then president, was inspired to send the following message to the King of England: "To His Majesty, King Edward VII, London. In taking advantage of the wonderful It must be admitted that Marconi never lacked funds necessary to carry on his experiments. He was more fortunate than many of the inventors who have given great things to the world only through personal sacrifice. However, all the money that Marconi spent would have availed him nothing had he not been equipped with inventive talent. Then, too, he never failed to take advantage of a new suggestion for an experiment which might prove practical. The marine interests were of course greatly interested in wireless development for it held out a means of communication with ships at sea. It was especially regarded as a great boon to the safety of sea travel. In 1902 the Philadelphia was equipped with Marconi apparatus and the marine use of this new instrument grew rapidly after this installation. In 1904 the first sea news service was established on the Cunard liner Campana. The passengers were daily provided with bulletins which gave them the gist of the world's news. In 1905 Marconi had no less than three hundred patents standing as a monument to his hard work and genius. In the face of even this great accomplishment it can hardly be said that Marconi was received with open arms by most of his fellow scientists in America. He was referred to as a "foreigner" and his name was seldom mentioned without having the "Signor" emphasized. It was held that Marconi was not entitled to the credit he was receiving because of the work of the many other experimenters such as Sir Oliver Lodge, Captain Jackson, R. N., F. R. S., Popoff, Muirhead, Hozier-Brown. It is true that these men did make certain contributions to radio, but they had neither the foresight nor the daring of Marconi. They had not commercialized the art and therefore made few contributions to wireless telegraphy as we know it today. In Germany, Marconi, came to be looked upon as a very dangerous Englishman, for he was providing the English war machine with an instrumentality that was not available to Germany. In an effort to stir up Washington the German minister wrote: "The efforts of the English Marconi Company to secure for its system of wireless telegraphy a world monopoly becomes apparent. Slaby, a German scientist, visited Marconi and remained in England as his official guest for several weeks. Marconi, always courteous and kindly toward his brother inventor, accorded him every convenience that he might thoroughly investigate the system as used in England at the time. Marconi made personal tours to the big stations with Slaby and took the greatest pains to point out the features of the different transmitters and receivers. Slaby took advantage of this kindness and made a very elaborate set of notes which enabled him, upon his return to Germany, to make arrangements with the German General Electric Company, for the experimental manufacture of radio telegraph equipment. Slaby's efforts failed miserably for the company could not meet the specifications of even the North German Lloyd whose contracts were filled by the Marconi interests. Marconi is not only a great inventor, he has great business acumen, and as a result he has amassed a fortune and at the present time his business interests occupy most of his attention. However he has no business affiliations in America, for the interests of the Marconi Company, in which he was a leading spirit, were absorbed a few years ago by the Radio Corpora tion of America. Marconi is conducting very few experiments these days. Practically nothing outside of the work that he is doing on his new directive means of communication with which he has been able to project waves in straight lines between two points, a feat heretofore impossible over great distances. Marconi lectured in this country on this subject in 1922 before a combined meeting of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Institute of Radio Engineers. A few years ago Marconi was the victim of an automobile accident in which he lost the sight of one of his eyes. Being of a sensitive nature he refused to make public appearances for a long time. Many honors from governments, kings and scientific societies have been conferred upon Marconi in appreciation of his accomplishments. A general realization of the importance of his work began to take form as early as 1902, when he received the Freedom of the City of Rome, a privilege that has been extended to few men. In 1904 he was made a Senator of Italy and to this day he is often referred to as Senator Marconi. However, Marconi's political affiliations and activities were always subordinated to his purely scientific interests and consequently he does not hold a position of any great importance in the political history of his mother country. During 1905, at a time when he was probably at the height of his career and when the world was greatly excited over his inventions, he was created Chevalier of the Civil Order of Savoy. He was also decorated by the Czar with the Order of St. Anne. The King of Italy later honored him with Commander of the Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus and bestowed upon him the Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy. The Spanish sovereign also recognized him and gave to him the Grand Cross of the Order of Alphonso the Twelfth. Marconi holds honorary membership in practically all of the great scientific societies of the world whose activities are related to physics. He holds the Albert Medal of the Royal Society of Arts, and in 1909 received the Nobel Prize for physics, probably the most coveted of all the awards for scientific endeavor and research. Many institutions of learning have given degrees to Marconi including the honorary D.Sc. of Oxford University and the LL.D. of the University of Glasgow. At no time in Marconi's career did he neglect the pleasures of life. He realized that hard work must be mixed with a certain amount of recreation. He is an ardent yachtsman, a cyclist, motorist and the thrill of the hunt has always appealed to him greatly. The inventions of this great genius are so numerous and so recent that we have hardly had time to form |