Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.Science: Gernsback, the Amazing
One of the most fertile of U.S. inventors startled his friends last week with an unusual device: an electronic keyhole peeper to eliminate stooping. It offered comfortable tompeeping complete with eavesdropping and a permanent record on film.
This was only one of many suggestions which Hugo Gernsback sent out for Christmas in a parody of one of his own magazines, Radio-Craft. Other Gernsback ideas in the burlesque publication included a "radiotronicar" which would hop over cross traffic, an electronic "evil eye" to paralyze burglars, and an electronic production line for inducting draftees....
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