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Selected readings

Details: Category: Marconi; Published on Monday, 10 October 2011 13:06; Written by Administrator; Hits: 38732

Maurizio Bigazzi, Gli esperimenti del giovane Marconi (2001)
Gian Carlo Corazza, Marconi e l’invenzione della radio (1995)
Gabriele Falciasecca, Marconi a Salvan? (2008)
lettera del Prof. Y. Fournier al Presidente G. Falciasecca sulla questione "Marconi a Salvan" (2008)
Gabriele Falciasecca, Graffiti per un centenario: la vicenda scientifica di Guglielmo Marconi ricostruita attraverso dichiarazioni originali (1995)
Gabriele Falciasecca, Lo spirito della Radio cento anni dopo (1995)
Gabriele Falciasecca, L'Infosfera: uno scenario evolutivo per le tecnologie dell'informazione (1991)
Mario Giorgi, Trilogia di Villa Griffone (2008-2010) [teatro]
Peppino Ortoleva, Orologio dell’aria, spettacolo elettrico: considerazioni sull’avvento della radio (1995)
Francesco Paresce, Guglielmo Marconi: personal reflections on «an Italian adventurer» (2001)
Luigi Solari jr, Luigi Solari: a life devoted to radiotelegraphy (2009)
Giorgio Tabarroni, Una vita per la radio (1974)
Barbara Valotti, Oltre il mito dell'autodidatta. Le origini e la formazione di Guglielmo Marconi (2003)

Basic bibliography

Details: Category: Marconi; Published on Monday, 10 October 2011 13:07; Written by Administrator; Hits: 39331

Aitken, H. G., Syntony and Spark. The Origins of Radio, New York, 1976.

Baker, W. J., A History of the Marconi Company, London, 1970.

Balbi, G., La radio prima della radio. L'araldo telefonico e l'invenzione del broadcasting in Italia, Roma, 2010.

Bigazzi, M., “Young Marconi's Experiments”, Universitas, 7 (1995).

Bucciante, G. (a cura di), Marconi, Roma, 1963.

Bussey, G., Marconi’s Atlantic Leap, Coventry, 2001.

Calamia, M., Falciasecca, G. (a cura di), Speciale centenario marconiano, Alta Frequenza, 7 (1995).

Campbell, T., Wireless Writing in the Age of Marconi, University of Minnesota Press, 2006.

Cantoni, V., Falciasecca, G., Pelosi, G. (a cura di), Storia delle telecomunicazioni, Firenze, 2011.

Casale, R. (a cura di), Un secolo di radio, Estratto da Notiziario tecnico Telecom Italia, vol. n. 3 (2001).

Chiaberge, R., Wireless. Scienza, amori e avventure di Guglielmo Marconi, Milano, 2013.

Ciafaloni, F., "Marconi", in I protagonisti della storia d'Italia. Lo Stato unitario: il Novecento, a cura di Ernesto Ragionieri, Milano, 1974.

Di Benedetto, G. (a cura di), Bibliografia marconiana, Firenze, 1974.

Dunlap, O. E., Marconi the Man and his Wireless, New York, 1937.

Fahie, J. J., A History of Wireless Telegraphy, Edinburgh, 1901.

Falciasecca, G., Dopo Marconi il diluvio, Bologna, 2016.

Falciasecca, G., “Marconi e la sfida transatlantica”, Scuolaofficina, 1 (2002).

Falciasecca, G., Valotti, B. (a cura di), Guglielmo Marconi tra storia e cronaca, Bologna, 2006.

Falciasecca, G., Valotti, B. (a cura di), Guglielmo Marconi. Genio, storia e modernità, Milano, 2003.

Falciasecca, G., Valotti, B. (a cura di), 1901-2001: Un ponte sull’Atlantico, Bologna, 2001.

Fedeli, E., Guidone, M. (a cura di), La conquista della telegrafia senza fili. Temistocle Calzecchi Onesti e il coherer, Bologna, 1987.

Fondazione Guglielmo Marconi (a cura di), Marconi 1874-1974, Bologna, 1974.

Garratt, G.R.M., The Early History of Radio: from Faraday to Marconi, London, 1994.

Geddes, K., Guglielmo Marconi. 1874-1937, London, 1974.

Giacomelli, A., Bertocchi, G., “Guglielmo Marconi: come nasce un genio. Le origini montane e l’ascesa della famiglia”, Nuèter - Ricerche, n. 2 (1994).

Giorgi, G., Marconi, Roma, 1963.

Giorgi, M., Valotti, B. (edited by), Guglielmo Marconi. Wireless Laureate, Bologna, 2010.

Grandin, K., Mazzinghi, P., Olander, N., Pelosi, G. (edited by), A Wireless World, "Contribution to the History of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences", 42, Firenze, 2012.

Guagnini, A., “Guglielmo Marconi inventore e organizzatore”, in Giannetti, R. (a cura di), Nel mito di Prometeo. L’innovazione tecnologica dalla rivoluzione industriale ad oggi, Firenze, 1996.

Guagnini, A., “Il Comitato di radiotelegrafia e gli sviluppi delle radiocomunicazioni”, in Simili, R., Paoloni, G. (a cura di), Per una storia del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Vol. I, Roma-Bari, 2001.

Gualandi, L., Il vero inventore della Radio, Albino (BG), 2011.

Guerraggio, A., Nastasi, P., L'Italia degli scienziati. 150 anni di storia nazionale, Milano, 2010.

Jolly, W. P., Marconi, London, 1972.

Hancook, H. E., Wireless at Sea. The First Fifty Years, London, 1950.

Headrick, D. R., The Invisible Weapon. Telecommunications and International Politics 1851-1945, Oxford, 1991.

Hong, S., Wireless. From Marconi’s Black Box to the Audion, Cambridge, MA., 2001.

Landini, A., Marconi sulle vie dell'etere. La storica impresa narrata dall'Ufficiale Marconista dell'Elettra, Torino, 1955.

Larson, E., Thunderstruck, London, 2006.

La Stella, M., Guglielmo Marconi: mago dell’invisibile, dominatore degli spazi, Milano, 1937.

“Letters from Guglielmo Marconi to his Father, 1896-1898”, GEC Review, vol. 12, n. 2 (1997).

Maclaurin, W. R ., Invention and Innovation in the Radio Industry, New York, 1949.

Maioli, G., I giorni della radio, Bologna, 1994.

Marconi, G., Scritti, Roma, 1941.

Marconi Bezzi-Scali, M.C., Mio marito Guglielmo, Milano, 1995 (trad. inglese Marconi my Beloved, Wellesley, MA., 1999).

Marconi Paresce, D., My Father, Marconi, London, 1962 (trad. it. Marconi, mio padre, Milano, 1993).

Marini-Bettolo, G. B., Omaggio a Guglielmo Marconi uno dei XL, in occasione del cinquantenario della sua scomparsa 1937-1987, Estratto dal Volume 106, Memorie di Scienze fisiche e naturali, “Rendiconti della Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze detta dei XL”, serie V, vol. XII, tomo I, parte II, 1988.

Masini, G., Guglielmo Marconi, Torino, 1975.

Mazzotto, D., Telegrafia e telefonia senza fili, Milano, 1905.

Montefinale, G., Marconi: figura centrale nella storia delle onde elettriche, Genova, 1974.

Monteleone, F., Ortoleva, P. (a cura di), La radio, ieri, oggi, domani, Torino, 1984.

Murani, O., Onde hertziane e telegrafo senza fili, Milano, 1903.

Pancaldi, G. (a cura di), Radio. Da Marconi alla musica delle stelle, Bologna, 1995.

Pancaldi, G., Guagnini, A. (a cura di), Cento anni di Radio. Le radici dell'invenzione, Roma, 1995.

Paoloni, G. (a cura di), “Dossier Guglielmo Marconi”, Lettera Pristem, 13 (1994).

Paoloni, G., Monteleone, F., Ianniello, M.G. (a cura di), Cent'anni di radio, Venezia, 1995.

Paoloni, G., Simili, R. (a cura di), Guglielmo Marconi e l'Italia, Roma, 1996.

Parker, S., Guglielmo Marconi e la radio, Bologna, 1994.

Pession, G., Guglielmo Marconi, Torino, 1941.

Poli, P., L’opera tecnico-scientifica di Guglielmo Marconi, Faenza, 1985.

Preece, W. H., “Signalling Through Space Without Wires”, The Electrician, 39 (1897).

Raboy, M., Marconi. The Man Who Networked the World, Oxford, 2016.

Righi, A, Dessau, B, La telegrafia senza filo, Bologna, 1903.

Simili, R., “La presidenza Marconi”, in Simili, R., Paoloni, G. (a cura di), Per una storia del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Vol. I, Roma-Bari, 2001.

S.I.P.S., Guglielmo Marconi: omaggio degli scienziati d’Italia nel primo anniversario della morte, Roma, 1938.

Società Italiana di Fisica, Celebrazione del primo centenario della nascita di Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1974), Giornale di Fisica, vol. 15 (1974).

Solari, L., Marconi nell'intimità e nel lavoro, Milano, 1940.

Solari, L., Storia della radio, Milano, 1939.

Soresini, F., Breve storia della radio, Milano, 1976.

Soresini, F. (a cura di), Marconi: una comunicazione lunga un secolo, Milano, 1995.

Stumpo, F. (a cura di), Da Sasso a Marconi. Fra storia e mito, Bologna, 1995.

Tabarroni, G., Bologna e la storia della radiazione, Bologna, 1965.

Tabarroni, G., De Benedetti, R., Masini, G. Marconi: cento anni dalla nascita, Torino, 1974.

Temporelli, M., Il codice delle invenzioni. Da Leonardo da Vinci a Steve Jobs, Milano, 2011.

Toscano, A., Marconi's Wireless and the Rhetoric of a New Technology, New York/Heidelberg, 2012.

Valotti, B, “The Roots of Invention: New Sources on Young Marconi”, Universitas, 7 (1995).

Valotti, B., “Lo stile di un inventore-imprenditore”, in Bigazzi D. (a cura di), Storie di imprenditori, Bologna, 1996.

Valotti, B., “Le radici di un inventore-imprenditore: le origini di Guglielmo Marconi”, Scuolaofficina, 1 (2002)

Valotti, B., Dalle Donne, G., Marconi. Il ragazzo del wireless, Milano, 2015.

Vyvyan, R.N., Wireless over Thirty Years, London, 1933.

Weightman, G., Signor Marconi’s Magic Box, London, 2003.

Nobel Centenary

Details: Category: Marconi; Published on Monday, 10 October 2011 13:09; Written by Administrator; Hits: 47077

In 1909 Guglielmo Marconi was the first Italian to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Even though he was still young - Marconi was 35 - the prize came at the end of an extraordinarily intense period of work that had lasted almost 15 years, beginning in the laboratory of his family home - Villa Griffone, in the hills around Bologna - with his first experiments of wireless telegraphy.

However, the theatre of his pioneering work in radio communications were the Atlantic coasts: Great Britain was a second home for Marconi as inventor but a first home for his career as entrepreneur, Ireland - where his mother Annie Jameson was from - hosted important stations for his first transatlantic connections. Canada and the United States saw triumphs of the young Italian visionary who between 1901 and 1903 managed, in the midst of polemics, scepticism and great wonder, to receive the first radiotelegraphic signals across the huge natural obstacle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Between 1895 and 1903 Marconi was the matchless pioneer in radio communications, but despite speculation that he could win the Nobel Prize at the end of that period, the years that he took to consolidate his remarkable achievements were still hard and demanding. A fundamental step in the process was to launch the first regular public radio telegraphic service across the Atlantic in October 1907.

No doubts that the exceptional usefulness of emergency radio was proved when passengers were rescued from the liner Republic in January 1909 mainly for the merits of the radio operator Binns, who worked for the Marconi Company. It was in that year that had begun with the clamour over theRepublic rescue that Marconi won - along with the German scientist Karl Ferdinand Braun - the Nobel Prize for Physics «in recognition of their contribution to the development of wireless telegraphy».

Marconi's career continued for many years and on dozens of occasions he was celebrated as a living symbol of radio communications, but there is no doubt that being awarded the Nobel Prize was a fundamental moment for him. At just 21, he initiated a true revolution in telecommunications and devoted his entire career to the development of the radio, combining scientific skills, entrepreneurial qualities, great intuition and extraordinary determination.

The Nobel Prize centenary was therefore a fitting occasion for a programme which was rich of initiatives celebrating the great importance of Marconi as inventor and entrepreneur in our present times. Marconi was a cosmopolitan figure whose invention and its further developments are still today a powerful tool for humanity.

centenario_nobel_guglielmo_marconi_logo_300dpi_CMYK COMITATO NAZIONALE

Hans Hildebrand, Presentation Speech, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, december 10^th, 1909

Guglielmo Marconi, Nobel Lecture, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, december 11^th, 1909

Biography

Details: Category: Marconi; Published on Monday, 10 October 2011 13:08; Written by Administrator; Hits: 53064

Guglielmo Marconi was born in Bologna on 25 April 1874, son of an Italian father (Giuseppe, a wealthy landowner) and an Irish mother (Annie Jameson). Due to frequent family moves during the winter months, firstly to England and then to Tuscany, Marconi did not receive traditional schooling. As a boy, Marconi developed a great interest in electrical science, which he furthered with Vincenzo Rosa, his tutor in Leghorn in the early 1890s, the only “teacher” figure Marconi later recognised. In the laboratory set up in his father’s home in the Bolognese countryside, Villa Griffone, Marconi dedicated his time to experiments and readings and soon developed the ambition to become an inventor. Even his very first technical projects reflect his interest in real technological applications and their commercial potential.

In 1894, Marconi started experimenting with electromagnetic waves (the subject of research in many European research labs at that time) with the aim of signalling across space without wires. Following much experimentation, he managed to send signals over a distance of 2 km, beyond a hill situated between the transmission equipment (to which Marconi had added a grounded vertical antenna) and the reception apparatus (characterised by an extremely sensitive coherer). These first wireless telegraphy experiments, in 1895, marked the beginnings of radiocommunications.

With the aim of developing his promising invention, Marconi decided to move to England, a country with a great interest in improving communication networks and home to his mother’s family who were a great help in making the right contacts when he arrived in London in February 1896. Marconi had his first patent drawn up by top legal experts in June 1896 and began collaborating with William H. Preece, the chief engineer of the General Post Office, but after a long list of contacts and demonstrations decided to found a private company. In July 1897 the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company (later known as Marconi Company) was registered in London.

In his role as Technical Director of the company, Marconi recruited top class collaborators (amongst whom John Ambrose Fleming stands out, the future inventor of the diode valve) who worked with him on two main projects, the increase in transmission capabilities and solving the interference problem between stations. This latter issue was resolved with the renowned patent No. 7777 for «Syntonic Transmission and Reception» (granted in 1900 ad followed by lasting litigation), considerably improving the communicative capabilities of radio.

Marconi was very capable in deciding which demonstrations to carry out and in making sure his every success was publicised. For example, the first radio-telegraphic media-oriented transmissions had a great success, carried out in event of the Kingstown regatta (1898) and the America’s Cup races (1899).

Amongst the fundamental milestones gained in the “distance conquest” (Marconi’s main goal) were the set up of communication between England and France (50 km in 1899) and the first transatlantic transmission (between England and Newfoundland, over 3,000 km in December 1901). This last project was a real challenge for the scientific understandings of that time and involved a considerable economic gamble. Its success earned Marconi a great deal of fame and, at the same time, a great deal of hostility from cable companies who felt threatened by the enormous developments made in radiotelegraphy, and from a number of sceptics (many of whom were from the scientific community itself).

Marconi defended himself by continuing to produce positive results, even as early as 1902, firstly from experiments conducted during a transatlantic voyage aboard thePhiladelphia, and then on board the Italian navy’s warship the Carlo Alberto. That same year, Marconi completed a new kind of magnetic detector, which then became the standard wireless receiver for many years, replacing the coherer. In December 1902 he transmitted the first complete messages to Poldhu from stations at Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, and later Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The transatlantic project culminated in 1907 with the opening of the first transatlantic commercial service between Glace Bay and Clifden, Ireland.

One of the invention’s main applications was for sea-faring safety and it is a well known fact that the Titanic (1912) was fitted with Marconi wireless communication equipment.

From the beginning of WWI, Marconi began investigation of short waves (which he had used in his very first experiments), setting up new research projects which were mainly carried out on board the Elettra, the yacht Marconi purchased in 1919 and transformed into a floating laboratory.

Important experiments in 1923 led him to the establishment of the new high-speed Beam System for long distance communication: agreement was reached in 1924 to adopt this system throughout the British Empire. In 1926, the first beam station, linking England and Canada, was opened, followed by further stations in subsequent years.

In 1923, Marconi joined the Fascist Party and this led him to be given various prestigious public offices: in 1928 he was named as the National Research Council president and in 1930 he took over the presidency at the Royal Italian Academy. Just a few years later his relationship with the Fascist Party started to weaken: Marconi was certainly amongst those who tried to dissuade the pro-German and anti-Jewish tendencies within the Party and was one of the supporters of a British ally.

In 1931, having set up a short-wave station for the Vatican, Marconi supervised the Pope's first broadcast to Catholics worldwide. In that same period he started studying microwaves, research on which the majority of modern radio systems are still based today. Three years later at sea, aboard the Elettra, he used this technique for blind navigation by radio beacon.

Marconi was invited by many countries worldwide to demonstrate developments in radiocommunications – project of which he had become a living icon. Amongst the numerous international honors and awards given to Guglielmo Marconi were 16 Honoris Causa degrees and the Nobel Prize for Physics that he shared with Karl Ferdinand Braun in 1909.

Marconi died in Rome on the 20^th of July, 1937. The world commemorated his death with an exceptional event: all radio stations observed a 2-minute silence, during which time the ether fell silent – just like it had been in the pre-Marconi era.

[by Barbara Valotti]

Bio

Details: Category: Marconi; Published on Monday, 10 October 2011 13:11; Written by Administrator; Hits: 52450

With the aim of developing his promising invention, Marconi decided to move to England, a country with a great interest in improving communication networks and home to his mother’s family who were a great help in making the right contacts when he arrived in London in February 1896. Marconi had his first patent drawn up by top legal experts in June 1896 and began collaborating with William H. Preece, the chief engineer of the General Post Office, but after a long list of contacts and demonstrations decided to found a private company. In July 1897 the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company(later known as Marconi Company) was registered in London.