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Invented by: Guglielmo
Marconi (Radio)
Information: Guglielmo
Marconi was born near Bologna in Italy in 1847. When he was 20,
he heard about a discovery that another scientist had made. This
scientist had shown that there are invisible waves that travel
through the air. Marconi thought that it would be possible to
send messages over these waves, and start experimenting. He needed
to make two machines one which would send the messages, and one,
which received them.
His first success was in making a bell ring by sending a (wireless)
signal across a room. Later, he increased the distance that the
signals could be sent to over 3 km.
Nobody in Italy wanted to give him money to start making his machines,
so he moved to Britain and in 1901 took out a patent for them.
Here in Britain, the Post Office, the army and the navy were all
interested in his invention.
Nowadays radio is used more
for entertainment but we do still hear news bulletins and information
on it.
People had been trying to
send and receive information without using wires and cables for
a long time, but it was Marconi who actually managed it. He made
a radio wave transmitter using sparks and a receiver to pick the
waves up and turn them into electricity again. This electricity
was then turned into sound.
In 1901, he managed to send signals from England to America, although
it was in Morse code (lots of dots and dashes).
Sending speech across great distances came
much later.


Victorians Inventions Page
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