THE GREAT ELECTRIC DIAPHRAGM – This short story was written by neglected American science fiction pioneer Robert Duncan Milne. It was published in the May 24th, 1879 edition of The Argonaut in San Francisco.
The tale features Milne himself, a reporter and fiction writer, as the narrator. He accompanies his friend – called only “C” in the story – to the San Francisco hilltop mansion of a visiting Prussian scientist referred to as “Baron O.”
Milne and C are greeted by one of the baron’s servants and ushered into a dining room where they are treated to a multi-course meal. Baron O. regales the pair with his advances in the study of weather prediction and at meal’s end offers to show them his latest project involving wireless communication across the entire globe. Continue reading
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