Fessenden - Builder of Tomorrows

BUILDER OF TOMORROWS by HELEN M. FESSENDEN. Firat published in New York 1940. FOREWORD: To THE WORLD of Today and the World of Tomorrow, worlds alike benefited and enriched by the life of Reginald A. Fessenden, I give the man himself. That the mind which conceived the correct theory of wireless transmission, which invented the Wireless Telephone and with it accomplished the first Broadcasting, which invented and developed the Fathometer and all it implied, that this mind failed to de fend itself against commercial assault, whether financial or scientific, is an inescapable fact. For this fact I make no apology. Mine is the setting forth of factual data, an indication of trends, not the indictment of any man or group of men. Without a straightforward account of certain legal encounters, the life of my husband would be but partly told. The outcome of these encounters is a matter of court record which he who runs may read. It is however not by court decisions but by his work that the man will be remembered. It is a pet idea of mine that one gets more real truth out o one avowed partisan than out of a dozen of your sham impartialists wolves in sheeps clothing simpering honesty as they suppress documents. After all, what one wants to know is not what people did, but why they did it or rather why they thought they did it and to learn that you should go to the men themselves, their very falsehood is often more than another mans truth. Contents include: CONTENTS I. FOREBEARS AND CHILDHOOD . . 3 II. SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 13 III. BERMUDA 23 IV. NEW YORK 27 V. A YANKEE BOY AND A CHINA MUG . 31 VI. FESSENDEN FINDS HIMSELF ... 39 VII. NEWARK, PITTSFIELD AND PURDUE 47 VIII. PITTSBURGH DAYS 64 IX. A MOMENTOUS DECISION .... 73 X. WIRELESS AT ROANOKE ISLAND . . 86 XI. NATIONAL ELECTRIC SIGNALING COMPANY 105 XII. WIRELESS AS A BUSINESS ENTER PRISE AND TRANS-ATLANTIC STA TIONS 119 XIII. TRANS-ATLANTIC WORKING ... 131 XIV. DASHED HOPES 140 XV. WIRELESS TELEPHONY AND THE HIGH-FREQUENCY ALTERNATOR 147 XVI. DIFFICULTIES-LEGISLATIVE AND COMPANY 157 XVII. SERVICE ABROAD 169 XVIII. DESTRUCTION AT HOME .... 182 VI CONTENTS XIX. DUST AND ASHES 188 XX. POWER AND POWER STORAGE . . 194 XXI. TURBO-ELECTRIC DRIVE. THE FES SENDEN COMBUSTION ENGINE . 804 XXII. SUBMARINE SIGNALING AND THE FESSENDEN OSCILLATOR ... 214 XXIII. THE WORLD WAR 224 XXIV. SUBMARINE SIGNALING IN WAR TIME AND CIVILIAN WAR BOARDS 235 XXV. OTHER EVENTS OF WAR YEARS . . 255 XXVI. INVENTION 261 XXVII. GREAT AGES 275 XXVIII. LOOKING FAR BACKWARDS - THE DELUGED CIVILIZATION ... 286 XXIX. THE FESSENDEN FATHOMETER . .297 XXX. OTHER DEVICES 304 XXXI. GOD ALMIGHTY HATES A QUITTER 3 1 2 XXXII. SANCTUARY 335 ADDENDA I. SUMMARY. THE SCIENTIFIC WORK OF REGINALD A. FESSENDEN 347 II. FESSENDENS DISCOVERY OF THE ELEC TROSTATIC DOUBLET THEORY AND OF THE NATURE OF COHESION AND ELASTICITY-as told by himself .... 348 III. BIBLIOGRAPHY 353 FESSENDEN Builder of Tomorrows. CHAPTER I. FOREBEARS AND CHILDHOOD. REGINALD AUBREY FESSENDEN was born on October 6, 1866 in the rectory of the small parish of East Bolton on a bay of Lake Memphremagog, Lower Canada. The tapestry of commingled lives that forms the back ground of an individual is always revealing. The pattern never exactly repeats itself, but dominant characteristics re cur again and again. Fortunate is the man whose birthright is a fabric, close knit, clean and strong such a one is indeed well born. From Kent, from Yorkshire, from Northumber land came the warp threads of the fabric forming the back ground of this rectory baby...