Hugo Gernsback, a Man Well Ahead of His Time

Part 2. The Second Half of Chapter 1

By Hugo Gernsback
Introduced and edited by Larry Steckler
Copyright 2007, Poptronix Inc.

The first half of Chapter 1 was featured in the June installment of The Citizen Scientist. In this conclusion to Chapter 1, we learn more about the early life of the famous Hugo Gernsback. Editor.

If an old customers' list of this first company to offer wireless and other supplies to the then budding wizards of America could be found it would in a large measure read like Who's Who in Radio, Electronics, Television and Atomics. To mention but a few, there would be that giant of radio-electronics, David Sarnoff. There would be the inventor of regeneration, super-regeneration and FM, Howard E. Armstrong. Also, we would find Lewis L. Strauss, onetime Chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission. No one will ever be able to measure the depth and width of the good done by the Electro Importing Company, or the E. I. Company as it was lovingly referred to by the thousands of young experimenters who found it to be the only source of materials and inspiration during the early, lean days of wireless, which we today call radio.

This may be said without fear of contradiction: The customers of the Electro Importing Company formed the phalanx of technical men who founded the radio industry in the United States and who have made it the leader in the world. The E. I. Co., helped to train men when no other agency was training them for this work. These wireless-mad boys later became the engineers and the executives of all of our great radio, TV and electronics corporations.

Up through the 1960's if you walked through almost any large radio or electronics plant and stopped to speak with the older men holding top-flight jobs, you would have still come upon “E. I. Co., graduates”. There was also, subsequently, a little magazine, MODERN ELECTRICS , that figured heavily in the “curriculum” of the E. I. Co. College . But more on that later.

The E. I. Company published the first wireless and electrical catalog to appear anywhere in the world. It contained not only photographs and clear, accurate descriptions of innumerable devices, but also short instructive articles (many of them by Hugo himself) covering the range of what was then known in the field.

Loyalty to Gernsback and appreciation of his early efforts to educate and inspire American youth in radio and electronics did not wholly expire with the passing years. On May 18, 1953 , a large group of old timers, including men like David Sarnoff, Dr. Lee deForest, Allen Dumont and many others (also 34 large manufacturers) presented him with a magnificent silver trophy sculptured by Enzo Yokka. This was in appreciation of 50 years of pioneering and inspiring leadership in the spectacular development of the radio-electronics arts . The Radio Corporation of America (RCA), the then “General Motors” of the electronics industry, was among those to acknowledge its gratefulness to this most unusual man.

Along with the presentation of the trophy came the following acknowledgement:

“It is given to few men to receive more than the passing plaudits of their fellow men.

“Thus it would be an historical oversight that might well be charged up to us by future generations, if we failed to recognize and appraise and signalize the efforts of Hugo Gernsback on the occasion of his Fiftieth Anniversary of scientific prophesying in general, and radio-electronics pioneering in particular.

Figure 5. Photograph of the very special award presented to Hugo Gernsback by the Electronics Industry in recognition of his outstanding efforts.

“It is in such spirit of appreciation and thankfulness, then, that those who professional and business careers have resulted from the popularization of radio-electronics, have joined together in making possible the presentation of the hand-wrought relief globe in silver – the only one of its kind ever made – as a token of our lasting appreciation and esteem to one whom we owe so much.

“And to the end that such sentiments may not soon be forgotten, even after the radio-electronics pioneering era draws to close as the art becomes so thoroughly commonplace and correspondingly impersonal, we have inscribed our names, permanently on the Hugo Gernsback Testimonial Trophy.

“With all our grateful thanks, our appreciation of his trail-blazing, our fond good wishes for many more years of great vision and continuing effort, we dedicate this Trophy to our friend, mentor and fellow radio-electronics worker, Hugo Gernsback.

“In an age of thoroughly established technologies in which there seems to be a formula and law for everything that has happened, is happening and will happen, the art of imaginative thinking may be all but lost.

“That is why an imaginative mind stands out in bold relief against the routine activities of our day. True, we know more and more about less and less, as the result of intensive schooling, the vast fund of technical knowledge, and the encouragement of extreme specialization. But let us not forget that we have come to today's radio-electronic art, along with other great technologies, mainly as the result of imaginative thinking, bold predictions, daring activities, and the very quintessence of pioneering.

“For the past 50 years, then, a great imaginative mind has thought of things to come, has encouraged others to play a role in the unfolding radio-electronics art, and has never grown satisfied despite many of its prediction come true.

“Such is the man we honor on the occasion of his Fiftieth Anniversary (1903 – 1953) of radio-electronics pioneering in particular and his scientific predictions in general.”

In Hugo Gernsback we have the personification of imaginative thinking. Coming to this country from Luxembourg , at the turn of the century he sensed the latent appeal of popularized electricity and even more so the mystery of wireless waves. His earliest business venture, the Electro Importing Company, was a mail order source for spark coils, Geissler tubes, coherers, tuners and many other items that launched countless radio workers on their life's work. Later he founded, edited and published MODERN ELECTRICS which finally evolved into RADIO NEWS and also provided a solid foundation for today's POPULAR SCIENCE monthly. Then came RADIO-CRAFT , subsequently renamed RADIO-ELECTRONICS .

Figure 6. Cover of the first issue of Modern Electrics, April 1908.

Several magazines in other fields, and countless books, have come out of his versatile mind. His book Ralph 124 C41 , written in 1911, is an even more daring peep into the future than any works of the renowned Jules Verne. His broadcasting station WRNY – later including television – was one of the earliest in the New York area.

The E. I. Company's first $7.50 wireless outfit was advertised in the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN in the January 13, 1906 edition and then the sturdy old YOUTH'S COMPANION . The ad stated:

“WIRELESS TELEGRAPH

The Telmico Complete Outfit, comprising 1 inch Spark Coil, Balls, Key Coherer with Auto Decoherer and Sounder, 50 Ohm Relay, 4 Cell Dry Battery, Send and Catch Wires, and Connections, with Instructions and Diagrams. Will work up to 1 mile. Unprecedented introduction prices. Agents wanted, Illustrated Pamphlet.

ELECTRO IMPORTING CO. , 32 Park Place ,

New York ”

Figure 7. Reproduction of the original ad for the wireless telegraph as it appeared in the magazines.

That was the first home-radio set advertisement to appear in print anywhere. The complete set, both receiver and transmitter, was marketed for $7.50, at first. Later the price was increased to $10.00. Hugo described the set in an article published in the March 1956 issue of his magazine RADIO-ELECTRONICS titled 50 Years of Home Radio .

“The transmitter, with the three dry cells and key, was composed of a 1-inch spark coil. The “1-inch” here means that the coil threw a 1-inch spark through the air, between two points. Mounted on the spark coil, on two metal standards, were the two brass oscillator balls between which a small blue spark jumped the 1/8-inch gap. The spark coil had a fast vibrator so that every time you depressed the key a spark would jump between the two balls. Depressing the key for a short period would give a dot. A longer period would give a dash.

“The receiver was a 75-ohm ‘pony' relay which had to be so sensitive that if you blew your breath slightly against the armature its contacts would close. There was also a single dry cell and the all-important coherer. It was simply constructed of two large, double binding posts through the bottom holes of which passed two silver-plated brass rods. A glass tube, placed between the two binding posts was slipped over the two brass rods. These silver-plated 1/8-inch metal rods fitted the glass so that there was extremely little or no play. The two rods were separated about 3/16-inch, forming a gap. This gap was filled with the ‘soul of the set' – the coherer filings, composed of 90-percent coarse iron and 10-percent coarse silver filings. By shaking the mixture well it was ready to use. The filings had always to be loose, never packed tight.

“Now, if you depress the key at the transmitter, the two aerials (aerial and counterpoise) will emit radio waves. Curiously enough, the waves which the writer used 50 years ago were of the very short variety (above 30 megacycles) to which modern radio has come back. The two aerial wires of the transmitter measured less than 1-1/2 feet.

“Inasmuch as the coherer is directly in the receiver aerial circuit, the filings offer a very high resistance. But under the onslaught of the radio waves they instantly become an excellent conductor – as if they were now a solid conductor. The relay, in the same circuit, now goes into action, attracting the armature which closes its contacts. This sets off the decoherer bell which rings and shakes up the coherer filings. These now fly apart – the decoherer – and the conductor becomes nonoperative until the next wavetrain comes along.

“Thus every time you press the transmitter key, the bell at the receiver rings. It rings as long as you hold the key down. A long ring is a dash, a short one a dot.

“You can pick up the receiver and walk to the next room, yet the bell sounds without any visible connection. Even through thick walls, signals still come in.”

There was a little difficulty with sparking at the relay contacts, Gernsback went on, but that was overcome by putting a 5-microfarad capacitor across the relay points. The ad stated that the range of the Telmico was up to a mile. In general the range was 300- to 500-feet when used without a ground connection. But “…by using an elevated aerial 50 to 100-feet in length and by grounding one side of both transmitter and receiver to a water or gas pipe, the range was easily increased to one mile. Indeed, hundreds of people who bought the outfit at the time reported excellent reception over greater distances, but these, of course were exceptions. Note that the set used no tuning whatsoever .”

The Telmico was a big success. Business was so brisk that the company had difficulty keeping up with demand. Then one day the joy of success was rudely interrupted by the appearance of a blustering Irish cop. Gernsback, In a rather sketchy bit of history he wrote some time back, recalled the incident with great humor”

“This wireless set which was called the Telimco (a coined name made up from the words T he E l ectro Im porting Co mpany) was priced at $7.50. Orders began to come in pretty rapidly, and our only trouble was that we could not fill them fast enough. One of the difficulties was in the coherer filings, a mixture of silver and iron. Mr. Coggeshall had under him the ‘filings department', so-called, and it was his duty to take good U. S. dimes and file them with a coarse file, catching the filings in a small cardboard box. These were then put into a glass bottle and kept there until we mixed them with iron filing in the proper proportion.

“As manufacturers of the first complete wireless set, we early had a brush with the law. It seems that some skeptical readers of the Scientific American and the Youth's Companion , thought that a working $7.50 wireless set must, of necessity, be a fake. So they wrote letters to the Mayor's office in New York City demanding that we be investigated. The advertisements on their face were apparently a fraud. So, one morning, we were astonished to have a burley Irish policeman decent upon us, demanding in a bellowing gruff voice to be told just what sort of business was going on. Naturally we assured him we were making a wireless set. The stalwart minion of the law bellowed in unmistakable terms that it was impossible that we could do such a thing for $7.50, and that, as a matter of fact, wireless was the most expensive thing going, and no set could be produced for less than $10,000!

“As our demonstration set was always hooked up, we asked him to take into his own hands the receiving part, which consisted of a board, not quite a foot square, on which there was a battery, coherer, a decoherer and relay. The coherer was equipped with two mysterious looking antenna wires bent in the form of an ‘L'. All the connecting wires were done, in the then prevailing fashion, in beautiful spiral curlicues without which no electrical apparatus was complete.

“So there the cop stood in the middle of the room, balancing the receiving set in his ham-like hands. I betook myself to the end of the room where the transmitter (in the shape of a 1-inch spark coil, transmitting oscillator balls with their antenna, four dry cells, and a transmitting key) was located. I then asked the policeman to state how many times he wanted me to ring the bell of the receiver which he held in his hand.

“'Four!,' he growled. I depressed the key 4 times and, the bell rang 4 times in the best wireless manner of the day. The cop was nonplussed, but still couldn't believe his senses. He then asked me to vary the signals to 3; then to 6; and finally to 12. Fortunately, that day the receiver performed miraculously well. (It did not do so on all occasions, due to some electrical disturbances in the building; usually the elevator motor when starting, set off our receiver.)

“The policeman put down the receiving set. He was plainly astonished. Yet he had had his first real wireless experience -- the bell had rung in his own hands without any connecting wires between the transmitter and the receiver!

“Let it be stated here that a New York cop is not defeated so easily. His parting words, while he backed through the door, must be recorded here for history. They may not be grammatical, but they were to the point:

‘I still think youse guys is a bunch of fakers. This ad here says that you are selling a wireless machine. Well, if you do, what are all them wires for?'

“The wires to which the policeman referred were, of course, the antenna wires and the connecting wires; and, technically, we must bow to his superior judgment. Our wireless set did have wires, and all radio sets continue to have them to this day.” [ Of course in today's world most of these ‘wires' are either foils on a printed-circuit board or connections formed inside an integrated circuit. -- Editor]

Although the young managers of the E. I. Company had not planned to retire within a few years, the organization did profit modestly enough to expand its quarters at 87 Warren Street , another walk-up practically around the corner from 32 Park Place . The E. I. Co., had begun to capture the imagination of a small part of young America with its promise of communication without wires. The cash register was ringing, but the sound was not deafening or nerve-wracking.

Each new catalog, so far as is known, the first in the world and certainly the first in America, to offer a complete line of wireless equipment for amateur use, was printed and reprinted. These catalogs were gobbled up so quickly by inspired young Marconi's, that Gernsback began (in 1908) the publication of a small magazine, MODERN ELECTRICS that was destined to play a tremendous part in the creation of the radio-electronics industry. Now, after a long series of consolidations a part of POPULAR SCIENCE monthly, this magazine was for some years, the “core literature” of the radio industry during the days when it was more of a hobby than a business. Practically none of the older retired men of the industry have ever forgotten this inspiring journal. Many of them still preserve copies of it. In fact, reprints of the first issue of MODERN ELECTRICS are still being printed and sold today.

The success of the E. I. Company catalogs led Gernsback into magazine publishing. He felt that there was a need for a monthly publication entirely devoted to radio and electrics [ The word ‘electronics' had not yet been coined. – Editor] – one which would give the reader the latest accurate information on what was happening in the field. It would instruct the reader about theory, stripped down to clear English; described how and why devices worked, and most important, how to build, maintain and repair them.

Figure 8. E. I. Co. Catalog from 1916. Forty-eight pages packed with everything an experimenter of the time could possibly need.

Starting with that first magazine, the pattern of the bulk of Gernsback's magazines was set. They were carefully designed to be educational and in most instances, practically instructive. They were to present the material in clear English, and where fiction was used – always designated as fiction – to be entertaining as well as instructive. Thus MODERN ELECTRICS was born.

Finally Gernsback became the sole owner of the E. I. Co., and again business expanded so handsomely that a move from 97 Warren Street to the fourth floor at 84 West Broadway was necessary. It was, during the co-occupancy of these quarters that Gernsback began to blossom as an inventor of improved wireless equipment. In this he demonstrated an amazing capacity to simplify existing instruments and increase their efficiently at the same time. Had he been less of an inventor and more of a business man during those years, he could have made a great deal of money. He efficiently (for those days) re-designed all of the major components of wireless receiving and sending sets. In later years, especially during the hectic rush days of radio broadcasting in the 1920's, some small parts manufacturers waxed rich on many slightly modified designs originated by Gernsback years previously.

During 1910, Gernsback opened the first store in the world devoted to wireless equipment. This was at 69 West Broadway, just a few doors away from his offices, up to April 1956, from which he operated a string of important electronics publications. It was from this store a year later that the first radio vacuum tube was offered for sale to the general public.

A year previous to this, Gernsback formed the Wireless Association of America , a pioneer organization though which he worked to thwart the U.S. Government and especially the U. S. Navy in their “stupid short-sighted effort” not to control amateur wireless but to impose wavelength restrictions that could have ruled it out of the air. Gernsback emerged as the single hero of that heroic fight to preserve amateur wireless. A thankful U. S. Navy appreciated this a few years later in World War I, when it suddenly needed thousands of wireless operators. They came mostly from the ranks of the Wireless Association of America which the Navy had tried to wreck.

The magazine MODERN ELECTRICS continued to grow. The April 1909 issue had 44 pages; The April 1910 issue boasted 56. There are now many pages of advertising and the price is still 10 cents per copy.

The shadow of a forthcoming Federal Wireless Act loomed over both years, although it was not until the January 1910 issue that we read about the National Wireless Board proposed by Representative Roberts of Massachusetts .

The Roberts resolution authorized the appointment of a board of seven members one expert each from the War, Navy and Treasury departments; three experts representing the commercial wireless telegraph and wireless-telephone interests; and one scientist well versed in the art of electric wave telegraphy and telephony . The board would prepare a comprehensive system of regulations to govern the operation of all wireless plants afloat and ashore which come under the cognizance of the United States , with due regard alike for Government and commercial interests.

Roberts charged that the effect of the activities of amateur operators has been such as not only to make necessary a change from CQD as the distress signal, but to interfere seriously with the operations of all Governmental and private services. The perfection of wireless apparatus has reached such a stage that if the service is to be permitted to grow unchecked it is absolutely essential that the Government takes steps in the matter. He further noted that the wireless service of the Navy has been rendered practically useless at times by amateur operators, who send meaningless and oftentimes vile and unmentionable language through the air from their instruments.

In his editorial for the January 1910 issue, Hugo Gernsback noted:

“Personally, the Editor believes that there is no need of a wireless telegraph board.

“It is of no practical value whatsoever, un-American, and will keep down the progress of a young and useful art, which in time may develop into an as yet undreamed-of asset of the nations power.

“Wireless telegraphy and telephony, in a country of such vast distances as America is a very valuable means of cheap transmission of intelligence, and it is the duty of the Government to encourage it, and not to pass a resolution to throttle it like (sic) England and Germany have done, in which two countries the art is almost unknown.”

The art had grown to such an extent that some of the strictures that MODERN ELECTRICS had proposed earlier for the amateur's voluntary acceptance no longer were applicable. Gernsback states:

“With the present efficient weeding out of tuners, loose couplers, variable condensers, etc., the amateur can no more interfere with the commercial or government stations than the transatlantic liners – equipped with powerful apparatus – can interfere with messages flashed from coast to coast.

“The trouble is, that the majority of commercial and government stations have antiquated instruments, and do not care to acquire new ones. Their operators are almost entirely wire telegraph men who have not the slightest idea of wireless, nor are they interested in it. The Editor, who is personally acquainted with over twenty-five such operators was amazed to find that not four of them could draw a diagram [showing] how their instruments are connected up.

“Their shortcomings are blamed on the innocent amateur, whose weak spark cannot be heard half a mile, as a rule, and the manager of the station of course takes the word of the operator every time,”

Gernsback notes further that there are today (1910) over 60,000 experimental and amateur wireless stations in the United States alone. He concludes the editorial:

“The editor sounds a general call, and asks everyone to whom wireless is at heart, (sic) to send him at once a letter of protest against the wireless resolution. State in your letter, before all, the utility of your wireless. These letters, in mass, will be presented in Washington to the proper officials.”

We are not told how many letters from MODERN ELECTRICS readers were received to send on to Washington, but there can be little doubt that Hugo Gernsback's efforts played a part in the defeat of the Roberts Resolution.

A few months late, in the June 1910 issue, Hugo published the entire text of another bill “To Regulate Radio Communications” and noted:

“The Editor, who was the first to come out with the statement that what really was needed was GOOD instruments and GOOD operators, NOT a lot of nonsensical laws, is all the more convinced that his views were correct by a drastic statement made by Mr. I. Bottomley, vice president of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. of America , in a hearing before the committee on commerce at the Senate of the United States, April 18, 1910.”

A couple of quotations from the testimony entirely justify Hugo Gernsback's opinions:

“Senator Bourne: And you concede the desirability of having certain zones set aside for the exclusive use of the Government and for the exclusive use of relief messages, do you?

“ Mr. Bottomley : Yes; if it is found necessary. For ourselves, we do not ask it, and we do not require it. I want to say to that we experience but very little interference in our work.

“As for these young gentlemen operators, I wish to say that we have never been interfered with by them in any way, shape or form. We never notice them. They have never been reported to us by any of our operators, nor have they interfered with us whatever. We have no objection to their going on as long as they like.”

Hugo Gernsback never claimed much credit for the winning of this bitter fight all the way to Congress, but those who know the record well insist that he was not only in the front line trenches, but that he also led the troops into battle.

Had the U. S. Navy won that battle completely, a staggering blow would have been dealt to the development of wireless in America . It is questionable if we would be in the top position of electronics today, if the Navy had had its way.

That Hugo Gernsback greatly affected the writing of the Wireless Act of 1912 – America's first radio law – is well proved by comparing one of his editorial in MODERN ELECTRICS with the final provisions of the Act that was passed in Congress.

Gernsback made more than a heroic effort to prevent the U. S. Navy from wiping out the radio amateurs completely. His influence in the preparation of the Act also prevented the imposing of certain technical restrictions that might have done the same thing. A part That Hugo Gernsback greatly affected the writing of the Wireless Act of one of these editorials from the February 1912 issue of MODERN ELECTRICS follows:

“There should be a bill passed restraining the amateur from using two much power, say anything over 1 K.W.

“The wavelengths of the amateur wireless station should also be regulated in order that only wave lengths from a few meters up to 200 could be used. Wave lengths of from 200 to 1,000 meters, the amateurs should not be allowed to use, but they could use any wave length above 1,000…”

The Wireless Act of 1912 passed by Congress contained this paragraph:

“No private or commercial station not engaged in the transaction of bona fide commercial business by radio communication . . . shall use a transmitting wavelength exceeding 200 meters or a transformer input exceeding one kilowatt except by special authority of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor contained in the license of the station…”

Thus Gernsback may be called the Father of Amateur Radio in America . He not only formed the Wireless Association of America in 1909, but he also fought desperately to preserve it in 1912.

Years later, on February 25, 1950 , this achievement was finally recognized by the Veteran Wireless Operators Association when he was awarded the Marconi Memorial Wireless Pioneer's Medal “for pioneering achievements in the radio arts”. A belated recognition of his services, to say the least.

This ends Chapter 1 of Hugo Gernsback, a Man Well Ahead of His Time. The first half of the chapter was featured in the June installment of The Citizen Scientist. The book can be ordered here. Editor