Shortwave radio were required. It was also difficult to beam the radio wave directionally with long wave, resulting in a major loss of power over long distances. Prior to the 1920s, the shortwave frequencies above 1.5 MHz were regarded as useless for long distance communication and were designated in many countries for amateur use. Guglielmo Marconi, pioneer of radio, commissioned his assistant Charles Samuel Franklin to carry out a large scale study into the transmission characteristics of short wavelength waves and to determine their suitability for long distance transmissions. Franklin rigged up a large antenna at Poldhu Wireless Station, Cornwall, running on
History of radio England. Marconi opened his "wireless" factory in the former silk-works at Hall Street, Chelmsford, England in 1898, employing around 60 people. Shortly after the 1900s, Marconi held the patent rights for radio. Marconi would go on to win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909 and be more successful than any other inventor in his ability to "commercialize" radio and its associated equipment into a global business. In the US some of his subsequent patented refinements (but not his original radio patent) would be overturned in a 1935 court case (upheld by the US Supreme Court in 1943). In 1900,