MARCONI
"My native country," said Tony, speaking very slowly in an effort to get
the construction of his sentences in accordance with Bill's coaching and
as per his written arrangement, "is Italy; my adopted country is
America. I say both with pride, and therefore you can imagine with what
delight I speak about one of the greatest of Italians and one of the
greatest among the scientists of the world, to Americans who perhaps
most appreciate and make use of his discoveries.
"Guglielmo Marconi lived not far from Bologna. His father's estate is
called 'Villa Griffone.' Not far from these many acres was my former
home, and my father, who is a little older than Signor Marconi, knew him
well, as well indeed as anyone might know one who was from boyhood a
rather shy, retiring fellow, with a mind given over largely to
mechanical experiments and caring very little for playfellows.
"Signor Marconi, the elder, was proud of his son's tendencies and gave
him mechanical toys when Guglielmo was only a little fellow. His mother
was a beautiful English or Irish lady and she also encouraged her son in
his tastes. Electricity had a strange fascination for the boy and as he
grew older and began to grasp the theories and methods employed in its
use he addressed himself more and more to electrical phenomena, never
being content with mere performances, but being eager to know the
precise methods of application and effect.
"At first Guglielmo had tutors and he led them a merry chase to keep up
with his questions. Then, when still young, he was sent to an advanced
school in Leghorn, later entering the University at Bologna. But with
all that he learned of theory and practice concerning what had become
his hobby, he obtained more knowledge at home, for his investigations
were not along discovered routes, but in new fields.
"When Guglielmo was only sixteen his father had provided him with all
the instruments and apparatus he could wish for and he knew no handicaps
of this kind.
"In this country a poor boy, without social hindrances, has an equal
chance with a rich lad. In my native land, in Europe I think, the lad
with means has a better opportunity. Here you have many great men in
every walk of life who have been poor, but over there that is a rare
thing. Wealth brings opportunity and quick recognition. Guglielmo had
this advantage, but if he had not also possessed an earnest, painstaking
and brilliant mind he could have gained no distinction. Most of his
acquaintances led pleasure-loving, easy, indolent lives and he could
have done the same thing. Therefore, what credit is due Guglielmo for
the great success he has achieved!
"While Guglielmo was still in his teens he turned his father's estate
into a vast laboratory and experimenting station. His great success
seemed to come from using all outdoors as his workshop.
"In this way he learned the magic of sound waves and vibrations, so that
he could send his 'telegrams' without a wire. His first experiments were
for only a few yards. Then he made the distance longer and longer,
little by little, till at the end of five years of constant, persevering
trial, with thousands of failures to be sure, he sent an air message two
miles.
"Of course, people made fun of him. They thought he was a crank, if not
downright crazy and said that his father was very foolish indeed to
encourage him in wasting so much time and money in a way that every
person with common sense could see was worse than merely simple.
"Guglielmo set his rude transmitting apparatus on a pole on one side of
a field and on the other side a corresponding pole was set up and
connected with a receiving apparatus.
"The young inventor's interest must have been keen and his hopes high as
he sat and watched for the tick of his recording instrument, that he
knew should come from the spark sent across the field. Weeks had been
spent in the building of these instruments, now to be tested.
"Suddenly the Morse sounder began to record the distant transmission and
the boy's heart gave an exultant bound--the first wireless message had
been sent and received.
"Many experiments followed. Varying heights of poles were used and it
was found that the distance could be increased in proportion to the
altitude of the poles.
"In these first experiments of the young inventor he used practically
the same methods that he employs to-day. The transmitting apparatus
consisted of electric batteries, an induction coil by which the force of
the current is increased, a telegrapher's key to make and break the
circuit. Batteries were connected with the induction coil and the
telegrapher's key was placed between the battery and the coil.
"One spark made a single dot, a stream of sparks the dash of the Morse
telegraphic code, and with this crude apparatus, sometimes failing to
record the signals, Marconi labored with growing faith. He knew he was
on the right track and persevered. When he had succeeded in sending a
message two miles through the air, Guglielmo determined that it could be
two hundred, or two thousand miles, but he chose a shorter distance to
prove his theory. He went to the English Channel and before long the
world was astounded to learn that this young stranger and experimenter
had sent a wireless message over thirty miles. A little later dispatches
were sent through the air across the English Channel and received from
the Isle of Wight to Land's End, more than one hundred and eighty miles
distant.
"This youth, twenty-one years old, had succeeded in accomplishing a feat
the possibilities of which can hardly yet be conceived. Then Marconi
came to London to upbuild and link nation to nation more closely. He was
well received in England and began his further work with all the
encouragement possible. A series of tests followed that were astounding.
Messages were sent through walls, houses, through hill and dale, proving
beyond a doubt that the electric waves penetrate everything.
"A few years later, when Marconi was twenty-four, he made wireless
reports of the Kingston regatta for evening papers in Dublin, Ireland.
This attracted Queen Victoria's attention at her summer residence at
Osborne House, also on the Isle of Wight. At this time the Prince of
Wales, who afterward became King Edward the Seventh, was ill on his
yacht. This was soon connected with the Queen's summer castle and one
hundred and fifty messages passed between the suffering prince and his
royal mother.
"All these wireless marvels--they seemed miracles then--made William
Marconi world-famous before he finished his twenty-fifth year.
"But Guglielmo--I like the Italian pronunciation of his name better,"
continued Tony, "for I am afraid, if I did geeve the English form, I
should turn it into Beel." He smiled at our hero who had come down from
the platform to a front seat and sat listening intently, and Bill Brown
shook his head deprecatingly.
"Guglielmo did not cease with these triumphs. No, not he. He saw success
only in greater distances and he went at this problem with his usual
quiet determination. He made no announcements, but sailed for the Island
of Newfoundland and there he set up his instruments in an old barracks
at the mouth of the harbor near St. Johns. In a few days his
preparations were made, quite secretly. His plans were communicated to
no one, except his assistants, for he knew there would be the general
skepticism concerning his effort to send wireless messages across the
Atlantic Ocean, but he felt assured of success. A transmitting station
had been established near Poldhu, Cornwall, the southwestern point of
England. The aerial wires were on masts two hundred and ten feet high.
"As an aerial Guglielmo sent up a large kite made of bamboo and silk,
flown on a wire, of course; the wind increased, snapping the wire and
blowing the kite into the ocean. Thereupon Guglielmo used a balloon
filled with hydrogen gas and sent it up when the weather was clear, but
the balloon broke away and disappeared.
"It was on December 12, 1901 that he sent up another kite. This held at
an elevation of nearly four hundred feet, and then, after having cabled
his assistants to begin sending certain signals previously agreed upon,
at a certain hour in the afternoon and continuing until night, Guglielmo
made allowance for the difference in time and sat with the telephone
receiver at his ear, listening, wondering, hopeful. It must have been a
moment of almost painful expectation. He looked out from his position
high on the cliff and could see the dim, rocky outlines of Cape Spear,
the most eastern point of the North American continent. Beyond this
rolled the blue Atlantic, two thousand miles across which was the coast
of the British Isles. Only two persons were present in the old
barrack-room besides the inventor. There were no reporters--no one had
been apprised of the attempt. Marconi's faith in the success of his
experiment was unshaken. He believed from the first that he would get
signals across the great stretch of ocean.
"Suddenly there was the sharp click of the instrument that could only
come from some electric disturbance; but it was not the signal. Marconi,
without excitement, asked Mr. Kemp, the assistant, to take the telephone
receiver connected with the instrument and listen for a time. A moment
later, faintly, yet distinctly and unmistakably, came the three clicks
indicating the dots of the letter S, according to the Morse code, the
signal that had been agreed upon with the assistants on the English
coast. A few minutes later more signals came and the inventor and his
assistant assured themselves again and again that there could be no
mistake. Thus was tested successfully one of the great scientific
discoveries.
"Then the achievement was given to the public, after two days of
repeated signaling. The honors that were at once heaped upon Marconi
would have turned the head of anyone less modest and sane. From every
quarter of the world came plaudits. The cable company, fearing injury to
its business, demanded that he cease operations in its territory, which
was a high compliment, indeed. The people of the Colony of Newfoundland
honored him, wondering at his youth; he was then only twenty-seven, but
an experimenter of wide knowledge.
"Such was the practical achievement upon a great discovery reached by
Marconi the Italian and now, more correctly, the cosmopolitan. Though he
still makes his home in his native land, he belongs to all countries, to
all oceans, for it is everywhere now that his great discovery is made
use of. No need for me to mention the present day uses of wireless
telegraphy and radio communication aided greatly by the inventions of
others. But it is to Marconi these owe their initial adoption."