MARCONI AND
HERTZ
When Marconi was 20, he and his brother
Luigi were spending their summer vacation at the little village
of  Biellese,
in the Italian Alps. While reading a scientific magazine, Marconi
came across an article, which carried detailed information about
the work of Hertz, who had died just a few months ago. Hertz was
able to send sparks from one room to the other, with nothing to
connect the separate pieces of apparatus. Marconi at once got an
inkling, "If you can send them across the room, why can’t
you send them across the ocean ?" This increased the curiosity
and for Marconi the vacation was over. Marconi was unable to sleep.
His mind repeatedly went back to Hertz. Now the time in Alps was
spent at drawing plans and diagrams, in immediate succession. Suddenly,
Marconi’s face lit up with an idea. He couldn’t believe
that hitherto, nobody had thought of such a simple and obvious thing.
He wrote, "I knew there were many clever men in the world experimenting
with waves, and I thought someone would quickly work out the problem."
But nobody was able to do it.
BACK TO WORK
On returning to Villa Griffone, he first rushed to the old attic
laboratory where his father used to store silk cocoons. The place
was now set aside for Marconi’s experiments and except for
servants, only two persons ever saw the rooms from inside, Marconi
himself and his mother Annie. Marconi collected a variety of electrical
equipment : batteries, transformers, oscillators, bells and wires.
Then night after night, while everybody slept, young Marconi kept
his light burning in the silence of December darkness, working with
the doors locked and eating practically nothing. He devoted all
his attention trying to produce a radio signal strong enough to
be detected by a very crude receiver. Finally everything was in
place for the first attempt. He pressed the key of the transmitter.
The spark flashed and buzzed. But at the receiving end nothing happened.
Something was wrong with the receiver itself. Again and again he
re-arranged the apparatus, but silence persisted indicating perhaps
some more work and investigations were required. Marconi labored
away without taking any rest, until his face had such a hollow look
that his mother became worried. At last, once again when everything
was set he called his mother to his room and this time the pressing
of the key rang an unconnected bell on the ground floor. It was
early 1895 and Marconi wrote – "I at once obtained results,
which surprised me, and which I realized were new".Later on,
Marconi increased the intervening distance, and conducted the same
experiment on the front lawn.
MOVE TO LONDON
| |
Now Marconi had something that deserved attention. But the Italian government had no faith in Marconi’s invention and refused to acknowledge it. Marconi was not one to lose hope and cleverly thought of England, which was a great naval power then. Furthermore, Marconi’s cousin, Jameson Davis was now an engineer living in London. Marconi went to Davis and there he met Sir William Precee, for whom he had a letter of introduction. Sir William invited the young man to use his own laboratory. Sir William also helped Marconi to get the British customs authorities clear his strange instruments. Sir William gave a lecture on Telegraphing Without Wires in December 1896, which revealed his complete faith in Marconi and his work. |
Meanwhile, the Italian
government insisted Marconi to enroll for three years military training
as it was compulsory for all Italian citizens even if they resided
outside Italy. Marconi, engaged in his scientific work, appealed
to Italian Embassy to accept him as a naval student in training
to facilitate his experiments in London.
|
