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File:Verboten cartoon Electrical Experimenter Feb 1919.png

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Description
English: Editorial cartoon in February 1919 issue of Hugo Gernsback's magazine Electrical Experimenter, opposing proposed government regulation of amateur radio. In the U.S. prior to World War 1, the new technology of "wireless" (radio) communication had been mostly unregulated by the government, and experimenters in "amateur radio" were largely free to do as they wanted. However radio stations had proved a vital national resource during the War, and in the conservative atmosphere following the Armistice in 1918 bills were introduced in Congress, the "Poindexter bill" in the Senate and the "Alexander bill" in the House, to make radio communication a government monopoly run by the Navy, and severely restrict private "amateur" radio activities.

The cartoon depicts "Alexander" in caricatured Prussian military garb, a reference to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Joshua W. Alexander. Gernsback headlined an editorial the previous month, "Prussianizing the American Ether" [1].

Hugo Gernsback, a visionary champion of amateur radio and publisher of one of the few magazines in the country devoted to it, lampooned the restrictions with this cartoon in his February 1919 issue.

Due to opposition from radio amateurs and many other quarters, the bills died.
Date Prior to February 1919
Source Downloaded July 6, 2013 from T. R. Kennedy, "From Coherer to Spacistor" in Radio Electronics magazine, Vol. 29, No. 4, April 1958, p. 49 on Michael Holly's personal website. Source text (p. 48) says cartoon was reprinted from Electrical Experimenter magazine, February 1919 issue
Author Unknown. Work is signed 'Paul' or 'Paci' in lower left corner

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current13:42, 6 July 2013Thumbnail for version as of 13:42, 6 July 2013967 × 706 (273 KB)ChetvornoUser created page with UploadWizard

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