Alfonso Marconi (18651936) was an Italian businessman and collector of

stringed instruments String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the st ...

, most famous for assisting his younger brother

Guglielmo Marconi Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquis of Marconi (; 25 April 187420 July 1937) was an Italians, Italian inventor and electrical engineering, electrical engineer, known for his creation of a practical radio wave-based Wireless telegrap ...

in his pioneering work on long-distance radio transmission.

Biography

Grave of Alfonso Marconi in Highgate Cemetery

Early life and education

Alfonso Marconi was born into the Italian nobility in 1865, the first son of Giuseppe Marconi (an Italian aristocratic landowner from

Porretta Terme Porretta Terme ( Bolognese: ''Puratta'') is a town of the Reno Valley Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, a ''frazione'' of the ''comune'' of Alto Reno Terme, Emilia-Romagna. Porretta Terme is located about south-west of Bologna. Known since Roman times for ...

) and of his Irish/Scots wife, Annie Jameson (daughter of Andrew Jameson of Daphne Castle in

County Wexford County Wexford ( ga, Contae Loch Garman) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was based on the historic Gaelic territory of Hy Kinsella (''Uí Ceinns ...

, Ireland, and granddaughter of John Jameson, founder of whiskey distillers '' Jameson & Sons''). Alfonso was educated at

Bedford School :''Bedford School is not to be confused with Bedford Girls' School, Bedford High School, Bedford Modern School, Old Bedford School in Bedford, Texas or Bedford Academy in Bedford, Nova Scotia.'' Bedford School is a public school (English indep ...

in England between 1876 and 1880, during his peripatetic childhood.

Assistant to Guglielmo Marconi

Alfonso Marconi assisted his younger brother

with his early experiments, and in the summer of 1895 Guglielmo moved his experimentation outdoors. After increasing the length of transmitter and receiver antennas, arranging them vertically, and positioning an antenna so that it touched the ground, Guglielmo significantly increased the range he could achieve. Alfonso stood on one side of a hill near to the family home of Villa Griffone in Pontecchio, Italy, and fired a shot which was transmitted over the hill to Guglielmo: a distance of approximately . Guglielmo concluded that, with additional funding and research, a device could become capable of spanning greater distances and would prove valuable both commercially and militarily.

Later life

Alfonso Marconi was a

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''Di ...

of the American International Marine Communication Company and an avid collector of

. He died suddenly at a London hotel on the evening of Friday 24 April 1936 following a heart attack (his brother died following a heart attack in 1937)''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', 28 April 1936, p.1 and is buried with his mother on the eastern side of

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marconi, Alfonso 1865 births 1936 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery Italian emigrants to the United States Italian expatriates in England Nobility from Bologna Italian people of Scottish descent Italian people of Irish descent People educated at Bedford School Businesspeople from Bologna