Editor’s Note: In February 2006, Microwave Journal published an article about the IEEE dedication of a “Historical Milestone,” acknowledging some of the first wireless experiments conducted in 1895 by Guglielmo Marconi in Salvan, Switzerland. The Historical Milestone was based on the memories of Maurice Gay-Balmaz, 70 years later, who recalled assisting a wireless researcher when Gay-Balmaz was about 10 years old. Further investigation concludes the researcher was not Guglielmo Marconi, nor the date 1895. It is now thought it was Gustav Engisch, a young electrical engineer from Vevey, Switzerland - a short distance from Salvan - who began to experiment with wireless technology in 1897.

Updating the Historical Record: Gustav Engisch, Not Marconi, Believed to Have Conducted Early Wireless Experiments in Switzerland

Giuseppe Pelosi

Department of Information Engineering, University of Florence

 

Shepherdess Stone.

A 2006 Microwave Journal article titled Salvan: Cradle of Wireless, subtitled How Marconi Conducted Early Wireless Experiments in the Swiss Alps,1 states:

“On September 26, 2003, the IEEE dedicated a ‘Historical Milestone,’ acknowledging some of the first wireless experiments conducted in 1895 by Guglielmo Marconi in Salvan, Switzerland, a picturesque resort in the Swiss Alps. This historical development had been described in detail by an elderly citizen who had assisted Marconi during his short stay in Salvan, Switzerland.”

There are no written documents proving that Guglielmo Marconi was in Salvan - a small village close to Martigny and not far from Lausanne and Geneva - in 1895, as claimed. Further research has found:2

  • Written permission by the Italian military authorities allowing Guglielmo Marconi to travel to London in 1896. Marconi was a young man, waiting to serve in the army, as it was compulsory at that time. He needed permission to exit Italy, and the only permission recorded is to London. It would have been an offense to exit Italy without permission.
  • Guglielmo’s brother was also claimed to be in Salvan, “Part of the equipment had been brought from Bologna by Marconi and his elder brother Alfonso.”1 However, the expense lists of Alfonso Marconi, which are very detailed, show many travel expenses during those years, yet none to Salvan or any other place abroad.

The IEEE subsequently modified the attribution of the milestone, shifting the date from 1895 to 1897 and removing the name of Guglielmo Marconi.3 The new Historical Milestone states:

“Early Swiss Wireless Experiments, 1897”

At this location in 1897, with local assistance, a researcher carried out some of the first wireless experiments. He transmitted a signal from this ‘Shepherdess Stone’ over a few meters and later, following six weeks of careful adjustments, over a distance of up to one and a half kilometers.

Salvan, Switzerland - 26 September 2003
- IEEE Switzerland Section

References

  1. F. Gardiol and Y. Fournier, “Salvan: Cradle of Wireless,” Microwave Journal, February 2006, pp. 124-135.
  2. G. Pelosi and S. Selleri, “Recent Outcomes of the Investigations on Guglielmo Marconi Supposed Experiments in Switzerland,” IEEE History of Electrotechnology Conference Proceedings, September 2019, pp. 11-13.
  3. “Early Swiss Wireless Experiments, 1897,” Engineering and Technology History WIKI, https://ethw.org/Milestones:Early_Swiss_Wireless_Experiments,_1897.