Milestones:Marconi's Early Experiments in Wireless Telegraphy, 1895 and Milestones:Revoked: Difference between pages

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Marconi's Early Wireless Experiments, 1895

Salvan, Switzerland - 26 September 2003 - IEEE Switzerland Section

Marconi's Early Wireless Experiments use this one for actual milestone page.jpg

On this spot in 1895, with local assistance, Guglielmo Marconi carried out some of the first wireless experiments. He first transmitted a signal from this "Shepherdess Stone" over a few meters and later, following one and a half months of careful adjustments, over a distance of up to one and a half kilometers. This was the beginning of Marconi´s pivotal involvement in wireless radio.

The plaque can be viewed in the town of Salvan, Switzerland, attached to the famous Shepherdess Stone.

The village of Salvan, Switzerland was known in the last years of the 19th century as a health resort. Located in the southwest of Switzerland in the Swiss Alps, very close to the France border, it was accessible only by a narrow mule path, nicknamed "route de Mont". Marconi, at the age of 21, visited Salvan in the Summer of 1895. It was suggested that he visited the resort to treat a respiratory ailment.

Marconi's equipment consisted of a battery, a Ruhmkorff induction coil, a Righi spark generator and an antenna. His goal: transmit a signal without a metallic connection. He set up his experiments on Pierre Bergère (the Shepherdess Stone). Marconi was operating the transmitter, and a young assistant*, a resident of Salvan, began to move the receiver, which sounded a bell, farther away. First the distance was approximately four or five meters. The final distance in which the experiment worked was approximately one and a half kilometers. Each time the bell sounded the young assistant would hold up a red flag; when it did not he would hold up a white flag. (The accounts of the actual distance vary.) These experiments continued for several weeks.

Marconi only spent a short time in Salvan, then returned to Italy. The following year he filed the original patent on his invention in London.

Much of this information was obtained some 70 years after the event, from the young assistant, Maurice Gay-Balmaz, who was 10 years old at the time of the experiment.

Map

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-''MARCONI’S EARLY EXPERIMENTS IN WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY, 1895 In this garden, after the experiments carried out between 1894 and 1895 in the “Silkworm Room” in the attic of Villa Griffone, Guglielmo Marconi connected a grounded antenna to its transmitter. With this apparatus the young inventor was able to transmit radiotelegraphic signals beyond a physical obstacle, the Celestini hill, at a distance of about two kilometres. The experiment heralded the birth of the era of wireless communication.''
+== Marconi's Early Wireless Experiments, 1895  ==
-''MARCONI’S EARLY EXPERIMENTS IN WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY, 1895 On this hill, during the summer of 1895, the radiotelegraphic signals sent by Guglielmo Marconi from the garden of Villa Griffone were received. The reception was communicated to Marconi with a gunshot. This event marked the beginning of the new era of wireless communication''
+Salvan, Switzerland - 26 September 2003 - [[IEEE Switzerland Section History|IEEE Switzerland Section]]
-The plaques may be viewed at the two sites in which Marconi carried out his first experiments: in the garden of Villa Griffone (his family home, now the site of the Fundazione Guglielmo Marconi), where Marconi transmitted his wireless signals, and beyond the Celestini hill, where those signals were received. Villa Griffone, Marconi's family home in the second half of the 19th century, is now the site of the Guglielmo Marconi Foundation and of the Marconi Museum, which includes the young Marconi's laboratory, on the upper floor of the villa.
+[[Image:Marconi's Early Wireless Experiments use this one for actual milestone page.jpg|thumb]]
-<br> The two plaques can be viewed at the two sites in which Marconi carried out his first experiments: in the garden of Villa Griffone (his family home, now the site of the Fundazione Guglielmo Marconi), where Marconi transmitted his wireless signals, and beyond the Celestini hill, where those signals were received. Villa Griffone, Marconi's family home in the second half of the 19th century, is now the site of the Guglielmo Marconi Foundation and of the Marconi Museum, which includes the young Marconi's laboratory, on the upper floor of the villa.
+''On this spot in 1895, with local assistance, [[Guglielmo Marconi]] carried out some of the first [[Wireless Telegraphy|wireless]] experiments. He first transmitted a signal from this "Shepherdess Stone" over a few meters and later, following one and a half months of careful adjustments, over a distance of up to one and a half kilometers.
+This was the beginning of Marconi´s pivotal involvement in wireless radio.''
-The villa has custodians and the Marconi Museum has a staff for guided visits (arranged by reservation)
+'''The plaque can be viewed in the town of Salvan, Switzerland, attached to the famous Shepherdess Stone.'''
-Guglielmo Marconi's first experiments in wireless telegraphy marked the beginning of radio communication. The technical system for wireless telegraphy needed fundamental improvements of the instruments used at the time for experiments with electromagnetic waves. In particular, Marconi conceived the grounded antenna and after many experiments he decided to use lower frequencies.
+The village of Salvan, Switzerland was known in the last years of the 19th century as a health resort. Located in the southwest of Switzerland in the Swiss Alps, very close to the France border, it was accessible only by a narrow mule path, nicknamed "route de Mont". Marconi, at the age of 21, visited Salvan in the Summer of 1895. It was suggested that he visited the resort to treat a respiratory ailment.
-<br> Marconi's first experiments in wireless telegraphy were aimed at communicating without wires at increasing ranges. With this goal, he took the instruments that were being used for important experiments on electromagnetic waves in different universities out of the laboratory, in order to overcome natural obstacles. In the garden of his fathers villa, he was finally able to overcome the Celestini hill, at a distance of about 2 km. His use of the grounded antenna and of a very sensitive coherer were two crucial elements for the accomplishment.
+Marconi's equipment consisted of a [[Batteries|battery]], a Ruhmkorff induction coil, a Righi spark generator and an antenna. His goal: transmit a signal without a metallic connection. He set up his experiments on Pierre Bergère (the Shepherdess Stone). Marconi was operating the transmitter, and a young assistant*, a resident of Salvan, began to move the receiver, which sounded a bell, farther away. First the distance was approximately four or five meters. The final distance in which the experiment worked was approximately one and a half kilometers. Each time the bell sounded the young assistant would hold up a red flag; when it did not he would hold up a white flag. (The accounts of the actual distance vary.) These experiments continued for several weeks.
+Marconi only spent a short time in Salvan, then returned to Italy. The following year he filed the original patent on his invention in London.
+Much of this information was obtained some 70 years after the event, from the young assistant, Maurice Gay-Balmaz, who was 10 years old at the time of the experiment.
 == Map ==
-{{#display_map:44.431296, 11.26719~ ~ ~ ~ ~Villa Griffone, Ponteccio, Italy|height=250|zoom=10|static=yes|center=44.431296, 11.26719}}
+{{#display_map:46.12164, 7.02161~ ~ ~ ~ ~Salvan, Switzerland|height=250|zoom=10|static=yes|center=46.12164, 7.02161}}
+[[Category:Communications|{{PAGENAME}}]]
+[[Category:Radio_communication|{{PAGENAME}}]]
+[[Category:Telegraphy|{{PAGENAME}}]]
+[[Category:Wireless_telegraphy|{{PAGENAME}}]]