3 case studies of 3 scientists: Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Nikola Tesla, Guglielmo Marconi. This presentation analyses their achievements and their profits out of science.

2. Is science a good
business?
PROJEKT MARSZAŁKOWSKI IGNACEGO KRAMARSKIEGO,
KL. 7E, PSP 34, RADOM, POD OPIEKĄ DYR. IWONY WILK.

3. Are you interested in science and want to
make money on it?
This presentation is for you!
You will read about 3 great scientists and learn if science was a good business for them.
Enjoy it!

4. Maria Skłodowska- Curie
SCIENCE
Maria’s parents were teachers. They taught Maria that learning was fun. Maria loved school. She was the
best student in her class. Her school gave her a gold medal. When Maria finished high school, she became a
teacher. At night she read books about science. Maria loved science. She wanted to learn more and more.
Maria went to a university in France. She studied Maths and Science at the university in Paris.
While she was in France, Maria met a scientist. His name was Pierre Curie. They fell in love and got married.
Maria changed her name to Marie Curie. Marie and Pierre worked on science projects together.

5. Marie Curie learned about the work of another scientist. This scientist had discovered strange rays. These
rays were not bright, but they were powerful. These rays were called X-rays. These rays could pass through
skin and could be used to take pictures of bones in the human body. Marie Curie wanted to learn about
these special rays. Marie and Pierre had a friend named Henri Becquerel. He studied a metal called
uranium. Henri discovered uranium gave off rays. The rays were like X rays, but not as strong. They could go
through paper, but not skin. Marie Curie studied uranium to learn more about the rays. She called the
energy that came from the rays-radioactivity.

6. Marie wanted to find out what other elements gave off rays. Marie and Pierre worked together. They discovered new
elements. One of these elements was radium. Radium gives off very strong rays. These rays can be used to cure
people who are sick with cancer. The rays can also be used to cure other illnesses.
Marie and Pierre Curie won the Nobel Prize in 1903. They won it for their work in radioactivity. Their friend, Henri,
also won the prize with them. Marie Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize science award. Later, in 1911,
Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize again! She won it for her work with radium. She has been the first person ever to win
the prize twice!

7. MONEY
Maria’s family was rich in education, not money. Her father was a teacher of physics but lost his job because he
didn’t want to follow Russian rules. He felt himself a Pole, not Russian. Her mum was a teacher, too but she
died young. Maria had to work as a private teacher to earn money for her studies. Women in Poland couldn’t
study at the university, so Maria had to pay for her studies abroad, in France. She was the best student but she
was often hungry.
Working with Peter they invested all money in their research, not anything else. They spent years in a cold shed,
where their lab was located. They refused to patent their discoveries, because Maria thought that radium has to
belong to all people, not only their discoverers. This decision was like saying “no” to big profits.

8. The Nobel Prize Award was a chance for her to invest in science even more. She was the co-founder of 2 Radium
Institutes- one in Paris and one in Poland. To make them work, she collected the money for radium from Americans for
the French Institute. She bought radium for the Polish Institute herself, spending on that about 120 000 dollars!
During World War I she organised a series of mobile vehicles with Xray machines in order to help French soldiers who
were injured. People thought it was very dangerous to her and she knew that that she had saved lives of hundreds of
war heroes.

9. She totally focused on 3 things in life: scientific research in order to help people, raising her children and being a
good patriot. The matter of money was really important to her as a way to do research and help out people.

10. Nikola Tesla
SCIENCE
Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in Serbia. His dad was a pastor and his mother came from one of the richest families in
the region. Nikola was extremely smart. He graduated from his middle school a year earlier than hees peers. Young
Nikola loved physics, thanks to his physics teacher, who showed him fascinating experiments in electricity. Nikola was
so fast doing complictaed maths calculations that a few of his teachers thought he was a cheater.

11. But his father wanted his son to be a pastor and wished to send him to a divinity school. When he was 17, he suffered
from severe cholera and was very close to death. His father promised God that if his son survived, he could choose a
technical school himself. After 9 months of illness Nikola survived and decided to choose Grazu Politechnic. The dean
so was impressed about his student that he wrote a letter to his dad, where he called Nikola „a superstudent of the
highest rank”. Nikola got a scholarship, but never finished any studiers. First, he got addicted to gambling and later on
he was expelled from his country for vagrancy… In 1880 he hot another chance to get to Prague universty, this time
sponsored by his generous uncles, but he arrived to the city too late to be admitted….

12. Nikola Tesla realised his ideas without formal education. He was one of the greatest visionaries, whose multiple ideas
helped electric engineering and other sciences in 20th century. He was the creator of 120 pioneer inventions and the
author, not the owner, of about 300 patents!!! He believed in electric revolution where people could drive electric cars
and use remote controlled devices, like drones!

13. In 1881 he got a job in a telegraph office in Budapest. The office was managed by a colleague of a very famous
inventor and scientist, Thomas Edison. Next year he went to France to work installing electrical lightning in Paris,
where his ideas were noticed. He got a reputation of a genius and was sent to New York to cooperate with Thomas
Edison. Nikola’s boss described him to Thomas Edison in words ‚ „I know 2 geniuses. The first one is you, sir. The
other one is this young man”. The cooperation of two geniuses began but it was unsuccessful. Although Nikola
improved electrical engines and engine generators there, they had a huge disagreement about electrical power.
Edison believed in direct current, but Tesla believed in the alternative one. Nikola could prove that his idea was
better because using it, energy losses could be prevented!

14. Later on Tesla invented modern lamps and better engine generators. Edison challenged Tesla proving that alternative
current could be used in multiple inventions. So, he invented a new type of electrical engine, a water turbine,
fluorescent lamps and many more… In 1893 Tesla designed and constructed the biggest hydro power station in
Niagara Falls. Edison tried to prove for years that alternative power was very dangerous and could be harmful. The
dispute was very long. Despite the fact that Tesla won it and alternative current is an all sockets in the world, neither
of them won he Nobel Prize…

15. In 1900 Tesla put forward a patent for a device to send off and get electromagnetic waves. Unfortunately, Guglielmo
Marconi did the same…. It was a bad fate for Nicola. Marconi used this patent to create the radio and got the Nobel Prize
for that invention. Tesla fought for the patent for years in the court, argumenting that Marconi had used his technology
illegally and the radio had been based on his own invention. But the court decided that Marconi was right. As late as in
1943 the Supreme court gave Tesla the patent back, the same making him the inventor of the radio. Unfortunately, it was
after Nikola’s death.

16. Later on in Tesla’s life, he dealt with controlling devices remotely. He invented an underwater submarine.
Moreover, he worked on how to use vast energy from outer space. During World War II Nikola started to help
Germans. He turned American radiostations towards Germany. It helped Germans get the important information
from Americans. Tesla wanted to make Germans invest in this idea to annihilate the humankind. Fortunately, it
was not successful, since the inventor died in 1943. He died lonely and forgotten.

17. MONEY
Nikola’s life was extremely stormy. He was brave to speak his mind and fight for his ideas against his rivals such as
Edison or Marconi. He was once well situated, and once a gambler, a vagrant or beggar.
First, he came from a well off family who had always wanted to help gim to get very good education. But in that
period of life, he was interested in gambling or tramping. He also tried to avoid going to the army, wandering deep in
the forests. All in all, his family’s suport was not used by Nikola at all.

18. In 1886 Tesla and his friend set up the company Tesla Electric Light and Manufacturing that designed and produced
modern lamps. Unfortunately, the company went bankrupt because Tesla’s colleagues cheated on him! Tesla had to
work digging for 2 dollars per day to survive in winter… 2 years later Nikola found the investror of his ideas
connected with alternative current- Tesla engine. These were very good years for his finances. He earned 70 000
dollars and could afford to live in a hotel for 16 years! It was a very good salary for the moment but his inventions
helped thousands of manufacturers earn millions for themselves! The lawyers from the company who used his ideas
persuaded Nikola to resign from 2,5 dollars commision for each horsepower of energy generated thanks to his ideas.
So, he lost the chance to be rich. All in all, the money he had earned was not enough for lifetime… In 1895 Tesla’s
laboratory was burned in fire. He lost all his ideas and lifework. Also years spent on fighting in court with Marconi
left Tesla without the money. He was looking for investors for his patents or ideas and but his ideas were too
abstract for the investors. Unfortunately, investors often dropped these ideas and cut off their money

19. Guglielmo Marconi
SCIENCE
Guglielmo Marconi was born in 1874 in Italy in a very wealthy family. His father was a wealthy Italian landowner
and his mother was a member of Ireland’s family of whisky producers. He was a school trouble-maker but his
parents tried everything to give him the best education. After years of trying different schools for their son, they
decided for home education. His private home education made him really crazy about physics, thanks to his private
physics tutor, Vincenzo Rosa, but was not good enough to make him pass exams to any university. Guglielmo knew a
lot about physics but was not a formally educated scientist. He worked in his lab in the mansion of his parents on
wireless communication. When he got a yacht from his rich father, he was very determined to have contact with the
land and experimented with wireless technology even more. He did everything he could, to develop his ideas and
make them popular in his times. He was very successful.

20. In 1894 Marconi became fascinated with the discovery by German physicist Heinrich Hertz of “invisible waves”,
generated by electromagnetic interactions. Marconi built his own wave-generating equipment at his home lab and
could send signals to locations a mile away. At that moment he could see the potential of this experiment and
wanted Italian government to use it. Unfortunately, the government was not interested. Then, he decided to go to
England in 1896 to promote his experiment result. This was a very successful plan. In England young Marconi had a
lot of engineers around and soon got a patent and set up his company. His signal was broadcast up to 12 miles and
Queen Victoria used it to send messages to her son, who was on a yacht! British Post Office was interested in it too!

21. 1901 was the year when the radio was born and Marconi was named “The Father of Radio”. In fact, to construct
the radio he had used inventions and ideas of other scientists. Arguments and fights lasted for a very long time.
When Marconi tried to get his first patent in 1896 Nikola Tesla had had 8 own radio related patents then and the
patent office told Marconi in 1903 that Tesla was the first one who invented the radio! Luckily for Marconi, in
1904 he unexpectedly got his radio patent and became the official inventor of the radio.

22. Finally, in 1943 the Supreme Court denied that Marconi was the inventor of the radio. It said that other scientists’
patents had been first before Marconi’s one. 3 scientists had been before Marconi: Nikola Tesla, Oliver Lodge and
John Stone Stone. But Supreme Court’s decision was made after Marconi’s death and in his lifetime he was the
popular inventor of the radio!

23. Additionally, in 1909 Marconi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, for all his work, which he had done on the
radio. Although the radio was invented by several true scientists, Marconi was the one who was not a typical
scientist. He was very determined to change the world with it and worked really hard collecting other scientists’
ideas and testing them very intensively and for years. In his Nobel Prize speech, Marconi admitted he didn't really
understand how his invention worked!

24. After 120 years we know that he was the most visionary of all radio fathers. He was not interested in the scientific
satisfaction only, but in making it a useful and popular product used by many. If you ask a child about a radio
inventor, most answers will be: Marconi! After 1909 he actively continued his research promoted his ideas. His
wireless technology was used by British government and helped to create BBC. He conducted his work on his great
yacht- Elettra. He himself inaugurated Radio Vatican.

25. MONEY
Guglielmo was born in a rich and caring family of Italian noblemen and Irish businessmen. His parents had money,
ambitions and contacts. They used them all to support their son’s dreams. First, Guglielmo was too weak to get to any
university but his parents found a professor of physics at Bologna University, Augusto Righi, who was a specialist in
Hertzian waves. He gave Guglielmo the best private education. This helped him work on his ideas a lot. Also, the
possibility to talk to the Italian government about using his wireless communication was thanks to his father. Marconi’s
trip to England was made possible thanks to his mum and cousins, who were engineers and businessmen. They helped
him set up his company that later on became Marconi Company. His father was so powerful that helped his son run away
from the army. Guglielmo got a job that had been created especially for him, in the Italian embassy in London, where he
worked just to avoid going to the army! He didn’t have any duties there and could spend his time on wireless technology
and his own business. Marconi Company was very popular in 1898. It signed the contract for providing the equipment to
British radio stations and British ships. Later on his company was the only one that cooperated with the British
government. To make it even more famous, it was thanks to Marconi’s radio equipment installed on ships that about 700
Titanic survivors were rescued!

26. After 1901 transatlantic experiment, Marconi’s Company got successful, which made him richer and more powerful.
Also, why did the patent office suddenly accept Marconi’s radio patent in 1904? Nobody knows for sure but Marconi’s
Company was very powerful in the USA then and Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla’s opponent worked in Marconi’s
company… Oliver Lodge had other patents who were dangerous for Marconi’s career. What was Guglielmo’s reaction? He
bought all Logde’s patents! Marconi was an important star in the international world of science and business then…

27. In 1919, after years of hard competition on the market and about new wireless technology, Marconi Company was
taken over by a new company with better technologies. It was less income for Marconi than before, but still he led his
rich lifestyle. In 1914 he became a senator in the Italian Parliament, in 1929 he got a marquis title. A part of his life was
led on his private Elettra superyacht, where he worked, experimented and socialised. He died in 1937, a powerful,
famous and wealthy nobleman, businessman, politician and visionary, still “the father of the radio”.

28. Marconi was rich for all his life. He was supported by the fortune and contacts his multinational family had. Could he
become an amateur scientist and develop his ideas without his parents money or international contacts? Of course the
power Marconi had and the determination was his own. The years he spent on developing wireless technology were
years from his life. But the ideas he used, were very often combined or ”borrowed” from other scientists.
But why did he, the richer one, win the process, not Nikola Tesla? Why in times when he was very popular that was him
who got the Nobel Prize, not any other scientist? The others were professional scientists, but definitely less powerful
and influential. He could afford to be a popular scientist, thanks to all support he got in his youth. He just invested the
potential in a very smart way and got profits out of this investment.

29. Conclusions
I have gone through the lives of three very important scientists: Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Nikola Tesla
and Guglielmo Marconi.
Maria Skłodowska Curie was focused on her mission, which was helping the humankind with her
discoveries. She was not interested in personal profits for herself. She collected the money for the
patients who had a cancer or she helped the soldiers.
Nikola Tesla was a visionary, whose multiple ideas were too advanced for his times. He had different
moments in his life when he was very poor or rich. He was often cheated or unlucky. Money was not
the focus of his life, his inventions were the most important.
Guglielmo Marconi was very clever to use other scientists’ work to realise his own visions and plans.
He was supported by his wealthy family and it helped him to be very successful and rich.
Science and ideas were very important for those three great scientists. Only one of them was
interested in making it a good business. He did that, but had always been rich. So, if you are
interested in science and want to make money out of it, you can try to follow G. Marconi. But if you
want to use it to change the world, focusing on science is also a great idea. Science is a way of life,
you can turn it into business or any other vision, if you put a lot of effort and try hard! Good luck!

30. Now, it’s time to check your knowlegde
about the scientists☺
Do the quiz to check how much
you remember☺
https://quizizz.com/join/quiz/5edc9f7e766849001ce999d7/start?studentShare=true

31. Resources:
• Wielcy Wynalazcy, Jamkowski M., Szymanowicz M., J copyright 2017 by Juka-91 Sp. z o. o.
• A Day With…Maria Skłodowska-Curie, copyright 2008 by Macaw Books
• „Byli sobie wynalazcy. Guglielmo Marconi”
• https://pl.wikipedia.org
• https://teologiapolityczna.pl/marek-krawczyk-maria-sklodowska-curie-i-jej-wklad-w-medycyne
• http://www.orpeg.pl/index.php/materialy/inne/579-bohaterka-wojenna-bezwstydnica-laureatka-nagrody-nobla-maria-sklodowska-curie
• https://www.polskieradio24.pl/39/156/Artykul/890222,Maria-SklodowskaCurie-pierwsza-kobieta-z-Noblem
• https://www.polskieradio24.pl/39/156/Artykul/2432075,Nikola-Tesla-%e2%80%93-niespelniony-geniusz
• https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/guglielmo-marconi
• https://www.polskieradio.pl/39/156/Artykul/1085552,Guglielmo-Marconi-i-poczatki-radia
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v1tmz66KAk
• https://www.theguardian.com/education/higher/physicalscience/partner/story/0,,617543,00.html
• https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/music?nv=1