The early history of electronics V. Commercial beginnings

The first four articles in this series traced the scientific developments underlying the earliest tentative attempts to exploit the new results of electromagnetic theory for practical purposes. Almost to a man, the main contributors to these developments were connected with one academic establishment or another. Only one was not: an amateur who became the first entrepreneur of the new technology, young Marconi - newly arrived in London from his native Italy in February 1896, not quite 22 years old, and determined to make his fortune in the city that was not only the capital of the most powerful and richest maritime nation in the world but also the headquarters of a far-flung empire. The electronics industry got its start with attempts to bridge bodies of water radiotelegraphically, culminating in the spanning of the Atlantic by Marconi in 1901. The fifth installment of our continuing series shows how the young industry was bedeviled by priority arguments and litigation.