OK...so a bit a of a long tangent here... (maybe the mods can move it to a more appropriate forum)
Edit: probably belongs in the TRIVIA forum....bet me if it doesn't 😁😉.
The name Hugo Gernsback rung a bell, so I decided to look him up.
The following are excerpts from the Wikipedia entry
Hugo Gernsback.
"For more fascinating details go to Wikipedia" 😁
First off, I'm ashamed to say I didn't immediately recognize the name as belonging to the original publisher of
Amazing Stories. (1926).
It was "the first magazine devoted solely to
science fiction."
"His contributions to the genre as publisher were so significant that, along with the novelists
Jules Verne and
H. G. Wells, he is sometimes called "The Father of Science Fiction". In his honor, annual awards presented at the
World Science Fiction Convention are named the "
Hugos".
That bit of info about the Hugo awards.... never knew that either.
"In 1925, he founded radio station
WRNY, which was broadcast from the 18th floor of
the Roosevelt Hotel in New York
City. In 1928, WRNY aired some of the first television broadcasts. ... Gernsback was an entrepreneur in the
electronics industry... helping to popularize amateur "wireless". "
In SF "Gernsback provided a forum for the modern genre of science fiction in 1926 by founding the first magazine dedicated to it,
Amazing Stories....His idea of a perfect science fiction story was "75 percent literature interwoven with 25 percent science".
Scientific accuracy in the stories was important so he set up a panel of experts——"all reputable professionals from universities, museums, and institutes"—to pass judgment on the accuracy of the science.
"He also encouraged his writers to elaborate on the scientific details... comment on the impossibilities in each other's stories, and even offered his readers prize money for identifying scientific errors. He also played an important role in starting
science fiction fandom, by organizing the
Science Fiction League."
Gernsback also wasn't the most honest person....he paid his writers barely a pittance , or maybe didn't pay them at all.
HP Lovecraft called him "Hugo the Rat".
The Wikipedia article goes into some detail about that less than attractive side of his character.
Still, he was a visionary, and he had a lot of patents; 80 by the time he died (1967) at age 83.
Among them:
A new method for manufacturing
dry cell batteries, a combined electric hair brush and comb...
A device which converted audio into electrical impulses that could be detected by humans. He advocated this device as a method for allowing the deaf to experience music.
Patents related to Incandescent Lamp..., Luminous Electric Mirror, Transmitter, Postal Card, ...Submersible Amusement Device, ... Apparatus for Landing Flying Machines, Tuned Telephone Receiver... Electrically Operated Fountain,... Radio Horn, Variable Condenser... Telephone Receiver, ...Code Learner's Instrument.