Horizon Information Portal

e-branch

Home

My Account/Renew Loans

Find Magazine Articles & more

Marconi : the man who networked the world / Marc Raboy.

by Raboy, Marc, 1948-

View full image

Oxford University Press, [2016]

621.384092 M321r

Marconi, Guglielmo, 1874-1937.

Electrical engineers -- Italy -- Biography.

Inventors -- Italy -- Biography.

Telegraph, Wireless -- History.

Telegraph, Wireless -- Marconi system.

Radio -- Italy -- History.

9780199313587 (hc.)

viii, 863 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map ; 25 cm

Includes bibliographical references (pages 689-828) and index.

Prologue: Marconi in his time and ours -- Part I. The prodigy. Bologna : the beginnings ; Priority and detractors ; London : start-up ; The magician ; New York : new frontiers ; Love and imperialism ; The upstart technology ; "The great thing" ; Newfoundland : the world shrinks -- Part II. The player. Corralling the brand ; Regulation ; Marriage ; A life in litigation ; The Marconi aura ; A new world order ; On the way to somewhere ; The perfect laureate -- Part III. The patriot. The Godsend ; Signals of war ; Wireless and disaster ; "The Marconi scandal" ; The invisible weapon ; "L'eroe magico" ; The statesman ; The spark -- Part IV. The outsider. The master of the house ; The Beam indenture ; Radio ; The merger ; The anchor -- Part V. The conformist. A servant of the regime ; Science and Fascism ; "Your every wish is my command" ; Controlling his legacy ; The heritage ; He only cared about wireless....

A little over a century ago the world went wireless. Cables and all their limiting inefficiencies gave way to a revolutionary means of transmitting news and information almost everywhere, instantaneously. By means of "Hertzian waves," as radio waves were initially known, ships could now make contact with other ships (as was attempted on the doomed R.M.S. Titanic); financial markets could coordinate with other financial markets, establishing the price of commodities and fixing exchange rates; military commanders could connect with the front lines, positioning artillery and directing troop movements. Suddenly and irrevocably, time and space telescoped beyond what had been thought imaginable. Someone had not only imagined this networked world but realized it: Guglielmo Marconi. As Marc Raboy shows us in this comprehensive biography, Marconi was the first truly global figure in modern communications. Born to an Italian father and an Irish mother, he was in many ways stateless, working his cosmopolitanism to advantage. Through a combination of skill, tenacity, luck, vision, and timing, Marconi popularized-and, more critically, patented-the use of radio waves. Raboy's book is the first to connect significant parts of Marconi's story, from his early days in Italy, to his groundbreaking experiments, to his protean role in world affairs. Raboy also explores Marconi's relationships with his wives, mistresses, and children, and examines in unsparing detail the last ten years of the inventor's life, when he returned to Italy and became a pillar of Benito Mussolini's fascist regime. Raboy's engrossing biography, which will stand as the authoritative work of its subject, proves that we still live in the world Marconi created.

Horizon Information Portal 3.24_8902M

© 2001-2013 SirsiDynix All rights reserved.

Horizon Information Portal