In December 1908, Italian inventor and engineer Guglielmo Marconi wrote an article for The Engineer about his invention of wireless telegraphy, work for which he and fellow inventor Karl Ferdinand Braun shared the 1909 Nobel prize in physics.
“The discoveries connected with the propagation of electric waves over long distances, and the practical applications of telegraphy through space, which have gained for me the supreme honour of sharing the Nobel prize for Physics, have been to a great extent the result of one another,” wrote Marconi.
Anniversary paper. This is a super example of clarity and simplicity in explaining his Nobel prize winning achievement. It is amazing just how fast communications have advanced: a generation ago even TV from Europe was unreliable and mobile phones were still to come, we used to be out of communications for days on end when working abroad – until we could access a telex machine…. who remembers them?
One small step for man, one giant leap for wireless technology. Inventors do not receive the recognition or financial benefits that they deserve. It usually takes so long to perfect the invention, the patents have expired or lapsed, nothing has changed.