Marconi archive saved for nation

Marconi archive saved for nation

One of Britain's most important privately owned archives, the Marconi collection, is to be saved for the nation.

GEC-Marconi is donating to the Science Museum 5,000 documents and 300 items of early wireless equipment associated with Guglielmo Marconi, the the man who invented the world's first proper radio transmitter and founded the world's electronics and radio communications industries.

The collection had been due to be sold at Christie's next month, but, following adverse press and TV publicity, GEC-Marconi cancelled the sale. Most of the archive is likely to be housed in a new museum in Chelmsford, Essex, the town where Marconi established the world's first wireless factory in 1898.