Among his 100-odd patented inventions: the stock market ticker, an automatic fishing reel, a police radio-teleprinter and a macaroni-twisting machine.
He paid nearly $700,000 for an 878-ton yacht that carries a crew of 30, and has put more than $1,000,000 worth of improvements into it, including $48,000 worth of teleprinter .
One day last week, a teleprinter in the Los Angeles Mirror-News chattered excitedly with a strange bit of copy.