{"id":48647,"date":"2021-04-25T07:45:32","date_gmt":"2021-04-25T11:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=48647"},"modified":"2021-04-25T07:45:32","modified_gmt":"2021-04-25T11:45:32","slug":"guest-post-a-visit-to-museo-marconi-in-villa-griffone-pontecchio-bologna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/guest-post-a-visit-to-museo-marconi-in-villa-griffone-pontecchio-bologna\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Post: A visit to Museo Marconi in Villa Griffone, Pontecchio, Bologna"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nMany thanks to SWLing Post<\/em> contributor, Ferruccio Manfieri (IZ1096SWL), who shares this report and excellent photo tour from a visit to the Museo Marconi in Bologna, Italy in 2018. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Today is International Marconi Day,<\/a> so this is a very welcome, and timely post:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

A visit to Museo Marconi in Villa Griffone, Pontecchio, Bologna<\/b><\/h1>\n

by Ferruccio Manfieri (IZ1096SWL)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bologna, in Northern Italy, is renowned to be the seat of the oldest University in Europe and in the world (the Alma Mater Studiorum) and its historic, artistic and culinary heritage. From a scientific perspective, Bologna is the birthplace of Guglielmo Marconi as well as the place of his first experiments in transmission.<\/p>\n

The inventor, born in Bologna on April 25th, 1874, was the son of an Italian father (Giuseppe, a wealthy landowner) and an Irish mother (Annie Jameson, of Jameson’s Whiskey family). At the age of 20, Marconi began to conduct experiments in radio waves, building much of his own equipment in the attic of his home at the Villa Griffone in Pontecchio (in the Bolognese countryside).<\/p>\n

Marconi received his final resting place in Villa Griffone Mausoleum, an enterred crypt hosting his porphyr sarcophagus. The building was donated to the Guglielmo Marconi Foundation in 1941 after the\u00a0 death of the inventor (on the 20th of July 1937).<\/p>\n

Sadly, Villa Griffone and the Mausoleum suffered heavy damages from WWII bombings and pillages and were patiently rebuilt in post-war years. Today, Villa Griffone is reborn as a hub of research and divulgation activities, hosting Guglielmo Marconi Foundation, the Marconi Museum, a library and two research groups on communication systems.<\/p>\n

On the 26th of april 2019 I visited with my family the Museum hosted in the original building (a short trip from Bologna, 20 minutes by public transport)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Villa Griffone and the Marconi Mausoleum<\/p><\/div>\n

The visit began with a nice stroll in the Villa gardens, home with the nearby hill of the Celestini of the first long-range and not in line of sight transmission experiment in 1895. Marconi managed to send signals over a distance of 2 km, beyond a hill situated between the transmission equipment (to which he had added a grounded vertical antenna) and the reception apparatus (characterised by an extremely sensitive coherer).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Villa Griffone gardens and \u201cHill of Celestini\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

We were in the very spot Marconi was when he transmitted his three signals to the receiver operated by his brother and the gardener behind the hill. Nearby, the replica of eight meter wooden pole with the attached metal boxes used as antenna.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Marconi\u2019s first \u201clong range\u201d antenna – replica<\/p><\/div>\n

This experiment in universally aknowledged as the birth of radio transmission (and, by the way, the rifle shot used as a confirmation of the reception was the very first QSL…).<\/p>\n

Our valent host and guide to the visit was the Director of the Museum, Barbara Valotti, who thoroughly described us (with knowledge, passion and communication skills) the historical framework of Marconi’s biography and works. A more engineering oriented and hands-on visit to the working replicas laboratory was subsequently hosted with passion and knowledge by Adriano Neri I4YCE.<\/p>\n

In the Auditorium Dr. Valotti\u00a0 showed us two videos on the first transmission experiment and on the Republic incident in 1909, on of the first application of Marconi radiotelegraphy in an incident at sea, whose success (no lives were lost in the aftermath of the collision thanks to the coordination of rescue efforts via radiotelegraphy) gave a boost of popularity to radiotelegraphy and to the engineer, eventually leading to the Nobel prize in physics later that year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A frame of the \u201cRepublic\u201d video<\/p><\/div>\n

This part of the visit emphasized his interest in real technological applications of his inventions and their commercial potential. Marconi was a “modern” mix of engineer (with an unhortodox, non-academic formation) and entrepreneur, ready to see the new potential applications of technologies in the society.\u00a0 Interestingly, Dr. Valotti underlined that the main focus of Marconi research was always the point-to-point trasmission and not the broadcast.<\/p>\n

Hanging on the ceiling of the auditorium, a replica of the kite used by Marconi to lift an emergency antenna in the first transoceanic transmission from Poldhu to St Johns Newfoundland in 1901.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Yacht \u201cElettra\u201d – memorabilias<\/p><\/div>\n

The visit continued to the “silkworm room”, the original room (once used to breed silkworms) where Marconi held his laboratory and performed his experiments. The room was full of instruments replicas to show the laboratory as in the young Marconi years.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

\u201cSilkworm room\u201d \u2013 Marconi\u2019s first laboratory (original place,\u00a0 instrument replicas)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

\u201cSilkworm room\u201d \u2013 Marconi\u2019s desk (replica)<\/p><\/div>\n

It was also possible to replicate the main experiments with educational working replicas.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Marconi transmitter \u2013 educational replica<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Headphone and coherer used in the first transoceanic transmission (replicas)<\/p><\/div>\n

The second phase of the visit was a more engineering-oriented explanation of the principles of radio telegraphy conducted by Adriano Neri I4YCE in a didactic laboratory on working replicas of the main epoch instruments.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Experiment table with working replicas: coherers, a wire decoder, a Marconi receiver<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Instruments in the educational laboratory<\/p><\/div>\n

With passion and competence, Mr. Neri explained us in a simple way (there were some very interested young people in the group) the cable telegraphy principles and the sequence of experiments and discoveries that led Marconi to his inventions.<\/p>\n

In a detailed and fascinating exposition we saw applications of a Morse writer, the induction coil, the coherer and the first Marconi spark transmitter, all assembled in the end to transmit in the room some morse signals in the air.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Live demonstration of signal transmission by Adriano Neri . Against the wall a Marconi spark transmitter (note the antenna and ground plates), on the table: a Marconi receiver (with a coherer) connected with a Morse writer.<\/p><\/div>\n

The laboratory, as the whole museum, hosts a huge number of working replicas (a wonderful collection in itself, handmade by Maurizio Bigazzi with rigorous standards of adherence to the original designs and, if possible, reuse of original parts) and some original equipment.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Ship wireless telegraph room \u2013 working replica<\/p><\/div>\n

A last section of the museum is devoted to radio communication during the war (showing a WWI airplane-ground communication system) and radio broadcasting, with original sets of great interest like a 1923 Marconiphone (still working, we had a live demonstration receiving RAI programs) and a Ducati radio (the same Ducati company of motorbikes, based in Bologna).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

WWI plane radio and ground receiver<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

1923 Marconiphone, working original set<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Ducati radio<\/p><\/div>\n

We spent all the morning in the Museum with great fun and interest from all the family.<\/p>\n

I highly recommend a visit to the Museum for the place,\u00a0 its significance in the history of radio transmission and the competent and passionate exposition of the historical and technical themes related to Guglielmo Marconi.<\/p>\n

A wealth of information (also in english) can be found of the Guglielmo Marconi Foundation website (www.fgm.it<\/a>).<\/p>\n

A detailed gallery of the Museum can also be found on the new Museum website (www.museomarconi.it<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ferruccio Manfieri (IZ1096SWL), who shares this report and excellent photo tour from a visit to the Museo Marconi in Bologna, Italy in 2018. Today is International Marconi Day, so this is a very welcome, and timely post: A visit to Museo Marconi in Villa Griffone, Pontecchio, Bologna by Ferruccio […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3194,545,960,2436,433,3,305,1936,288,7566,43,4796],"tags":[6697,4342,1314,6990,646,9247],"class_list":["post-48647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-posts","category-ham-radio","category-international-broadcasting","category-longwave","category-mediumwave","category-news","category-nostalgia","category-photos","category-radio-history","category-radio-memories","category-shortwave-radio","category-vintage-radio","tag-ferruccio-manfieri","tag-guest-posts","tag-guglielmo-marconi","tag-international-marconi-day","tag-marconi","tag-radio-museums"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-cED","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":27540,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/elettra-the-story-of-guglielmo-marconi-through-his-daughter-princess-elettra-marconi\/","url_meta":{"origin":48647,"position":0},"title":"Elettra: The story of Guglielmo Marconi through his daughter Princess Elettra Marconi","author":"Thomas","date":"August 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, William Lee, who notes that the radio documentary\u00a0Elettra is now available to rent (A$5.10) or download via Vimeo. Note that this program has geographic restrictions and may be limited to streaming in Australia: ELETTRA from Ronin Films on Vimeo. Encouraged by her friendship with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Elettra-poster.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Elettra-poster.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Elettra-poster.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":57568,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2023\/08\/pauls-short-recording-of-marconi-radio-international\/","url_meta":{"origin":48647,"position":1},"title":"Paul’s short recording of Marconi Radio International","author":"Thomas","date":"August 22, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul Jamet, who writes: Hi Thomas, I tried in vain to pick up Radio Marconi International ... And I'm not the only one! I've used several SDR kiwis installed in Italy, and only one has enabled me to listen to this station, which has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2023-08-14_18h02UTC_RMI.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2023-08-14_18h02UTC_RMI.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2023-08-14_18h02UTC_RMI.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2023-08-14_18h02UTC_RMI.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":48631,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/international-marconi-day-special-edition-of-the-international-radio-report\/","url_meta":{"origin":48647,"position":2},"title":"International Marconi Day: Special Edition of the International Radio Report","author":"Thomas","date":"April 23, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Sheldon Harvey, who shares the following: If you are a regular listener to the International Radio Report on Sundays on CKUT FM 90.3 in Montreal, or if you catch it on the CKUT archives or, more recently, on our new YouTube channel, you'll want\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Marconi-Dial.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Marconi-Dial.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Marconi-Dial.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Marconi-Dial.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":31726,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2018\/04\/international-marconi-day-announcement\/","url_meta":{"origin":48647,"position":3},"title":"International Marconi Day Announcement","author":"Thomas","date":"April 20, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Eric McFadden, for sharing the following announcement for International Marconi Day. 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The frequency\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/JRC-Rack-Mounted-Dial.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/JRC-Rack-Mounted-Dial.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/JRC-Rack-Mounted-Dial.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/JRC-Rack-Mounted-Dial.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":51567,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/unesco-world-radio-day-and-international-marconi-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":48647,"position":5},"title":"UNESCO World Radio Day and International Marconi Day","author":"Thomas","date":"January 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Grayhat, who writes: With the sponsorship of UNESCO, two \"on air\" events will take place February and April, 2022. The events will be the UNESCO World Radio Day and the International Marconi Day 2022 World Radio Day 12 to 13 February 2022 from 00:00\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/RadioTaboo-ETOW2-e1555671077332.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/RadioTaboo-ETOW2-e1555671077332.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/RadioTaboo-ETOW2-e1555671077332.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/RadioTaboo-ETOW2-e1555671077332.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48647\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}