oni had learned of the Hertzian waves. It occurred to him that by
their aid wireless telegraphy might be accomplished. The boy saw the
wonderful possibilities; he dreamed dreams of how these waves might
carry messages from city to city, from ship to shore, and from
continent to continent without wires. He realized his own youth and
inexperience, and it seemed certain to him that many able scientists
had had the same vision and must be struggling toward its attainment.
For a year Marconi dreamed those dreams, studying the books and papers
which would tell him more of these wonderful waves. Each week he
expected the news that wireless telegraphy had been established, but
the news never came. Finally he concluded that others, despite their
greater opportunities, had not been so far-seeing as he had thought.

Marconi attacked the problem himself with the dogged persistence and
the studious care so characteristic of him. He began his experiments
upon his father's farm, the elder Marconi encouraging the youth and
providing him with funds with which to purchase apparatus. He set
up poles at the opposite sides of the garden and on them mounted the
simple sending and receiving instruments which were then available,
using plates of tin for his aerials. He set up a simple spark-gap, as
had Hertz, and used a receiving device little more elaborate. A Morse
telegraph-key was placed in circuit with the spark-gap. When the key
was held down for a longer period a long spark passed between the
brass knobs of the spark-gap and a dash was thus transmitted. When
the key was depressed for a shorter period a dot in the Morse code was
sent forth. After much work and adjustment Marconi was able to send
a message across the garden. Others had accomplished this for similar
distances, but they lacked Marconi's imagination and persistence, and
failed to carry their experiments further. To the young Irish-Italian
this was but a starting-point.

[Illustration: GUGLIELMO MARCONI

Photographed in the uniform of an officer in the Italian army]

Marconi quickly found that the receiver was the least effective part
of the existing apparatus. The waves spread in all directions from
the sending station and become feebler and feebler as the distance
increases. To make wireless telegraphy effective over any considerable
distance a highly efficient and extremely sensitive receiving device
is necessary. Some special means of detecting the feeble currents was