Tra scienza pura e rivoluzione: esperimenti di Augusto Righi e Guglielmo Marconi condotti a Bologna tra il 1893 e il 1897

The paper revisits the introduction of wireless telegraphy at the end of the nineteenth century by the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi within the framework of scientific revolution. It demonstrates how Marconi, building on the experiments conducted by Hertz, Righi, and other contemporary physicists who focused on verifying Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory, utilised electromagnetic waves to develop a communication system. The paper emphasises that the originality of Marconi’s revolution, particularly in its early stages, lay not so much in the invention of new instruments but in the refinement and skilful integration of existing ones.