Guglielmo Marconi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909. He received the award for his remarkable accomplishments in stretching wireless transmissions from just a signal that went across his father's country home, to one that crossed the Atlantic. In 1899, he impressed the British Government with his ability to send a wireless telegraph signal 1.25 miles. He followed that up with a 9-mile transmission, and eventually shocked the world with a wireless transmission that crossed the English Channel.

Though it was thought to be impossible for a wireless transmission to overcome the curvature of the earth, Marconi persisted, and, once again, proved successful. On December 12, 1901, using 25 kilowatts of power, he transmitted a signal from Poldhu, off the coast of Cornwall, across the Atlantic to St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada.

Marconi considered the ability to transmit a wireless signal across such vast distances to be a great benefit not just for merchants, the shipping industry, and warships, but for the people living in isolated areas around the world. During his lifetime, he saw that wireless transmissions were useful as a "means of communicating between outlying islands, and also for the ordinary purposes of telegraphic communications between villages and towns, especially in the colonies in newly developed countries." Today, some people have said similar things about the Internet.

Marconi continued his transatlantic experiments for several years. In February 1902, his experiments led to an interesting observation. While sending a signal from Poldhu to a receiver on the SS Philadelphia, he noticed that daylight had a detrimental effect on electrical waves, compared to nighttime. He noted that "for short periods at sunrise and sunset, and occasionally at other times, a shorter wave can be detected across the Atlantic in preference to the longer wave normally employed." Shortwave listeners around the world enjoy long-range communications due to the experiments and wireless technologies developed by Marconi.

In his Nobel Lecture, Marconi described his first significantly successful experiment with wireless transmission: "After a few preliminary experiments with Hertzian waves I very soon became convinced, that if these waves or similar waves could be reliably transmitted and received over considerable distances a new system of communication would become available possessing enormous advantages over flashlights and optical methods, which are so much dependent for their success on the clearness of the atmosphere." The flashlights Marconi was referring to were the flashing indicator lights used in lighthouses and on ships, not what we think of as flashlights in the US today. Still, I think it's awesome that almost 100 years ago, Marconi the radio pioneer, thought of wireless transmission and light communications at the same time.

I believe Marconi would be very pleased at all of the work being done to enhance wireless technologies and communications today.

You can learn a lot more about Marconi online at the following Web sites:

The Marconi Society
PBS Marconi Biography
Marconi's Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1909. "Wireless Telegraphic Communication"

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