Marconi: Father of Wireless & Pioneer of Radio Technology - The Story of Long-Distance Wireless Communication Race | Perfect for Tech History Enthusiasts & STEM Education

Marconi by Calvin D Trowbridge Jr is well written and researched and is really more about the man and his times than about the technology he invented.Trowbridge draws on little used primary sources to paint a clear picture of Marconi and his family relations and his work ethetic and indominable quest for increasing the range and usefullness of wireless communication. He was not a theorist but more a pragmatic inventor in the vein of Edison. Like Edison Marconi sacrificed much of his personal life for his work and maybe even hid his painful youth and bad relationship with his father in his work obscession.What I liked best about this biography is how Marconi's life blends with the history of his time and how he excelled both as inventor and businessman and chief promoter of his company. That alone would be worth the read as Marconi could be compaired to Steve Jobs. But there is much more to this story as Marconi's company undercut and trounced the government supported undersea cable companies and was forced out of the American market after The Great War because the US government did not want a foreign company controlling the now invaluable wireless medium.The section about the formation of RCA from the ashes of Marconi America is worth the read even if it takes up a fraction of a chapter. The Navy controlled wireless during and soon after the Great War and did not want to give up the monoply, but Congress was not willing to continue the navy monoply. This lead to the government leading General Electric to form RCA and Marconi America was forced into abandoning the fast growing American market.The intregue at the government and business level that Mr Trowbridge paints is worth the read even if you care nothing about radio.There is of interest to radio amateurs in this book but it is not favorable by and large. Hams were restricted to 200 meters and below by Congress and that was intended to kill amateur radio. However, they discovered how useful short wave is as a communicatons tool when Marconi initially thought that part of the spectrum useless.Marconti shows his intellectual honesty by investigating short wave and announcing this to the British and Austrialian governments who were poised to contract for expensive long wave stations.There is much much more in this well researched and carefully written book.