavior of these invisible waves. His experimentation was thus the starting point, the first decisive step that led to the invention of wireless telegraphy. He also discovered the photoelectric effect, inaugurating another field of investigation in modern physics. Marconi did not fail to recognize the importance of Hertz, who had paved the way to experiments and research in several fields, among these, of course, wireless telegraphy. The same experiment that definitively confirmed Marconi's intuitions, conducted numerous times at Villa Griffone in 1895, was carried out – based on what Marconi himself declares in his Nobel Lecture – utilizing a Hertz oscillator. Hence if Hertz had not died prematurely, would the history of radiocommunications have been different? As always, it is impossible to answer these kinds of questions. The fact remains that he was one of the main initiators of science as we know it today, and not only for the results that he achieved: with his mastery of both mathematical theories and experimental procedures, Hertz represented a sort of prototype, a new kind of ideal researcher, a model for physicists of the XXth century.
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Marconi was born to an Irish mother by the name of Annie Jameson. The Jameson family owned a thriving whiskey distillery whose brand is still famous today. Much of their business was based in London, the centre of the British Empire and it was here that Henry Jameson Davis (Marconi's maternal cousin) worked. Born in 1854, Jameson Davis was over forty and had a great deal of professional experience when in 1896 he welcomed his aunt and young Italian cousin to London. As an engineer he had a consulting office in London that specialized in the planning and construction of cereal mills. It was Jameson Davis who helped Marconi obtain the patent for his invention and introduced him to the Post Office chief engineer, William Preece. He also organized Marconi's first private demonstrations, to which he invited engineers and businessmen. When Jameson Davis realized the great potential of his cousin's invention, he began to plan its possible commercial development. Rather than simply selling the patent or tying into an agreement with the Post Office he proposed to Marconi that they found a company together. Davis managed to raise financial backing from various business associates, many of whom were grain merchants. Marconi hesitated for some months, but finally agreed to his cousin's idea and on 20 July 1897 the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company was founded. In 1900 its name was changed to the Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company. The company's capital accounted for 100,000 stock options, each worth £1. Marconi was appointed technical director and Jameson Davis financial director. For almost a year and a half Henry Jameson Davis was the key driving figure, legal advisor and reference point, without whom Marconi could not have found his way in the City. For several years the two cousins got along amicably sharing the many organisational and financial difficulties experienced by the company before it became well-established. Over the years Jameson Davis' role within the company lost some of its importance and in 1912 he decided to sell his shares and leave. He died in 1936, just one year before his famous cousin. Regardless of their disagreements and misunderstandings, it is easy to imagine the emotion Henry Jameson Davis felt, when in 1909 Marconi was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in Stockholm. Davis had reason to be proud, both as a relative and as a businessman, for he too had greatly contributed to the success of the business enterprise.
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© 2013 - Fondazione Guglielmo Marconi - Villa Griffone - via Celestini 1 - 40037 Pontecchio Marconi (BO) - C.F 80063250379