The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1913-07-01


vention When a Boy and Worked to
Develop lt-AlIeaes National Signal
ing Company Is 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 sketched the remarkable
career that made wireless telegraphy
and the name Marooni practically syn
onymous.
1t was the life story of well to do
italian lad who had expanded the germ
Of an idea to worldwide proportions.
From a mere toy that spluttered feebly
across the length Of a dining room Ia
BILE be had laboriously evolved the mira
Gle worker of the present day, which
sends its message jumping across G,O00
miles.
The idea was not entirely new, he
said, but he insisted that the develop
ments covered by his patents had made
wireless practicable and lifted it out
of the class of scientific freaks to a
place among the commercial utilities
that are now almost indispensable. He
denied that he had taken his best ideas
from either Popoff or Hertz.
Inventor a Good Witness.
Marconi made a good witness. He
was as shrewd in appraising the ques-
: tfons Of the patent lawyers as he was
in weighing and framing his replies.
He is a 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 the idea Of grounding
patents Popof suggested such an i'm
provement just about that time.
Certainly not" Marconi replied.
'Do you think l would be fool enough
to give away one Of my very best ideas
before had patented it?"
Marconi is thirty eight years old, al
though his appearance would indicate
that more than eleven years have
elapsed since he came over, a mere
boy in appearance and enthusiasm, to
demonstrate the practicability of his
apparatus to the government and peo-
pie of this country. His mustache 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 Cthen 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 as a 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 |
mile wide He had been interested in
4 physics and electricity from boyhood, |
he testified, and naturally paid most |
T attention to studies bearing upon the |
subject. His education along these |
+ lines had not been exhaustive, how
ever, except In so far as he taught |
himself, and it is to this self teaching |
that he owes his title of electrical en-
2gineer. From the time he was twenty |
She stuck persistently to the study and
Aractical application of wireless.
Whough frequently discouraged and |
kNnally stumped for a time.
1t was not until he had elevated his
conductors and grounded his connec-
ions that he was able 30 send over a
bird of mile. After that it was an
HRlmost uninterrupted march to fame
hnd fortune, extending from the Eng.
ish postofflce experiments in 1897
= down to the present day. The Brit
& sh navy was the first to take it up,
hen the Italian navy. The American
+ havy has a system of its own which
4 will be put out of business, the de-
PENDANTS say, if the Marconi people
win their suit.