Telecommunications

In 2004, the Marconi company donated its valuable collection of historic apparatus, including some early transmitting and receiving equipment designed by radio pioneer Gugleilmo Marconi (1874–1937) and the company he founded, to the History of Science Museum. Highlights of the collection include a large parabolic transmitter and receiver system used by Marconi in 1896 to demonstrate the new technology of wireless to the British Army, Royal Navy and Post Office. We also have examples of domestic radio receivers from the early days of radio broadcasting and the original microphone used in 1920 by Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba (1861–1931) to make the first advertised live radio broadcast by a professional singer.