HUGO GERNSBACK
THE MAN WHO INVENTED
THE FUTURE
The man who invented the future
An adaptation from a story by Michael A. Banks
Hugo Gernsback adjusts a spark coil,
the device that first stimulated his interest
in
electricity when he was a young boy.
Who
was Hugo Gernsback?
The answer to that question varies, depending
on who you ask.
"Gernsback published the first science fiction
magazine!" a science fiction reader will declare. Ask an engineer, and
you might hear, "Gernsback ... wasn't he involved in some early experiments
with television broadcasting?"
Another engineer will remember reading a Gernsback
book or magazine about radio as a youth. A radio historian will tell you
that he owned radio station WRNY, introduced an affordable Marconi-type
radio-telegraph that you could buy at Macy's in 1905, and championed the
cause of radio amateurs.
On the surface, Gernsback seems to have led
a scattered life. But everything he did had the same focus: the future.
Hugo Gernsback was the modern world's first futurist, one who not only
speculated about the future, but also worked to make it happen and guide
others to it.
Hugo Gernsback was born Hugo Gernsbacher on
August 16, 1884, to a moderately wealthy family in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg.
His father was a vintner. As a child in the 1890s, he became fascinated
by electricity when a handyman at his father's winery showed him how to
hook up a battery, wire, and a bell to make the bell ring. The shower of
green sparks that occurred when he touched a wire to the bell's terminal
to complete the circuit seems to have impressed him as much as the bell
itself. In telling this story to others over the years, Gernsback would
always remark on the "wonderful green sparks" that accompanied the bell
ringing.
But young Gernsback was after more than sparks
and bell-ringing. When he reached the limits of experimentation with the
simple equipment on hand, he expanded his capabilities with an order of
battery powered telephone sets, six-volt light bulbs, connecting wire,
and buzzers from the catalog of an electrical supply house in Paris. He
was determined to learn as much as possible about the practical aspects
of this phenomenon called electricity. After further experiments, he successfully
undertook to wire the Gernsbacher family home with battery powered telephone-intercoms
and a six-volt lighting system.
This impressed everyone who saw it, and before
long Gernsback was adding door buzzers and intercoms to neighbors' homes--and
making a bit of money at it. He was even commissioned to install a complicated
system of signaling buzzers in a nearby convent and nearly lost the job
simply by aging. By the rules of the Church, no adult males were permitted
to enter the convent. Gernsback was 12 when he accepted the job, but soon
turned 13, the age of puberty. The convent had to obtain a special dispensation
from the Pope before Gernsback could complete the job.
While he apparently did well with his electrical
tinkering, Gernsback didn't keep his earnings long. Whenever he accumulated
a pocketful of cash he headed for Luxembourg's Grand Café and lost
it all in poker games. It was fortunate that he did lose, as the losses
were probably why gambling did not become a habit.
In addition to electricity, Gernsback was
fascinated by scientific speculation. When he was 10, a notable occurrence
involving such speculation would fuel his future interest in science fiction.
An insatiable reader, he found a translated edition of American astronomer
Percival Lowell's book, Mars as the Abode of Life.
According to Gernsback, the thought of life
on the Red Plant drove him into a two-day delirium, during which he babbled
incessantly about Martians and their technology. He would continue to speculate
on the nature of life and civilization on Mars the rest of his life--and
so it may be that science fiction fans have Lowell to thank for first introducing
Hugo Gernsback to science-fictional concepts.
Following his basic education, Gernsback was
enrolled in a boarding school in Brussels. He proved to have something
of a talent for language, and learned English quickly. This would serve
him well in his future career as a writer, editor, and publisher. His studies
in English led to reading western novels and the works of Mark Twain, which
fueled a fascination with America and left him determined to travel to
the New World as soon as he completed his education.
Gernsback next studied electrical engineering
in Germany, at a university called the Technikum in Bingen. During his
three years there he spent quite a bit of time perfecting the design for
a portable radio transmitter. He also designed and built several examples
of a high-amperage dry-cell battery that he was convinced would make him
a fortune. In 1904 he bought a first class ticket to Hoboken, New Jersey,
from Germany, taking two models of his battery with him. His family provided
him with $100--enough to live on for perhaps six weeks, if he was frugal.
The young man hit the ground running and made
his way to New York. Shortly after his arrival he applied for a patent
on his battery (it was granted as Patent No. 842,950 in 1907), and began
shopping it around, distributing business cards with the name "Huck Gernsbacher."
He borrowed the new first name from his favorite fictional character, Huckleberry
Finn.
Unfortunately, he learned that, while his
battery produced over three times the current of any American battery,
it was too costly for mass-production. But he was able to get an auto parts
supplier to contract with him to build batteries of his design. Things
went well until the parts company's major customer, the Packard Motor Car
Company, cut back on purchasing in the wake of the financial panic of 1907.
This resulted in Gernsback's small operation going out of business.
But business was good in 1904, providing Gernsback
with more than enough to support himself. With time and a little spare
cash on his hands, Gernsback decided to build a marketable version of his
portable radio transmitter. There was only one problem: no suppliers in
or around New York offered all the parts he had used in Europe. He sent
to Germany for the necessary articles and waited impatiently for several
weeks.
It occurred to him that other experimenters
must be similarly frustrated; perhaps there was money to be made in importing
electrical and radio components. And if he were to become a parts supplier,
he would not have to wait for items for his own use. With this in mind,
he brought in an investor-partner, Lewis A. Coggeshall, to help set up
an import business. Getting an investor was probably not all that difficult.
Electricity was the new wonder of the age, and, and the feeling was that
anything to do with it would be a success.
Gernsback sold the Telimco Wireless Telegraph
for $8.50 through his Electro Importing Company. The Telimco is generally
accepted to be the very first home radio set.
Gernsback rented space in a building at 32
Park Place in New York and established the Electro Importing Company for
the purpose of selling radio components and electrical supplies by mail-order.
Once he had the proper supplies, Gernsback
quickly perfected the small radio he had designed in Europe. It was a basic
spark-gap telegraph transmitter with a one-mile range. It was sold under
the name "Telimco Wireless Telegraph" for $8.50, and came with a companion
receiver. Both transmitter and receiver were battery powered, and the receiver
was set up to sound a bell in response to incoming signals. This is generally
accepted to be the very first home radio set. (The name "Telimco" derived
from the initial letters of "The Electro Importing Company.")
To publicize his invention, Gernsback wrote
an article about the Telimco, which was published in Scientific American
in 1905. But sales didn't take off until he placed ads in Scientific American
and Youth's Companion magazines, as well as The New York Times, at the
beginning of 1906. The little transmitter was soon copied by competitors--but
not before Gernsback and his partner had succeeded in getting Gimball's,
Macy's, and Marshall Field's to stock it. Hobbyists found the idea of owning
a radio-telegraph transmitter and receiver exciting, and the astonishingly
low price generated thousands of sales.
The Electro Importing Company's catalog. Click
image to enlarge.
Not everyone was positively impressed. Some
thought so inexpensive a device must be some sort of trick. Before the
Telimco was introduced, the only radio transmitters most people knew of
cost tens of thousands of dollars and were built and operated by companies
like AT&T and the American Marconi Company. At least one complaint
to the office of the Mayor of New York City accused the Electro Importing
Company of perpetrating a fraud. This resulted in a policeman being sent
to the offices of the Electro Importing Company to investigate. Fortunately,
Gernsback and Coggeshall were able to demonstrate that the transmitter
did indeed operate as advertised, and that they weren't running a scam.
The incident left Gernsback rather disappointed
at the relatively low level of technical knowledge among the general population,
and he resolved to do something about that. His campaign to educate the
public about radio began with articles in the Electro Importing Company's
catalog.
In addition to the Telimco set, the Electro
Importing Company offered coherers, telephone sets (called "Telimphones"),
and components such as spark gaps, wire, batteries, and more. As demand
grew, three additional versions of the Telimco were introduced, the lowest-priced
being $6.00.
Within two years the Electro Importing Company
(better known by now to its regular customers as "the E.I. Company") had
grown tremendously. Its illustrated 64-page catalog was sent throughout
North America, and even Lee De Forest shopped the Electro Importing Catalog
when he was developing his audion tube.
The Interstate Wireless Receiving outfit featured
a galena detector and a 75-ohm receiver.
Hugo Gernsback prospered along with the company
and didn't hesitate to flaunt his success. He dressed in high style, with
tailor-made suits and expensive shirts and accessories, all while affecting
the manners and attitudes of European gentry. (Later, he topped off his
flamboyant image with a monocle, which he did not need.) He regularly enjoyed
dinner at New York's Delmonico's, as did Nicola Tesla, and was seen at
the best theaters. Not surprisingly, he soon attracted, and in 1906 married,
a young woman named Rose Harvey. She bore him a daughter in July, 1909.
He would marry twice more--to Dorothy Kantrowitz in 1921 and Mary Hancher
in 1951--and father a son and another daughter.
There was some problem with Gernsback's partnership
in 1908. Whether Gernsback bought out Lewis Coggeshall, or the two simply
needed more capital, is not known. But in January, 1908, Gernsback was
running an ad in The New York Times seeking an investor. The ad read:
Partner wanted in well-established electrical
manufacturing business; good chance for right
party; have more orders than can fill; only
parties with sufficient capital need apply.
H.
Gernsback, 108 Duane St.
This advertisement was answered by the man
who was to be a partner in the E.I. Company for the next 9 years, Milton
Hymes. (Hymes was killed in a Pennsylvania Railroad train wreck in 1917.)
With the new infusion of capital, Gernsback re-established the Electro
Importing Company at 231 Fulton Street in New York. Soon after he opened
two retail stores, one at 69 West Broadway and the other at 317 Livingston
Street in Brooklyn.
The capital also enabled Gernsback to expand
his radio education crusade with a magazine for electrical experimenters.
In addition to educating readers, the magazine would, of course, serve
to stimulate to Electro Importing's sales, and it might possibly bring
in a profit itself. Thus was born Modern Electrics, the first of many magazines
he would publish.
(Not incidentally, Modern Electrics published
the first technical article to use the term "television." The article was
"Television and the Telephot," by Hugo Gernsback, which appeared in the
magazine's December, 1909, issue. Because of this article, Gernsback was
often credited with coining the term "television," but he maintained that
a French author had used it in print before him.)
Selling for 10 cents a copy, Modern Electrics proved
to be an instant success. It carried how-to articles, information on new
radio patents, and news of radio and radio operators across North America.
Hugo Gernsback was publisher, editor, chief writer (and often ghost-writer),
and also did layout and sold advertising. Milton Hymes was secretary and
business and advertising manager for the magazine, while also serving as
secretary for the Electro Importing Company.
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