Modern Electrics

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Modern Electrics was a technical magazine for the amateur radio experimenter. It was created by Hugo Gernsback and began publication in 1909. The magazine initially was intended to provide mail-order information for radio parts and to promote the amateur radio hobby, but it later became a vehicle for technology-based fiction stories. The first fiction appeared in the August, 1911 issue, and the series of 12 installments by Hugo Gernsback would later be published as the science fiction novel Ralph 124C 41+.

The circulation for this magazine increased rapidly, starting at 2,000 and increasing to 52,000 in 1911. In 1908, the magazine announced the "wireless registry", a listing of radio owners, their call letters, and the type of equipment they owned and how it was operated.

The magazine was sold in 1913, and ceased publication with the December 1913 issue. It then merged with Electrician and Mechanic to become Modern Electrics and Mechanics. The experience Gernsback gained with Modern Electrics led him to introduce Amazing Stories in 1926, a pulp science fiction magazine.