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93-564: 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

186-544: A BASIC interpreter for the Altair computer and started Microsoft . Radio & Television News was a magazine for professionals and the editors wanted to create a magazine for hobbyists. Ziff-Davis had started Popular Aviation in 1927 and Popular Photography in 1934 but found that Gernsback Publications had the trademark on Popular Electronics. It was used in Radio-Craft from 1943 until 1948. Ziff-Davis bought

279-452: A computer terminal and a modem a user could dial into a large multi-user computer. Lee Felsenstein wanted make low-cost versions of modems and terminals available to the hobbyist. The March 1976 issue had the " Pennywhistle Modem " and the July 1976 issue had the "SOL Intelligent Terminal". The SOL, built by Processor Technology , was really an Altair compatible computer and became one of

372-578: A printed circuit board . They would often contain components that were not available at the local electronics parts store. Dan Meyer saw the business opportunity in providing circuit boards and parts for the Popular Electronics projects. In January 1964 he left Southwest Research Institute to start an electronics kit company. He continued to write articles and ran the mail order kit business from his home in San Antonio, Texas. By 1965 he

465-419: A sans-serif typeface in a rectangular box. The covers featured a large image of the feature story, usually a construction project. In September 1970 the cover logo was changed to an underlined serif typeface. The magazine's content, typography and layout were also updated. In January 1972 the cover logo added a second line, "including Electronics World", and the volume number was restarted at 1. This second line

558-554: 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

651-507: A PH meter to locate the source of pollution in a river. As Editor, Olivier Ferrell built a stable of authors who contributed interesting construction projects. These projects established the style of Popular Electronics for years to come. Two of the most prolific authors were Daniel Meyer and Don Lancaster. Daniel Meyer graduated from Southwest Texas State (1957) and became an engineer at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. He soon started writing hobbyist articles. The first

744-401: A column on a fictional repair shop where the proprietor, Mac, would interact with other technicians and customers. The reader would learn repair techniques for servicing radios and TVs. In Popular Electronics his column was about two high school boys, Carl and Jerry. Each month the boys would have an adventure that would teach the reader about electronics. By 1954 building audio and radio kits

837-484: A day from 1800 square feet (1,700 m ) of buildings. Others noticed SWTPC success. Forrest Mims , a founder of MITS (Altair 8800), tells about his " Light-Emitting Diodes " cover story ( Popular Electronics , November 1970) in an interview with Creative Computing . In March, I sold my first article to Popular Electronics magazine, a feature about light-emitting diodes. At one of our midnight meetings I suggested that we emulate Southwest Technical Products and develop

930-477: A full range of construction projects using the newest technologies such as microprocessors and other programmable devices. In November 1982 the magazine became Computers & Electronics . There were more equipment reviews and fewer construction projects. One of the last major projects was a bidirectional analog-to-digital converter for the Apple II computer published in July and August 1983. Art Salsberg left at

1023-418: A heart attack. In 1982, Ziff was diagnosed with prostate cancer so he asked his three sons (ages 14 to 20) if they wanted to run a publishing empire. They did not. Ziff wanted to simplify the estate by selling some of the magazines. In November 1984, CBS bought the consumer group for $ 362.5 million and Rupert Murdoch bought the business group for $ 350 million. This left Ziff-Davis with the computer group and

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1116-414: A hobbyist could construct a television receiver. Vladimir K. Zworykin and Philo Farnsworth were developing electronic scanning systems that were the precursors of modern television. These would not be available for another decade. In April 1928, Pilot Electric Manufacturing and WRNY announced that television broadcast would begin that fall. Pilot would provide the transmitting equipment. Pilot also sold

1209-456: 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

1302-588: A low cost video display. In July 1974 Radio-Electronics published the Mark-8 Personal Minicomputer based on the Intel 8008 processor. The publishers noted the success of Radio-Electronics and Arthur P. Salsberg took over as Editor in 1974. Salsberg and Technical Editor, Leslie Solomon, brought back the featured construction projects. Popular Electronics needed a computer project so they selected Ed Roberts' Altair 8800 computer based on

1395-600: A luxury for many readers. Radio-Science Publications ceased operations with the August 1931 issues. Bernarr Macfadden 's newly formed Teck Publishing Corporation took over with the September 1931 issue. Radio News and Amazing Stories were continued but Science and Invention was sold and absorbed into Popular Mechanics magazine. Radio News and Amazing Stories were in poor financial health when Ziff-Davis acquired them in January 1938. They were listed as publisher in

1488-498: A project article for Popular Electronics. The article would give us free advertising for the kit version of the project, and the magazine would even pay us for the privilege of printing it! The November 1970 issue also has an article by Forrest M. Mims and Henry E. Roberts titled "Assemble an LED Communicator - The Opticon." A kit of parts could be ordered from MITS in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Popular Electronics paid $ 400 for

1581-510: A sacrifice price. The first bid for complete company was $ 100,000. The first offer for the radio stations was only $ 7,500. Here is a New York Times account of the final bidding. The final bidding for the radio stations was spirited. Carl W. Kirchway, acting for The New York Evening Journal , bid $ 90,000 and then raised the bid to $ 100,000. Mr. Kirchway asked for and obtained a recess to enable him to reach William R. Hearst in California. It

1674-409: A sense, then, Modern Electronics is the successor to the original concept of Popular Electronics … The last issue of Computers & Electronics was April 1985. The magazine still had 600,000 readers but the intense competition from other computer magazines resulted in flat advertising revenues. In 1953, William B. Ziff, Jr. (age 23) was thrust into the publishing business when his father died of

1767-421: A series about driving and camping across the country from New York City to San Francisco. 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

1860-558: 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. KDKA in Pittsburgh

1953-642: A year. Les Solomon , the Popular Electronics Technical Editor, wrote 6 articles in the rival Radio-Electronics using the pseudonym "B. R. Rogen". In 1972 and 1973 some of the best projects appeared in Radio-Electronics as the new Popular Electronics digested the merger. The upcoming personal computer benefited from this competition between Radio-Electronics and Popular Electronics . In September 1973 Radio-Electronics published Don Lancaster's TV Typewriter ,

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2046-547: Is a typical broadcast schedule: WRNY started at 10:00 AM, WHN followed at 1:30 PM, WPAP followed at 7:00 PM, and finally WRNY closed out the broadcast day from 9:30 PM to midnight. WQAO, own by the Calvary Baptist Church, broadcast three programs on Sunday and one on Wednesday. The owner of WHN, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , bought the other stations in 1933 and WHN used 1010 kHz full-time starting in January 1934 . The stations call letters were later changed to WMGM;

2139-582: Is allotted a 6 MHz bandwidth.) The first test broadcast was on August 12, 1928. Others had been transmitting television before this but WRNY was the first to have a regular scheduled program. Hugo Gernsback estimated that there were around 2000 television receivers in the New York area. By 1927 the expenses exceeded the income of the Experimenter Publishing Company. The radio station had a stream of advertising revenue but there

2232-638: Is how Art Salsberg described the new magazine. Directed to enthusiasts like yourselves, who savor learning more about the latest developments in electronics and computer hardware, Modern Electronics shows you what's new in the world of electronics/computers, how this equipment works, how to use them, and construction plans for useful electronic devices. Many of you probably know of me from my decade-long stewardship of Popular Electronics magazine, which changed its name and editorial philosophy last year to distance itself from active electronics enthusiasts who move fluidly across electronics and computer product areas. In

2325-458: Is power to 15,000 watts.The radio stations format was changed; the Jazz music was prohibited and replaced with presentations devoted to aviation and aviators. On a show about women aviators, Amelia Earhart recounted her recent transcontinental flight. The station gave hourly weather reports of aviators. After 1928 WRNY was at 1010 kilocycles (kHz) and shared the frequency with 3 other stations. This

2418-475: 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

2511-464: The Commodore PET were on the market. Building computer kits was soon replaced by plugging in assembled boards. In 1982, Popular Electronics helped to introduce personal computer programming with its Programmer’s Notebook column written by Jim Keogh . Each column focused on a game programming. The column continued onto Computer & Electronics Magazine. Popular Electronics continued with

2604-468: The Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company would pay the other $ 100,000 for the radio stations. After administration expenses, the creditors were paid 95 cents on the dollar. The attorneys handling receivership said this was the first time they had seen a forced sale pay off the creditors in full. The Irving Trust Company's decision to keep the magazines and stations running avoided an early sale at

2697-482: The "Transistorized Tremolo" for an electric guitar; and a one tube VHF receiver to listen to aircraft. There were regular columns for Citizens Band (CB), amateur radio and shortwave listening (SWL). These would show a reader with his radio equipment each month. (Almost all of the readers were male.) Lou Garner's Transistor Topics covers the new transistorized FM stereo receivers and several readers' circuits. John T. Frye's fictional characters, Carl and Jerry, use

2790-482: The Consrad Company reviewed bids at a March 28 hearing before the bankruptcy referee. Two publishers, B. A. MacKinnon and Macfadden Publications , entered similar bids that would almost pay the creditors in full. After these two complete bids were read, Chester Cuthell then offered $ 60,000 for the radio stations. The MacKinnon offer was revised to allow the separate sale of the stations, Macfadden wanted to keep

2883-496: 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

Experimenter Publishing - Misplaced Pages Continue

2976-476: The Experimenter Publishing Company. Hymes died in a railroad accident in 1917. Robert W. De Mott replaced Hymes as advertising manager and corporate secretary. Electrical Experimenter , introduced in May 1913, was initially published by the Electro Importing Company. The new Experimenter Publishing Company became the publisher with the May 1915 issue. The June 1918 cover had a sub-title of "Science and Invention", and

3069-568: The March issues but the April issues were the first produced under their control. Radio News was published by Ziff-Davis under several titles until 1985. They published Amazing Stories until 1965 when it was sold to Ultimate Publishing. Immediately after the bankruptcy auction, the Aviation Radio Station, Inc. was formed to take over the WRNY radio stations. C. M. Keys, president of the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company , provided

3162-589: 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

3255-491: 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

3348-460: 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

3441-454: 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

3534-414: The article. Radio & Television News became Electronics World in 1959 and in January 1972 was merged into Popular Electronics . The process started in the summer of 1971 with a new editor, Milton S. Snitzer, replacing the longtime editor, Oliver P. Ferrell. The publishers decided to focus on topics with prosperous advertisers, such as CB Radio and audio equipment. Construction projects were no longer

3627-514: The bankruptcy has nourished various conspiracy theories over the years. The total liabilities were estimated at $ 600,000 and assets at $ 182,000. Federal Judge Mack appointed the Irving Trust Company as the receiver. Hugo Gernsback spoke to the press afterward and said: "Plans are being formulated to reorganize and continue publication as heretofore. I am authorized to say this by the receiver." The April 1929 issues of Radio News (on

3720-534: 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

3813-472: The circulation, Hugo Gernsback announce in the April 1927 Radio News that the radio project blue prints that had been selling for one or two dollars were now free. The largest expenses for a magazine publisher are paper and printing. The publisher has to print enough copies to supply every outlet. At the end of the month the distributor would return the unsold copies to the publisher for a credit. Experimenter Publishing had four or five monthly magazines so this

Experimenter Publishing - Misplaced Pages Continue

3906-437: 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

3999-485: 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

4092-445: The database publisher (Information Access Company.) These groups were not profitable. Ziff took time off to successfully battle the prostate cancer. (He lived until 2006.) When he returned he focused on magazines like PC Magazine and MacUser to rebuild Ziff-Davis. In 1994 he and his sons sold Ziff-Davis for $ 1.4 billion. The title Popular Electronics was sold to Gernsback Publications and their Hands-On Electronics magazine

4185-536: The deadline for filing claims but still wanted the back taxes the Experimenter Publishing owed. The court ruled that the Constitution gave control of bankruptcy to the federal government and the states would have to follow the rules and procedures like any other creditor. Gernsback was quickly able to raise capital for a new publishing company. The June issue of Science Wonder Stories was on

4278-455: The early projects used vacuum tubes , as transistors (which had just become available to hobbyists) were expensive: the small-signal Raytheon CK722 transistor was US$ 3.50 in the December 1954 issue, while a typical small-signal vacuum tube (the 12AX7 ) was $ 0.61. Lou Garner wrote the feature story for the first issue, a battery-powered tube radio that could be used on a bicycle. Later he

4371-475: The end of 1983 and Seth R. Alpert became editor. The magazine dropped all project articles and just reviewed hardware and software. The circulation was almost 600,000 in January 1985 when Forrest Mims wrote about the tenth anniversary of the Altair 8800 computer. In October 1984 Art Salsberg started a competing magazine, Modern Electronics . Editor Alexander W. Burawa and contributors Forrest Mims, Len Feldman, and Glenn Hauser moved to Modern Electronics . Here

4464-509: The feature articles. They were replaced by new product reviews. The change in editorial direction upset many authors. Dan Meyer wrote a letter in his SWTPC catalog referring to the magazine, Popular Electronics with Electronics World , as "PEEW". He urged his customers to switch to Radio-Electronics . Don Lancaster , Daniel Meyer , Forrest Mims , Ed Roberts , John Simonton and other authors switched to Radio-Electronics. Even Solid State columnist Lou Garner moved to Radio-Electronics for

4557-430: The financial backing for the new company. Chester Cuthell, the attorney who was at the auction, was the president and Walter Lemmon was the general manager. The goal of the station was to promote aviation. The Federal Radio Commission had to approve station license transfer and any changes to the station. Mr. Cuthell asked the commission for more frequencies as he said that he and his partners had up to $ 2,000,000 to spend on

4650-457: 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

4743-549: The first year. By the end of 1975 there were a dozen companies producing computer kits and peripherals using the Altair circuit bus, later renamed the S-100 bus and set as an IEEE standard. The February 1975 issue featured an "All Solid-State TV Camera" by three Stanford University students: Terry Walker, Harry Garland and Roger Melen . While the Cyclops Camera , as it was called, was designed to use an oscilloscope for

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4836-409: The history of his magazines, but the bankruptcy was always ignored. The April 1958 Radio-Electronics (formerly Radio Craft ) has a 16-page story on Gernsback's 50 year publishing history. Here is the complete description of the bankruptcy: "In the spring of 1929, Radio News , Science and Invention , Amazing Stories and associated magazines were sold to other interest. Radio News of April, 1929,

4929-565: The image display, the article mentions that it could also be connected to the Altair computer. It soon was, the authors got one of the first Altair computers and designed an interface for the camera. They also designed a full color video display for the Altair, "The TV Dazzler" , that appeared on the cover of the February 1976 issue. This was the start of Cromemco , a computer company that grew to over 500 employees by 1983. The internet did not exist in 1975 but time-sharing computers did. With

5022-399: The improved Intel 8080 processor. The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics had the Altair computer on the cover and this launched the home computer revolution. (However, Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs incorrectly identified the magazine that ran the article as Popular Mechanics .) The magazine was digest size ( 6.5 in × 9 in ) for the first 20 years. The cover logo was

5115-566: The method of the bankrupt companies in allowing hotels space for advertising in the magazines published by the Gernsbacks for trade bills (vouchers) instead of cash. The Gernsbacks explained that the space assigned to the hotels was unsold at the press date and the ads were "fillers". The trade bills were given to wholesalers, advertisers and others with whom they did business. Hugo Gernsback was also asked about letters soliciting subscribers for his new company, Gernsback Publications, Inc. and if

5208-561: The most successful personal computers at that time. Popular Electronics had many other computer projects such as the Altair 680, the Speechlab voice recognition board and the COSMAC ELF . They did not have the field to themselves. A dedicated computer magazine, Byte , was started in September 1975. It was soon followed by other new magazines. By the end of 1977, fully assembled computers such as Apple II , Radio Shack TRS-80 , and

5301-490: 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;

5394-468: The newsstand March 10), Amazing Stores and Science and Invention were the last to feature Hugo Gernsback as editor. The Irving Trust appointed publisher Bergan A. MacKinnon as circulation manager and Arthur Lynch as managing editor. The WRNY stayed on the air and the magazines did not miss an issue. The bankruptcy proceedings were enthusiastically covered in the news and gossip columns of the New York City press. The creditors of Experimenter Publishing and

5487-480: The newsstand on May 3, 1929. This was one of two magazines Gernsback created to compete with Amazing Stories ; his Air Wonder Stories appeared six weeks later. They were merged into Wonder Stories after a year. The July issues of Radio Craft appeared on the newsstand on June 5, 1929, three months after Gernsback lost Radio News . There was a new Everyday Science and Mechanics to compete with Science and Invention . Hugo Gernsback often published articles about

5580-541: 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. 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

5673-524: 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

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5766-408: 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

5859-423: The receivers but Experimenter Publishing magazines provided complete plans that allowed readers to build their own television. The system used by WRNY had 48 scan lines with 7.5 frames per second. The image was about 1.5 inches square. This low resolution picture (without sound) could be transmitted in the 5 kHz audio bandwidth of an AM radio station. (The NTSC 525 line standard definition television signal

5952-522: The station is today's WFAN , while WEPN replaced it on the frequency. Popular Electronics Popular Electronics was an American magazine published by John August Media, LLC, and hosted at TechnicaCuriosa.com. The magazine was started by Ziff-Davis Publishing Company in October 1954 for electronics hobbyists and experimenters. It soon became the "World's Largest-Selling Electronics Magazine". In April 1957, Ziff-Davis reported an average net paid circulation of 240,151 copies. Popular Electronics

6045-464: The stations. Motion Picture Publications offered $ 50,000 cash for Amazing Stories . Fawcett Publishing offered $ 30,000 cash for Science and Invention . The Robert McBride Company offered $ 300,000 for Science and Invention and Amazing Stories . The hearing was adjourned for a week to allow the creditor's committee to evaluate the bids. At the April 3 hearing, Mr. MacKinnon agreed to pay $ 200,000 now and $ 300,000 more in September. Mr. Cuthell acting for

6138-592: The stations. The commission approved the license transfers and improvements to the existing stations. In August 1929 Aviation Radio moved the studios from the Roosevelt Hotel to 27 West Fifty-Seventh Street. They also installed a new 1000 watt transmitter with automatic frequency control and new speech amplifiers at their plant in Coytesville NJ. These upgrades improved the range and sound quality of their broadcast. The short wave station, 2XLA, increased

6231-418: The subscription lists of the bankrupt firm had been used. "Mr. Gernsback emphatically denied that such lists had been used." "Mr. Gernsback said after the hearing that his new magazines would be Radio Craft, Science Wonder Stories and Air Wonder Stories and that the first issues would be out in June." The Experimenter Publishing bankruptcy made it to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1933. The state of New York missed

6324-473: 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

6417-478: The trademark and started Popular Electronics with the October 1954 issue. Many of the editors and authors worked for both Ziff-Davis magazines. Initially Oliver Read was the editor of both Radio & Television News and Popular Electronics . Read was promoted to Publisher in June 1956. Oliver Perry Ferrell took over as editor of Popular Electronics and William A. Stocklin became editor of Radio & Television News . In Radio & TV News John T. Frye wrote

6510-407: The years 1966 to 1971 SWTPC's authors wrote 64 articles and had 25 cover stories in Popular Electronics . (Don Lancaster alone had 23 articles and 10 were cover stories.) The San Antonio Express-News did a feature story on Southwest Technical Products in November 1972. "Meyer built his mail-order business from scratch to more than $ 1 million in sales in six years." The company was shipping 100 kits

6603-528: Was a "pirate" broadcaster. In 1927 the Federal Radio Commission was established with the authority to regulate broadcast stations. Hugo Gernsback first wrote about television in the December 1909 issue of Modern Electrics and had reported on the technical advances in his magazines. By 1925 mechanical scanning television systems were becoming available with resolutions of up to 60 scan lines. These mechanical systems were simple enough that

6696-561: Was a considerable expense. By 1928 the creditors had installed resident accountants at Experimenter Publishing to review the expenditures. The largest creditors were the paper supplier, Bulkley Dunton Co. ($ 154,406), Art Color Printing Co. of Dunellen, N.J. ($ 152,908) and Edward Langer Printing Co., ($ 14,614). On February 20, 1929, an involuntary petition in bankruptcy was filed against the Experimenter Publishing Company on behalf of Daniel A. Walters ($ 2,030), Marie E. Bachmann ($ 2,094) and Robert Halper ($ 2,095). The fact that minor creditors forced

6789-433: Was a growing pastime. Heathkit and many others offered kits that included all of the parts with detailed instructions. The premier cover shows the assembly of a Heathkit A-7B audio amplifier. Popular Electronics would offer projects that were built from scratch; that is, the individual parts were purchased at a local electronics store or by mail order. The early issues often showed these as father and son projects. Most of

6882-637: 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

6975-552: Was called "POP'tronics News Scope." In January 2000 a successor magazine was renamed Poptronics . In the 1960s, Fawcett Publications had a competing magazine, Electronics Illustrated . The cover showed a 15-inch (38 cm) black and white TV kit by Conar that cost $ 135. The feature construction story was a "Radiation Fallout Monitor" for "keeping track of the radiation level in your neighborhood." (The Cuban Missile Crisis happened that October.) Other construction projects included "The Fish Finder", an underwater temperature probe;

7068-492: Was edited by Hugo Gernsback until March 1929, when the Experimenter Publishing empire of Sidney and Hugo Gernsback was forced into bankruptcy ; after that date it was edited by Arthur H. Lynch. Under the editorship of Gernsback, it also published some early science fiction ; he published several of his own stories in the magazine starting in 1915, and encouraged others through a 1916 editorial arguing that

7161-413: 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

7254-433: Was given a column called Transistor Topics (June 1956). Transistors soon cost less than a dollar and transistor projects became common in every issue of Popular Electronics . The column was renamed to Solid State in 1965 and ran under his byline until December 1978. The July 1962 issue had 112 pages, the editor was Oliver P. Ferrell and the monthly circulation was 400,000. The magazine had a full page of electronics news that

7347-491: Was in Electronics World (May 1960) and latter he had a 2 part cover feature for Radio-Electronics (October, November 1962). The March 1963 issue of Popular Electronics featured his ultrasonic listening device on the cover. Don Lancaster graduated from Lafayette College (1961) and Arizona State University (1966). A 1960s fad was to have colored lights synchronized with music. This psychedelic lighting

7440-418: Was made economical by the development of the silicon controlled rectifier (SCR). Don's first published article was "Solid-State 3-Channel Color Organ" in the April 1963 issue of Electronics World . He was paid $ 150 for the story. The projects in Popular Electronics changed from vacuum tube to solid state in the early 1960s. Tube circuits used a metal chassis with sockets, transistor circuits worked best on

7533-519: Was moved from the Table of Contents page to the cover. There is debate about what machine was the first personal computer, the Altair 8800 (1975), the Mark-8 (1974), or even back to Kenbak-1 (1971). The computer in the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics captured the attention of the 400,000 or so readers. Before then, home computers were lucky to sell a hundred units. The Altair sold thousands in

7626-463: 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

7719-506: Was providing the kits for other authors such as Lou Garner. In 1967 he sold a kit for Don Lancaster's "IC-67 Metal Locator". In early 1967 Meyer moved his growing business from his home to a new building on a 3-acre (12,000 m ) site in San Antonio. The Daniel E. Meyer Company (DEMCO) became Southwest Technical Products Corporation ( SWTPC ) that fall. In 1967, Popular Electronics had 6 articles by Dan Meyer and 4 by Don Lancaster. Seven of that year's cover stories featured kits sold by SWTPC. In

7812-440: Was published monthly. It was established in May 1913, as the successor to Modern Electrics , a combination of a magazine and mail-order catalog that had been published by Hugo Gernsback starting in 1908. The Electrical Experimenter continued from May 1913 to July 1920 under that name, focusing on scientific articles about radio , and continued with a broader focus as Science and Invention until August 1931. The magazine

7905-480: Was published until October 1982 when, in November 1982, Ziff-Davis launched a successor magazine, Computers & Electronics . During its last year of publication by Ziff-Davis, Popular Electronics reported an average monthly circulation of 409,344 copies. The title was sold to Gernsback Publications , and their Hands-On Electronics magazine was renamed to Popular Electronics in February 1989, and published until December 1999. The Popular Electronics trademark

7998-399: Was renamed to Popular Electronics in February 1989. This version was published until it was merged with Electronics Now to become Poptronics in January 2000. In late 2002, Gernsback Publications went out of business and the January 2003 Poptronics was the last issue. Electrical Experimenter The Electrical Experimenter was an American technical science magazine that

8091-463: Was reported that Mr. Hearst could not be reached and Mr. Kirchway decided that he was not authorized to exceed Mr. Cuthell's bid. Hugo and Sidney Gernsback were questioned at an April 19 hearing about the operation of the Experimenter Publishing and the Consrad Company. They were questioned by attorneys for the Irving Trust Company and B. A. MacKinnon "to discover any assets which may have been concealed or diverted." Attorneys for Mr. MacKinnon, questioned

8184-407: Was sold to Virgil Angerman in 1937 and it was in print until the 1970s (as late as May 1974). B. A. MacKinnon immediately renamed the company to Experimenter Publications and then to Radio-Science Publications in November 1930. MacKinnon's plan was to pay off the debt of acquiring the magazine with the revenue from the magazines. The Depression drove many advertisers out of business and made magazines

8277-460: 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

8370-508: Was the last Gernsback issue." The eve of the Great Depression was not an ideal time to start new magazines but Gernsback persevered. Radio Craft and successor titles were in print until January 2003. Gernsback decided to focus on radio magazines and added Short Wave Craft in June 1930 and Television News in 1931. Wonder Stories was sold to Thrilling Publications in 1936 and it was in print until 1955. Science and Mechanics

8463-577: Was the new transmitter facility in New Jersey plus the investment in television equipment. WRNY was losing around $ 50,000 a year by 1927. Hugo Gernsback received a salary of $ 50,000 per year; his brother Sidney received $ 39,000. As a comparison, the Governor of New York State earned $ 25,000 a year. In February 1927 the Experimenter Publishing Company leased the entire sixteenth floor of 230 Fifth Avenue to be used as executive offices. In an effort to boost

8556-469: Was then acquired by John August Media, who revived the magazine, the digital edition of which is hosted at TechnicaCuriosa.com, along with sister titles, Mechanix Illustrated and Popular Astronomy . A cover story on Popular Electronics could launch a new product or company. The most famous issue, January 1975, had the Altair 8800 computer on the cover and ignited the home computer revolution. Paul Allen showed that issue to Bill Gates . They wrote

8649-431: Was used for two years. The large photo of the feature project was gone, replaced by a textual list of articles. In August 1974 the magazine switched to a larger letter size format ( 8.5 in × 11 in ). This was done to allow larger illustrations such as schematics, to switch printing to offset presses, and respond to advertisers desire for larger ad pages. The longtime tag line, "World's Largest Selling Electronics Magazine",

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