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Signor Marconi's Magic Box
This biography of Marconi, published by Da Capo Press in 2003, is just one in a group of science-related historical accounts that I've been working my way through of late, but stands out from the others in sheer deja vu. Before getting into that, though, let us focus first on the author's deftly accomplished goal of fitting the story of Marconi's life and the development of wireless telegraphy (along with a more than adequate treatment of the historical context) into a book of approximately 300 pages (including two small sections of well-annotated photographs).
For those not familiar with Marconi beyond his popular title as the inventor of the radio, one of the first surprises is that much of the story takes place in England and not Italy, due in no small part to the fact that Marconi's mother was Irish. Marconi was born in Bologna, Italy in 1874. He was raised there, and it was in Bologna that he laid the foundation for his future successes in the wireless business. While the existence of "Hertzian" waves was known before Marconi's work, and even though their use as a medium of communication was certainly being considered by others at the time, Marconi can be credited with key innovations that led to the first practical system of wireless telegraphy. In 1896 he traveled to England to popularize his wireless system, with the help of his mother's family connections. Thus it was England where Marconi launched his first wireless enterprise, and England remained his base of operations for the bulk of his career.
For those not familiar with the history of radio, another surprise may be how just many obstacles initially stood in the way of wireless communication. The BBC World News broadcast didn't start the day after Marconi said, "Aha!" Many of the problems stemmed from a general ignorance of the actual physics involved in radio transmission. For example, early wireless sets worked better during the night than the day (like your radio's AM tuner), and early long-distance transmitters required large amounts of power. The advantages of "short waves," much less the theoretical underpinnings, were not recognized until rather late in the story, relative to Marconi. Marconi himself had little understanding of why his "magic boxes" worked. He focused rather on mechanical innovations that increased the convenience and reliability, and therefore the commercial possibilities, of his previous successes. In this respect, Marconi was much more of a craftsman and businessman than a scientist.
By 1900 there were two companies bearing Marconi's name (the Marconi Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company, and the Marconi International Marine Company), though like the true startups they were, neither were making any money. Soon Marconi was almost completely focused on making trans-Atlantic wireless telegraphy a reality. It was near this point in the narrative that I started to see reflections of "modern" legal, political, and cultural themes.
For the curious, let's dispense with these first: Marconi was an "early adopter" of the then-recent advances in automobile technology (he was seriously injured in an automobile accident later in his life). So the book makes mention of the fact that, because of the rapid rise in the popularity of motoring, as early as 1904 the police in England were setting up "speed traps." So the next time you are yelling at the cop who just pulled you over, take a moment to consider your small but vital role in over 100 years of tradition. Also of interest, the book discusses the roots of the "broadcast" concept, some of which involved the telephone system. This leads to the mention of consumer complaints, dating back to the early 1900s, about unsolicited sales calls. I won't ask you to consider, the next time your dinner is interrupted, your small but vital role in that tradition. It's just too depressing.
In December of 1901, Marconi received in Newfoundland the first trans-Atlantic wireless telegraph signal, transmitted from one of his stations in England. At that time, the business of trans-Atlantic communications (i.e. telegraph messages) was monopolized by the small set of companies that owned undersea cables. One cable company even had a legally-defined monopoly on telegraphy in Newfoundland, a fact they quickly pointed out to Marconi, forcing him to take his business to Canada. [ed. note: Newfoundland didn't join Canada until 1949.]
As news of Marconi's accomplishment spread, cable-company stocks began to "wobble." It was assumed by many that once long-distance wireless telegraphy became widespread, the lower cost-per-message for wireless would put the cable companies out of business. Of course, that never really happened. (It's worth noting here that the revolution of radio broadcast came later. Just as no one looking at the ARPANET could see Slashdot, no one looking at the first wireless efforts could see Wolfman Jack, Howard Stern, or Rush Limbaugh.) Soon however, despite the lack of much actual commercial wireless success, "wireless mania" was spreading through parts of the world, especially in the United States. Fraudulent businesses were created, patents (legitimate and otherwise) were being granted, competing standards were leading to international political frictions, patent-infringement suits were being brought, competitors were being bought out, and amateurs were gleefully "hacking" the system. It wasn't long before government regulations were being imposed and bureaucracy was slowing down the adoption of new technologies. Hopefully you can see why all this started to feel more than just vaguely familiar. I do not want to leave anyone with the impression that Signor Marconi's Magic Box is just a depressing litany of the recurring problems of civilization. It's hardly that. Actually the fact that I was able to identify on a modern level with much of the history made an already interesting book even more interesting.
Signor Marconi's Magic Box is pretty much everything you could want in a historical biography, perhaps more. The author touches on enough aspects of the development of wireless telegraphy to keep the story fresh, including most if not all of the personalities involved, and he seems to give credit where it's due. He provides enough detail of Marconi's life to give us a good sense of the man, but not so much as to weigh down the narrative. Likewise, he provides enough technical detail to give us a sense of the technology, but not so much as to detract from the human aspects of the tale. If you are not hooked yet, please allow me brief mention of some other aspects of the story, including: forbidden love, intrigue, war, murder, shipwrecks, practical jokes, heroic deeds, another war, and international espionage. If I had to sum it all up in one sentence it would be this: Any book that contains the phrase "two-ton transformer blew up" can't be all bad.
You can purchase Signor Marconi's Magic Box: The Most Remarkable Invention of the 19th Century & the Amateur Inventor Whose Genius Sparked a Revolution from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Anyone interested in this will also like The Victorian Internet, Tom Standage, Walker and Company NY, ISBN 0802713424. It's a slim volume about the wired telegraph, with fascinating parallels to the internet's early years. Here is the Books-A-Million link.
Infuriate left and right
Subject says it all... Telsa was first.
Should be called 'Telsa's magic box' *HE* deserves the credit.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Wanna know what's really awesome? He received the first signal in Newfoundland, but, if memory serves, he SENT the first signal the other way from Cape Breton. The exact site of this location is about... Oh... One hundred feet from my chair. The Marconi Monument at Table Head is small, but cool. We get tourists from all over the world here.
I wonder whether the book gives credit to Tesla, the man that some see as the true inventor of the radio. Some background information at: http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_whoradio.html
Marconi was much more of a craftsman and businessman than a scientist.
I think the above sums up a lot about Marconi and radio. He did little more then make the Hertzian spark gap generator acceptable for trans atlantic transmissions along with a practical receiver. The transmitter technology was so primitive/disruptive that is was banned later on.
Real radio came from a handful of other inventors who don't get much credit these days. Tesla did lots of work at the same time as Marconi on modulated carrier waves for radio (the method we use today).
He shouldn't hold the title "inventor of radio", but "inventor of the radio industry".
"Marconi used Hertz's system initially, but sending the signal "S" across the Atlantic would not have been possible with that system. So it became obvious to Marconi and other experimenters of the time that Tesla's system was an efficient, powerful resonator that produced waves you could work with."
"The simple fact about Marconi's "S" is that he used the Tesla system to transmit signals and claimed that these were ideas he had developed himself."
"At the Marconi site on Cape Cod, the placards state clearly that Marconi used the Tesla oscillator to send signals."
"Marconi was a good businessman. He built the first practical equipment. And for that reason, his name is the one people remember when they think of radio."
Ken Russell is currently in production with his biopic about Tesla, the inventor of radio, AC power, and everything else in the 20th Century except toothpaste tubes and the phonograph.
"What's a Radio Picture?" - the Rocky Horror Picture Show audience
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make install -not war
No, the title means exactly what it says. Wireless telegraphy became popularized in the "at the beginning of the 1900s," but it was "invented" in the 1800s, thus it was an "Invention of the 19th Century."
I will suggest that all and sundry might enjoy "Whispers in the Air", a radio documentary about Marconi that was produced literally at the foot of the cliff in St Johns where Marconi made his historic broadcast.
RealAudio links are to be found on this page.
Chris Brookes is a wonderful award winning producer, and has also worked on documentaries about Vikings and about Reginald Fessenden, who all Canadians know beat Marconi to the punch any how.
"A Canadian, Reginald Aubrey Fessenden was the first person to prove that voices and music could be heard over the air without wires. Yet some books ignore him, others mistakenly call him an American, and one Canadian encyclopedia cites his mother as the principal founder of Empire Day but overlooks her eldest son's accomplishments. Marconi, on the other hand, is given credit for radio even though his theory on sound waves was wrong and even though he was still sending only Morse code signals when Fessenden made his first "broadcast.""
Three Squirrels
Tesla sold his patents on AC to George Westinghouse for not a lot of money. Westinghouse was prepared to pay up to 20 million. Tesla then poured his energies into wirless energy transmission and was far more innovative than others in this area. Marconi got the patent, (which was under dispute until after Tesla died, at which point he was found to hold the prior art) and the profit.
Interesting, that wireless communication was not adopted by military in WWI, but in WWII it made a critical difference. German blitzkriegs in France and Russia were possible because they embraced radio through the all chain of commands. Opposite, russian tanks (on average thechnically superior to germans) and fighters didn't have a radio in the first years of war and were massacred by german. Russians had to learn importance of the wireless communication by hard way. I don't belive in the "Internet Pearl Harbor" in the nearest decade. But in 20-30 years Gibbson-stile information warfare may be possible...
Actually, Newton and Leibniz both invented calculus independently. Newton invented it first, but Leibniz published first. Now, though, they both get credit.
But, Marconi could not have invented radio by himself, and yet Tesla is just a footnote.
Actually, Tesla did license the patent to Westinghouse for the AC motor for decent royalties, but one night Westinghouse did an RIAA move and begged Tesla to revoke his royalties, saying that the financial obligation would crush the company! Tesla thought about it and signed it in engineering spirit, giving a way millions.
Suffice to say this cramped Tesla's research, invention, and partying capacities, and he ended up dying in an NY apartment in the forties after having lived only on crackers and milk for many years and having some weird spiritual experience with a pigeon-- likely a virgin to boot (Not pulling your leg, from Tesla: Man out of Time).
I just hope the same happens to Britney Spears, NSync, etc.
RIAA:"Britney, Justin, your royalties are killing us. Just sign this form and we all might survive. Ignore the fine print selling us an option for your death by crackers and milk."
Given that film-makers went all the way out to California to escape Edison's premeditated patent lock on film projectors and equipment, and DC-power-based Edison was running ads about "deadly AC power" showcasing electric chairs to fight Westinghouse (Tesla), I'd say he definitely possessed a Machiavellical sense of brutal realism...
True, maybe Edison was just floating through the gentler Platonic realms of patents, market monopolies and bullying competitors those competitors that he couldn't crush with legislation...
...but I don't want it buried in the depths of modding.
Tesla had working, wireless voice communications a decade before Marconi even tried simple things such as Morse[1] code.
How brilliant was Tesla? Some think of him as a crackpot, but there are a few things which cannot be disputed: 1) AC: had he not worked & developed AC (not necessarily alone), Edison[2] would have been the "winner" and DC would be used, requiring a substation nearly every other city block. 2) He demonstrated mastery of other forms of power & electricity. This includes "fireballs" which have only been seen sporadically in nature and he created & displayed them at will. 3) He believed it was possible to transmit power wirelessly - imagine if he'd had time to finish that before he died in 1943? 4) The most telling statement of all: the government largely considered him to be a crackpot. If this were true, why did the government confiscate everything he owned when he died? IOW, if he was so far out in left field, why would they have done that?
[1] Because most of the people who post on Slashdot can't get spelling & punctuation correct, I'm pointing out eponymous examples requiring capitalization.
[2] Edison even tried to subvert AC: he paid the neighborhood kids to bring in cats & dogs and he electrocuted them. The animals were then used as examples of what would happen to anyone/anything who came into contact with AC - how dangerous it could be. Also, after AC was installed in the White House, the President [and and family] required the staff to flip the switches. AC accomplished what it was supposed to, but the *great* Thomas Edison stated how dangerous it was and the President couldn't take the risk of being electrocuted.