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

Weightman, Gavin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0306812754 ISBN 13: 9780306812750

Publisher: Da Capo Press Inc, 2003

Synopsis

One hundred years after the historic first transatlantic radio transmission, the extraordinary and often bizarre story of an amateur inventor and his "magic box". 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 workedit 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.

About this title

About the Author

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Da Capo Press Inc
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0306812754
• ISBN 13: 9780306812750
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336