Advertisement

In 1965, inhabitants of Salvan, Switzerland, located above Martigny in the Mont Blanc region, “remembered” that a senior citizen of their village had lived a very unusual experience seventy years before, when he was a young boy. A radio reporter was vacationing nearby, and Maurice Gay-Balmaz, by then 80 years old (see Figure 1), told him how he had met a “nice young man,” who had arrived with heavy equipment along the mule path ascending from the Rhone valley.1 The recordings made at the time describe a crucial episode in the development of wireless communications, which was until then unknown to Marconi’s “official” biographers.

An Old Man Tells an Old Story

The young Gay-Balmaz, born in 1885, was playing near his home in Salvan, when he noticed some odd-looking bits and pieces lying in the grass. Seeing the boy’s interest, Marconi, who was then a tenant in the uncle’s house, supposedly said: “So, you’re interested in that, are you, young’un? If you’d like to work with me, I’ll take you on.”2 In this manner, ten-year-old Gay-Balmaz became Marconi’s little helper, very excited at the idea of carrying such fascinating equipment. He enjoyed helping this kind and generous summer resident, a man very different from the area’s customary tourist. Without realizing it, Gay-Balmaz was about to play a role in one of the most significant adventures of our time.3