Fatal Induction, page 23
Less known is the story of Nell “Harry” Pickerell, notorious for dressing as a man. Several young women did lose their hearts to her, to tragic ends. In 1902, Hazel Walters committed suicide by drinking carbolic acid, and in 1903, Pearl Waldron shot herself. Pearl was found alive and brought to a hospital, and a few days later the newspaper reported she was expected to recover. While Harry was never accused of murder, she was arrested for “charges ranging from disorderly conduct to highway robbery,” according to her obituary in the Seattle Daily Times. After a brief illness, she died December 27, 1922 at the age of 40 at Providence Hospital, coincidentally, the same hospital where I was born.
The investigation into phenacetin smuggling began in the early 1890s and continued after the arrest of the mastermind Louis J. Fulmer on October 6, 1901, in Detroit. The investigations were led by the German company Bayer’s United States agent, Faberfabriken of Elberfield. Before and after Fulmer’s arrest, local investigators caught many more smuggling agents in the massive ring all around the country. An army of drummers sold the drug, which was often adulterated, directly to pharmacists who chose not to question the quality of the product in the face of the cheap price.
The fictional microphone Professor Bradshaw has filed a patent for in this book is modeled after K.M. Turner’s Dictograph of the early 1900s. In 1910, the Burns Detective Agency began using a specially devised microphone called the “Detective Dictograph” to eavesdrop on criminal conversations, and evidence gathered by the agency was admissible in court.
Home delivery of telephonic entertainment was a hot topic in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In Europe, several services were established. Paris and London had systems that delivered music, plays, and dialogues to subscribers. Budapest’s Telefon Hirmondó was the most developed system, working much like radio stations of the future with a broadcast-style office and on-air talent reading news and playing live music in a scheduled program. A few pleasure-telephone systems popped up in the U.S., but none survived long. This was an age of electromechanical devices that were limited in their ability to transmit signals and amplify sounds without distortion. The reality of a telephonic entertainment system never lived up to the dream. Then came Lee De Forest and his Audion vacuum tube, patented in 1907, eventually revolutionizing the methods of signal boosting and transmission. Telephonic dreams gave way to the amazing reality of radio.
My thanks to John Jenkins, President and CEO of the SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention, for reading the technical portions of the manuscript and for his informative book LOUD TALKER: The Early History of Loudspeakers. In the early stages of writing, Jonathan Winter, co-founder of the SPARK Museum, answered my questions and showed me numerous museum pieces—horns and sounding boards and music boxes—that inspired the development of this story. Another valuable technical adviser and reader was Bill Beaty, a research engineer at the University of Washington, who generously shares his broad knowledge and passion for the history of electrical invention, as well as his eye for editing.
Larry Karp and Tim Fabrizio provided advice on wax cylinders and historical dictation machines, and Marv Jahnke inspired me to investigate the history of wire recorders. Benjamin Helle of the Washington State Archives Olympia Regional Branch guided me to historical records. And I spent many happy hours immersed in The University of Washington Digital Archives and the Seattle Times archives.
Reading a manuscript critically is a huge undertaking, and I am indebted to my circle of writing friends who take on this role. For this manuscript I am particularly grateful for Jeannie Dunlap and Laron Glover, who both spent many hours reading and providing excellent comments, and my sister, Beverlee Burk, who gave the final version the final test lap. Thank you all!
I am grateful to have the guidance and support of my editor Annette Rogers, chief editor Barbara Peters, and the whole gang at Poisoned Pen Press, including Robert Rosenwald for his exquisite patience, and Jessica Tribble, a tireless publisher who never gets annoyed at my ceaseless questions and requests. My agent Jill Grosjean continues to be a treasured source of professional and emotional support.
In a happy moment of serendipity, I met two new friends. Art Davis, professor emeritus of electrical engineering and his wife Lalah, an electrical engineer, inspire me with their real life immersion in electrical matters, practical and theoretical. Much of this manuscript was written in the supportive company of The Sky Valley Education Center moms (Tracy, Marilene, Torie, Suzie, and Jennie, to name a few), and I treasure my friend Barbara Ekholm for her friendship and generous support. And finally, I’m thankful for my loving husband, who supports me in a thousand ways, and my son, who makes everything worthwhile.
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Bernadette Pajer, Fatal Induction
