Having Wonderful Time

Recorded music is getting better. Part of the credit goes to improved electronic devices, part to engineers who combine technical knowledge with artistic temperament. One of these latter rare specimens is John Hays Hammond Jr., 58, America's gaudiest inventor and holder of nearly 800 patents. Last week he was tuning his latest gadget: an improved "dynamic amplifier," which coaxes uncannily lifelike music out of phonograph records. It was already licensed to RCA and A.T. & T., this month would be demonstrated to the crowned heads of the phonograph industry.

Hammond did not start from scratch. His father, John Hays Hammond Sr., was a fabulous gold-mining engineer. With slam-bang empire-builder Cecil Rhodes, he was involved in the Jameson Raid (which helped to provoke the Boer War) and built up the world's greatest gold-producing region around Johannesburg, South Africa. These activities made him rich.

Boy Inventor. Hammond Jr. began inventing before he got used to long pants. At 16, he produced a gasoline engine (which flopped). Most of his inventions were concerned with radio and its neighboring fields. In 1912, when he was 24, he steered a boat by radio control from Boston to Gloucester. He collaborated with Alexander Graham Bell on long distance telephony, pioneered in vacuum tubes, frequency modulation, television. In 1933, the U.S. Government paid $750,000 for Hammond patents.

From the Hammond brain came oddments, too: a cigaret case and lighter, toy locomotives, a naval war game. Also a hair restorer, inspired by his own bald spot.

Traveling Home. Advancing years have sapped none of Hammond's enthusiasm. His latest love: a 20-ton trailer, which he designed and built. It has a kitchen, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, its own water supply. From stem to stern, it teems with gadgets, from an intercom to an electric dishwasher.

Recently he trailered to Bridgeport, Conn., where his old friend Igor Sikorsky showed him his latest helicopter.

"Do you want one?" asked Sikorsky.

"Sure," said Hammond, "if you can build one to lift a 20-ton trailer."

Sikorsky whipped out a slide rule, made calculations. "We can do it."

Hammond treasures that moment: "He and I thought how lucky we were--to be born at exactly the right time to do what we like to do."

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