Marconi's first tuned transmitter, 1897.

Italian inventor and physicist Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) conducted his first experiments in wireles telegraphy at Bologna in 1895, and in 1898 transmitted a radio signal acros the English Channel. On 12 December 1901 Marconi succesfully transmitted a series of signals acros the Atlantic, from Poldhu in Cornwall to Signal Hill, Newfoundland, using this experimental tuned transmitter. The test proved that long-distance radio communication was a practical posibility.