...le mie invenzioni sono per salvare l'umanità, non per distruggerla...
THE FATHER OF RADIO Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) (tratto dal sito della BBC Education)
This is the story of the greatest of all the pioneers - Guglielmo Marconi, and the extraordinary struggle he went through to make wireless a success. It may seem odd now, but after patenting his invention in 1896 he faced a barrage of scepticism and opposition. By 1900 his company was in financial difficulties. Marconi urgently needed a spectacular event to kick-start the wireless industry. That's why, in 1901, he staked almost everything he owned on the most outlandish gamble. In December 1901, he was able for the first time, by means of stations specially constructed for that purpose, to transmit telegraphic signals right across the Atlantic ocean, from Poldu in Cornwall, to St John's Newfoundland, a distance of about 1800 miles. The furthest a wireless message had been sent before was only 80 miles. There's always been controversy over whether or not the transatlantic experiment worked, since there were no independent witnesses. The experiment involved risking at least 50 thousand pounds to achieve a result which had been declared to be impossible by some of the principal mathematicians of the time.
Marconi didn't come up with the idea of radio out of the blue. From his early teens, working in a laboratory, in the sumptuous Italian family villa he'd read up on the work of other scientists. As early as 1820 Hans Christian Oersted, from Copenhagan, had found that when an electric current passed near a compass, the compass needle moved. The belief arose that some form of invisible energy was coming from the electric current and travelling through the air. Scientists later turned that belief into a theory, but it took almost 60 years before the unseen energy was actually proved to exist. In 1886 Heinrich Hertz set up a machine which generated high voltage sparks between two metal balls. A short distance away he placed two smaller electrodes. When the large electric spark jumped across the gap, Hertz could see that a smaller spark appeared at the second instrument. It was proof that electo-magnetic energy had travelled through the air, and triggered the second spark. But Hertz could see no future in the device, since the waves only travelled about a metre. It was left to Marconi, aged just 19, to realise that radio waves had a future in communication. He carried out experiements with his brother, transmitting radio waves over short distances. But his crude Hetzonian transmitter could only send the waves a few metres. Frustrated, Marconi switched his studies to the detection of electric storms. For this he attached a long strip of metal, a primitive aerial, to his detecting equipment, because he found that it made it more sensitive.
Then the breakthrough came. Marconi realised that a large metal aerial might improve the performance of his Hertzian transmitter. By connecting an aerial to the spark gap, he found that the electric current was conducted upward, and radiated out as electro-magnetic energy. Instantly his signals travelled much further. He fitted another crude aerial to the receiver and prepared to send a signal nearly 3 kilometres, right over a hill. If his invention was to be of use in communication, his signals would have to travel at least this far. For the experiment Marconi's brother took the receiver out of sight, over the hill. He fired a gun to indicate a successful reception of the radio waves. Amazingly, when Marconi showed off his invention, the Italian authorities weren't interested, so, he sailed for Britain, home of a vast Empire which Marconi hoped would be interested in a wireless means of communication. His first public demonstration of the device, at Toynbee Hall in London on December 12th 1896, was a triumph.
Soon, he moved his operations to the Isle of Wight, to show off wireless to the Royal Navy, the largest Navy in the world, whose ships desperately needed to communicate over long distances. By the turn of the century wireless telegraphy was firmly established as a viable means of communication. There were plenty of demonstrations but very few orders and the Marconi Company was in a bad way. At this critical time Marconi decided to attempt communication across the Atlantic, from Cornwall to Newfoundland, a distance twenty times anything done previously, across a mountain of water two hundred kilometres high. The experiment was been declared to be impossible by some of the principal mathematicians of the time. The chief question was whether wireless waves would be stopped by the curvature of the earth. All along Marconi had been convinced that this was not so. Marconi pressed ahead, and even managed to persuade the distinguished physicist, Sir Ambrose Fleming, to design a huge transmitter. A site was selected at Poldu, a lonely spot on the coast of Cornwall. The plans for the station buildings were drawn by him and he ordered the necessary plant for creating powerful electric discharges. Marconi gave instructions for a larger aerial supported by a circle of masts, and it required nearly a year of work before he was satisfied with its performance. But then things began to go wrong. Just weeks before Marconi was due to sail to Newfoundland, the 60 metre high transmitting aerial was caught by the worst gale in living memory and totally destroyed. Such was Marconi's determination, however, that a scaled down version was functioning within just 2 weeks. Nervous about his prospects, Marconi set sail in secret with his two assistants ; Kemp and Paget. They took with them a hastily constructed kite, from which they hoped to hang the vital receiving aerial. They had to endure ten storm-tossed days on an icy North Atlantic. In 1901 St John's Newfoundland was a far flung British colonial port. The most easterly point of North America, it provided the shortest distance for Marconi's radio signals to span the Atlantic. Marconi's arrival was front page news. But the weather was terrible, and for a couple of days they battled with the elements. So Marconi suggested that for his crucial test on the third day they should use kites, and on that morning managed to fly a kite up to 400 feet.
It was shortly after midday on December 12th 1901 that Marconi placed the single earphone to his ear and started listening. The receiver on the table before him was very crude, a few coils and condensers and a coherer - no valves, no amplifiers, not even a crystal. He was at last on the point of putting the correctness of all his beliefs to test. For Marconi, amid the foul weather and howling wind, the morse S apparently finally broke through. The only record of this is a hasty scribble in Marconi's diary, marking the times of received signals on December 12th. The thing Paget most clearly remembered as he ran into the room was how calm and unconcerned Marconi looked. Marconi is reported to have said "Well, Paget, I had always held a belief, amounting almost to an intuition, that radio signals would someday be sent across the greatest distances. I now knew that all my anticipations had been justified. The electric waves sent out into space from Poldu, had traversed the Atlantic, unimpeded by the curvature of the earth." For Marconi things didn't run smoothly. Even though he later proved to independent witnesses that the signal could have reached Newfoundland, radio still failed to catch on and he suffered a decade of financial difficulties.
It turned out that Newfoundland has other famous radio stories to tell, including the first use of the wireless in the solving of crime. In 1910 wanted wife-killer Hawley Harvey Crippen, fled England for Canada. The Captain of the Montrose, the ship on which he sailed, grew suspicious of a passenger travelling under the name Robinson. The Captain of the Montrose reported: At night he went on deck and roamed about on his own. Once the wind blew up his coattails and in his hip pocket I saw a revolver. After that I also carried a revolver. At that time only 60 ships in the world had wireless. On the third day out I gave my wireless operator a message for Liverpool. "One hundred and thirty miles west of Lizard had strong suspicions Crippen and friend amongst the saloon passenegers. Friend dressed as boy, voice manner and build undoubtedly a girl". But our weak apparatus was soon out of communcation with land. I knew that the liner Lorentis had left Liverpool the day after my first wireless message, and with a superior speed would reach the Newfoundland coast before me. "From Lorentis to Montrose, we'll board you at farther point. Strictly confidential. From Inspector Drew, Scotland Yard." The last night was dreary and anxious. The sound of our fog horn every few minutes adding to the monotony. At Farther Point the pilot came on board and came straight to my cabin. I sent for Mr Robinson. When he entered I stood with the detective facing the door, holding my revolver inside my coat pocket. As he came in I said "Let me introduce you". Mr Robinson put out his hand. The detective grabbed it at the same removing his pilot's cap and said "Good morning Dr Crippen. Do you know me? I'm Inspector Drew from Scotland Yard. Crippen was so dumbfounded by the miraculous appearance of the man he had left behind in London, that he partly collapsed.
By 1912 fewer than 400 ships were equipped with Marconi wireless yet it was an infamous shipping disaster, just off the coast from St John's Newfoundland, which finally proved the value of wireless to the world. It was wireless transmissions from the stricken Titanic which brought other vessels from far off, saving 711 lives. What is less well known is that the Titanic's transmissions could have saved many more lives as the only surviving officer from the great liner recounts. Commander Lightholler's report reads: On that night of April 14th I started to fill the first boat and passengers started asking me "why are you getting the boats out?" and "why are you putting women and children in them?" I told them it was merely a precaution and that very likely they'd all be taken on board the ship which everyone could clearly see only a few miles away. That ship was the Californian and though her lights were plain to everyone on board the Titanic, she seemed to pay not the slightest heed to our wireless calls. The reason why she didn't answer our calls, which other ships heard halfway round the earth, was because she only carried one wireless operator and when we struck the iceberg he'd just gone off watch, so it was no fault of his. What a chance her captain missed. He could have laid his ship right alongside the Titanic and taken practically every soul on board.
But the fact that 711 people did survive was headline news. Marconi was internationally hailed as a hero and the financial future of his company was assured, when the Titanic Inquiry led to legislation enforcing every ship in the world to carry wireless. Since Marconi was a major wireless manufacturer and since every wireless he sold had to be accompanied by two Marconi employees, his great improvement to shipping safety, at last brought the success that had eluded him for so long. From then on Marconi would always be seen as the father of radio.
MARCONI " I now knew that all my anticipations had been justified. I now felt for the first time absolutely certain that the day would come when mankind would be able to send messages round the wires, not only across the Atlantic, but between the furthermost ends of the earth".
