Hugo Gernsback, the namesake of the Hugo Award for best science fiction story, is widely considered to be the father of the science fiction genre, along with fellow writers H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. He was known for his absurdly imaginative stories and his flair for self-parodic writing. His inventions became an extension of his created universes.
In 1925, Gernsback was involved with what we would consider today to be a television broadcast. His radio station, WRNY, sent a broadcast image the size of a postage stamp to residents of New York. The broadcast consisted of a speech and live music. Although only enthusiasts with very specific technology could receive the broadcast, it was highly original at the time.
Among Gernsback's more famous inventions was the hypnobioscope, a device that supposedly implemented sleep-teaching. It was based on the popular notion at the time that entire university lectures could be taught to students while they slept.
Gernsback's osophone was designed to assist people to hear through their teeth. Though unpopular at the time, the idea that oratory sensation could be received through bone conduction was accepted shortly thereafter as a scientifically sound principle, helping pave the way for modern hearing aids.
Gernsback predicted that a number of technologies would soon develop, most notably the television, which many credit him with naming. Gernsback also claimed that his fictional Ralph 1240 41+, a blood-draining revival process in one of his books, was validated by Soviet rejuvenation experiments in dogs.