Marconi Patents Radio: The Dawn of Wireless Communication
Guglielmo Marconi filed British patent No. 12039 on June 2, 1896, for "Improvements in transmitting electrical impulses and signals and in apparatus there-for," effectively patenting wireless telegraphy. He was 22 years old. Marconi had conducted initial experiments at his father's estate near Bologna, Italy, but moved to England where the commercial potential was greater. He transmitted the first transatlantic radio signal from Poldhu, Cornwall, to Signal Hill, Newfoundland, on December 12, 1901, using Morse code. The achievement was initially doubted but eventually confirmed. Radio transformed maritime safety (the Titanic's distress calls in 1912 saved 710 lives), military communications, and eventually spawned the broadcasting industry. Marconi shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun.
June 2, 1896
130 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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