Hugo Gernsback

Right now I'm reading "The Gernsback Days:  A Study of the Evolution of Modern Science Fiction from 1911-1936" by Mike Ashley and Robert A. W. Lowndes. 

There seems to be mixed opinions of Hugo Gernsback that I'm interested in researching.  On the one hand he's touted as the originator of Science Fiction - the term, the genre, and the industry.  On the other hand he's condemned for being the ghettoizer of SF and of not treating his authors well.  There's not much more distance to be inserted between these opinions, except to perhaps say that he had nothing to do with SF at all on one of these sides, which is clearly false. 

So far I've learned that he was a successful inventor, entrepreneur, and publisher, his first magazine being Modern Electrics. He was devoted to the cause of the wireless amateur, to the point of creating the Wireless Association of America (W.A.O.A.), with free membership, using Modern Electrics as its recruiting and communication organ.  When amateur wireless use started interfering with government and commercial wireless use, he used the W.A.O.A. as clout to persuade Congress to regulate wireless on his terms, by assigning frequencies and limitating transmitter power, the system still in use today, instead of by requiring licensing, which would have required many of the amateurs to find a new hobby.  The new law was called the Wireless Act of 1912.

He also used Modern Electrics to speculate about future invention and uses of technology, no matter how far out it would seem.  He created the alter ego Mohammed Ulysses Fips, the Office Boy, to present really "outrageous" ideas as humor, such as "Wireless on Saturn." 

He wrote "Ralph 124C 41+" as a 12 part serial in Modern Electrics mainly to showcase his speculations about future technologies and how they would be used.  While not much on the storytelling side, the inventions and their use are very interesting.  (I have yet to read this book, but have read excerpts and bits about it.)

As an aside, "Ralph 124C 41+" was written in 1911 and I'm having problems finding a free ecopy on line?  What's that about.  Granted, Jack Williamson republished it in 2000, but I'm happy to read it without any of his enhancements, whatever they may be, and the copyright on the original has long expired.  I guess I'll interlibrary loan (ILL) it, although I hate to spend the library's money on it, either.