Ripon Public Library

Marconi, the man who networked the world, Marc Raboy

eng

Includes bibliographical references (815-828) and index

individual biography

mapsillustrationsportraits

index present

non fiction

Marconi

bibliography

908373923

Marc Raboy

the man who networked the world

Marc Raboy gives us the first real account of Marconi's vital role as the wizard of wireless, industry developer, and consummate political insider. Raboy's impeccably researched biography will help guide histories of global media in the years aheadA little over a century ago the world went wireless. Cables and all their limiting inefficiencies gave way to a revolutionary means of transmitting news and information almost everywhere, instantaneously. By means of "Hertzian waves," as radio waves were initially known, ships could now make contact with other ships (saving lives, such as on the doomed Titanic); financial markets could coordinate with other financial markets; military commanders could connect with the front lines. Suddenly and irrevocably, time and space telescoped beyond what had been thought imaginable. Someone had not only imagined this networked world but realized it: Guglielmo Marconi. As Marc Raboy shows us in this comprehensive biography, Marconi was the first truly global figure in modern communications. Born to an Italian father and an Irish mother, he was in many ways stateless, working his cosmopolitanism to advantage. Through a combination of skill, tenacity, luck, vision, and timing, Marconi popularized--and, more critically, patented--the use of radio waves. Soon after he burst into public view with a demonstration of his wireless apparatus in London at the age of 22 in 1896, he established his Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company and seemed unstoppable. He was decorated by the Czar of Russia, named an Italian Senator, knighted by King George V of England, and awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics--all before the age of 40. Until his death in 1937, Marconi was at the heart of every major innovation in electronic communication, courted by powerful scientific, political, and financial interests, and trailed by the media, which recorded and published nearly every one of his utterances. He established stations and transmitters in every corner of the globe. Based on original research and unpublished archival materials in four countries and several languages, Raboy's book is the first to connect significant parts of Marconi's story, from his early days in Italy, to his groundbreaking experiments, to his protean role in world affairs. Raboy also explores Marconi's relationships with his wives, mistresses, and children, and examines in unsparing detail the last ten years of the inventor's life, when he returned to Italy and became a pillar of Mussolini's fascist regime. Raboy's engrossing biography proves that we still live in the world Marconi created.--Adapted from dust jacket

Prologue : Marconi in his time and ours -- pt. I. The prodigy ; Bologna : beginnings ; Priority and detractors ; London : start-up ; The magician ; New York : new frontiers ; Love and imperialism ; The upstart technology ; "The great thing" ; Newfoundland : the world shrinks -- pt. II. The player. Corralling the brand ; Regulation ; Marriage ; A life in litigation ; The Marconi aura ; A new world order ; On the way to somewhere ; The perfect laureate -- pt. III. The patriot.; The Godsend ; Signals of war ; Wireless and disaster ; "The Marconi scandal" ; The invisible weapon ; "L'eroe magico" ; The statesman ; The spark -- pt. IV. The outsider. The master of the house ; The Beam indenture ; Radio ; The merger ; The anchor -- pt. V. The conformist. A servant of the regime ; Science and Fascism ; "Your every wish is my command" ; Controlling his legacy ; The heritage ; He only cared about wireless... -- Postscript