Born in Luxemburg in 1884 and educated in European technical schools, Hugo Gernsback's passion for the future of electrical things gave birth to American science fiction. He immigrated to America in 1904. Among his accomplishments, Gernsback founded Electric Importing Company in 1905, was editor of Modern Electrics, founded Amazing Stories and founded radio station WRNY where he was involved in the first television broadcasts.

Electronic gadgets fascinated Gernsback from boyhood. One of his earliest ventures was launching a device he called the Telimco Wireless, America's first home radio set. The Telimco set sold for $7.50 at Macy's, Gimbel's and Marshall Field's.

An elegant man who wore expensive suits, Gernsback wrote about robot doctors, retirement colonies on Mars and domed cities orbiting Earth. In 1908 he launched the first radio magazine, Modern Electrics, to introduce the public to the coming marvels of science and electronics. The first issue sold for 10 cents and covered topics such as "How to Make an Electric Whistle."

Gernsback became known as the founding father of American science fiction when he created the world's first magazine of "Scientifiction" Amazing Stories, in 1926. He ran the slogan, "Extravagant Fiction Today -- Cold Fact Tomorrow." Frank R. Paul, his designer, was an Austrian immigrant whose passion for scientific accuracy helped to create a futuristic blueprint for the magazine.

Wonder Stories debuted in 1929. Despite the Great Depression, Gernsback Publications Inc. became successful with more than 50 magazines such as Radio Craft and Short Wave Craft to Sexology.

In his own fiction, particularly the novel Ralph 124C41+, Gernsback wrote about the future. Skywriting, tape recorders, microfiche, solar power, holograms, fax machines, even aluminum foil -- all were part of his lead character's daily life -- foreign concepts in 1911. The scope of the author's imagination remains breathtaking.

The prestigious Hugo Awards given annually for the best sci-fi books and films are named in his honor. He also was an author, inventor, scientific prophet, magazine publisher and broadcast pioneer. For a man who may have believed in Martians, Gernsback gained the respect of the most prominent scientists of his time including Guglielmo Marconi, Nikola Tesla, Robert Goddard, David Sarnoff and Thomas Edison.

One of his favorite gadgets was the "scanning televisor" that became known as television. Gernsback first used the term in 1909 and in 1928, 20 years before TV debuted, he introduced his first TV magazine, All About Television. The cover, which showed a future family watching a football game, was an uncanny portrayal of what was to come.

Gernsback founded radio station WRNY in 1925. Three years later, the station began one of the first regular television broadcasts. He encouraged his readers to construct their own television sets, following elaborate blueprints reproduced in the magazine. The sets featured a motor, a neon glow lamp and a 24-inch scanner disk that whirled at 450 revolutions per minute. Regular programming on the handful of amateur sets began on August 21, 1928, with listings in the New York Times.

Gernsback lost a fortune on his TV-radio station and went bankrupt in 1929 losing his Amazing Stories empire. However he began a new publishing company two months later with 8,000 in subscription orders. New magazines soon hit the stands, including Radio-Craft, Science Wonder Stories and Air Wonder Stories. Gernsback died in 1967.