Marconi Research Centre

World War II antenna tower at Marconi Research Centre

Marconi Research Centre is the former name of the current BAE Systems Advanced Technology Centre facility at Great Baddow in Essex, United Kingdom. Under its earlier name, research at this site spanned military and civilian technology covering the full range of products offered by GEC-Marconi, including radio, radar, telecommunications, mechatronics and microelectronics.

The centre was originally built by the Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company to bring together their various radio, television and telephony research teams in a single location, and was opened in 1936 as the Marconi Research Laboratory.^[1] As the electronics industry developed the campus expanded during the 1940s and 1950s to include research into radar, general physics, high voltage, vacuum physics and semiconductors.^[1] At its peak the Centre employed more than 1,200 engineers, technicians, craftsmen and support staff.^{[citation needed]} It was also home to the Marconi Company's museum containing numerous original artifacts from the pioneering period of Guglielmo Marconi's work on wireless telegraphy.^[2]

The site still includes a prominent local landmark, a 360-foot (110 m)-high (110 m) former Chain Home radar tower visible across the surrounding countryside.^[3]

Notable Marconi Research employees and scientists

• Sir Christopher Cockerell
• Sir Eric Eastwood, FRS
• Thomas Eckersley, FRS
• Bernard de Neumann
• Peter Wright, author of Spycatcher

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Birthplace of Radio, Invest Essex, accessed 2011-10-13
2. ^ The emergence of broadcasting in Britain, Brian Hennessy, John Hennessy, ISBN 0955140803
3. ^ The Great Baddow Mast, Chelmsford Borough Council Planning and Building Control Services, published May 2009, accessed 2011-10-13

Coordinates: 51°42′27″N 0°30′10″E / 51.7076°N 0.5029°E / 51.7076; 0.5029