All language subtitles for The Machines That Built America s01e07 Tesla vs Marconi.eng

[Narrator] 1.3 billion
people streaming music.

18.7 billion texts
sent every day.

And over 3 trillion hours

spent on mobile
devices every year.

We can broadcast to the world
from the palm of our hand.

But the heart of
all that technology

dates back 130 years
to one thing,

the radio.

At the turn of the 20th century,

two rival inventors
an ocean apart

race to be the first to
connect the world wirelessly.

This is the power of
electromagnetic waves.

The idea that a
signal could leap

across the air, this
felt like magic.

There it is.

The competition
between Tesla and Marconi

is one of the great stories

in the history of technology.

[Narrator] Their quest will
drive one to fame and fortune.

It works.

He's considered the
father of the radio.

[Narrator] The other, to ruin.

(man yelling)

[Man] Here's a man skating
right on the edge of sanity.

[Narrator] And transform the
way the world communicates.

Radio is at the heart

of our entire culture
and civilization.

[Narrator] This is
Tesla versus Marconi.

(engine buzzing)

(dramatic music)

(midtempo music)

It's 1893, and a revolution
is transforming America.

Electric power.

If you can just flip a
switch and the light goes on,

all of a sudden your
life has changed.

Factories can operate around
the clock if they want to now.

Literally no aspect of
American life is left untouched.

And what we'll see is this
rapid transformation of America

in a 50 year period,
the likes of which

human society had
never seen before.

(dramatic music)

[Narrator] Thanks
to electricity,

the economy is booming.

But with it comes the
need for faster, cheaper,

and more reliable
ways to communicate

than sending a telegram.

Telegraphy was point
to point by land.

And that was the
great challenge.

You can only send a message
to where the wires go.

It was hard to
string these wires,

particularly over hills,
or swamps, or jungles.

And you also
couldn't send it to,

you know, moving
vehicles like boats.

[Narrator] But
one man is obsessed

with ridding the world
of wires entirely.

Alternating current
produced by my oscillator

and transformed into
hundreds of volts

by a high power transformer.

[Narrator] His name is Nikola
Tesla, a mercurial genius.

He's one of the world's
most famous inventors.

Nikola Tesla was
a super inventor.

I mean, he gave us long distance
electricity transmission

and electric motor
robots, remote control.

On the other hand, he
was a little weird.

I mean, he was eccentric
to say the least.

He got nervous whenever
he saw jewelry.

He'd get a fever
if he saw a peach.

Tesla was an obsessive,

and that was part of
his genius, right?

He focused on an idea
and focused and focused

and took it to the next level,

was able to push the
art of the possible

because of the way
his mind worked.

[Narrator] Fascinated by
electricity since childhood,

Tesla was born in
what's now Croatia.

He's already worked
briefly for Edison

and created patents for
alternating electric current

that have earned him hundreds
of thousands of dollars.

Now he's pushing electricity

far beyond people's imagination.

[Nikola] Ladies and gentlemen,

behold the power of electricity.

[Audience] Ooh.

[Narrator] Tesla's sending
electricity through thin air.

You might call it magic,

but this is the power of
electromagnetic waves.

Tesla always looked
for an image, or a dream,

or a wish that people
could connect with

and get excited about,
so that they then

would invest in his technology.

They are traveling through
the air, lighting this bulb.

No wires.

[Narrator] At the heart of
his mindblowing invention

is the Tesla coil, a
device that can amp up

a small amount of electric
power into a large amount.

A Tesla coil is
basically a transformer.

It's a big coil of lots
of copper wire in there

many, many, many
thousands of tines

in order to step this power
up the way it does that.

And Tesla was hoping
to use this Tesla coil

to broadcast power wirelessly.

[Narrator] Scientists
call these transmissions

radio waves, and Tesla
believes they can carry

more than just electricity
through the air.

He's convinced they can
also carry information.

Tesla was truly so far ahead

of the curve on this technology.

And people had to think,
wow, this is a true wizard.

The secret of electricity
is the secret of life.

(audience applauding)

[Narrator]
Motivated by the dream

of wireless communication,
Tesla patents his new invention.

But if he's going to
revolutionize anything,

he has to send and
receive radio waves

much farther than a few feet.

We're so used to radio waves,

we don't think twice about it.

The idea that a signal
could leap across the air,

this felt like magic.

[Narrator] In 1894,
Tesla takes to a rooftop,

tying a receiving
antenna to a balloon.

He hopes to hear the
hum of a radio signal

coming from a Tesla coil at
his lab over a mile away.

(slow suspenseful music)

(radio humming)

(slow dramatic music)

This is just amazing.

For the first time, energy
is being transmitted

from point A to point
B with no mechanical

or electrical connections.

The energy is basically
traveling through space.

(dramatic music)

[Narrator] One
day his breakthrough

will launch a global
communications industry

that can beam music and news
to 1.4 billion moving cars

and control a Rover on Mars
from 144 million miles away.

But he needs to hurry.

Tesla doesn't know it yet,

but he's not the only one
trying to figure this out.

4,000 miles away
in Bologna, Italy,

a 19yearold
aristocrat is struggling

to reach the same goal.

Like Tesla, he's intensely
interested in electricity.

His name is Guglielmo Marconi.

I always sort of think of
Marconi as something like a,

you know, 19th century
Mark Zuckerberg.

He certainly didn't
go to college.

But he became intrigued
with what scientists

were learning about radio waves.

(slow music)

Marconi grows up in this

extremely wealthy
family in Italy.

They're the heirs to the
Jameson whiskey fortune.

And because he grows up so well
off, he has time to tinker.

[Narrator] Unlike
Tesla, Marconi's interest

goes beyond science.

He knows that the telegraph
business is worth billions.

(birds chirping)

If he can replace
that technology

with something better,

that fortune could be his.

(slow music)

He wanted to invent a
widget and get paid for it.

That was more of a
driving factor for Marconi

than was for Tesla.

You now what to do?

[Man] Yes, sir.

I will tap out a Morse code S.

If you hear three
clicks on the receiver,

fire the gun three times, okay?

[Narrator] Marconi
is also trying to send

a wireless radio signal,

about a half mile
further than Tesla.

Though he's unaware
that the famed scientist

is working on the same thing.

(birds chirping)

Tesla's secret is
his powerful coil.

Marconi tries something else.

He adds the telegraph key
so that he can use radio waves

to send Morse code
messages wirelessly.

(transmitter buzzing)

[Narrator] Sending a
message almost two miles away

without wires would
be a game changer.

(transmitter buzzing)

But it doesn't work.

(crickets chirping)

Back in his lab, Nikola Tesla
is far ahead of Marconi.

In fact, he hasn't
even heard of him yet.

Tesla now believes he can
send a message 50 miles

by increasing the power
of his Tesla coil.

And on March 13th,
1895, he leaves his lab

ready to put his
theory to the test.

(dramatic music)

It was about 2:30
in the morning.

Tesla had gone home, but
the downstairs store room

was covered with oily rags.

And a careless nightwatchman
flicked a stilllit cigarette,

and the place just
went up in flames.

(fire crackling)

(Nikola coughing)

[Narrator] His
entire lab, his models,

his notes, his experiments
are all destroyed.

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music)

Okay, ready?
Ready.

[Narrator] By August
1895, Guglielmo Marconi

has spent months
working relentlessly

trying to send a radio
signal, with no luck.

Marconi is not a scientist

in the purest sense of the word.

He is more of a trial and error,

let me see what
happen if I do this.

[Narrator] All of
his hopes are riding

on a new antenna design,

40 feet of wire suspended
from a single pole.

(slow dramatic music)

If he can get it to work,
he could make a fortune.

Marconi again sends one
of the family servants

back to the far side
of the estate saying,

"If you hear the signal on
the receiver, fire the gun."

(transmitter buzzing)

[Narrator] The range,
almost two miles.

(transmitter buzzing)
(birds chirping)

(slow dramatic music)

Almost half a mile longer

than Tesla's rooftop
test a year earlier.

After countless failed attempts,
Marconi's dream is fading.

(gunshot)

(gunshot)

(gunshot)

(dramatic music)

It works.

One of the things
that Marconi discovers

is that he is able
to get more distance

by raising the antenna.

And he starts to think, if
you could get high enough,

how far could you
send the signal?

[Narrator] Believing he's on
the verge of a breakthrough,

Marconi heads to the
best potential market

for what he hopes is a
communications revolution.

(bells tolling)

(upbeat rock music)

London had been the
intellectual capital

of the Englishspeaking world.

And in those days that meant
the scientific capital as well.

If you want to make it big
in the world of science,

London is the place
for you to go.

As the dominant sea
power in this period,

Great Britain in particular
was interested in developing

the capacity for ship
to shore communication.

(slow dramatic music)

[Narrator] If Marconi
can create a market

to communicate with ships at
sea, it could make his fortune.

(door clicking)

He uses his mother's connections
to get a foot in the door

with the most powerful engineer

in the country,
Sir William Preece.

Preece was the chief
engineer for the post office.

It may not sound like much,

but this was the British
government monopoly

over not only the
mail, the telegraph,

it would control the telephone.

How far can you transmit?

With your help,
maybe 14 miles.

Possibly more.

(slow dramatic music)

[Narrator] Preece
sees Marconi's invention

as a potential boon
to Britain's navy

and puts his full
resources behind him.

But there's a problem.

So far Marconi's transmitter

can only send a
message two miles,

not nearly enough
to reach most ships.

Marconi in London
starts to do more testing.

And one of the things
that becomes pretty clear

is the amount of power
makes a difference.

So if you can
increase the power,

you can increase the
distance of the signal.

[Narrator] Preece offers a
solution, but it's a shady one.

(dramatic music)

When Tesla came and gave
his lecture in London,

Preece had long
discussions with Tesla.

[Narrator] Preece
shares with Marconi

not only Tesla's ideas,
but some designs,

including the
intel Marconi needs

to build his own Tesla coil.

With that added power boost,

Marconi now sends his
signal four miles,

more than twice the
distance he could before.

It's corporate
espionage 1890s style.

But Marconi keeps
it under wraps.

He doesn't want Tesla
to know he has a rival.

Tesla's a big fish and
Marconi is kind of unknown.

Very often that the David
in the case of innovation

has more of an advantage
over the Goliath,

because he can
take bigger risks.

He's an unknown.

If it doesn't work, so what?

(midtempo music)

[Narrator] Across the
Atlantic, unaware of Marconi,

Nikola Tesla is back on track
after fire gutted his lab.

One of the amazing
things about Tesla's mind

is he had a photographic memory.

And he literally
rebuilt everything

that he had in the old place,

including all the
notes he had taken.

He rewrote them.

(slow dramatic music)

[Narrator] Tesla
resumes his work

on his radio experiments.

This time he's pushing the
power of his coil to its limits.

Tesla decides to
have his transmitter

operating in his laboratory
in downtown New York.

And as he takes a steamboat
up the Hudson River,

he keeps getting a signal
all the way up to West Point,

a distance of about 30 miles.

[Narrator] But for Tesla,
it's still not far enough.

So instead of building
on his breakthrough,

he returns to his lab to work

on an even more audacious idea.

Tesla gives a speech in which
he talks about the concept

of using the earth itself
as the transmitter.

He thought we would
just send radio waves

through the earth and they could

be picked up in other places.

[Narrator] He calls
his unprecedented idea

world telegraphy.

When published, Tesla's
articles cause a sensation.

Although few understand
his theories,

many are convinced
he's a genius,

and he attracts new investors.

He came up with stories
and scientific articles

about how there was going
to be wireless communication

in the future and how
people would have devices

that had all the information

in the world at
their fingertips.

He saw our modern world.

(dramatic music)

[Narrator] Across
the Atlantic,

Marconi is getting ready

to receive a radio
signal through the air

sent from an island
10 miles away.

He's using an even more
powerful transmitter

that he built by stealing
Tesla's patented design.

Marconi just really
thought it didn't matter

if Tesla had patented it
because he was going to do it,

and the one who does it first

is the one that gets
the credit for it.

He thinks of himself as being

an important
innovator, a genius,

somebody who really
sees things in the world

that other people don't see.

Somebody who is
a great inventor

has a sense of entitlement,

that no, I am put
here to do this.

I can do this.

I can go where
nobody's gone before.

And I'm going to bring
this to the world

and screw anybody
that gets in my way.

[Narrator] But sending
a Morse code message

over a large body of
water using radio waves

has never been attempted.

Every other scientist
was saying at the time,

you could not possibly
send a message

across the English Channel

because these waves
go in straight lines

and they would just dissipate
out into outer space.

[Narrator] But
Marconi doesn't care

about conventional wisdom.

He's invested five
years and the equivalent

of more than $4 million
today into his dream.

And he's willing to bet it all

on a belief that the
science is wrong.

(upbeat music)

(waves crashing)

(dramatic music)

[Narrator] It's 1897,

and Italian inventor
Guglielmo Marconi

is attempting something
scientists say is impossible,

send a Morse code message
10 miles over the open sea.

It was very difficult
to make it work

over more than a few miles.

Marconi's idea
wasn't just miles,

but it was tens of
miles because he wanted

to help people communicate
with ships at sea.

(slow dramatic music)

[Narrator] Marconi and his
team spend two agonizing days

desperate to receive a message,

with no success.

The tenacious Marconi
makes one last move.

He uses a 150 foot pole

to increase the
height of his antenna.

If he's right,
that could improve

its ability to receive a signal.

(receiver clicking)

(dramatic music)

There it is.

Congratulations.

On May 13th, 1897, Marconi
achieves the impossible.

Marconi's innovation
was figuring out

that he needed to use
extremely large antennas

in order to transmit signals

across these larger distances.

And it was really a revolution.

[Narrator] Marconi
is determined

to quickly capitalize
on his success,

but he doesn't want
to share the profits.

I supported you before
anybody knew your name.

True, but we never
had a contract.

[Narrator] Marconi cuts
ties with William Preece

and prepares to take his
technology to America.

(dramatic music)

News of Marconi's
remarkable achievement

is reported in newspapers
across the globe,

alerting Tesla to a new reality.

He has a rival.

I think competition
creates hunger.

If you're like in the arena,

you want to be the
best and do the best.

And so having other people out
there makes you drive faster,

drive quicker, drive better.

[Narrator] Tesla is
ready to take on Marconi.

He wants to build a
tower powerful enough

to send electromagnetic signals

through the earth
and around the world.

Tesla was a genius and a kook.

He was one of the
most profound thinkers

about what you can
do with electricity,

but he often went
off the deep end

in terms of whether
it would be practical.

[Narrator] He'll need
a huge influx of cash.

Everything rides on convincing

one of the world's richest men.

J. P. Morgan is
the nation's banker,

but he also has
controlling interest

in numerous copper
mines and railroads

and a whole array of industries.

He is the ultimate robber baron

that controls money
in this country.

You need that seed capital.

You need resources to get going.

And so someone's got
to believe in you.

You know, you have to
have enough passion

to convince someone
to believe an idea

that might not have exist yet.

(slow dramatic music)

I've read about Marconi.

Why wouldn't I back him?

He's using equipment
designed by others.

His waves travel
through the air,

so they break down
in bad weather.

And my electrical waves can
transmit more information

with greater security
anywhere on Earth.

So let me be clear.

This is a oneoff investment.

(dramatic music)

There'll be no more.

Your terms are mine.

Tesla is a kind of person

that people who have deep
pockets love to hear talk.

Because he has these big ideas,

a world powered by radio waves.

Who wouldn't love that idea?

[Narrator] Morgan
gives Tesla $150,000,

the equivalent of
almost $5 million today.

Marconi takes a different tactic
to raise funds, publicity.

By the end of the 19th century,

a half dozen
wellknown press barons

are competing for
newspaper sales.

None is better
known than the head

of the New York
Herald, Gordon Bennett.

Marconi's shown that radio waves

can travel long
distances over water.

Now he has an ambitious
and risky plan

to demonstrate
its potential uses

and plant his flag in
the American market.

[Narrator] He wants to entice
investors by reporting live

from one of the era's
great sporting events,

the America's Cup yacht race.

That is a risky endeavor,

but one that could
have big, big results

if folks loved it and they
can't stop talking about it.

[Narrator] The future
of his fledgling company

will depend on sending
up to the minute reports

from a boat that's
miles out on the water.

(transmitter clicking)

The America Cup race for
Marconi was his launch event.

So many entrepreneurs
use launch events

to like, kick off their
new thing they've built.

I'm sure that he was
incredibly nervous

about putting so
much on the line.

So there was Marconi
out in the boat

sending off messages,
and within like,

30 seconds or a minute,

there were these plaster
boards outside the Herald.

It caused a sensation because
you had never been able

to deliver news with
that timeliness.

People see him as both a
dynamic and exciting inventor,

but also a credible inventor.

He says what he's going to do

and then he goes
off and he does it.

(slow dramatic music)

[Narrator] Despite the
publicity surrounding

Marconi's live yacht
race transmission,

Tesla still doesn't see
Marconi as a threat.

He's moved on from sending a
radio signal through the air,

believing that using the
Earth's core as a transmitter

is a far superior technology.

But while reading a
scientific journal,

Tesla comes across an article

written by Marconi with
a stunning admission.

[Nikola] I first
constructed an arrangement

which included what may be
called a Tesla coil conductor.

[Narrator] He now
knows Marconi's success

comes from stealing
Tesla's patented design.

Damn, that is cold.

Marconi just said, yeah,
I'm going to do it,

and I'm going to
do it in your face.

What are you going
to do about it?

[Narrator] Angry,
Tesla's determined

to meet his rival face to face.

(slow dramatic music)

Nikola Tesla is
about to meet rival

Guglielmo Marconi
for the first time.

That rivalry between
Marconi and Tesla

was so, so important to
the invention of radio.

There's so many different things

that drive entrepreneurs,
that drive inventors.

Sometimes that rivalry,
whether it's vitriolic

or whether it's friendly is
a very key component of that.

[Narrator] Though he's
furious that Marconi

stole his patented
wireless technology,

Tesla's confident he's now
discovered a better way.

You're now claiming
you can send a message

around the world using
the Earth's core?

Using electromagnetic waves,

sending them through
the Earth's core.

It's a giant conductor,
just like copper wire.

You still don't understand.

I understand it is
impossible, even if you don't.

Tesla and Marconi,
they didn't get along.

And in fact, they were
in direct conflict.

[Narrator] Tesla is anxious
to prove Marconi wrong.

He buys a tract of
land in Long Island

on a property
called Wardenclyffe

and begins designing the
site's key component.

Tesla had the idea
of building a tower

where the top of the tower
would connect to the air.

He also had the tower
go equally distant

under the ground by driving
huge metal rods into the ground.

And his idea was to
create a completed circuit

where the air acted as one wire

and then the other wire
would be the earth itself

that would come back
to the power source.

[Narrator] It's an
incredible gamble,

but if Tesla is right, Marconi
will soon be irrelevant.

But Marconi has other plans.

(dramatic music)

In September of 1901,
Marconi attempts

the greatest radio experiment
the world has ever seen,

sending and receiving a
message across the Atlantic.

The whole thing
about radio waves

is to be able to fend them over
longer and longer distances.

(midtempo music)

Across the sea in England,

Marconi's team has built
a transmitter capable

of generating a
150,000 volt spark.

Enough power, the
inventor hopes,

to send a radio signal over
2,100 miles across the expanse.

Experts of the time
believed that radio waves

can travel infinite distances,
but only in a straight line,

and that they will not bend
to the curvature of the earth.

Marconi is banking
that they will.

The showman in him says,
I'm going to do this,

without real proof
that he can do it.

(dramatic music)

[Narrator] Every day
in 10 minute increments

between three and 7:00 p. m.

Marconi's transmitter in England

sends out a Morse
code S, three dots.

To capture the signal
back in Newfoundland,

Marconi believes he must fly
an antenna high over the coast,

an incredible challenge in
Newfoundland's notorious winds.

(dramatic music)

[Guglielmo] December 11, got
balloon up in a strong breeze

and lost it at 3.9
meters when it blew away.

[Narrator] After
multiple attempts

to get his antenna
airborne with a balloon,

Marconi switches to a kite,

believing it can better weather
the strong coastal winds.

[Guglielmo] Thursday,
December 12th.

Lost first kite after
being up for one hour.

Then got up another kite.

[Narrator] But
that too was lost.

So you can imagine
with Marconi,

how does he have
that conviction?

How does he stay through
it when he's testing stuff

and doesn't know if it's
actually going to work?

[Narrator] Day after day

Marconi and his
team hear nothing.

(upbeat music)

(slow dramatic music)

[Narrator] It's 1901.

The stock market crashes in
May, resulting in huge losses.

During moments of
economic calamity

it's incredibly
hard for investors

to invest in new industries
and new technologies.

They become very conservative
and risk adverse.

And they're
certainly less willing

to invest in risky,
untested blue sky technology

where it isn't really clear

how you're going to
make money on this.

[Narrator] In
financial trouble,

Tesla returns to
JP Morgan for help.

You will earn
12 times as much.

Get out, Mr. Tesla.

But, sir.
Get out.

(door slamming)

Morgan not only didn't
give him money himself,

but also went so far
as to tell some people

that they should
not invest in Tesla

because he went off
on wild tangents

instead of delivering the
things that he had promised.

There's one skill in
coming up with an invention.

There's another skill

in understanding the
market opportunity.

And then there's another skill,

being able to sell it
to the money people.

And that's critical.

You know, you kind
of need all three

of those skillsets
to make magic happen.

[Narrator] But
Tesla isn't giving up.

He still believes in his vision

and that Marconi will soon fail.

In December of 1901,
Guglielmo Marconi

is still in frigid St. John's

desperately trying to receive

a radio message from
across the Atlantic.

If it happens, he's going
to beat Tesla to the punch.

This would be a game changer
and a history changer.

[Narrator] Brutal
winds prevent Marconi

from raising his antenna.

(dramatic music)

Finally, after days of failure,

Marconi is able to keep
the kite in the air.

He's elated and relieved.

But will the message
come through?

(suspenseful music)

You can imagine the
pins and needles he sat on

as he waits days to
see, hey, did this work?

[Guglielmo] Do you
hear anything, Mr. Kemp?

(receiver buzzing)

It's faint.

(dramatic music)

So imagine his excitement
when it actually came back

and it actually did work.

Marconi achieves something

everyone told him
was impossible.

How could you find a way to
send signals across the ocean,

across this vast
and scary expanse?

We forget how
impossible it sounded.

It was almost like
the moon landing.

Marconi doesn't fully
understand how these waves

are getting across the ocean.

He has an idea, but even
he is stumped by the fact

that the waves
shouldn't be crossing

the curvature of the Earth,
and yet somehow they are.

Now we know the radio waves

were bouncing up
off the ionosphere

back down to the other side.

[Narrator] Over
the next few years

Marconi sets up transmitters
all over the globe,

opening the world to
wireless communication.

It's faster, more
efficient, costs less,

and provides coverage to more
people with greater ease.

Wireless technology
allows the world

to be more mobile and
flexible than ever before.

(dramatic music)

[Narrator] For Nikola Tesla,

Marconi's success is more

than the unstable
genius can handle.

Marconi and Tesla
wanted the same thing.

They were looking for a way

to transmit radio
waves across the world.

And they had different
visions for how to do it.

But Marconi was in the lead.

[Narrator] Tesla still
believes he can build his tower

and use the earth
as a giant conductor

to send signals
around the world.

But he needs more
money to complete it,

and his efforts to raise
the funds have failed.

He's running out of cash
and running out of options.

This is where you
start to see Tesla

become untethered to
reality a little bit.

Sometimes, unfortunately,
the nature of the beast

with inventors is that
they're that intense

about making it happen,
and then when that dies,

it literally is as if someone,
like their baby is gone.

(dramatic music)
(Nikola yelling)

(slow dramatic music)
(crickets chirping)

[Narrator] By 1912,
after two decades

trying to invent
wireless technology,

famed inventor Nikola Tesla is
headed toward financial ruin

and spiraling out of control.

(coil buzzing)

(slow music)

Throughout his life

Tesla struggles with
bouts of depression.

He discovers that if he
takes a fairly powerful shock

from his Tesla coil, it
will change his mood.

There's always this
undercurrent with Tesla.

Here's a man skating right
on the edge of sanity.

And he's going to
skate off one day.

(dramatic music)

[Narrator] The ones
legendary innovator

is now known for
an incomplete tower

rusting away in Long Island.

The ideas were
far more advanced

than the actual
technology to achieve them

had reached at the time.

[Narrator] His rival, Marconi

is trying to get his wireless
radio systems onto ships,

both military and commercial.

One of those is the Titanic.

It's late at night that the
ship actually hits an iceberg.

And the captain tells
the radio operator,

"Just start sending out
the distress signal,"

which other ships hear
and come to rescue

the passengers that
are in lifeboats.

(slow dramatic music)

All of a sudden this
very mysterious thing

that isn't very well
known by the public,

the radio's role in that builds

this broader awareness
of its potential.

The Titanic disaster woke
the American population

and the American government
to the importance

of having rules for radio.

They said every ship has
to have a radio operator.

[Narrator] The new rules

are a boon for Marconi's
business, and for Marconi.

He becomes the
first entrepreneur

to win the Nobel
Prize for Physics.

By 1920, advancements
to Marconi's transmitter

allow for commercial
broadcasts of voices and music,

what we think of as radio today.

Folks like Marconi,
some folks out there

might not think they're
the classic inventor

'cause they took something
that was already in existence

and wrapped it into a package
that was commercializable.

But I think that couldn't
be further from the truth.

I feel like Marconi should
be seen as an inventor

and folks like
Marconi are actually

very important
inventors for the world.

To remotely broadcast
from ships at sea to land,

across continents,
to take a symphony

and broadcast it to thousands
listening on their radio sets,

this is another
extraordinary novelty

in an era that is full of them.

(upbeat music)

[Narrator] Celebrated and
wealthy, Marconi is eventually

worth over 400 million
in today's dollars.

He's considered the
father of the radio

and people really look
up to him and respect him

for the work that he does,
the empire that he built.

[Narrator] In the decade
after the First World War,

Marconi's company is
bought by General Electric

and rebranded as RCA, the
Radio Corporation of America.

It will become one of
the most recognized

brand names in the world.

In 1929, RCA sells
$366 million in radios,

over 5.5 billion today.

[Announcer]
Hello friends in radioland,

this is station...

With radio, you
actually had the creation

of a national culture,
a true popular culture

that would spread
all over the country.

[Narrator] By
1930, Nikola Tesla

has given up his dreams of
connecting the world wirelessly

and lives his remaining
years in near isolation.

(slow dramatic music)

He has to keep moving
from hotel to hotel

because he can't pay the bills.

He also becomes more
and more of a recluse.

His favorite pastime
is feeding the pigeons

in New York City.

When we look at
him now, you know,

if Tesla were in
the world today,

he might've been diagnosed
and treated quite differently

and maybe his life
would've turned out

and ended in different ways.

[Narrator] 14 years
after Marconi admits

to stealing the Tesla
coil technology,

Tesla sues him for
violating his patents.

Tesla realizes that
more and more people

are recognizing Marconi

as the developer of
these innovations,

unaware of Tesla's role in it.

And he begins to become
a little bit bitter.

[Narrator] It isn't until 1943

that the Supreme Court
will rule on the case.

Tesla wins, but it's too late.

He died just six months earlier.

Tesla was a brilliant
scientific failure.

And the other guy, Marconi
is this sort of showman

who risks it all and succeeds.

And it's kind of a tragic irony.

Had both of them
not been there,

there wouldn't have
been this competition

and rivalry to generate
the technology.

And we might not have

the same kinds of technology
that we have today.

(upbeat music)

[Narrator] Radio would
become the backbone

of modern communication
and entertainment.

Television, internet,
smartphones,

all born from the
idea of messages

being transmitted
through the air.

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