Marconi: Whisper in the Air

This episode of Biography presents the story of Guglielmo Marconi, the genius who invented the wireless and helped change our planet into a global village. Through newsreels, archival footage, and interviews, we see how Marconi took 19th century technology and fashioned it into a new and indispensable instrument. Shrewd enough to see the commercial potential of science, and clever enough to capitalize on it, Marconi was one of the most famous men on the Earth at the time of his death in 1937. Marconi: Whisper in the Air would be useful for classes on World History, Economics, Science and Technology, Communications and Cultural History. It is appropriate for middle school and high school.

• adulation
• apparatus
• audacity
• bastions
• benefactor
• coffers
• consummate
• edifice
• fixated
• germane
• ingenious
• inimical
• lunacy
• maniacal
• moguls
• oblivious
• prestige
• promontory
• propagate
• recalcitrant
• relentless
• stupefying
• template
• voraciously

1. Marconi's father looked down upon on his boyhood experiments. Why did his father see Marconi's interests as a waste of time? How did his father's reactions foreshadow the reactions of others in the future?

2. When Marconi brought his wireless machines to England, they were destroyed by the Customs officials. Why did the officials do this? What was the threat of Marconi's invention?

3. Throughout his life, Marconi would be at odds with the members of the cable communications industry. What was the source of this rivalry between Marconi and the cable industry?

4. The cable industry was not Marconi's only adversary, nature was also. How did nature hinder Marconi's experiments?

5. What were some of the obstacles Marconi faced in his lifetime and career?

6. What are the origins of the term "whisper in the air?"

7. Marconi's inventions made him world famous, but at a price. What price did Marconi pay for his fame and fortune? What price did his family pay?

8. What is the impact of Marconi on the world today and how did he influence the communications systems we use today?

9. What is the controversy of Marconi's later years?

1. Imagine that you are a newspaper reporter and are assigned to cover the first wireless transmission. Write a column for your readers that describes the event, and its significance.

2. Write an obituary for Marconi's death in 1937. Include his achievements and his influence on the world, and how his death might impact the world and communications.

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