English: Drawing showing types of vertical wire antennas used for the first wireless telegrapy radio transmitters and receivers during the first two decades of the 20th century. Guglielmo Marconi invented the vertical or monopole antenna in 1895, he found he could transmit longer distances by connecting one side of his transmitter to a metal plate suspended above ground and the other side to ground. (A) shows the early type of antenna he used until about 1900. The metal plate, which he called a "capacity area", was to add capacitance to the antenna, since the power output of the early spark gap transmitters was proportional to the amount of electric charge stored in the antenna before each spark. (B) He found that the plate did not help and a simple vertical wire had almost as much capacity. (C-F) Later researchers found that multiple parallel wires were a more convenient way to increase the capacitance, and also decreased the ohmic resistance, improving the efficiency of the antenna. (E) and (F) were called "cage antennas"; the symmetrical geometry equalized the current in the wires, reducing resistance.