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Inez and Guglielmo Marconi
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| Marconi and JE Milholland |
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| INEZ AND MARCONI
Degna Marconi, Guglielmo’s daughter, describes the first Cunard Bulletin, put together from the Marconi wireless, as having been put together on the Lucania. Guglielmo Marconi and Inez Milholland became romantically involved on that trip, she says.
On the trip Degna Marconi seems to refer to, Inez wrote to her father as follows:
Cunard, R.M.S. “Lucania” [on board]
October 1, 1901 [date at end]
Dear Pop,
I thought I would drop you a line to say that (so far) all looks like “plain sailing”. No one has conceived a violent affection for their cabin (so far). All are parading the decks in a fine healthy wind (so far). Mamma looks and I think feels splendid (so far). Don’t eat too many candies and don’t stay up late like a good little boysie. I won’t write any more for fear of seeing too much of my state-room. I am wearing one of the roses and it’s just lovely. Well ta-ta with piles of love and oceans of kisses from every body and Inez.
Later: We had a fine trip over, and one of the officers took me to see [how] the Marconi telegraph thing works, and oh, it was so interesting. And I like the Lucania better than the Campania. Inez
Linda Lumsden, in Inez: The Life and Times of Inez Milholland (p. 26) describes Inez's relationship with Guglielmo Marconi as follows:
"Billy" became a close family friend after meeting Jean and the three Milholland children aboard the Lucania while crossing from New York to London in October 1903. They became engrossed in Marconi's shipboard experiments; at one point he was able to transmit signals to both North America and Europe. When the ship was in the mid-Atlantic, Jean and the children discovered a cheerful "Marconi-gram" from John back in New York posted on the ship's bulletin board, supposedly the first wireless message ever received by a passenger. ...
Although Inez was only seventeen, Marconi proposed marriage. The engagement seems to have been fauirly whimsical, as the next summer, Marconi fell in love with a 19-year-old Irish baroness and broke off the engagement. ... Years ater, he lamented they never married.
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