Signor Marconi’s Magic Box: The invention that sparked the radio revolution

Signor Marconi’s Magic Box: The invention that sparked the radio revolution
Gavin Weightman

The intriguing story of how wireless was invented by Guglielmo Marconi – and how it amused Queen Victoria, saved the lives of the Titanic survivors, tracked down criminals and began the radio revolution.Wireless was the most fabulous invention of the 19th century: the public thought it was magic, the popular newspapers regarded it as miraculous, and the leading scientists of the day (in Europe and America) could not understand how it worked. In 1897, when the first wireless station was established by Marconi in a few rooms of the Royal Needles Hotel on the Isle of Wight, nobody knew how far these invisible waves could travel through the ‘ether’, carrying Morse Coded messages decipherable at a receiving station. (The definitive answer was not discovered till the 1920s, by which time radio had become a sophisticated industry filling the airwaves with a cacaphony of sounds – most of it American.)Note that it has not been possible to include the same picture content that appeared in the original print version.Marconi himself was the son of an Italian father and an Irish mother (from the Jameson whiskey family); he grew up in Italy and was fluent in Italian and English, but it was in England that his invention first caught on. Marconi was in his early twenties at the time (he died in 1937). With the ‘new telegraphy’ came the real prospect of replacing the network of telegraphic cables that criss-crossed land and sea at colossal expense. Initially it was the great ships that benefited from the new invention – including the Titanic, whose survivors owed their lives to the wireless.

Signor Marconi’s Magic Box

How an Amateur Inventor

Defied Scientists

and Began the Radio Revolution

GAVIN WEIGHTMAN

For my father

CONTENTS

Cover (#u6a168d89-b8ad-5065-b2ac-b53cec7b45cc)

Title Page (#u4ab88a8a-9cd5-542b-a492-8dcf2772d4f5)

Introduction (#u8c095e6d-7755-5790-9baf-ff870f8010ae)

1 In Darkest London (#u833818ca-b416-509e-82ef-576da931c7f4)

2 Silkworms and Whiskey (#ua07debe3-6932-561f-a1cc-2e53265fb56d)

3 Sparks in the Attic (#ubc4151fb-b51d-5d11-aa74-999082b6d36a)

4 In the Heart of the Empire (#u27f9429f-ae01-554f-bafe-609d7f1be1e8)

5 Dancing on the Ether (#u09312aa5-a46a-5345-91f7-9a9fae92bc69)

6 Beside the Seaside (#ub3b7c20c-8e17-580f-97a8-ad90e57c6b5e)

7 Texting Queen Victoria (#u483ff370-8275-55b4-8743-554273579717)

8 An American Investigates (#ucaedcabb-74dc-5541-b1d2-35b395189ca6)

9 The Romance of Morse Code (#u6a120756-b96e-5385-807c-2f284b42831a)

10 A New York Welcome (#uab177554-c817-5834-99c6-3b479045e527)

11 Atlantic Romance (#ufeb56ec4-29c1-5ea8-bbec-546bf40e07ec)

12 Adventure at Mullion Cove (#litres_trial_promo)

13 An American Forecast (#litres_trial_promo)

14 Kite-Flying in Newfoundland (#litres_trial_promo)

15 The Spirits of the Ether (#litres_trial_promo)

16 Fishing in the Ether (#litres_trial_promo)

17 The End of the Affair (#litres_trial_promo)

18 Farewell the Pigeon Post (#litres_trial_promo)

19 The Power of Darkness (#litres_trial_promo)

20 The Hermit of Paignton (#litres_trial_promo)

21 The King’s Appendix (#litres_trial_promo)

22 The Thundering Professor (#litres_trial_promo)

23 A Real Colonel Sellers (#litres_trial_promo)

24 Defeat in the Yellow Sea (#litres_trial_promo)

25 A Wireless Rat (#litres_trial_promo)

26 Dazzling the Millions (#litres_trial_promo)

27 ‘Marky’ and his Motor (#litres_trial_promo)

28 On the American Frontier (#litres_trial_promo)

29 Marconi gets Married (#litres_trial_promo)

30 Wireless at War (#litres_trial_promo)

31 America’s Whispering Gallery (#litres_trial_promo)

32 A Voice on the Air (#litres_trial_promo)

33 The Bells of Budapest (#litres_trial_promo)

34 Wireless to the Rescue (#litres_trial_promo)

35 Dynamite for Marconi (#litres_trial_promo)

36 Le Match Dew-Crippen (#litres_trial_promo)

37 A Marriage on the Rocks (#litres_trial_promo)

38 Ice and the Ether (#litres_trial_promo)