In 1895, a 21 year old Guglielmo Marconi succeeded in sending a wireless signal from Pontecchio (near Bologna) to a location about 1 1/2 miles away. In so doing, he proved his theory that radio waves could travel through air.

Marconi soon established The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company in England, and in 1901, completed the first trans-Atlantic wireless transmission between England and Newfoundland.