the sun does not emit an appreciable flow of radio waves; otherwise, as in the case of light, all our transmitters would be blinded by it. Just think, for example, that if we look at the sun through a radio-telescope it looks black, a shadow on the luminous radio radiation emitted by our galaxy, the Milky Way.
So we can say that Marconi was a man who had great intuition but who also had good luck: BUT WITHOUT A LITTLE BIT OF LUCK NO GREAT SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES WOULD EXIST. Fleming, for example, was a lucky man: how could he have foreseen that while he was studying the behaviour of molds he would discover penicillin.
Marconi’s first invention was the antenna-earth structure which is still well-known today. Many years of study and research, in which Marconi was certainly the pioneer, made it possible to transform the Radio into what it is today. Mention must also be made of the introduction of tuning which made it possible for several stations to transmit simultaneously on different frequencies and the introduction of the triode amplifier, discovered by the American, de Forest in 1907. In my opinion, the amplification of signals was the key to success. Today, for example, less than a century later, man has practically reached the theoretical limit of sensitivity, that is, the maximum that is theoretically possible, limited by the noise due to the thermal vibration of the electrodes in the antenna. Just think for example of the pictures transmitted by Voyager from hundreds of millions of kilometres away (the signal took hours to reach the earth) with a transmission power of little more than a torch battery (a few watts). This shows once more the profound, fundamental technological difference between electromagnetic waves and light. In other words, it is as if one could see the light of a little pocket torch shining from the limits of our solar system!
Another example is the picture of the “infant” universe, that is, when it was only 100,000 years old, preserved by radio radiation which, after having travelled for 15 billion years through empty space, is picked up and reconstructed by the COBE satellite.
The Radio and the applications that are associated with it (television, etc.) have helped to unite our planet and we have learnt to know each other better: there is no doubt that this is an important contribution towards making our world a better one.
I should like to conclude with a hope and a wish. If one day we discover that there is life and INTELLIGENT BEINGS in space, it will certainly be because another extraterrestrial Marconi has discovered the Radio out there too. In fact, it has been scientifically proved that communication between galactic civilizations, hundreds of thousands of light years apart, is possible and I WOULD SAY ONLY POSSIBLE with Radio. Today scientists scan the skies with radio telescopes searching for intelligent signals, emitted both consciously and unconsciously by another faraway civilization. (Remember the beautiful and poetic scene in Spielberg’s film: “ET-call Home”).
The discovery, thanks to the Radio, that we are not the only Intelligent Beings in the Cosmos would be the supreme example and rightful crowning of the extraordinary potential of the invention and intelligence of our Guglielmo Marconi.
FOREWORD
By Elettra Marconi
The pages you find before you reflect faithfully all the intense, fascinating life story of my mother Maria Cristina Marconi, née Bezzi Scali, beside my father Guglielmo Marconi, he who “gave a voice to silence” by inventing the Radio.
The readers of this book will not find just a technical, scientific text, referring only to historic events, but above all an absolutely truthful story in which an intelligent woman in love with her husband brings alive for the present day the experiences that characterized her exceptional life. Consequently, what stands out is my mother’s great joie de vivre and serene happiness during the whole of her unique life with Guglielmo Marconi; in fact, from the first moment he saw her my father had been struck by the sunny nature, blonde beauty and nobility of spirit of the charming Maria Cristina. His union with his beloved wife lasted beyond his lifetime.
My mother wrote down the events of those years in a diary. After my father’s death, in the peaceful moments during the summer when we were at Forte dei Marmi or Sardinia she would gaze at the sea with a thoughtful air and relive the many days she had spent sailing on board the Elettra. She used to write down her thoughts and read them to me. Her words reflected the inspiration of moments sometimes far apart from one another but always illuminated by the vivid memory of her husband; they have been left in their original form so as to offer to the reader all the intensity of the feelings which united her to him.
What my mother makes clear in these pages, apart from their personal feelings, is the genius of Guglielmo Marconi, who dedicated his whole life to the good of humanity, inaugurating a new era. With his inventions he wanted to join the continents, helping to bring peace and harmony between nations.
My mother was always very clear and incisive when she spoke out to defend her love for my father and to respect his memory but she never made any public declarations and very rarely gave interviews because this conflicted with her extremely reserved character. Initially she wanted to leave these memoirs to me as a private memento of my father. As time went by, however, having read inaccurate and sometimes completely untrue information about Guglielmo Marconi, both as a man and as a scientist, she realised that it was necessary and important to let the world know the truth. When she decided to publish her memoirs she also wanted to add, as historic evidence, some of the letters that her husband wrote to her before and after their marriage.
In accordance with my mother’s wishes and to make these pages closer to the young people who want to know and to their elders who remember my father’s greatness, for the first time since the death of Guglielmo Marconi I therefore submit to the admiration of the reader the letters that the Genius of the Radio wrote to my mother. She kept them all her life as tokens of an immense, unique, radiant love.
Sadly, she did not live to see the accomplishment of her wishes; she died in fact in July, 1994 (the same month in which my father died in l937), after 57 years of widowhood dedicated entirely to perpetuating the memory of her beloved husband. Today, as the supreme culmination of their love, my parents lie together in the crypt of Villa Griffone at Sasso Marconi (Bologna), the same country house where my father carried out his first historic experiment which saw the birth of the Radio in the spring of 1895.
My feeling is one of deep gratitude to my mother who kept her diary and wrote her memoirs so faithfully, together with profound emotion for the wonderful and sometimes dramatic experiences of my parents.
After her marriage to my father, my mother grew to know and love Britain; in fact, my father had spent many years there and he transmitted his high opinion of the British to his wife. He was delighted to see how his many British friends took Maria Cristina to their hearts, while she in her turn always spoke of these friends with affection and admiration.
This book, which I present with emotion to its readers, shows in a new and human light the greatness of two exceptional people: my father and my mother.
Rome, September 1995
INTRODUCTION
By Maria Cristina Marconi
It is difficult and moving for me to speak about my beloved Guglielmo. Many books have been written about his immense work and about his life from his adolescence to his death; but they have not always faithfully reflected the truth.
I dedicated my whole life to Guglielmo Marconi, to this man who was unique for his genius, his great sensitivity and his charm; I was always close to him with my love, helping to stimulate his natural joie de vivre and giving him that serenity that was so necessary to him.
We were united by our great desire
