Abstract
One of the major accomplishments of the late nineteenth-century applied physics was, as it is well known, the development of wireless telegraphy by Guglielmo Marconi, future Nobel laureate. In this paper, we will explore what scientific debt, if any, Marconi had toward another Italian physicist, internationally well known for his research on electromagnetic waves: Augusto Righi. This question will be pursued through a close analysis of Marconi’s first patent, of Righi’s scientific correspondence and of the specialized and popular press of the time. At the end of this analysis, which includes a brief survey of Marconi and Righi’s activity as senators of the Kingdom of Italy, we will better appreciate what Marconi took from contemporary scientists, what specific contributions he is responsible for and, ultimately, what Marconi and Righi thought of each other.
Highlights
One mile awayOne of the major accomplishments of the late nineteenth century applied physics was, as it is well known, the development of wireless telegraphy
We will explore what scientific debt, if any, Marconi had toward another Italian physicist, internationally well known for his research on electromagnetic waves: Augusto Righi
In 1895, Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937), a formerly unknown youngster who “never studied physics or electrotechnics in the regular manner,” though “deeply interested in those subjects,” started doing tests and experiments at his home, near Bologna, “with the object of determining whether it would be possible by means of Hertzian waves to transmit to a distance telegraphic signs and symbols without the aid of connecting wires” [52]
Summary
One of the major accomplishments of the late nineteenth century applied physics was, as it is well known, the development of wireless telegraphy. In 1895, Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937), a formerly unknown youngster who “never studied physics or electrotechnics in the regular manner,” though “deeply interested in those subjects,” started doing tests and experiments at his home, near Bologna, “with the object of determining whether it would be possible by means of Hertzian waves to transmit to a distance telegraphic signs and symbols without the aid of connecting wires” [52] This was Marconi himself speaking, on the occasion of the Nobel lecture he delivered fourteen years later, at the time of the presentation of the Nobel Prize in Physics (jointly awarded to Marconi and Karl Ferdinand Braun) “in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy”!. Other collections of interest proved to be the “Matteucci prize” folder (AXL), where one can get important information about Righi’s attitude toward Marconi, the “Archivio Guglielmo Marconi” (Accademia dei Lincei), where some interesting notes about Marconi’s formative years are available, and the Historical Archives of the Senate of the Republic in Rome, where we consulted the personal folders and the Atti Parlamentari concerning Marconi’s and Righi’s activities, that partly took place in the same years, as senators of the Kingdom of Italy
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