Living in the Past, Looking to the Future

by John Dandola

The life of John Hays Hammond, Jr., had all the elements of best-selling fiction: he was the scion of a wealthy family; the son of a world-famous father; the protégé of Thomas Alva Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, and Nikola Tesla. When he demonstrated that he could steer unmanned power boats from shore, newspapers dubbed him "The Boy Inventor" but he went on to be lauded as "The Father of Radio Control." Along the way, he accumulated some 800 U.S and foreign patents on more than 400 different inventions; amassed a personal fortune from his innovations for military weaponry and radio; built an actual castle overlooking the Atlantic to serve as his home, laboratory, and showplace for his medieval art collection; and played host to the international elite. This is the biography of a man who obsessively gathered bits and pieces of history around him yet whose scientific work led to a future of robots, target-seeking torpedoes, and guided missiles.