Marconi

Subtitled 'the man who networked the world', this is the first really major biography of Marconi, and it is an extraordinary achievement. Marconi emerges as a multifaceted individual - inventor, entrepreneur, statesman and diplomat. He had a special sense of himself and his capacity from an early age, sensing that he would one day do something new and great. He did not shine at school, but in his late teens, having read about Hertz's experiments, he became fascinated with the idea that electromagnetic waves could be used as a medium of communication, and conducted his own first successful experiments in the summer of 1895 at the age of 21.

Readers of this Review will be interested in the exchange with Sir Oliver Lodge, another pioneer in the field and a detractor as well as competitor of Marconi. His work was of interest to the Society of Psychical Research as mental radio was a common metaphor at the time. In 1898, Sir William Crookes was president of the Society as well as of the British Association – he recognised the significance of telegraphy and telepathy. Regardless of the controversy surrounding the invention of wireless, the author observes that Marconi was undoubtedly the man put it into practice - hence the subtitle - the founder of the field that led to mobile telephony, Wi-Fi, social media and cloud computing. It was he who mobilised commercial and political forces and used wireless technology to change the world. The author comments that this makes him more like Edison or Franklin than Galileo or Einstein. All this brought Marconi numerous honours and a Nobel Prize in physics in 1909 at the age of 35. We are left with the reflection that technology promotes on the one hand contact and openness, but it can equally become an instrument for domination, manipulation and control. It is fitting that when he died, radio stations all over the world went silent in his honour.