Alfonso Marconi Alfonso Marconi Alfonso Marconi (18651936) was an Italian businessman and collector of stringed instruments, most famous for assisting his younger brother Guglielmo Marconi in his pioneering work on long-distance radio transmission Alfonso Marconi was born into the Italian nobility in 1865, the first son of Giuseppe Marconi (an Italian aristocratic landowner from Porretta Terme) and of his Irish/Scots wife, Annie Jameson (daughter of Andrew Jameson of Daphne Castle in County Wexford, Ireland, and granddaughter of John Jameson, founder of whiskey distillers "Jameson & Sons"). Alfonso was educated at Bedford School in England between 1876 and 1880, during his peripatetic childhood.
First long-distance telephone line Downieville, California. The site is now a California Historical Landmark. The marker is inscribed: WORLD'S FIRST LONG-DISTANCE TELEPHONE LINE The first long-distance telephone in the world, built in 1877 by the Ridge Telephone Company, connected French Corral with French Lake, 58 miles away. It was operated by the Milton Mining Company from a building on this site that had been erected about 1853. First long-distance telephone line The world's first long-distance telephone line, established in 1877, connected French Corral with Bowman Lake (previously known as French Lake) at the headwaters of the Yuba River. It was strung across trees and