The Ronan pioneer. [volume] (Ronan, Mont.) 1910-1970, 1913-07-25
MARC0N| TELLS
HIS LIFE STORY
Inventor, In Court, States How
Wireless Idea Grew.
SUES FOR INFRINGEMENT.

Dreamed Of the Possibilities Of His In
vention Whom a Boy and Worked to
Develop it-AiIeges National Signal
ing Company 10 Using Theories
Which He Patented.
Guglielmo Marconi. testifying in New
York in the injunction and damage
suit brought by the Marconi Wireless
Telegraph Company OF America against
the National Electric Signaling COM
pany briefly sketcled the remarkable
career that made wireless telegmphy
and the name Marconi practically syn
Onymous.
| Ii was the life story Of a well to do
italian lad who had expanded the germ
Of an idea to worldwide proportions.
From mere toy that spluttered feebly
across the length of dining room tn.
bic he had laborlonsly evolved the mira
Gle worker OF the present day. which
sends its message jumping across 6,OOO
miles.
The iden was not entirely new, he
said, but he insisted that the develop
ments covered by his patents had made
wireless practicable and lifted II out
OF the class OF scientific freaks to Il
place among the commercial utilities
that are now almost Indispensable. He
denied that lie had taken his best ideas
from either Popotr or Hertz.
/ 1ru>r$nr . Hoo1 Nv<n>..
MarcOni made n good witness. He
was MS shrewd in appraising the ques-
tions Of the patent lawyers as he was
in weighing and framing his replies.
He is Il man OF medium height and
build. dark or coloring. and the slight
nervousness he manifested seemed
characteristic rather than the result OF
the swiftly shifting and sharp attacks
he was subjected to in cross examina-
ton.
At one point he was accused of TAX
ing his idea for grounding wires from
the German scientist Popoff, this allie
CATION being based on the fact that
newspaper reports at the time patents
were pending contained no reference
to this vital Improvement In apparatus.
The lawyers for the defense took this
to mean that tho iden OF grounding
came to him after hc had applied for
patents Popor suggested suci, an i'm
provcment Just about that time
"Ccrtainly not" MArcOni replied.
do you think | would be fool enough
to give away one Of my very best IDEAS
before had patented it?'
Marconi Is thirty eight years Old, nj
though his appearance would indlcate
that more than eleven years have
elapsed since he came over. Il mere
boy In appearance ana enthusiasm. to
demonstrate the practlcahility Of his
apparatus to the government and PEG.
pie OF this country. His mnstMche Is
gone, but seriousness has taken Its
place. He seems to have aged even
more than the passing of time would
warrant Cares have multiplied pro-
digiously for the young man then less
than twenty who In 1894 read OF the
experiments of Hertz, the German
wireless inventor, and was fired to new
experiments with the apparatus he
had toyed with rs schoolboy.
Experimental From Boyhood.
Most of the earlier experiments were
made on his fathers country estate In
Italy, which Marconi described as two
and one-half miles long and half u
mile wide. He had been interested In
| physics and electricity from boyhood,
lie testified. and naturally paid most
attention to studies bearing upon the
subject His education along these
lines had not been exhaustive. how.
ever, except IN so far MS he taught
/ himself, and 1t Is to this self teaching
that he owes his title Of electrical en-
gineer From the time he was twenty
he stuck pcrsistcntly to the study and
practical application OF wireless.
though frequently discouraged and
finally stumpcd for time.
1t was not until he had elevated his
conductors ana grounded his connec-
/ tons that he was able to send over
+ third Of Il mile. After that 1t was nm
almost uninterrupted march to fame
and fortune. extending from the Eng
isl postoftice experiments In 1897
down to the present day. The Brit
isil navy WAS the first to take II IN,
then the Italian navy. The American
navy has system of It's own which
will be put out Of business. the de-
PENDANTS say. II the Mnrconi people