“If any of you really want to know how to build a radio set in a practical, get-there way, all you’ll have to do is to get Doctor Field’s consent and come round to our shop in the basement of the school dormitory and we won’t soak you much. I thank you all for your attention.”
Very warm applause indicated the approval of the audience, as Bill and Gus left the platform. Again the president arose to say:
“Another of our students has a message for us in regard to radio. Among the notable pioneers and probably one to give the subject its greatest practical impetus is William Marconi, whose name is familiar to you all. The great inventor is now an honored guest of this country, his yacht Elettra lying off our shores. It seems doubly fitting that more than special mention should be made of him, and as Mr. Antonio Sabaste was, in his native land, a neighbor of Marconi, his father being really a friend of the wizard, I think we shall listen with pleasure to what this student of the school has to say.”
CHAPTER IX
MARCONI
“My native country,” said Tony, speaking very slowly in an effort to get the construction of his sentences in accordance with Bill’s coaching and as per his written arrangement, “is Italy; my adopted country is America. I say both with pride, and therefore you can imagine with what delight I speak about one of the greatest of Italians and one of the greatest among the scientists of the world, to Americans who perhaps most appreciate and make use of his discoveries.
“Guglielmo Marconi lived not far from Bologna. His father’s estate is called ‘Villa Griffone.’ Not far from these many acres was my former home, and my father, who is a little older than Signor Marconi, knew him well, as well indeed as anyone might know one who was from boyhood a rather shy, retiring fellow, with a mind given over largely to mechanical experiments and caring very little for playfellows.
“Signor Marconi, the elder, was proud of his son’s tendencies and gave him mechanical toys when Guglielmo was only a little fellow. His mother was a beautiful English or Irish lady and she also encouraged her son in his tastes. Electricity had a strange fascination for the boy and as he grew older and began to grasp the theories and methods employed in its use he addressed himself more and more to electrical phenomena, never being content with mere performances, but being eager to know the precise methods of application and effect.