Guglielmo Marconi died in Rome on July 20, 1937, exactly eighty years ago, of a heart attack. A great protagonist of the early 900s disappears with him. We owe to him (even if he was not the only one!) The enormous development of the telecommunications world.
Marconi - self-taught - carries out the first experiments on the transmission of radio waves. Immediately realizing the potential of the discoveries, he addressed by letter to the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, led by the honorable Pietro Lacava. His request for help is stamped with a "alla Longara", in the sense of "to be sent to a mental hospital"!
This is the first time that Marconi has been confronted with the obtuseness of the Italian political world, as short-sighted as it is today. The incident led him to apply for a patent at the London offices in 1896, where he also began to collaborate with the Admiralty and with several newspapers.
In the 1897, in London and not in Rome, the Wireless Telegraph Trading Signal Company. It could have gone differently, perhaps, but of "if" and "but" the story is dotted ...
Performs military service at the London Embassy since November 1 1900 and then is transferred to Italy and dismissed the 1 November 1901. A few years later, the 10 December of the 1909 Marconi receives the Nobel Prize.
The 19 June 1915, former senator of the Kingdom of Italy from 30 December 1914, enlisted in the Royal Army with the rank of lieutenant of complement of the Genius.
The 27 July 1916 is promoted to captain.
He served in the Radiotelegraphic Institute of the Navy and on 31 August 1916 he passed through the Regia Marina with the rank of lieutenant captain. On 1 November 1919 he was discharged. In 1920 he was promoted to the rank of retired frigate captain. In 1931 he was promoted to the rank of captain of a retired vessel.
In the 1933 Guglielmo Marconi shows some of his senior officers a new invention. This is a device that detects the presence of metal objects in the vicinity, or the prototype of the radar. Once again nobody recognizes his genius and where to continue the experiments with his own strength.
His ideas could have been very useful to a nation that was soon to enter the war.
On 20 July 1937 he died at the age of 63.
The King Vittorio Emanuele III of Savoy recognized its merits and with the law n. 276 of the 28 / 3 / 1938 decreed that: "The day 25 April is the anniversary of the birth of Guglielmo Marconi, it is declared, to all effects, day of civil solemnity ", law no longer in force today, repealed with the decree-law 22 December 2008, n. 200 "Urgent measures on regulatory simplification" published in the Official Journal no. 298 of 22 December 2008 - Suppl. Ordinary no. 282 / L.
On the eightieth anniversary of his death, honor Guglielmo Marconi: an Italian genius!
