Dear Readers,
April - Aprile comes from the Latin word aperire, which means to open. This is the month to open your umbrellas for April showers and watch the buds open for spring flowers and “Italian Connections”...
***
Guglielmo Marconi was born April 25, 1874 in Bologna, Italy and in April 1912 it was Marconi’s invention, “Wireless Telegraphy,” that helped save lives. Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) and his invention “Wireless Telegraphy” (ship-to-shore radio) caused Marconi to be hailed as the “World’s Greatest Benefactor” after the awful night of April 14, 1912.
That night the supposedly indestructible Titanic hit a massive iceberg in the North Atlantic, quickly sinking into icy waters. More than 2,200 passengers were drowned in less than three hours.
The Titanic’s “Marconi Wireless” operator himself went down with the ship, but not before he sent out an S.O.S. signal of distress. The survivors were picked up by the S.S. Carpathia, another radio-equipped ship that had heard the distress call. Unfortunately, although several other ships had been nearer to the Titanic than the Carpathia, they lacked radio equipment and did not hear the S.O.S. call. Undoubtedly hundreds more passengers could have been saved if these other ships which were nearer to the Titanic had been radio equipped.
***
In a children’s book “David Sarnoff - Radio and T.V. Boy” (1972) by E.P. Meyers, I read that Sarnoff began working for American Marconi Company in 1906, and by 1919, had become a top wireless expert. He preferred the term radio to “wireless telegraphy” because he said the signals, which were sent out radiated in all directions. In 1912, David Sarnoff, at age 21, was appointed manager and operator of the American Marconi wireless station located in the Wanamaker Department Store in New York.
At that time, this was the most powerful commercial radio station in the world. The station was surrounded by glass walls. Each day, many curious people stopped to watch David as he sat at a desk wearing earphones and tapping a telegraph key. Most people still had to be convinced that radio was more than an interesting novelty.
David had an opportunity to prove that it was an important and modern invention. On April 14, 1912, while he was listening idly to dots and dashes, he suddenly picked up this shocking message. “S.S. Titanic ran into an iceberg. Sinking fast.” This message had come from the S.S. Olympic, which was nearby in the North Atlantic Ocean, 1,400 miles away from New York.
The Titanic was a brand-new luxury liner making her maiden voyage to the United States with hundreds of prominent Americans aboard. Quickly David signaled the S.S. Olympic to provide additional information. “Rush details, including names,” he requested. At once, David notified the New York newspapers of the grim tragedy.
Soon, newspaper reporters as well as relatives and friends of passengers aboard the Titanic crowded around his station for further information. Within hours, the news spread across the country and thousands of people were concerned. President William Howard Taft designated David’s station as the official radio station to obtain information. He ordered all other stations to close down to prevent conflicting signals.” Wireless was no more “just a novelty.”
Almost immediately that same year, Congress passed a law, which made it mandatory for all ships carrying passengers to install radio equipment. It also required the ship owners to employ licensed persons to operate the radio equipment. After Congress passed the new radio law, the Marconi Company trained inspectors to ensure the proper use and installation of radio equipment aboard ships.
Many people became interested in learning more about the principles of radio, known as electronics. The Marconi Company established a special training school for operators and technicians, even offering night classes for interested students. There were special courses for older Marconi executives who wanted to know more about the electronic principles behind the equipment that the company was making and selling.
Prior to the Titanic tragedy Marconi had great opposition and efforts to discredit him from the cable companies (which then charged 25 cents per word to send telegrams), the “ship-to-shore” maritime business was the Marconi Company’s financial lifetime. The terrible fate of the Titanic in 1912 touched the world, and today, nearly 100 years later, its memory is still vivid, rekindled in part by the popular film “Titanic,” starring Leonardo Di Caprio.
There is an excellent video on Marconi that you may be able to track down in DVD format titled “Marconi - Whispers in the Air.” The archival footage, newsreel excerpts, old photos, interviews with historians and daughters Goia Marconi Braga and Elettra make it worth the search. A few of the video’s highlights include photos of a young Guglielmo, born in 1874 in Bologna, Italy.
His father was an Italian businessman. His mother was the Scotch-Irish heiress to the Jamison whiskey fortune. As a young boy, little Guglielmo was fascinated by electricity and liked to play with batteries. His father, Giuseppe, thought it was a waste of time, but his mother encouraged his experiments.
***
In Bologna there is a Marconi Museum that was created and curated by Giovanni Pelagalli in the mid 1990s. (Via Col di Lana 7 - 40131 Bologna, Tel. 011-39-051-649-10-08) Marconi was born in Bologna and also received his education there, at the University of Bologna.
As a young man he admired the work of American inventor Samuel Morse, who had developed the telegraph and the Morse code, both of which require wires for transmission. Marconi received his education at the world’s oldest university, the University of Bologna that produced such pioneers in the science of electricity as Galvani and Volta.
He engaged in a study of electrical engineering that convinced him that, if Morse could send electrical impulses across great distances via wires, he would some day do the same by sending the very same impulses through the air. Since his mother was Scotch-Irish and an heiress to the Jamison fortune, Guglielmo was proficient in English and often traveled to England.
He would read scientific journals, pick out promising theories and try to turn this newfound knowledge into marketable ideas. He purchased a telegraph key, noted its shortcomings, and designed a more efficient one. In 1896, at age 21, he patented the first wireless telegraph apparatus and moved to Newfoundland to experiment in transatlantic telegraphy. In 1902 the completed his system of ship telegraphy which was quickly adopted by most countries. In 1912, Marconi’s wireless proved its worth.
The S.O.S. sent out by a sinking Titanic helped save some of the passengers. If it had not been for the strong opposition of the cable companies that sent telegrams at 25 cents a word, more ships would have been equipped with ship-to-shore radio and more lives could have been saved.
Elated by his first wireless success, Marconi thought it possible to send voice wireless and perhaps even pictures. He first did so by picking up voice, using a technology that gave birth to the crystal set radio era and later to home radio, when he hit on the idea of the vacuum tube and other electrical devices to strengthen and separate radio signals.
By 1921 he had developed a two-tube radio with a head set and soon after with a loudspeaker so more than one person could listen in. In the years to come, Marconi kept adding new ideas to his wireless radio and, by 1933, he installed the first radio station in the Vatican. Marconi kept adding on refinements to his original invention and in a few years the family Victrola was gathering dust as the family listened to music on their home radio.
10631 Vinedale Street, Sun Valley, CA 91352 - Phone (818) 767-3413 - Fax: (818) 767-1410
