Guglielmo Marconi

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Guglielmo Marconi : biography

25 April 1874 – 20 July 1937

Reissued (US)

  • "Transmitting electrical impulses and signals and in apparatus, there-for". Filed 1 April 1901; Issued 4 June 1901.

Personal life

Marconi had a brother, Alfonso, and a stepbrother, Luigi.

On 16 March 1905, Marconi married the Hon. Beatrice O’Brien (1882–1976), a daughter of Edward O’Brien, 14th Baron Inchiquin, having met her in Poole in 1904. They had three daughters, Degna (1908–1998), Gioia (1916–1996), and Lucia (born and died 1906), and a son, Giulio, 2nd Marchese Marconi (1910–1971).

In 1913, the Marconis returned to Italy and became part of Rome society. Beatrice served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elena. The Marconis divorced in 1924, and, at Marconi’s request, the marriage was annulled on 27 April 1927, so he could remarry.Degna Marconi, My Father, Marconi (Guernica Editions, 2001), ISBN 1550711512. Beatrice Marconi married her second husband, Liborio Marignoli, Marchese di Montecorona, on 3 March 1924 and had a daughter, Flaminia.Kelly’s Handbook to the Titled, Landed, and Official Classes (Kelly’s, 1969), p. 623

On 12 June 1927 (religious 15 June), Marconi married Maria Cristina Bezzi-Scali (1900–1994), only daughter of Francesco, Count Bezzi-Scali. Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was Marconi’s best man at the wedding.George P. Oslin, The Story of Telecommunications. 1992. p. 294 ISBN 0865546592.Gerald Sussman, Communication, Technology, and Politics in the Information Age. 1997. p. 90 ISBN 0803951396. They had one daughter, Maria Elettra Elena Anna (born 1930), who married Prince Carlo Giovannelli (born 1942) in 1966; they later divorced. For unexplained reasons, Marconi left his entire fortune to his second wife and their only child, and nothing to the children of his first marriage.Degna Marconi, My Father, Marconi (Guernica Editions, 2001), ISBN 1550711512.

Later in life, Marconi was an active Italian FascistPhysicsworld.com, "", 2001 and an apologist for their ideology and actions such as the attack by Italian forces in Ethiopia.

Marconi wanted to personally introduce in 1931 the first radio broadcast of a Pope, Pius XI, announcing at the microphone: "With the help of God, who places so many mysterious forces of nature at man’s disposal, I have been able to prepare this instrument which will give to the faithful of the entire world the joy of listening to the voice of the Holy Father".