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.
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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 demise 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 four month delay
for publications like Radio-Craft. This story appeared along with separate
editorial by Hugo Gernsback.
Guglielmo Marconi, 1874 - 1937
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

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.
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 July 20, 2017
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