Experimenter Publishing
First issue of The Electrical Experimenter
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| Publishing, media | |
| Industry | Magazines, radio |
| Founded | 1915 |
| Founder | Hugo Gernsback |
| Headquarters | United States |
| Products | Amazing Stories |
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.
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. 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 in 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.
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