Guglielmo Marconi (Piccirilli) total sculpture cost after completion was $32,555. Guglielmo Marconi (Piccirilli) Guglielmo Marconi is a public artwork by Attilio Piccirilli, located at the intersection of 16th and Lamont Streets, N.W., in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of Washington, D.C., United States. It stands as a tribute to Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi. It was paid for by public subscription and erected in 1941. The artwork was listed on both the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites and the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. It is a contributing property in the Mount Pleasant Historic District. The monument was originally surveyed as
History of radio proposed electromagnetic or Hertzian waves as a navigation aid or means of communication, with Crookes writing on the possibilities of wireless telegraphy based on Hertzian waves in 1892. After learning of Hertz' demonstrations of wireless transmission, inventor Nikola Tesla began developing his own systems based on Hertz' and Maxwell's ideas, primarily working toward a means of wireless lighting, and power distribution. Tesla, concluding that Hertz had not demonstrated airborne electromagnetic waves (radio transmission), went on to develop a system based on what he thought was the primary conductor, the earth. In 1893 demonstrations of his ideas, in St. Louis, Missouri