Marconi, Guglielmo. Noted electrical engineer, and pioneer inventor of wireless telegraphy. Born in Griffone, near Bologna, in 1874. His father was Italian, his mother was Irish. He was educated at Leghorn and Bologna Universities. It was at Bologna that his system of wireless telegraphy first attracted attention. In 1896, Marconi visited England and, with his invention, sent messages across the Bristol Channel from Penarth, near Cardiff, to Weston-super-Mare. He afterwards set up installations of wireless telegraphy between the South Foreland and the East Goodwin light-vessel, the South Foreland and Wimereux in France, Harwich, and Chelmsford. His system was definitely adopted by the Admiralty in 1900. In December, 1901, Marconi succeeded in communicating across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1902 he set up a station at Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, and in October, 1907, began a public service of wireless telegraphy across the Atlantic. Received Nobel prize for physics, 1909.

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