1922 – Maurice Francill “Radio Wizard” – Francis Cowgill (American)

SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS: MONDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 25, 1929.

"Radio Wizard" to Appear Here Under Auspices of Express-News Operates 4 Cars by Wireless at Once

In operating by wireless control four standard, stock model automobiles at the same time, Maurice T. Francill, world-renowned engineer and inventor, performs one of the most difficult experiments in all the realm of radio selectively. He is the only person ever to accomplish such a feat.
The exploit, has been termed "the riddle of radio," because none except Francill can explain how he does it.
The principle and system he employs have baffled scientists.
Francill will present this marvelous invention in San Antonio and vicinity for six days, starting Monday.
March 4. He will give 12 demonstrations of the operation of the four cars at one time. A fifth automobile, he will steer in any direction he may elect or that spectators may request.
One of his exhibitions of the radio-controlled automobiles will he given in the open air each day of his engagement, either in a different section of the city, a suburb, or a nearby town. One will be held each evening at 8 o'clock in show rooms of the Winerich Motor Sales Company, Third and Broadway. All of the exhibitions will be free. The public is invited to attend.

Educational Feature.
Francill is being brought to San Antonio by The Express and The Evening News, as an educational and scientific feature, to give demonstrations of skill that has won him fame. He is rated as probably the greatest living authority on the application of wireless control to motive and other forms of power and popularly is known as "America's radio wizard."
In addition to operating the radio-controlled cars, it is planned for Francill to offer a number of other wireless wonders never before seen in this city or section. Among these it is intended for him to run a street car, without motorman, conductor, or touch of human hand, from one extremity of the business district to another: to "bake bread," "freeze ice cream," "bottle pop," "clean clothes" and visualize to women "The Radio Home of the Future," all by wireless control.
Control of four automobiles at once by radio is baffling to engineers and other technicians, because Francill uses only one transmitter, one wave

length and one electro-magnetic impulse or wave, at a time to perform upon the cars either the identical, or different, operations of the machines, singly, or in unison, or in any combination of numbers he desires.
With the cars at a standstill, the wizard can flash the headlights bright on one and dim on another; start the motor on the third and sound a horn on the fourth machine, simultaneously.
Or, changing, he can produce any other series of operations he wishes, even controlling the machines in motion, in opposite directions, from standing starts.

Stock Model Autos.
The automobiles Francill will use will be Studebakers of latest design.
The cars will be supplied to him through courtesy of the Winorirh Motor Sales Company- distributors.
Francill selected Studebakors because of their ease and flexibility of engine movement and other mechanical refinements.
He must have every helpful assistance that science can provide in order successfully to present his amazing exhibition.
The automobiles will not be altered, changed, or prepared, mechanically, in any way, except for addition of the delicate, brain-like radio-control apparatus to each car.
What Francill accomplishes with the automobiles he uses, he says he can duplicate with any other Studebaker cars, because all machines of that make are uniform of performance.
At each demonstration of the radio-controlled cars, Francill will visualize to spectators both sending and receiving of his wireless waves, which will be flung from a miniature transmitter, or "magic box," weighing only three and a half pounds, and which he will hold in his hands. Radio-control equipment will rest on a running board of each automobile.

Others May Run Cars.
Francill will be a distance of 50 to 500 feet, from the cars during each demonstration. He will even pass his transmitter to members of his audience and permit them to fling the waves that control the automobiles.
This will show there is no slightest form of trickery, fraud or deceptions in the exhibitions, for it will demonstrate conclusively that the automobiles will do for others exactly what the cars will do for Francill.


Name is copyright. Francill, Maurice Jay – The Miracle man of the atomic age – 25 Nov 1947 AA85607

Real Name – Francis Cowgill.