Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was created by General Electric in 1919. It quickly became the the high-tech darling of its day, as the technology constantly improved. Quinby went up to the company’s swanky new Manhattan offices and was offered the job at night shift operator at the huge new trans-Atlantic radio station in New Brunswick, NJ.
The prospect of association with the world’s most powerful radio station excited me almost as much as my prospective venture in the field of matrimony. The 200 kW radio-frequency alternator at Station WII put out a signal 400 times as powerful as the little 1/2 kW transmitter aboard Ida.
WII had an antenna a mile long, 444 feet above the ground, suspended by 13 steel towers. The enormous electric motor that ran this thing sometimes required panicked servicing to get it ready for transmissions during the day. GE also built a second station for backup.
That fantastic 200 kW radio frequency alternator was the ultimate realization of Nikola Tesla’s dream…it was by virtue of Tesla’s patented tuning system that it became possible to operate the vast number of channels that crowd the radio spectrum without hopeless interference throughout the world….Those who overlook Tesla’s importance should reflect on the question Where would be today without alternating current? [AC]
Beau had married his Russian heiress Tanya and was settled in Singapore, enrolled by Daddy Petrovich at the famous Raffles Club, the golf club and the Polo Association. Tough gig. But a tragedy had befallen Sonya before Sparks even met her.
Sonya Petrovich had been kidnapped by a vicious piece of work: renegade Cossack White Russian general Grigory Semyenov (Григо́рий Миха́йлович Семёнов.) This thug demanded a $50,000 ransom from Sonya’s father, then upped his demand to $75,000.
It took Vladimir Petrovich awhile to come up with so much cash, and in the meantime Semyenov raped and impregnated Sonya. While Jay Quinby was waiting for this bride, the young woman, filled with shame, entered a convent in Manila and took vows to become a nun.
Sparks was devastated to learn that he’d never see Sonya again. His boss at the wireless station suggested he take a leave, but Quinby decided the best treatment for his heartache was to head back to sea.
It took a long time, but the Soviet version of justice caught up to the Cossak. First he escaped to the US and convinced everyone he was an anti-Bolshevik freedom fighter. 1945 found him in the Chinese port city of Dalian. The USSR had invaded Manchuria, and Soviet paratroopers arrested Semyenov and trundled him to Moscow. There, he was charged with the very broad brush of “counterrevolutionary activities” and hung in August of 1946.
Grigory Semyenov was a brave but cruel and undisciplined White Russian general.
