Guglielmo Marconi (April 1874- July 1937)

Guglielmo Marconi was a Italian physicits born in Bologna Italy. Marconi was educated privately at Bologna, Florence and Leghorn. He always took interest in physics and electricity and studied the works of Maxwell, Hertz, Righi, and Lodge. In 1985, he began to do experiments where he was successful at sending wireless signals over a distance of one and a half miles.

In 1896 he took his work to Englnad where he met William Preece, Engineer-in-Chief of the Post Office and was granted the world's first patent for his system of wireless telegraphy. He showed that his system work by establishing wireless communication in London, on the Salisbury Plain and across the Bristol Channel. In 1897, he formed the Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company Limited. In 1899, Marconi made communication between France and England possible across the English Channel. In 1901, he used his system to transmit across the Atlantic betwen Poldhu, Cornwall and St. John's, Newfoundland a distance of 2100 miles.

Marconi was honored and awarded for his scientific success. Among the most prestigous of awards was the Nobel Peace Prize for Physics in 1909. He died in Rome on July 20, 1937.

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1909/marconi-bio.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guglielmo_Marconi