MARCONI EXPERIMENTS

Marconi Experiments

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Marconi Experiments

Introduction

The invention of radio was impossible without a vision. Visionary was necessary to invent a radio because there was no market for broadcasting. In addition, the technology used for the transmission of speech was not well-developed.

Radio is an inspiring device for a large number of people. The simplest definition of radio presents it as an advanced medium of flashing intelligence through space. If this intelligence is expressed in the form of dots and dashes, it becomes wireless telegraphy. If sound is transmitted, it becomes broadcasting.

Discussion

In the modern world, radio is considered the most effective medium used for global communication. Since radio is portable therefore, it allows us to receive information of any event across the world. The credit of inventing radio and wireless telegraphy goes to Guglielmo Marconi. Around the world, Marconi is known as the founder of wireless telegraphy. In 1910, Marconi also received a Nobel Prize for Physics (Garg, 1993).

Marconi's Experiments

Marconi used to conduct experiments in his home that was located in Pontecchio, Italy. The purpose of these experiments was to transmit telegraph messages without using any wires. He wanted to use radio waves for the purpose of transmitting messages.

The idea of sending and receiving telegraph messages without wires was not a new idea that time. Scientists had been trying to invest a wireless telegraph device for many years. However, most of their experiments were unsuccessful. The experiment of Marconi was not focused on any revolutionary idea but he decided to include advanced components. In his experiments, Marconi interconnected all those components and adapted them to his system.

In order to design his system, Marconi used different components. Some of these components were spark-producing radio transmitter, oscillator, coherer receiver, and wires.

The oscillator used by Marconi was relatively simpler. The radio transmitter used in the experiment was similar to the one used by Hertz in his experiments. The wire was placed at an altitude above the floor. Marconi fine-tuned the coherer receiver of Edouard Branly in order to improve its reliability and sensitivity. In his experiment, Marconi also used a telegraph key and a telegraph register. Telegraph key operated the transmitter to transmit pulses. The short and long pulses corresponded to the dots and dashes. The telegraph register recorder the codes on a paper tape.

Marconi started his experiments when he was twenty-years old (Biagi, 2011). In 1894, Marconi invented a storm alarm. For inventing storm alarm, he used a battery, electric bell and a coherer. In 1985, Marconi shifted his equipment and setup from indoors to outdoors. He also increased the length of the transmitter and antennas. In order to increase the range, he positioned the antenna in a way that it touched the ground. These improvements in the setup proved successful. The range of signals increased and they were transmitted over a distance of 204 kilometers. After the success of this experiment, Marconi became convinced that this setup can be spanned to greater ...