Product Description

Gavin Weightman tells the story of how Guglielmo Marconi invented the wireless - and how it amused Queen Victoria, saved the lives of the Titanic survivors, tracked down criminals and began the radio revolution. The wireless was one of the most fabulous inventions 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 until the 1920s, by which time radio had become a sophisticated industry filling the airwaves with a cacophony of sounds - most of it American). 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #621046 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 312 pages

The Times, 26 March 2003
'Gavin Weightman's amusing history of the inventor and his invention'

Trevor Baylis, Daily Mail, 14 March 2003
'a fascinating account...I strongly recommend this book...I salute Gavin Weightman for his lucid account of the radio revolution.'

New Scientist, 15 March 2003
'Weightman's book cannot fail to spark the imagination...It is an excellent read.'

Customer Reviews

Wired
Thomas Edison, who was a man who was not easily impressed, once quipped about Guglielmo Marconi that he "delivered more than he promised." This statement demonstrates two of Marconi's most significant traits: he was modest and extremely hard working. Marconi was the first to admit that his work was based on both the theories and the inventions of others. He also acknowledged that he didn't understand the reason his own inventions worked. He believed, contrary to many of his contemporaries, that "radio" waves could travel great distances. Many other people thought the waves could not be transmitted to a receiver that was beyond the horizon line...that at longer distances the waves would travel off into outer space. Based on his own, stubborn, personal belief, with no theoretical underpinning, Marconi kept things simple: he built taller transmitters and he kept making them more powerful. His goal was to transmit electrical signals in Morse Code that could be received across the Atlantic Ocean. He eventually succeeded in this, and gained worldwide fame and popularity when wireless telegraphy, after being used by ships in distress at sea, resulted in the saving of many lives. Marconi was also an astute businessman, rather than a starry eyed inventor. (He amassed a very healthy fortune, equal perhaps to $200-$250 million today.) He was an early master of public relations- for example, using wireless to report on important yacht races, which helped to "popularize" the use of wireless (albeit, with people of "quality"...who had money to invest). Mr. Weightman doesn't ignore the less savory aspects of the inventor: Marconi's womanizing and obsession with work resulted in the termination of his first marriage; also, in later life, he got buddy-buddy with Signor Mussolini. Besides being weak on theory, Marconi also failed to see the commercial possibilities of transmitting the human voice and other sounds by wireless...in other words, radio broadcasts. That was left to others, such as Lee de Forest, to develop. While Mr. Weightman is a little lightweight on biographical depth and psychological complexity (I never quite felt I understood what made Marconi tick), he is great on interesting details...for example, he explains how wireless was used to help capture the infamous murderer Dr. Crippen, and he also tells how Orthodox Russian priests once almost destroyed Marconi equipment because they wanted to anoint it with holy water! The book is meant for the lay reader, and the scientific detail is kept to a minimum. Very enjoyable.

A Magic Book about a Magic Box
An absolutely splendid book, I couldn't put it down.