Father of Radio
No book in two generations, no book since Jules Verne, has undertaken to do what Hugo Gernsback in the first decade of our century has here so outstandingly achieved.
He is gifted with a mind eternally alert, trained from childhood to observe and think. His unbridled imagination has ever fed on the facts of science and technology which his habit of omniverous reading has been continually storing within his brain. As result of this unusual combination his tireless energies have been directed, since childhood in Luxembourg, to writing popular science in a fashion peculiarly attractive to young men and boys who, like himself, possess a keen interest in all realms of physical Nature.
His first essay in this field was his monthly magazine, Modern Electrics, the first to attempt to outline in language understandable by American youth the newly developing science of wireless1 communication. He made of this first venture into the publishing business a medium wherein, amid serious newsy articles regarding current electrical developments, his eager imagination could find full play. The most outstanding, most extraordinary prophecies which this young clairvoyant2 had at that time conceived—all based on his keen observations and appreciation3 of their real significance and trend—he chose to record in the guise[Pg 16] of a fanciful romance bearing the strange, cabalistic title of this book.
The author, even at that early date (1911) had a clear conception of future television, then quite unheard of, almost undreamed of. He dubs4 it "Telephot" and outlines its revolutionary utilities. His hero, Ralph, explains to his enamorata how man has mastered weather-control. Only today has a professor shown New York City how to end its water famine by man-made torrential rains. Years in advance of their advent5 he describes libraries of microfilm projected on large screens; and news printed electrolytically, without printer's ink. Today we begin to read of this as being partially6 commercialized. His "Menograph," or thought recorder, is today crudely realized in our lie-detector. By means of his "Hypnobioscope" most of scholastic7 studying is done while the pupil sleeps. Who is bold enough to scoff8 at the possibility of such a delightful9 method? For one, not I.
"Most of the studying was done while one slept," explains Ralph—a statement truly applicable to many a somnolent10 student's performance today!
Ralph explains, as of the year 2660, the resuscitation11 of animal (human) life years after the body has been drained of blood. Yet only yesterday a Russian doctor claims to have accomplished12 this "miracle." His 750-year future has already begun to be realized. Many Utopias are here foretold13, such as absolutely permanent non-wearing, metallic14 highways, where trolley-cars and gas-driven autos are only ancient memories, long obsolete15.
"Only electrobiles were to be seen." Here the author badly misjudged the future trend of auto-travel, away from the electric.
[Pg 17]
He foresaw far better night-illuminated streets than we have yet attained16. Let us hope that we must not wait 750 years until cities are "as bright by night as by day"; nor New York's climate, man-controlled, to be "the finest on Earth," with temperatures perennially17 at 72, sunshine all day, rain for one hour only, every night! In that future we shall have reliable transfer of sun energy into electric by means of photo-electric elements responsive to ultra-violet radiation.
In Musak we already have the wide distribution of music which Mr. Gernsback foresaw in 1911; also our night baseball games, then first foretold. His airplanes launching from roof-tops we partly realize already in our helicopter mail service. But instead of his agglomeration18 of colored light-beams for direction of aviation we have the far reaching radio beacons19, coupled with Loran.
Even today's mysterious "flying saucers" he foretold with nice detail!
Foreseeing the vast increase in global population (the world's gravest menace) Ralph has so deftly20 applied21 science to plant growth that we shall reap four crops of wheat per year in sun-heated glass houses of county-sized acreage, to feed the new billions. He fears not an overcrowded, 200 million metropolitan22 New York!
Only today I read of a recent system for using heat from deep earth for house-warming, now being commercialized. "Ralph" described the same arrangement forty years ago!
Here is liquid fertilizer sprayed as a crop accelerator; and plant-root stimulation23 by means of high-frequency currents, wholesale24 diathermy applied to farming; and many other improvements in farm procedure which make this book profitable reading for today's science-minded farmers.
[Pg 18]
The author foresaw a much-to-be-desired manufacture of news-print from the resultant excessive growth of grain stocks, thereby25 terminating today's wanton destruction of our forests for comic supplements and sexy pulps26.
Last year in the Bell Laboratories I witnessed the recording27 on paper of the complexities28 of my voice, very much as Ralph described it in 1911 to his A.D. 2660 friends.
As to the plausibility29 of Ralph's conquest of gravitation I refer the reader to the recently published General Field Equations of Dr. Einstein. Ralph insisted, even in 1911, that gravitation is indeed wave form, similar to the electromagnetic, and that by interference there—between the force of gravitation may be partially nullified. Let us wait until 2660 to see if he was correctly reported. This and many other strange things our descendants may see.
But to me the most impressive pages of this strange book are those that outlined with striking clarity the basic idea of radar30 as we know it today. Although gummed over with reference to imaginary metals, inter-planetary ships travelling at comet speeds, and a very earthy romance, the uncanny foresight31 of Hugo Gernsback in 1911 into the realities of World War II constitutes perhaps the most amazing paragraphs in this astonishing Book of Prophecy.
Chicago, Ill.
May 1950
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1
wireless
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| adj.无线的；n.无线电 | |
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2
clairvoyant
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| adj.有预见的；n.有预见的人 | |
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3
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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4
dubs
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| v.给…起绰号( dub的第三人称单数 )；把…称为；配音；复制 | |
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advent
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| n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临 | |
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6
partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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7
scholastic
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| adj.学校的，学院的，学术上的 | |
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8
scoff
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| n.嘲笑，笑柄，愚弄；v.嘲笑，嘲弄，愚弄，狼吞虎咽 | |
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9
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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10
somnolent
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| adj.想睡的，催眠的；adv.瞌睡地；昏昏欲睡地；使人瞌睡地 | |
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11
resuscitation
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| n.复活 | |
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12
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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13
foretold
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| v.预言，预示( foretell的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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14
metallic
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| adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的 | |
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15
obsolete
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| adj.已废弃的，过时的 | |
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16
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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17
perennially
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| adv.经常出现地；长期地；持久地；永久地 | |
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18
agglomeration
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| n.结聚，一堆 | |
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19
beacons
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| 灯塔( beacon的名词复数 )； 烽火； 指路明灯； 无线电台或发射台 | |
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20
deftly
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| adv.灵巧地，熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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21
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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22
metropolitan
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| adj.大城市的，大都会的 | |
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23
stimulation
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| n.刺激，激励，鼓舞 | |
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24
wholesale
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| n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售 | |
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25
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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26
pulps
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| 水果的肉质部分( pulp的第三人称单数 )； 果肉； 纸浆； 低级书刊 | |
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27
recording
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| n.录音，记录 | |
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28
complexities
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| 复杂性(complexity的名词复数)； 复杂的事物 | |
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29
plausibility
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| n. 似有道理, 能言善辩 | |
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30
radar
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| n.雷达，无线电探测器 | |
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31
foresight
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| n.先见之明，深谋远虑 | |
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