Guglielmo Marconi

Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) is often called the father of radio. Inspired by Heinrich Hertz, in 1894 he began experimenting with wireless telegraphy using spark transmitters. Unsuccessful in persuading the Italian government to adopt his system, he was able to receive English patents in 1896. Shortly thereafter he received financing and formed his own wireless telegraph company. In 1901 he transmitted signals across the Atlantic Ocean between Cornwall, England and St. Johns, Newfoundland. Marconi eventually received the Nobel Prize for physics for his accomplishments. Upon his death in Rome in 1937, radio stations throughout the world observed a two-minute period of silence in his honor.

Marconi was able to establish a successful commercial wireless telegraph service that served the United States and Europe, and he received patents for radio technology in the US and abroad. However, in 1943 the US Supreme Court invalidated one of Marconi's patents in favor of his contemporary Nikolai Tesla, equally involved in developing wireless technology.