IN 1900 GUGLIELMO Marconi, the inventor of commercial radio, changed the name of his company from The Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company, (established in 1897), to Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Company. In 1909, his first trans-atlantic radio telegraph service was opened and in 1910 he conceived a plan to link the whole Empire by wireless. This plan was finally realised in 1927 when a short-wave, beam wireless ‘Imperial Chain’ was opened. This proved so strong a competitor with the international cable system that a merger of Marconi with the Eastern Telegraph Company was brought about. The company, less its manufacturing assets, became part of the newly formed operating company, Imperial and International Communications, in 1929.
