Philo is On The Air

Television was more off the air than on at the start of 1937. About the only station in the U.S. that apparently had regular programming was Don Lee’s W6XAO in Los Angeles.

Into this vacuum came news at the start of the year in both the trade and popular press that another station was about to sign on.

Here’s what was reported by the New York Herald Tribune of January 7:

Station to Put On Television Program
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Experimental Pictures Will Cover Broad Area From Studio in Philadelphia
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Company Contends Field Is Ready for the Public
The Farnsworth Television Corporation, of Philadelphia, which received a construction permit on Tuesday from the Federal Communications Commission, will embark soon on a broad program of experimental broadcasting in the Philadelphia area. George Everson, secretary of the company, announced yesterday. A television studio with two television cameras and a camera for the transmission of motion pictures are already in operation at the company’s Chestnut Hill station, Mr. Everson said. He also said that a 150-foot tower and power plant had been erected for the radiation of television signals.
Mr. Everson emphasized that the program was still an experimental one, although he did say that so far as science was concerned television was ready for the commercial market. The company, he said, was designing a few television receivers which would be distributed first to staff radio engineers and then to competent Philadelphia amateurs for inspection. All of the receivers, Mr. Everson disclosed, would be accompanied by special charts on which the engineers and amateurs would note performance.
Tap Dancing Good Subject
Mr. Everson explained that most of the company’s broadcasting had been done at the studio only from one room to another and that the Federal Communications Commission permit gave the company the authority to broadcast over wider areas. He said that it had been round that tap dancing, sleight-of-hand performances and pianists were particularly good subjects for television broadcasts. The studio’s two cameras, Mr. Everson said, were adequate for a complete broadcast, although he said three would be better. The cameras are controlled by an operator at a monitor board who, by throwing a switch, can focus different cameras on the performer as he moves.
It was especially easy with television, Mr. Everson revealed, to “fake” back drops for plays. A tiny bit of scenery, he said, could be set in front of one of the cameras while the actor moved before another camera. The two cameras, operating simultaneously, would send out one image, that of an actor moving through, for example, a garden. The advantage over the regular large theatrical backdrops, Mr. Everson said, was obvious.
Broadcast Badminton
Mr. Everson said that the engineers found that outdoor scenes could be broadcast quite well. The studio had broadcast badminton games taking place, in the yard outside as well as general field scenes from the studio’s back door.
One of the features of Farnsworth television, Mr. Everson said. was the technique of directional broadcasting. By deliberately placing the station outside of Philadelphia, the studio’s towers could be shielded so that the images would be broadcast in one direction and in concentrated strength. This, he explained, would eliminate to a considerable extent interference with other stations of near-by cities, as, for example, New York.
The company also has agreed with the commission that its receivers will be so made that they can receive programs from all television stations. Mr. Everson made it clear that the Farnsworth organization had no interest in commercializing equipment, but that it was simply designing transmitters and receivers.
Mr. Everson was convinced that television was ready for the public but that its inauguration in the commercial held depended upon the “boldness” of broadcasters and radio manufacturers.
“So far as we are concerned,” he said, “television is now ready for production. It takes boldness, though, to start it commercially; it always takes boldness to desert a profitable field for another which is virtually an unknown quantity financially.
“There will, of course, be a lot of grief for the first few years, as there is in any new field. But I might add this: television has been kept in the laboratory stage longer than any other recent scientific development. It will be in a more complete stage when it is finally launched than the radio or the old ‘one-lung’ automobile.”
Philo T. Farnsworth, the thirty-year-old inventor of the Farnsworth system of television, is now in Europe. He will return the middle of this month, according to Mr. Everson.

Broadcasting magazine of January 15th added the station’s call letters were W3XPF, would operate at 1,000 watts between 42,000 and 56,000 kilocycles and from 60,000 to 86,000, and would begin field tests “on or before Feb. 1,” quoting Farnsworth’s chief engineer. Everson was quoted by the New York Times on January 10th that the 441-line definition system would be used and put the frequency at 62.76 megacycles (4.79 meters) at four kilowattts.

So when were these daily broadcasts? Were there daily broadcasts? After this big announcement, the media went silent. Farnsworth’s name returned to the public eye in July 1937 in a patent agreement with A.T. and T. And despite Everson’s comments, the company was reorganised in 1938 with intention of selling TV sets as well as transmitters.

However a number of books have been written about Farnsworth and his tale of the little inventor hassled by a large, self-centered corporation. This is where we learn of some of what was undoubtedly limited broadcasting from the station. Philo T. Farnsworth by Donald Godfrey reveals the studios were co-designed by Bill Eddy, who was put in charge of programming. “Eddy lined up local talent, skits, playlets, song and dance materials from radio, films of sports figures, and animated cartoons.” The book goes on to talk about a boxer’s red-coloured trunks not being picked up by the W3XPF cameras and looking like he was nude in the ring, while a ballet dancer suffered a similar fate.

The photo below from the book gives you an idea of what one of the studios looked like. There is a different photo in the November 1937 issue of Short Wave and Television magazine, but the resolution makes it unsuitable to post here.

Farnsworth talked to the Philadelphia Evening Ledger on Nov. 15, 1938 about television’s possibilities for spot news coverage under the headline “Sight and Sound Broadcasts Due Soon.” It’s likely they never took place. Farnsworth moved to Indiana in 1939 and announced in October that W3XPF would be discontinued.

In 1941, he received a construction permit for a station in Fort Wayne, W9XFT, that would use the audio equipment carted away from the dead Philadelphia station. However, transmissions were held to the confines of the company’s lab and the FCC cancelled the permit effective December 31.

After war-time restrictions were lifted, Farnsworth’s company re-applied for a TV license for Fort Wayne and it was granted in May 1946. Television Digest and FM Reports of February 21, 1948 reports the station was operating on Channel 4 and being used for field-testing TV sets. It quoted the Farnsworth president as saying the station “ought to be ready to go commercial by mid-1948.” In fact, the company applied for a commercial license in June that year. That’s as far as it went. The station’s ownership was transferred to another Farnsworth company in 1949. Fort Wayne had to wait until 1953 for a TV station.

About all that’s left of W9XPF is a plaque at the site of the former studios near Philadelphia remembering who many call the Father of Electronic Television in the U.S.