Signor Marconi’s Magic Box: The invention that sparked the radio revolution (Text Only)

Gavin Weightman

HarperCollins UK, Mar 29, 2012 - Biography & Autobiography - 336 pages

The intriguing story of how wireless was invented by Guglielmo Marconi – and how it amused Queen Victoria, saved the lives of the Titanic survivors, tracked down criminals and began the radio revolution.

Wireless was the most fabulous invention of the 19th century: the public thought it was magic, the popular newspapers regarded it as miraculous, and the leading scientists of the day (in Europe and America) could not understand how it worked. In 1897, when the first wireless station was established by Marconi in a few rooms of the Royal Needles Hotel on the Isle of Wight, nobody knew how far these invisible waves could travel through the ‘ether’, carrying Morse Coded messages decipherable at a receiving station. (The definitive answer was not discovered till the 1920s, by which time radio had become a sophisticated industry filling the airwaves with a cacaphony of sounds – most of it American.)

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Marconi himself was the son of an Italian father and an Irish mother (from the Jameson whiskey family); he grew up in Italy and was fluent in Italian and English, but it was in England that his invention first caught on. Marconi was in his early twenties at the time (he died in 1937). With the ‘new telegraphy’ came the real prospect of replacing the network of telegraphic cables that criss-crossed land and sea at colossal expense. Initially it was the great ships that benefited from the new invention – including the Titanic, whose survivors owed their lives to the wireless.

Contents

• In Darkest London: 1
• Silkworms and Whiskey: 10
• Sparks in the Attic: 16
• Dancing on the Ether: 25
• Beside the Seaside: 35
• An American Investigates: 44
• IO A New York Welcome: 58
• Atlantic Romance: 66
• An American Forecast: 82
• KiteFlying in Newfoundland: 88
• Fishing in the Ether: 100
• The End of the Affair: 108
• Farewell the Pigeon Post: 115
• The Power of Darkness: 121
• The Hermit of Paignton: 128
• The Kings Appendix: 132
• The Thundering Professor: 142
• A Real Colonel Sellers: 151
• Defeat in the Yellow Sea: 161
• A Wireless Rat: 167
• Dazzling the Millions: 172
• Marky and his Motor: 178
• On the American Frontier: 186
• Marconi gets Married: 191
• Wireless at War: 198
• Americas Whispering Gallery: 202
• A Voice on the Air: 206
• The Bells of Budapest: 211
• Wireless to the Rescue: 219
• Dynamite for Marconi: 225
• Le Match DewCrippen: 230
• A Marriage on the Rocks: 236
• Ice and the Ether: 242
• Its a CQD Old Man: 247
• After the Titanic: 253
• The Crash: 260
• The Suspect Italian: 268
• Eclipse of Marconi on the Eiffel Tower: 277
• In Bed with Mussolini: 281
• EPILOGUE: 289
• INDEX: 293

About the author

Gavin Weightman is an experienced television documentary-maker (producer/director/writer), journalist and author of many books such as The Making of Modern London: 1815–1914, The Making of Modern London: 1914–1939, London River, Picture Post Britain and Rescue: A History of the British Emergency Services (Boxtree). His first book for HarperCollins, The Frozen Water Trade, was published in February 2002

Bibliographic information

• Title: Signor Marconi’s Magic Box: The invention that sparked the radio revolution (Text Only)
• Author: Gavin Weightman
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK, 2012
• ISBN: 0007402252, 9780007402250
• Length: 336 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Science & Technology; History / Europe / General; History / Expeditions & Discoveries; Science / General; Science / History; Science / Philosophy & Social Aspects; Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social; Social Science / Anthropology / Physical; Technology & Engineering / History; Technology & Engineering / Inventions; Technology & Engineering / Radio