Guglielmo Marconi, the originator of wireless telegraph signals, created the means of overcoming many of the hurdles to the commercialization of wireless. In particular, he was the first person to transmit radio signals across the Atlantic Ocean without the use of cables.

Marconi was born in the Italian countryside in somewhat modest circumstances. While he had little formal education (although his mother did tutor him), he loved to read about experiments with electricity that were described in the books in his father's library. Marconi audited courses at the University of Bologna, because he could not gain admittance to the university for credit, and studied under Augusto Righi, a scientist who had worked with electromagnetic waves. Since Righi was also a neighbor, Marconi would often visit him with questions and ideas. Righi rarely encouraged Marconi's ideas about a practical system of transmitting information using these...