* Marconi Wireless Telegraph Archive. An important archive of ledgers, committee books and notebooks for Marconi Wireless Telegraph (M.W.T.), 1897/1970s, including 28 volumes of registers of agreements, 1897/1955; 3 notebooks for meetings of directors, (in the notebook for 1927-36 Marconi has signed his name as present some 60 times); a seal book, 1920-21, with signatures of Alfonso Marconi; a minutes book, 1917-20, with further signatures of Alfonso Marconi; and a register of seals and a meeting of board directors book for Marconi (China) Ltd, 1943-1976, a total of 35 ledgers and notebooks, mostly full/half morocco or cloth, some rubbing, but generally sound and in good condition, folio/oblong folio and 8vo, plus 2 modern albums with approximately 100 photographs from Marconi Research Station at Great BaddowQTY: (37)NOTE:Contents list:Register of Agreements, 28 volumes: 1-7, 9, 11-30, 1897-1923, 1924-1925, 1925-1955, each volume 160pp. + index of handwritten entries (vol. 30 is 176pp. and typewritten), uniform original full burgundy morocco (vol. 30 cloth), oblong folioM.W.T. Co., Ltd. Special Meeting of Directors, 10 February 1927 - 24 November 1936, [136]pp., original full black limp morocco lettered gilt on upper cover, 8voMarconi was present at some of the meetings and has signed his name some 60 times. His last signature is on 26 November 1935. It also includes the signatures of all the other directors who attended the meetings. Together with 2 further notebook of meetings of the Boards of Directors London, from 1937 to 1959, signed by those present on each occasion, including J. C. Denison-Pender and F. R. S. Balfour.Seal Book. No. 10, January 1920 - April 1921, 101pp., original full burgundy morocco (uniform with Register of Agreements volumes), oblong folioEach handwritten entry is signed by several or more attesting directors and an officer including Alfonso Marconi (younger brother of Guglielmo who had helped with early experiments in Italy). The content lists documents concerning foreign patent applications, ordinary and preference share certificates, ordinary share warrants, and other business mattersM.W.T. Co. Ld. Committee Minute Book No. 6, 31 July 1917 - 5 July 1920, 242pp + blank index, tipped-in duplicated list of share certificates, original burgundy half morocco, folioShare certificate documents and patents and other business transactions signed during committee meetings, the minutes signed off by Alfonso Marconi and others.Marconi (China) Limited. Register of Seals, 8 March 1943 - 31 March 1976, 39pp. but largely blank except for 2 double pages + blank index, original burgundy half morocco, folioIncludes power of attorney agreements, share certificate transfers and other business matters. Loosely inserted is a duplicated power of attorney agreement for Ivor George Gardner to act on behalf of the company in Hong Kong, 5pp., stapled, signed by one of the directors.Marconi (China) Limited. Meeting of Board of Directors, 1943-1970, unpaginated but with first 36pp. completed from 1943 to 1970, signed by the 2, 3 or 4 directors present on each occasion, 8voMarconi Research Station at Great Baddow. Two large modern albums, 1970s, containing approximately 100 large photographs showing giant receivers in various remote parts of the world and other equipment and Marconi enterprisesGuglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) was an Italian inventor, electrical engineer and diplomat. He is known for his pioneering work on long-distance radio transmission and for his development of Marconi's law and a radio telegraph system. Regarded as the inventor of radio he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with one of his closest rivals in the field, Karl Ferdinand Braun, 'in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy'. In 1897 Marconi founded the Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company (later the Marconi Company). Its aim was to develop the Marconi apparatus commercially; the first manufacturing works were established in Chelmsford in an old silk factory. Over the next few years the Company rented land and buildings in London, Cornwall, North America and elsewhere. In 1901, Marconi achieved communication over 198 miles between the Isle of Wight and the Lizard in Cornwall. In December of the same year, history was made when Marconi transmitted the letter S of the Morse code (three dots) across the Atlantic from Poldhu in Cornwall to Signal Hill, St. John's, Newfoundland. He had taken on John Ambrose Fleming, a brilliant scholar and a skilled practical engineer who had been an electrical advisor to Thomas Edison; Fleming proved invaluable at Poldhu, designing and operating the generator. One of Marconi's ambitions was to give sailors and passengers in challenging or potentially disastrous situations at sea the means to communicate - most clearly demonstrated when the 'Titanic' sank: the distress calls from Marconi's wireless installation on 'Titanic' saved 700 lives.During the 1920s, assisted by C. S. Franklin, an eminent engineer, Marconi turned his attention to short-wave directional transmissions, known as the 'Empire Beam' system. This met with a favourable response and Marconi's dream of global radio communication was established. The company was also involved in the beginnings of public broadcasting in England, the first being a recital performed by the singer Dame Nellie Melba in 1920. A couple of years later the British Broadcasting Company (later 'Corporation') was born and the population could now enjoy radio and later television in their own homes. Marconi believed that wireless would save lives and hoped it would help to bring peace to the world. Shortly before he died he was made Lord Rector of St Andrews University and was heard to say 'Have I done the world good, or have I added a menace?' What began as pioneering experiments in the Italian countryside had, in his lifetime, grown to an international company with many subsidiaries all over the world.The present important archive shows the astounding and rapid expansion of one of the world's great business enterprises in a field that has now assumed global significance - engineering, communications, wireless telegraphy, communications, electronics. The 28 volumes comprising the Register of Agreements cover company business ranging from the purchasing of patents, patent applications and licences, broadcasting licences, tenancy, land and property agreements and bank and company agreements from the very first day of business on July 22 1897. There are also agreements regarding the construction of telegraph stations, inventions, wireless equipment and hire purchase.Five of the volumes in the archive bear the multiple signatures of Guglielmo Marconi, his brother Alfonso, and those of other directors and secretaries in the Company: Henry W. Allen, W. W. Bradfield, M. A Bramston, S. Geoghegan, Godfrey C. Isaacs, Alfonso Marconi, H. Riall Sankey, Henry S. Saunders, S. St. J. Steadman and Sir Charles J. Stewart.
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