The first experiments with the butler in the countryside of Pontecchio, like Steve Jobs in the garage of his house in Palo Alto. The first results, from the storm warning device built at 18 to the wireless telegraphy system sketched out in 1895, considered the baptism of radio and everything that was to come – from radio broadcasting to television to cellular telephone networks. A year after the leap to London, the Silicon Valley of the late nineteenth century, to find the adequate capital to finance the invention of wireless technology, a term that would also give the name to his first company. Guglielmo Marconi was much more than an inventor: he embodies the prototype of a startupper who brought together youthful intuitions, fundraising ability – also through what today we would call “pitches”, impressive demonstrations of his creation even for the benefit of newspaper journalism. era – and the extraordinary entrepreneurship that ferried the planet from the telegraph to contemporary communication. A profile, in short, closer to those of today than to the traditional inventors of yesterday. For this reason, in view of the 150th anniversary of his birth which will fall next year – he was born in Bologna on 25 April 1874 – a tribute will be dedicated to the Nobel Prize for Physics on the stage of IT Week, the largest Italian event on technology organized by Gedi and Italian Tech on stage from 27 to 29 September at the Ogr in Turin.
The Italian Tech Week 2023 event, how to participate in the tech conference which will have guests Sam Altman (OpenAI) and Brian Chesky (Airbnb) by Pier Luigi Pisa 05 September 2023
«Already with the initial experiments in Pontecchio and then around the world – the first transatlantic transmission of a signal on 12 December 1901 was fundamental – he laid the foundations for understanding the propagation properties of electromagnetic waves which are fundamental for building the different systems radio that we use today – explains Gabriele Falciasecca, luminary of electromagnetism, professor emeritus at the University of Bologna, president of the Guglielmo Marconi Foundation for twenty years – he was the first to demonstrate this with a life of work and his activities entrepreneurs were very focused on achieving this objective. First with long waves he demonstrated that signals could be transmitted over thousands of km. Then with short waves he indicated how to develop, and developed, systems such as radio links, mobile communications, radio broadcasting, radar, radio aids for air traffic, remote controls, etc. He was not the only one to be active in this, but certainly the main protagonist.” From the first transoceanic signal, which then evolved into a regular service and which allowed many lives to be saved in the sinking of the Titanic, to the spark transmitters for communicating with colonies or ships up to the insistence on short waves through military events and the Marconi’s political career was a life marked by the thrill of discovery and continuous experimentation, record after record. A life that made history.
Interview Mario Rasetti: “We will never build a machine as complex as the human brain” by Bruno Ruffilli 05 September 2023
His story comes back to life from this month in the fantasy podcast series “Guglielmo e La Ragazza delle Onde”, produced by Radioimmaginaria for Rai in three seasons and soon available on Rai Play Sound which also celebrates Marconi to promote it among students study paths in scientific, mathematical and technological subjects. Furthermore, from October 2023 and throughout 2024, starting from the provinces of Bologna and Ravenna, a tour will start in middle and high schools in Italy to rediscover, today that everything seems obvious, the importance of discoveries and above all the ability to defend them and develop them with vision and strategy. «Marconi was a scientist and entrepreneur: in his unique person he therefore had the qualities of a developer of knowledge and an entrepreneur capable of making it profitable, this knowledge – concludes Falciasecca – perhaps someone as multifaceted as Marconi is around today too and so he must be found and helped. But in the absence of this, producers of knowledge and implementers of it must become one if everything is ultimately to be transformed into progress for the country.”
Towards ITWeek Startups, the good ones by Eleonora Chioda 25 September 2023