electrical devices. One of the most important devices allowed radio waves to be converted into electrical pulses, which could then be converted into sound: the first step in the development of the radio. The first significant radio transmission and reception was by Guglielmo Marconi, in 1896. He sent a wireless distance 1.5 message a of miles(2.5 kilometers). By 1901, Marconi had succeeded in sending radio communication across the English Channel and then across the Atlantic Ocean, but the technology was not yet practical for use by the general public.