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Marconi was born in Bologna, Italy, the second son of Giuseppe Marconi, an Italian landowner, and his Irish wife, Annie Jameson, granddaughter of the founder of the Jameson & Sons Distillery .
Although many scientists and inventors contributed to the invention of wireless telegraphy, including Oliver Lodge, Hans Christian Ørsted, Michael Faraday, Heinrich Rudolf HertzHeinrich Rudolf Hertz ( February 22, 1857 January 1, 1894), was the German physicist for whom the hertz, the SI unit of frequency, is named. In 1888, he was the first to demonstrate the existence of electromagnetic radiation by building apparatus to produ, Nikola TeslaNikola Tesla ( July 10, 1856 January 7, 1943) (Baptism name: ; Nikolaj; Name in Cyrillic alphabet: ) was a Serbian- American physicist, inventor, and electrical engineer. Tesla's most famous contribution was the theory of polyphase alternating current ele, Thomas Alva Edison, Nathan StubblefieldNathan B. Stubblefield ( 1860 March 28, 1928) was a American inventor and Kentucky melon farmer. It has been claimed that Stubblefield invented the radio before either Nikola Tesla or Guglielmo Marconi, but his device seems to have worked by induction tra, and others, Marconi's practical system achieved widespread use, so he is often credited as the "father of radio." Marconi's system was based primarily on Nikola TeslaNikola Tesla ( July 10, 1856 January 7, 1943) (Baptism name: ; Nikolaj; Name in Cyrillic alphabet: ) was a Serbian- American physicist, inventor, and electrical engineer. Tesla's most famous contribution was the theory of polyphase alternating current ele's system, publicly demonstrated during a widely known lecture titled On Light and Other High Frequency Phenomena, presented before a meeting of the National Electric Light AssociationThe National Electric Light Association (NELA) was a national trade association including the operators of central power generation stations and interested individuals. Founded in 1885 by G. Bowen Terry and Charles A. Brown, it represented the interests o in St. Louis and the Franklin InstituteThe Franklin Institute is the national memorial to Benjamin Franklin, that serves to perpetuate his legacy; the museum contains many of Franklin's personal effects. On February 5, 1824, Samuel Vaughan Merrick and William H. Keating founded The Franklin In in Philadelphia.
Marconi was awarded what is sometimes recognised as the World's first patent for Radio with British Patent 12039, Improvements in transmitting electrical impulses and signals and in apparatus there-for on July 2, 1897. In July 1897, Marconi formed the London based Wireless Telegraph Trading Signal Company (later renamed the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company), which opened the World's first "wireless" factory in Hall Street, Chelmsford, England in 1898, employing around 50 people.
He made a wireless transmission across the water from Ballycastle ( Northern Ireland) to Rathlin Island in 1898.
He received the first trans- Atlantic radio signal on December 12 1901 in St. John's, Newfoundland (now in Canada) using a 400-foot kite-supported antenna for reception. The transmitting station in Poldhu, Cornwall used a spark-gap transmitter to produce a signal with a frequency of approximately 500kHz and a power of 100 times more than any radio signal previously produced. The message received was three dots, the Morse code for the letter S. To reach Newfoundland the signal would have to bounce off the ionosphere twice. Dr. Jack Belrose has recently contested this, however, based on theoretical work as well as an actual reenactment of the experiment; he believes that Marconi heard only random atmospheric noise and mistook it for the signal.
On March 16, 1905 he married Beatrice O'Brien , daughter of Edward Donough O'Brien, 14th Baron Inchiquin , Ireland. They had three daughters, one of whom lived only a few weeks, and one son. They divorced later.
Marconi didn't achieve fully reliable transatlantic communication until 1907.
He was the founder of the Marconi corporation and the joint 1909 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics along with Karl Ferdinand Braun. During World War I, Marconi was in charge of the Italian wireless service. Marconi developed shortwave secret communication transmissions during this time.