Guglielmo Marconi founded the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company in London with a capital of 100,000 pound-a-piece shares; Wireless would later become one of the six English firms that would form the BBC. Marconi received £15,000 for the sale of his patent and 60,000 shares. He then sold £10,000 to his cousin Henry Davis Jameson, who became the company’s first managing director. Marconi was appointed technical director. The factory was located in Chelmsford, north London, with an initial staff of 40 workers.
