Experimenter Publishing was an American media company founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1915. The first magazine was The Electrical Experimenter (1913–1931) and the most notable magazines were Radio News (1919–1985) and Amazing Stories (1926–2005). Their radio station, WRNY, began broadcasting experimental television in 1928. In early 1929 the company was forced into bankruptcy and the Gernsback brothers lost control of Experimenter Publishing. The magazines did not miss an issue and were quickly sold to another publisher. The Gernsbacks promptly started new magazines to compete with their former ones.
Radio News became Popular Electronics and the January 1975 issue featured the Altair 8800 computer on the cover; this launched the personal computer revolution. Hugo Gernsback's Amazing Stories is regarded as the first dedicated science fiction magazine and every year World Science Fiction Society gives the Hugo Awards for the best science fiction and fantasy works.
Origins
Hugo Gernsback was born in Luxembourg in 1884 and he became fascinated with electricity as a boy. While studying electrical engineering at a Technikum University in Bingen, Germany; he built a simple radio transmitter and receiver. Gernsback also developed a powerful dry-cell battery but was unable to patent it in Europe. In February 1904 Gernsback emigrated to America hoping to sell his battery design to automobile companies and had modest success with this. Gernsback lived in a New York City boarding house where he met Lewis Coggeshall, a railroad telegraph operator. They found it difficult to purchase radio parts in New York City so in 1905 they decided to start the Electro Importing Company to sell European-imported radio components and electrical components by mail order.Hugo Gernsback and radio intersection in broadcast history magazines: An influential intersection in broadcast history An early product was a spark-gap telegraph transmitter with a one-mile range that was first advertised in the November 25, 1905, issue of Scientific American and sold for $8.50. Another product featured by the Electro Importing Company was Gernsback's own Telimco Wireless Telegraph, the name of which comes from the letters in the catalog's name. The set was sold starting in 1905, with the lowest-priced option starting at $6.00 The low price caused trouble, however, as Gernsback received accusations of fraud from people who believed the Telimco was too cheap to be a product of actual quality. Upon investigation, Gernsback and Coggeshall were able to prove to a police officer who had come to the Electro Importing Company's office that the Telimco did work as advertised. The Electro Importing Company catalogs soon had 64 pages of products and detailed technical articles on how to use the components offered for sale. The catalog used the title Modern Electrics in 1908 before the magazine was launched. The catalog continued to grow and used various titles. The catalog reached several prominent radio entrepreneurs, including Lee de Forest, who read the catalog while developing his Audion tube, Edgar Felix, who purchased headphones from the store on Fulton Street, and Stanley Manning, a Detroit broadcaster who traveled to New York to see Gernsback's store. Gernsback bought Coggeshall's share of the company in 1907. To expand Electro Importing, Gernsback ran a classified ad in the January 27, 1908, New York Times looking for a new investor. 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. Milton Hymes answered and with the new capital, Electro Importing moved to a larger building on Fulton Street and later opened two retail stores. Modern Electrics was launched as a magazine in April 1908. The Electro Importing Catalogs continued independently. This is the magazine where Gernsback wrote his first science fiction story "Ralph 124C 41+" in April 1911. Gernsback wanted to start a second magazine, Electrical Experimenter, so he sold Modern Electrics and the Modern Publishing Company to a business partner, Orland Ridenour. The last issue with Hugo Gernsback as editor was March 1913. The first issue of Electrical Experimenter was May 1913. Modern Publishing acquired Electrician and Mechanic and merged it with Modern Electrics in January 1914 to become Modern Electrics and Mechanics. After a series of mergers and title changes the magazine became Popular Science Monthly in October 1915 and is still published today.
Hugo Gernsback frequently formed new partnerships with investors for a new magazine or other opportunity (such as a radio station). The Experimenter Publishing Company was incorporated in March 1915. The corporate officers were Hugo Gernsback, his brother Sidney Gernsback and Milton Hymes. Hymes had worked with Gernsback since 1908 and was an officer in both the Electro Importing Company and the Experimenter Publishing Company. Hymes died in a railroad accident in 1917. Robert W. De Mott replaced Hymes as advertising manager and corporate secretary.
Magazines
Electrical Experimenter, introduced in May 1913, was initially published by the Electro Importing Company. "Electrical Experimenter. © Electro Importing Co. New York. … V.2 No.12, Apr. 1915 © Mar. 25, 1915" The new Experimenter Publishing Company became the publisher with the May 1915 issue. "Electrical Experimenter. © Experimenter Publishing Co. New York. V.3 No.1, May 1915 © Apr. 21, 1915" The June 1918 cover had a sub-title of "Science and Invention", and the contents expanded to include general science, chemistry and mechanics. It continued to publish fiction stories. Science and Invention became the primary title in August 1920 and the last issue was in August 1931.
Experimenter Publishing created a magazine devoted to radio in July 1919, Radio Amateur News. The title was shortened to Radio News in June 1920. The magazine was very successful. It appealed to amateur radio operators and to hobbyists wanting to listen to the new commercial radio stations. Radio News, under various titles, was published until 1985.
The articles in Radio News were technically sophisticated so a new magazine, Practical Electrics, was created to appeal to a wider audience. This was initially published by Practical Electrics Company, a subsidiary of Experimenter Publishing. The first issue was November 1921. The magazine never printed more than 60,000 copies; the old Electrical Experimenter had 100,000 readers and Radio News now had 400,000. In the November 1924 issue Hugo Gernsback wrote "We therefore decided last month to bring back the old Electrical Experimenter once and for all"; the title became The Experimenter. The magazine was merged into Science and Invention in February 1926.
Other publications The Consolidated Radio Call Book Company published blueprints and instructions for building radio equipment. These were sold to amateur radio operators and hobbyist by radio parts stores across the United States. Hugo Gernsback was president and R. W. DeMott was Secretary of this publicly traded company. The name was changed to the Consrad Company in June 1923. The Electro Importing Company was selling more books and fewer radio parts and transitioned into a publishing company. Consrad began distributing the E. I. Co. books to radio dealers. ) The Radio Specialty Company, "RASCO", took over the parts business. In 1926 the Consrad started the Radio Listeners' Guide and Call Book, a quarterly magazine. Sidney Gernsback was the editor and his name appeared on the cover. A typical issue had 50 pages of radio station listing and 100 pages of detailed radio construction plans.
Sidney Gernsback published a hard bound Radio Encyclopedia for that was independent of Experimenter Publishing or the Consrad Company. It claimed to cover every phase of radio with "over 1930 separate definitions, 549 illustrations, a complete cross index, and many other special features." The Encyclopedia was not part of the bankruptcy. Hugo Gernsback also published magazines that appealed to a general audience. Motor Camper & Tourist was a travel guide for those that toured the United States by automobile. The July 1924 issue started a series about driving and camping across the country from New York City to San Francisco. Motor Camper & Tourist magazines. Another was Your Body, a guide to the operation and mechanics of the human body. An advertisement for the magazine claimed that "each issue is practically an endless source of information on sex, prevention and care of diseases, the senses and the normal functions of nature as related to our bodies." Time magazine reviewed the first issue with an article titled "Unsexing Sex". Gernsback promoted it as a magazine for the whole family but Time felt the target audience was "radio bugs" (a 1920s term for geeks).
Hugo Gernsback had always published fiction stories in his magazines. He wanted stories that promoted imaginative uses of science and technology. This "scientific fiction" needed to be somewhat plausible. The August 1923 Science and Invention had an astronaut in a space suit on the cover and the issue was devoted to scientific fiction. Gernsback began developing a scientific fiction magazine and Amazing Stories was launched with the April 1926 issue.
By 1928, Experimenter Publishing and Consrad were publishing a wide selection of books. In addition the radio titles, there were general interest books like Houdini's Spirit Exposes, Beauty Secrets, and Popular Tricks. These were prominently advertised in their magazines.
WRNY
KDKA in Pittsburgh was the first commercial radio station in the United States, having made their first broadcast in November 1920. By 1925 there were over 500 broadcast stations in the United States. KDKA was operated by Westinghouse Electric to help sell radio receivers. In addition to radio equipment manufacturers, many publishers were starting stations. Experimenter Publishing applied for and was granted a radio station license to transmit at 1160 kilocycles (kHz) with the call sign WRNY. (Over the next three years they would use 800 kHz, 1070 kHz, 970 kHz, 920 kHz and finally 1010 kHz.) The state of the art studio was in a room on the 18th floor of the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City and the 500 watt transmitter located on the hotel roof. The first broadcast was on June 12, 1925, and was reported in the New York Times. The opening speaker was former Senator Chauncey Depew followed by the "father of radio", Lee de Forest. This was followed by live musical entertainment. The Times noted Hugo Gernsback's Staccatone signal generator that was used before the station signed on and signing the end of programs. The Staccatone was a primitive music synthesizer described in the March 1924 Practical Electrics magazine. Experimenter Publishing used the radio station and the magazines to promote each other. The station call letters, WRNY, appeared on each magazine cover.
By 1927 there were over fifty radio stations and 1.5 million radio sets in the New York metropolitan area. There were so many stations it was common for stations to share the same frequency at different times during the day. The Radio Act of 1912 did not mention broadcasting and it was not clear who controlled radio stations, the states or the federal government. Early radio receivers were not very selective and there were frequent disputes over interference between stations with adjacent frequencies. In November 1926, WRNY (800 kHz) moved its transmitter from the Roosevelt Hotel to Coytesville, New Jersey (directly across the river from Manhattan). Radio station WHN (830 kHz) claimed this blocked their signal and alleged WRNY was a "pirate" broadcaster. In 1927 the Federal Radio Commission was established with the authority to regulate broadcast stations.