Signor Marconi's Magic Box : The Most Remarkable Invention of the 19th Century and the Amateur Inventor Whose Genius Sparked a Revolution

by Weightman, Gavin

• ISBN13: 9780306812750
• ISBN10: 0306812754
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-08-01
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Summary

The world at the turn of the twentieth century was in the throes of "Marconi-mania"-brought on by an incredible invention that no one could quite explain, and by a dapper and eccentric figure (who would one day win the newly minted Nobel Prize) at the center of it all. At a time when the telephone, telegraph, and electricity made the whole world wonder just what science would think of next, the startling answer had come in 1896 in the form of two mysterious wooden boxes containing a device one Guglielmo Marconi had rigged up to transmit messages "through the ether." It was the birth of the radio, and no scientist in Europe or America, not even Marconi himself, could at first explain how it worked...it just did. And no one knew how far these radio waves could travel, until 1903, when a message from President Theodore Roosevelt to the king of England flashed from Cape Cod to Cornwall clear across the Atlantic.Here is a rich portrait of the man and his era-and a captivating tale of science and scientists, business and businessmen. There are stories of British blowhards, American con artists-and Marconi himself: a character par excellence, who eventually winds up a virtual prisoner of his worldwide fame and fortune.

Author Biography

Gavin Weightman is a documentary filmmaker, a journalist, and the author of The Frozen-Water Trade, a Book Sense 76 selection. He lives in London.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. ix
Acknowledgements	p. xiii
Introduction	p. xv
Map: Marconi's Early Wireless Telegraph Stations	p. xviii
In Darkest London	p. 1
Silkworms and Whiskey	p. 10
Sparks in the Attic	p. 16
In the Heart of the Empire	p. 21
Dancing on the Ether	p. 25
Beside the Seaside	p. 35
Texting Queen Victoria	p. 39
An American Investigates	p. 44
The Romance of Morse Code	p. 49
A New York Welcome	p. 58
Atlantic Romance	p. 66
Adventure at Mullion Cove	p. 71
An American Forecast	p. 82
Kite-Flying in Newfoundland	p. 88
The Spirits of the Ether	p. 93
Fishing in the Ether	p. 100
The End of the Affair	p. 108
Farewell the Pigeon Post	p. 115
The Power of Darkness	p. 121
The Hermit of Paignton	p. 128
The King's Appendix	p. 132
The Thundering Professor	p. 142
A Real Colonel Sellers	p. 151
Defeat in the Yellow Sea	p. 161
A Wireless Rat	p. 167
Dazzling the Millions	p. 172
'Marky' and his Motor	p. 178
On the American Frontier	p. 186
Marconi gets Married	p. 191
Wireless at War	p. 198
America's Whispering Gallery	p. 202
A Voice on the Air	p. 206
The Bells of Budapest	p. 211
Wireless to the Rescue	p. 219
Dynamite for Marconi	p. 225
Le Match Dew-Crippen	p. 230
A Marriage on the Rocks	p. 236
Ice and the Ether	p. 242
'It's a CQD, Old Man'	p. 247
After the Titanic	p. 253
The Crash	p. 260
The Suspect Italian	p. 268
Eclipse of Marconi on the Eiffel Tower	p. 277
In Bed with Mussolini	p. 281
Epilogue	p. 289
Index	p. 293
Table of Contents provided by Rittenhouse. All Rights Reserved.