Signor Marconi's Magic Box: The Most Remarkable Invention Of The 19th Century & The Amateur Inventor Whose Genius Sparked A Revolution

by Gavin Weightman

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306813788
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	09/22/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	1,102,751
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

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.

Table of Contents

	List of Illustrations	ix
	Acknowledgements	xiii
	Introduction	xv
	Map: Marconi's Early Wireless Telegraph Stations	xviii
1	In Darkest London	1
2	Silkworms and Whiskey	10
3	Sparks in the Attic	16
4	In the Heart of the Empire	21
5	Dancing on the Ether	25
6	Beside the Seaside	35
7	Texting Queen Victoria	39
8	An American Investigates	44
9	The Romance of Morse Code	49
10	A New York Welcome	58
11	Atlantic Romance	66
12	Adventure at Mullion Cove	71
13	An American Forecast	82
14	Kite-Flying in Newfoundland	88
15	The Spirits of the Ether	93
16	Fishing in the Ether	100
17	The End of the Affair	108
18	Farewell the Pigeon Post	115
19	The Power of Darkness	121
20	The Hermit of Paignton	128
21	The King's Appendix	132
22	The Thundering Professor	142
23	A Real Colonel Sellers	151
24	Defeat in the Yellow Sea	161
25	A Wireless Rat	167
26	Dazzling the Millions	172
27	'Marky' and his Motor	178
28	On the American Frontier	186
29	Marconi gets Married	191
30	Wireless at War	198
31	America's Whispering Gallery	202
32	A Voice on the Air	206
33	The Bells of Budapest	211
34	Wireless to the Rescue	219
35	Dynamite for Marconi	225
36	Le Match Dew-Crippen	230
37	A Marriage on the Rocks	236
38	Ice and the Ether	242
39	'It's a CQD, Old Man'	247
40	After the Titanic	253
41	The Crash	260
42	The Suspect Italian	268
43	Eclipse of Marconi on the Eiffel Tower	277
44	In Bed with Mussolini	281
	Epilogue	289
	Index	293

Editorial Reviews

[A] lively saga...Weightman's vivid narrative not only chronicles Marconi's success, it captures the enthusiasm and competitive drive that made it possible.
— Four-Star Review, Sept/Oct 2003

Book Magazine

A great read about one of the greatest amateur inventors of all time.
— August 18, 2003

Columbus Dispatch

Weightman does a magnificent job of painting a social history of technology in the late Victorian age...A masterly job.

Christian Science Monitor

Weightman has given us a lively biography of a remarkable man and is fascinating era of ingenious scientific discoveries...One of the world's great stories.

Providence Journal

A fascinating story of the creation and early development of what, to many, was considered the most important invention of the 19th century.

Roanoke Times

This well-researched micro-history is best described as a coming-of-age story...Weightman sets scenes with color and wit...Engaging.

USA Today

Interesting and well-written...gives an excellent feeling of this exciting period when the technologies that we take for granted were just getting off the ground.
—9/2/03

Technology & Society

A definitive reference on nineteenth-century inventors concerned with telegraphy...intriguing.
—9/5/03

Curled Up With a Good Book

Weightman takes readers back to a time when people lived literally in the dark and examines how a young boy's fascination with electricity would change the world.
—9/6/03

Science News

The excitement of these early days of radio is wonderfully caught...excellent reading...often hard to put down.
—9/9/03

Boston Globe

Dapper, aristocratic Guglielmo Marconi doesn't fit the typical inventor stereotype: he lacked wild hair, wasn't absentminded, wore debonair-looking hats and frequently wooed women when traveling by ship. Yet Marconi's aptitude for technology led him to become the father of wireless telegraphy and radio. Born in 1874 to an Italian father and an Irish mother, Marconi was always fascinated by the nascent technology of electricity and, as a young man, was struck by the idea that he could transmit telegraph messages-then carried by cables-through the air. At a crowded London meeting hall in 1896, he made a dramatic public demonstration of his idea by sending a current from one innocuous-looking box to a receiver he carried around the hall with him, causing it to ring: "No messages were being sent at all-just an invisible electronic signal. But in 1896 that was sensational enough," writes documentary filmmaker and journalist Weightman. Like many other great inventions, wireless was being pursued at the same time by a number of different inventors, including some shameless charlatans-some of whom, like the delightfully crooked Abraham White, give Weightman's dry book some desperately needed spark-and a great deal of Weightman's text is about the juggling for position among the inventors and their respective companies around the turn of the century. Although Weightman has his hands on an extremely exciting subject, there is precious little life to his writing, and even exciting episodes, like the sending of an early type of wireless distress signal from the sinking Titanic, fail to engage. Photos. Agent, Charles Walker. (Sept. 1) Forecast: Weightman's previous work, The Frozen-Water Trade, was a Book Sense pick. That distinction, along with a print ad campaign, could stir up sales for Marconi. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

A documentary filmmaker and journalist, Weightman (The Frozen-Water Trade) uses the fascinating story of Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) and his amazing "magic box" to recount the early days of wireless technology, beginning with the first public demonstration of Marconi's wireless telegraph in 1896 and ending with his death, which coincided with the first television broadcasts. In 44 succinct chapters, Weightman follows Marconi's invention from the early days through numerous other firsts, including the all-important first transatlantic wireless signal (the Morse letter "S") from Poldhu, England, to Newfoundland. The author incorporates just enough of Marconi's personal life to add further interest to an already intriguing era. The Marconi method, using electromagnetic waves generated by a spark, was based on James Clark Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism and the layers of Earth's atmosphere-ironically something Marconi never completely understood. Less a fully developed biography than a history of wireless technology heavily focused on the critical role of Marconi, Weightman's tale nicely updates biographies by W.P. Jolly and Orrin Dunlap. Highly recommended for academic and public libraries.-Dale Farris, Groves, TX Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

A middling account of Guglielmo Marconi’s development of the "wireless telegraph"—the radio. Whether that invention is the "most fabulous" of the 19th century is most arguable, of course, and radio would not come into its own until well into the 20th. Still, British journalist Weightman (The Frozen Water Trade, 2003) offers a bright portrait of Marconi, who, with the patronage of English scientists (the Italian government having had no interest in his work), demonstrated in 1896 that somehow, through processes he didn’t quite understand at the time, electrical impulses could be captured in his "magic boxes" and made to sound tones. Marconi’s London audience perceived the event, Weightman writes, as something akin to magic: "It was like some fantastic act at a music hall. In fact, those present might easily have dismissed the demonstration as the work of a magician and his assistant, for the young man had a suspiciously exotic Italian name, although he looked and talked like a smart Londoner about town." Only later did Marconi realize that these signals could be charged with meaning, by which time he was in competition with several other inventors to establish standards and networks for the "wireless telegraph" and reap the rewards. Those inventors, among them Robert Marriott and Reginald Fessenden, were performing wonders in the early 1900s, establishing radio links between distant points, and the Marconi Company had its work cut out for it just keeping up with these rivals. Still, Weightman notes, when the Titanic sank in 1912 it sent out not the "SOS" of those competitors, but the Marconi system’s "CQD"—"seek you, distress." And, for all his struggles, Marconi died wealthy andworld-renowned—though, sadly, an apologist and de facto ambassador for the Mussolini regime. Pleasant reading for students of technological history, but radio buffs may be disappointed with Weightman’s light treatment of technical matters.

Kirkus Reviews