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Mr. Fosdick. Mr. Fosdick was created by Jacques Morgan and appeared in five stories in Modern Electrics in 1912 and 1913, beginning with “The Scientific Adventures of Mr. Fosdick. The Feline Light and Power Company Is Organized” (Modern Electrics, Oct. 1912).

Mr. Fosdick is an Unlucky Inventor. The eccentric Fosdick’s creations are interesting, but their side-effects are never what he anticipates. When Fosdick invents a machine that collects electricity from the environment, it supercharges Fosdick and his friend so that if they touch the ground, they'll explode. Fosdick creates a horseless carriage, but it works on "Seidlitz powders," and when they use bicarbonate of soda and sulfuric acid, the car goes up over 100 mph and explodes. Fosdick tries to electroplate the dead and gets himself blackened with graphite. And Fosdick tries to make synthetic milk out of crude oil and ends up putting a volcano in his home town.

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