IntroductionOn 16th April 1864 Giuseppe Marconi, a landowner from Bologna in Northern Italy married Irish-born Annie Jameson. Their second son Guglielmo Marconi was born on 25 April 1874 in Bologna and educated in Florence and in Livorno where his mother had family. At the turn of the century Marconi was one of only a small number of pioneers - each working along similiar lines albeit independently - who had the foresight and intellect to understand the workings of wireless signals and to realise their potential. Marconi's own system would prove to be the first viable and effective method of wireless communication.
In 1912 wireless operators Jack Phillips and Harold Bride aboard the Titanic used a Marconi wireless set to summon urgent assistance. Over fifteen hundred lives were lost, but 705 survivors were rescued by the Carpathia. Wireless telegraphy remains one of the greatest technological achievements. Marconi is rightly recognised as one of the foremost scientists of the twentieth century.