Making Contact!

  The fifth book in Tundra's Great Idea Series, Making Contact! tells the story of Guglielmo Marconi, who became the father of wireless communication.

     As a boy, Marconi loved science and invention. Born in 1874 in Bologna, Italy, to a wealthy family, Marconi grew up surrounded by books in his father's library. He was fascinated with radio waves and learned Morse code, the language of the telegraph. A retired telegraph operator taught him how to tap messages on the telegraph machine. At the age of twenty, Marconi realized that no one had invented a wireless telegraph. Determined to find a way to use radio waves to send wireless messages, Marconi found his calling. And, thanks to his persistence, on December 12, 1901, for the first time ever, a wireless signal traveled between two continents. The rest is history.

     Monica Kulling's playful, informative text, combined with the compelling illustrations of artist Richard Rudnicki, bring an amazing inventor and his times to life.