Gernsback For Beginners

He was a scientist that loved science fiction, perhaps the first true geek to rise from in the annals of science. The Annual Science Fiction Achievement Award formally became the "Hugo" in 1993, it was informally known by that name as early as the 1950s. It was Hugo Gernsback whose pulp sci-fi magazines elevated the genre.While a scant few identifiable fantasy works of fiction existed before 1800, scifi could not exist on any large scale before the consumers understanding of science was more common. When Hugo Gernsback  founded Amazing Stories magazine in 1926 things took off. It was the first fiction magazine to be focused exclusively on science fiction. More here.

Gernsback supported the careers of many now classic scifi writers. But I write about him here because he was a classic radio man. He also published the magazines Modern Electrics, Radio Amateur News, and Science and Invention. He founded the radio station WRNY (which will later get it's own post) he also was an early experimenter in television. He also founding the Electric Importing Company which was the world's first radio supply company—yes, before radio shack.

This booklet is one from a set of ten, of which I only have six or so. They are as follows:

1. How to make four Doerle short wave sets

2. How to make the most popular all-wave 1 and 2 tube receivers

3. Alternating current for beginners

4 . All about aerials

5. Beginners Radio Dictionary

6. How to Have Fun With Radio

7. How To Read Radio Diagrams

8. Radio For Beginners

9. Simple Electrical Experiments

10. Television

I have scanned all 32 pages below from No. 8 in the series and wrapped it into a nice tidy pdf. The technology is all out of date but interesting historically. I will try to get around to scanning the others.

Download all 72 MB

HERE