Chronology

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The Marconi Press Agency Ltd. was a private company set up in 1910 to act as a publicity department to disseminate to the general public items of wireless interest gleaned from the reports of engineers and operators in various parts of the world. In 1922 the name was changed to The Wireless Press.

By early 1911 so much information was being garnered that it was decided to publish it in the form of a monthly illustrated journal, christened "The Marconigraph". The first periodical in the world to deal exclusively with wireless matters its success was such that its growth and ever-widening scope led in 1913 to its title being changed to "The Wireless World". Under this name it remained in Marconi ownership until 1925 when The Wireless Press was sold to the publishers Iliffe and the publication became "Wireless World". The company noted the celebration of the Golden Jubilee edition in 1961 [Editors note - this link has a series of links to the yearly reviews contained in this edition and taken from the actual pages - scroll down the timeline from 1911 onwards to find them by year].

There was also an American version of the MARCONIGRAPH published from October 1912 to September 1913.

From 1920 the Press also published the "Ocean Times" on board the White Star, Red Star and Atlantic ships; following on from the Iliffe purchase this was extended to all ships at sea. In 1967 the editorial department closed, thus, at 2I48 GMT on 30th September, the last newscast was broadcast from Portishead Radio, and the end of an era came with the words: Wireless Press sends greetings to all subscribers and readers on the occasion of its final Shipress transmission. Bon Voyage

In 1984 Wireless World changed its title again to Electronics and Wireless World, and in the 1990s to Electronics World. Under this name it continued until 2011 when it ceased to be on sale from news-stands after a century. However, it is still available by subscription and in a digital version here. A centenary issue was published in 2013.

This is a website which has an almost complete set of scanned copies.

Throughout its history it featured many famous articles but probably the best known appeared in 1945 - Arthur C Clarkes proposal for geostationary communication satellites

Wikipedia1          Wikipedia2          Archive         Oxford         History         The demise

The Wireless Age, 1913-18 published by the Marconi Publishing Corporation and The Wireless Press Inc

The Year Book of Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony 1913-25 published by the Marconi Press Agency

In 1919 the Wireless Press published the first number of a high-class magazine called The Radio Review, which constituted a monthly record of scientific progress in radiotelegraphy and telephony, edited by Profesor G.W.O. Howe assisted by Mr. Philip R. Coursey and contributed to by the world's leading radio men.

The Elementary Principles of Wireless Telegraphy by R.D.Bangay - 1914 - published by The Marconi Press Agency

The Aerial, a non-technical magazine illustrating the Company's activities, started publication in 1919 and was published monthly, but which later lapsed until 1937 when it returned as the Marconi News Bulletin, which itself was reconstituted in 1950 as The Marconi Companies and Their People, followed later by a newspaper, Marconi News.

The Marconi Review

In 1928, following the merger with Cable and Wireless, the company decided to resume publishing activities and so The Marconi Review, published monthly from October with high level technical content, came into being with W.G. Richards as Editor and H.M. Dowsett as Technical Editor, who in 1932 became Editor. In January 1931 it became bimonthly until April 1937, then in 1937 it became quarterly. In 1939 L.E.Q Walker became Editor, a post he held until 1968. It was continuously published (suspended circulation Oct. 1939-Sept. 1944) until 1983, finally comprising 46 volumes and 228 individual editions.  After 1983 the GEC Review continued until 1999 and took over the publication of research articles previously in the Review.

After WW2 three more technical journals were added: Point-to-Point Telecommunications, Sound and Vision Broadcasting - these two were later combined into Communications and Broadcasting - and a new Aerial.

Also postwar the Company started issuing catalogues which contained information on its structure and full technical details of the entire range of products. A master index of these is being undertaken and the latest version is available here.

There have also been various text books written by senior engineers , becoming standard works of reference. These included The Year Book of Wireless Telegraph, first produced in 1919 and annually until 1925, as post-war all internal publications were severely curtailed. 

Although not under the aegis of the Agency, over the years constituent divisions and later companies also published individual journals and newspapers and these will be indexed as they are identified. 

For a comprehensive overview of other journals that appeared over the years see this page.

Chronology

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