Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937), Italian inventor, in his World War I uniform. Marconi is best known for his development of a wireless telegraph system, for which he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun. He began experimenting with radio signals in his early 20s, coming to Britain in 1896 and forming the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company (later Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company) in 1897. He established the first wireless communication across the English Channel in 1899, and across the Atlantic in 1901. During World War I (1914-1918), Italy joined the Allied side of the conflict, and Marconi was placed in charge of the Italian military's radio service.