|
October 1937 Radio-Craft
 [Table of Contents]
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics.
See articles from Radio-Craft,
published 1929 - 1953. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged.
|
News was a bit slow to spread
prior to the Internet. Unless you worked in a newsroom with a ticker machine clacking
away all day heralding breaking headlines from around the world, your access was
relegated to the discretion of media editors and producers. Items like the
passage
of radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi on July 20, 1937, due to a heart attack would
surely have been broadcast on radio shows (not many households had
TVs at the time) and printed in major newspapers, but long
lead times for magazines meant a three or four month delay for publications as
in this October 1937 issue of Radio-Craft.
This story appeared along with a separate
editorial by Hugo Gernsback.
Not to tarnish the man's name, but you might be interested in this article which
included mention of
Marconi's fascist political bent, even embracing Mussolini's faction in the
1920s. There is a link to a New York Times quote where he claimed to be
the "first fascist in the field of radiotelegraphy." Should the world therefore,
as is the trendy Cancel
Culture practice, reject and abandon any invention associated with Mr.
Marconi?
Guglielmo Marconi, 1874 - 1937
Photo - Wide World via the Macmillan Co.
The late Guglielmo Marconi, "Father of Radio" who died of a heart
attack at his Rome estate early Tuesday morning July 20th, 1937 at the age of 63.
The entire world mourns his loss.
 Never before has the lifetime of a single man
been so identified with a change in the conditions of life on the globe, of which
he was the most conspicuous creator, as that of Marconi. Five centuries since the
discovery of printing have been required to spread its efficacy over the globe.
The electric light had been known 50 years before Edison made it a commercial success;
the steamboat had been demonstrated 250 years before Fulton found a backer for his
dream. But the mathematical conception of radio
waves had hardly been published before Marconi was born; he was a growing boy,
active in the study of science, when they were first definitely discovered. He was
still young in years when he converted their possibilities into demonstrable fact.
On the anniversary of the organization of his company to exploit the invention of
practical "wireless" - 40 years to a day - he died. And his invention carried the
news of his passing to discoverers seated on the Pole, to nomads in the desert,
to ships on remote seas, to aviators flying above the clouds, and into a myriad
homes in every city in the land. The monument of Guglielmo Marconi, for all time,
is the "ether" vibrant about us - even within us - with the messages of all humanity.
Of the man's personality, little need be said: he was modest, self-effacing in
his work; maintaining the spirit of scientific inquiry until his last moments. The
first and most characteristic thought in his mind, as triumphs and honors were showered
upon him, was that he was able to make his genius helpful to others, as no other
man had done upon so wide a scale. His internationalism was joined with a pride
in his country, which had initiated modern science with Galileo, and for whom he
could speak with a voice that was heard and inspired confidence throughout the inhabited
globe.
The Father of Radio has ended his share of the great work. But, as Pupin said,
a quarter of a century ago: "Marconi could die, and wireless development would inevitably
and continuously continue. His work lives on and grows, whether he lives or not.
And that means that his work is immortal. His genius gave the idea to the world;
and the further perfecting of his idea needs no genius."
Posted August 15, 2023
(updated from original
post on 7/20/2017)
|
