?douard Eug癡ne D矇sir矇 Branly (October 23, 1844 - 24 March 1940) was a French inventor, physicist and professor at the Institut Catholique de Paris. He is primarily known for his early involvement in wireless telegraphy and his invention of the Branly coherer around 1890. The coherer was the first widely used detector for radio communication, the first sensitive device for detecting radio waves. He was three times nominated for a Nobel Prize, but he never received it. In 1911 he was elected to the French Academy of Sciences. He was named as Marconi's inspiration during the first radio communication across the English Channel, when Marconi's message was: "Mr. Marconi sends to Mr. Branly his regards over the Channel through the wireless telegraph, this nice achievement being partly the result of Mr. Branly's remarkable work." He died in 1940 at the age of 95.