This week, we’re looking into how to build regenerative vacuum tube circuits. The schematics in figures 1-5 outline the differences between the new French and American audions and show how the regenerative circuits use a new five-coil loose coupler to…
JUST KIDDING!
It’s April Fool’s Day, and I’m throwing the doors open to Hugo Gernsback and the Pulp April Fool’s Hall of Fame — a fun, affectionate tour through real hoaxes, fake inventions, and delightfully deadpan April Fool’s articles from the pulp era.
We start with one of the earliest examples: “Alice in Sound-Land,” a whimsical 1924 essay from Gernsback’s magazine Science and Invention. It reads like a scientific fairy tale — part Lewis Carroll, part biologist Julian Huxley (not his novelist brother Aldous), and very much like a prose version of Little Nemo in Slumberland. Even back then, Gernsback was already blending science and gentle mischief with a wink at the reader.
From there, we move on to his classic April Fool’s pieces from Radio Electronics and Modern Electronics (1949–1956), written under the gloriously fake byline “Mohammed Ulysses Fips I.R.E.” Expect highly technical-looking articles about the Hypnotron, Silent Sound, the Cordless Radio Iron — all complete with schematics and illustrations that made them feel almost believable.
No tricks from me today — just vintage foolishness served up with a big grin. Come along for the ride and enjoy a lighter look at how playful (and gullible) readers once were!
Featured Exhibit: “Alice in Sound-Land” (1924)
One of the earliest examples of Hugo Gernsback’s playful style appears in the April 1924 issue of Science and Invention. Titled “Alice in Sound-Land”, this whimsical essay reads like a scientific fairy tale — blending Lewis Carroll’s dreamlike logic with the ideas of biologist Julian Huxley (not his novelist brother Aldous). It feels very much like a prose version of Little Nemo in Slumberland. This charming piece shows that Gernsback’s love of blending real science with gentle April Fool’s mischief was already in full swing years before his famous Modern Electronics hoaxes.
If you’d like to know more about the pulp magazine, Thrilling Wonder Stories (successor to Gernsback’s Wonder Stories magazine) I have a page devoted to it on my Lucina Press website.
