January 1929

As 1929 began, the Federal Radio Commission had no idea what to do about television.

In less than two weeks after the start of the year, the Commission revised a decision made in 1928. It agreed to allow television broadcasts on A.M. frequencies between 1 and 6 a.m.—most radio stations then signed off around midnight—while it held hearings in February.

A unbylined story in the Santa Ana Register of January 24th said only WGY Schenectady and WIBO Chicago were licensed for television within the A.M. radio band, but several other stations were operating in the overnight hours “without express commission authorization.”

There was a great to-do about whether the presidential inauguration in March would be televised. There was only one station in Washington, Frank Jenkins' W3XK, on the air three days a week. But it was only airing films of people in silhouette. First, coverage was on. Then it was called a rumour.

There were plenty of inventors in the U.S. working on television; Philo Farnsworth comes to mind. In January 1929, a 22 year old man from Wichita Falls, Texas named Bryan Yancey Cummings, Jr., went on a mission to patent his tele-developments. In 1931, he was granted a patent, filed in 1928, for a radio receiver that had "special arrangements for the reduction of the damping of resonant circuits of receivers." Another patent was awarded in 1934, filed in 1932, with this explanation: "Scanning details of television systems; Combination thereof with generation of supply voltages by optical-mechanical means only having a moving aperture also apertures covered by lenses." Scanning discs were pretty much obsolete by then.

In 1930, Cummings was working in Dade County, Florida as a sounder recorder for a movie company. His Draft Card in 1940 has him self-employed in Fort Worth. He certainly changed careers as in 1950, he was employed in Dallas as an assistant physicist for the Atlantic Richfield Oil Company. He died in Dallas on Dec. 2, 1977.

Below are selected highlights of TV stories for the first months of 1929.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1929
TELEVISION IS ATTRACTING THE PUBLIC INTEREST
NEW YORK, Jan. 2. (AP)—Experiments seeking the development of a successful system of television transmission have keen public interest.
Such is the consensus of a committee headed by H. B. Richmond of Cambridge, and appointed by the Radio Manufacturers' association to study the progress and prospects of sending instantaneous light by radio.
Summing up its survey the committee stated: "One point was evident, that much confusion would be avoided among television interests if a standardization committee on television were appointed. Such a committee was named and has begun its work.
“Television is an actuality today, but only experimentally. Current television pictures are possible, although the pictures are small and reduced in detail.
"They provide excellent entertainment to a skillful experimenter. From the amusement standpoint they are in no way comparable with audio broadcasting. The necessity for close attention to the operation of the receiver should be stressed. A television reproducer cannot be started and left to itself.
"The complicated problem of synchronization is much simpler over wire lines than by radio. The difference should also be emphasized between sending photographs by radio, the sending of images from moving picture films and the more difficult feat of actual television.
"Television apparatus is an additional attachment which may be used with an existing set or connected to a specially designed receiver.
"Going beyond the present small picture means wider channels and under most known methods it would take the entire broadcast spectrum to put out a picture comparable with the moving pictures of the theater. One much discussed television experiment required three transmitters and receivers with a crew of trained engineers to keep the system in operation.
"There still is considerable disagreement as to how far television will go beyond the experimenter interest stage. This is because of the continuous attention required by present visual reproduction. The most careful analysis favor the experimental and strictly professional viewpoint."

THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 1929
TELEVISION PUTS MOVIES IN HOME
Chicago Radio Station Makes Successful Broadcast of Pictures.
CHICAGO, Jan. 3.—(AP)—Television has placed movies in the home within the realm of possibility.
The first successful broadcasting of ordinary motion picture films, not silhouettes, was done by WCFL, the Chicago Federation of Labor's station. Several listeners, with television reception apparatus, saw the movies on miniature screens.
So limitless are the possibilities of televising motion picture film, in belief of Virgil A. Schoenberg, chief engineer of WCFL, that he hopes to radiocast movie films, as well as other public spectacles such as football games and prize fights.
Within a few months, Schoenberg says, the radio fan may be able to see pictures of public events a few hours after they occur as he now sees them in his neighbor theater.
Silhouettes and small objects have been televised before, Schoenberg explained, but never has an ordinary movie film been put onto the air. Now WCFL engineers are experimenting to determine what particular tint of film may be broadcast most successfully.
Talking movies by television may be a reality soon, coming as the next development from experiments which have brought movies into the home, Schoenberg believes.
WCFL's television of motion picture films is achieved by a device which passes the film before a beam light that scans the film from left to right. The light images then are converted into electrical impulses, which are amplified and in turn converted into radio frequency pulses.
Use Standard Reproducer.
For the reception of movies via television, a standard television reproducer is used. It consists of a 48-hole disc revolving at 900 revolutions per minute, scanning from left to right and top to bottom. The output of a receiver including a detector tube may be fed into several stages of any good resistance coupled amplifier and that output in turn feeds into a neon tube set behind the disc.
WCFL broadcasts by television daily between 1 and 2. p. m., except Sundays, on kilocycles. From 9 to 12 p. m., the station's experimental substation 9XAA broadcasts irregularly on a 5,600 kilocycles.
A movie approximately one and one-half inches high appears on the receiver's disc. Lenses ordinarily are used to magnify the pictures. Details are transmitted by the WCFL apparatus SO that a piano player's fingers, for instance, may be singled out. Keys on the piano may be distinguishable, and the pianist's motions followed closely.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1929
DR. POWER LEAVES COLLEGE TO WORK FOR WESTINGHOUSE
The resignation of Dr. A. D. Power as professor of physics and director of radio research at Lawrence college was announced Saturday by Dr. Henry M. Wriston, president of the college. Dr. Power has been engaged by the Westinghouse Lamp company to conduct scientific research for the improvement of radio vacuum tubes at the Westinghouse branch at Bloomfield, N. J. [. . .]
While at Lawrence he has won recognition for his research in radio activity. Under his direction the Lawrence broadcasting station 9EHB has served in the national relay system, and apparatus for television has been set up with successful results. (Appleton, Wis., Post-Crescent)

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 1929
TELEVISION LIMITED TO AFTER MIDNIGHT
WASHINGTON, Jan. 7.—Pending a public hearing which will be held later this month, the Radio Commission today issued an order prohibiting all television broadcasting except between the hours of midnight and 6 A.M.
At the public hearing, the date for which has not been fixed, the commission will hear technical testimony on the status of television. The desirability of placing it in the broadcast band must be shown by its advocates before the new order will be modified.
Louis G. Caldwell, general counsel for the commission, said in a letter sent today to L. A. E. Gale, secretary of the National Association Opposed to Blue Laws, Inc., who had protested against the resolution of the Lords’ Day Alliance for exclusive religious programs on Sunday:
“The commission is without authority to censor programs which are broadcast over the air or to make any regulation interfering with the right of free speech by means of radio communication.”
Senator Dill of Washington, on the floor of the Senate today, read extracts from a letter in which WCFL, the Federation of Labor station in Chicago, asked whether anything could be done by the Senate to allow it to rebroadcast on short waves. The station was allowed 1500 watts by the Radio Board for daylight broadcasting, but was not allowed to broadcast after sunset.
“In other words,” said Senator Dill, “the labor station, designed to serve and reach laboring people of the central part of the United States, was not allowed to broadcast during the night time, the only time when the great masses of laboring people can listen to its program.”
Mr. Dill said that WCFL applied for a full cleared channel and 50,000 watts power. The commission has granted a construction permit for 50,000 watts but denied the station the right to rebroadcast from small stations in various parts of the country.
Senator McKellar of Tennessee, said that Congress should enact legislation to compel the commission to take action in favor of the labor station.
Representative Crowther of New York has introduced a bill in the House to make it mandatory upon the commission to provide fifty cleared channels for radio communication instead of forty.
Following their meeting here today recommendations will be submitted by the directors of the National Association of Broadcasters to the House Merchant Marine Committee tomorrow, on the bill to continue the life of the Radio Commission for another year.
The recommendations will concern the administration of the radio law, length of broadcasting licenses, distribution of radio facilities, power and rebroadcasting. (New York Times, Jan. 8)

SUNDAY, JANUARY 13, 1929
TELEVISION PLANT NOW ESTABLISHED, JENKINS ASSERTS
Jersey City Factory Will have Television broadcasts if License is Granted
That television has reached the commercial stage is confirmed by the news that the Jenkins Television Corporation has acquired a factory at 346-370 Claremont ave., Jersey City, N.J.
“We shall have our general offices and factory, as well as our engineering laboratories, at this address, states James W. Garside, “we shall have a television broadcasting station for the New York metropolitan area [later W2XCR] installed in the annex on the roof of the building, with ideal conditions for satisfactory signal propagation, as of as license is granted by the Federal Radio Commission.
“Meanwhile, our experimental and research laboratories remain in Washington, D. C., in charge of C. Francis Jenkins, our vice president in charge of research.
“We are working toward production on standardized television receiving equipment for the home, as well as transmitting equipment for broadcasting stations desirous of engaging in this new art. The first sets of television receivers are now coming through our production department. Following exhaustive tests and satisfactory demonstration, our mass production schedule will follow. (Brooklyn Daily Eagle)

MONDAY, JANUARY 14, 1929
GENERAL ORDERS OF THE FEDERAL RADIO COMMISSION.
Picture and television transmissions restricted in use of frequencies in the broadcast band (General Order No. 56, January 14, 1929).—From and after the date hereof and until further order of the commission, neither picture broadcasting nor television broadcasting will be permitted in the broadcast band between 550 and 1,500 kilocycles, except upon written application to and formal authority from the commission, and then only between the hours of 1 and 6 a. m., local time at the location of the transmitter. The written applications shall be on forms provided for that purpose by the commission.
For the purpose of determining whether picture broadcasting and/or television broadcasting may be permitted in the broadcast band in the future either at all or to & greater extent than above authorized, the commission has determined to hold a hearing for the presentation of evidence as to whether such broadcasting can be accommodated on a 10-kilocycle band of frequencies; whether such transmission will result in undue interference with the broadcasting of other stations; whether there is any general publie interest in having such transmission take place in the broadcast band rather than in the high-frequency band, and such other questions as will bear upon the issue of whether permission of sfich transmission in the broadcast band will serve public interest, convenience, or necessity. This hearing will be held at the office of the commission at Washington, D. C., on February 14, 1929.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1929
RADIO PICTURES
WGY, Schenectady, has discontinued television transmission on the broadcast band. Hereafter the signals go out only over the companion short wave transmitters, W2XAF, 31.48 meters, and W2XAD, 19.56 meters, on this schedule: Tuesday, Wednesday and Fridays from 1:30 to 2 P. M., eastern time, and Sundays from 11:15 to 11:45 P. M. by W2XAD; Tuesday from 11:30 to midnight by W2XAF. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 1929
Television Is Radio Too Late for Inauguration
BY MARTIN CODEL.
North American Newspaper Alliance
WASHINGTON, Jan. 21.—All talk about television at the inauguration of President-elect Hoover March 4 is pure fabrication.
The inaugural ceremonies will be broadcast to the nation and the world through the great radio networks and their short wave stations, but the process will be the familiar audible one. Visual broadcasting has not reached the point of perfection where the national audience can see as well as hear the great event.
Senator George Moses of New Hampshire, heading the committee in charge of the inauguration, reports that no one has even proposed to broadcast the event visually.
The leading experimenters in the field of television all assert that they are not responsible for the reports.
A reply telegram from the Bell Laboratories in New York says there are no plans to use the Ives televisor at the inauguration This is the apparatus which transmitted living images of Mr. Hoover’s features by wire and wireless between Washington and New York something more than a year ago.
As far as can be learned, Dr. E. F. W. Alexanderson, who has been working on television at the General Electric laboratories in Schenectady, has no idea of introducing his television apparatus by March 4.
Jenkins Not Ready.
C. Francis Jenkins, the Washington inventor, reports that he will have his new television transmitter in operation here before March 4, but asserts that he does not expect to try to broadcast the image of Mr. Hoover making his inaugural address.
He adds, however, that his new station, utilizing a 100 kilocycle band of wave lengths will soon be broadcasting recognizable images in half tone that can be same sets that are now receiving his “shadowgraphs.”
It is practically a certainty both the National and Columbia Broadcasting System will offer the program through their coast-to-coast hook-ups.
One of the innovations of the 1929 inauguration will probably be the placing of a microphone in the United States Senate chamber for the first time. The plan is to broadcast the vice presidential inauguration that precedes the presidential ceremony.
By a curious turn of fate, the man who has consistently opposed placing a radio "mike" in the Senate, Senator Charles Curtis, Republican floor leader, will be the central figure in the ceremony in that chamber.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 1929
Powerful Station For Radio Vision
Soon Be In Operation Few Miles From Washington By The Jenkins Laboratories
Washington, Jan. 25—Radiovision will soon be on the air every night for a large share of the country reports, Science Service. A broadcasting station for radiomovies and television with power of five kilowatts will soon be in operation a few miles outside of Washington by the Jenkins Laboratories, of this city. As the station will operate on a short wave, it is expected that it will have a much greater range than an ordinary broadcasting station of equivalent power. Just what wave length will be used has not yet been determined, as the federal radio commission has not yet announced the wave bands that will be assigned though they have to allocate certain bands each of a hundred kilocycles width for this purpose. With a hundred kilocycle band authorities are agreed that satisfactory details can be transmitted.
Pending the completion of the new station and the granting of a license by the commission, the Jenkins Laboratories are broadcasting three nights a week from their present station W3XX [W3XK]. This is done on two bands, one of 187 meters primarily for nearby reception, and the other of 47 meters, which is heard throughout the eastern part of the country. Though using only 250 watts of power, the radiomovies broadcast Is received regularly in Ohio and Indiana. As the bands licensed for this use are only ten kilocycles width, broadcasts have so far been confined to movies in silhouette, which, however, have been specially prepared for the purpose, and tell stories.
Present-day radiovision broadcasts only faintly portray the future possibilities, thinks C. Francis Jenkins.
“Perfect?” he says. "No, and the receiver looks no more like the ultimate structure will than the old “one lung” horseless carriage of twenty five years ago looked like the eight-cylinder limousine of today.
“But the ten thousand pioneering with our picture broadcasts are the radio pictures engineers of tomorrow, for they are building up a technical experience which will be of inestimable value in the art later on.
“After the day's work is done these youngsters rush home: bolt a hurried dinner: and then race away to the radio shack to tune in on our pantomime broadcasts.
"Exactly the same thrill which came to them with their first crystal set and headphone, now comes again when they pick their first motion pictures out of the air; pictures radiated into invisible space from miles and miles away and put together by their home-made receiver.
“Many of these amateurs have attained such quality of picture that they have moved their apparatus into the living room where the whole family may join in the fun.
"The pictures they see are black and white comparable to the cartoon movies in the theatre and just as interesting.
"Incdentally, it is rather a surprise to those who see these silhouette movies for the first time to find them so entertaining; but the explanation is that in movies the story is told in the action and halftone quality is not necessary to any enjoyment of them. The public is not usually critical of first efforts in any new thing the novelty alone entertains for awhile.
"From many letters we get, apparently the greatest anxiety of our audience, or should I say, optience, is that we will eventually get tired and stop broadcasting.
“On the contrary we are putting up a powerful station a few miles outside of Washington to make their picture reception easier, and the pictures better; and each broadcast from now on will contain at least one picture story.
Direct Vision Of Activities
"We are broadcasting in black and white only at present in order that the frequencies involved in motion picture transmission may stay within the legally permissible width of carrier channel.
“The halftones in regular movie film and in broadcasting from living subjects and scenes, require a broader band. This was recognzied by the federal radio commission, and bands one hundred kilocycles wide will be assigned for such work. The new, more powerful, station we are building outside of Washington is for this width of band, and we shall broadcast for fireside entertainment pictures selected from those now shown in theatres.
"Our present transmission on 6420 K. C. was undertaken principally to learn the possibilities and the limitations of this new entertainment; to build up a radio-movies technique; and to insure later the availability of radiovisors giving larger and brighter pictures, which can conveniently be watched by the whole family and friends of the family circle.
"Already radiomovies are giving pleasure to thousands of radio amateurs and shortwave radio fans. Ultimately this pantomime story-teller will come to our fireside with appropriate sounds and speech, as a fascinating teacher and entertainer, without language literacy or age limitation; an itinerant visitor to the old homestead with photoplays, the opera, and a direct vision of world activities." (Lynchburg News, Feb. 1)

SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1929
Yancey Cummings Perfects Radio Television Set
B. Y. Cummings, Jr., young Wichita Falls inventor, who has perfected an improved machine which he predicts will revolutionize television, has gone to the East where he will spend some time in Washington and New York City, making arragements for the manufacture of his machines.
Attorneys say that Mr. Cummings is entitled to six basic patents. Mr. Cummings and Orville Bullington will probably organize a company here for the manufacture of the machine after the patents are granted.
In the past all telephoto pictures have appeared as silhouettes. Mr. Cummings' machine makes them as half tones and they naturally appear much more likelike. (Wichita Falls Times)

THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 1929
WASHINGTON, Jan. 31.—(AP)—With the erection of a special radio picture broadcasting station five miles north of Washington, C. Francis Jenkins, pioneer radio inventor, plans to transmit pictures every night of the week except Sunday.
The new station will start operating within two or three weeks, Mr. Jenkins says, and it is hoped with an increase in power to serve "lookers" throughout the United States. The band in the short wave field recently set aside by the federal radio commission for television and picture broadcasting is better adapted for clear transmission than the channels on which he is now operating and should eliminate much of the fading which is the bane of good picture reception, he says.
The new transmitter under construction at the Jenkins laboratories will be adjusted for the sending of half-tones and images of living persons. Jenkins has been giving a silhouette movie program. Picture stories also will be broadcast from the new station.
Mr. Jenkins says the radio picture art has passed the stage of early experimentation and is already bringing entertainment to hundreds of enthusiastic "lookers." Picture transmission, he declares, is at a point comparable to the position of KDKA, of Pittsburgh, when it inaugurated aural programs.
Most of the lookers are amateurs in the United States and Canada. Bonafied reports of reception of his pictures have been received, he says, from amateurs in California, Porto Rico, Montreal, Bismarck, N. Texas, northern Michigan, Florida, Colorado and Iowa as well as nearby states. Particularly good reception has been reported by Boston amateurs.
Until the commission designates the particular channels to be used under the new allocation, the Jenkins laboratories will continue to broadcast on 46 and 186 meters. The pictures are broadcast Monday and Wednesday nights from 8 until 9 o'clock, eastern time.

WRNY, New York, telling about 1928, reports that it was on the air a total of 2,192 hours. Included were 53 hours and 15 minutes of television transmission. (Associated Press)

Radio Service Bulletin
The Federal Radio Commission approved the following frequency revisions in January 1929:
East Pittsburgh, Pa., (W8XAV, owned by Westinghouse).—2,000 kilocycles (150 metres) to 2,100 (142.9); power, 40,000 watts.
Ossining, N. Y., (W2XX, Robert F. Gowan).—2,000 kcs. (150 metres) to 2,100 (142.9); power, 100 watts.
The Commission approved the following special station
Iowa City, Iowa (W9XAZ , State University of Iowa).— 200 kcs. (150 metres) to 2100 (142.9); power, 500 watts.

W2XX

The 1920s were an experimental age for television. Some TV stations were owned by companies and had a regular, though limited, schedule of crude programming. Then there were others that were operated by hobbyists and made occasional test transmissions.

That seems to be the case of W2XX in Ossining, New York.

The station was licensed to Robert Fellows Gowen, who worked for the De Forest Radio Company. It was actually a shortwave radio station, but the Federal Radio Commission allowed television broadcasts on shortwave. In Gowen’s case, he was licensed for television and W2XX is listed in radio directories in the late 1920s.

Unfortunately, we have been able to find little else about his TV experiments. A biographical feature story in the Yonkers Herald Statesman of July 14, 1961 mentions W2XX but nothing about television.

MADE RADIO HISTORY
Gowen Operated W2XX At Ossining In 1921
OSSINING—
In 1921 a large billboard near the intersection of the Albany Post Road and Revolutionary Road, proclaimed: "You are now leaving Ossining where Robert F. Gowen, engineer of the De Forest Radio Co. on Overton Road, experimenting (1921) with radiophone, has made his voice heard as far as South Carolina and Illinois."
Thus was radio history made through Mr. Gowen's operation of pioneer Station W2XX, located in the engineer's home, an extension of the laboratories of the late Dr. Lee De Forest, since the structures of Washington Bridge and High Bridge near the factory, prevented distant transmission.
The previous year, in February 1920, the Gowen home station had attained the world's record for broadcast on low power, having been heard in St. Mary's, Ohio; Chicago; Topeka. Kan.; Valley City, N.D.; and Jacksonville, Fla.
First Break Through
The first break-through in the ionosphere had come unexpectedly in the early hours on a winter morning, Jan. 4, 1920. Reaching Charles Chandler, a teacher and "ham" operator in the Ohio city at 12:40 a.m. on that date, Mr. Gowen was astounded to hear Mr. Chandler say in code, "We are dancing to your music in the living room. It's coming through loud and clear, although the (head-set) receiver is in the kitchen!"
Just four years before young Robert Gowen, Harvard '06, had joined the De Forest Laboratories as radio engineer and had been appointed chief engineer and plant manager on Jan. 1, 1921. The audion (receiving) tube, invented by the late Dr. De Forest, had been in use since 1914, being manufactured first by the McCandless Co., Park Place, New York City.
Joins Dr. De Forest
It was a coincidence that, the oscillion or transmitting tube was undergoing its first tests under the supervision of Dr. De Forest on the very day Mr. Gowen joined the company in November, 1916. In other words, he was present at the birth of the transmitting tube which made broadcasting and later, sound movies and television, possible. That the title to pioneer broadcasting belonged indisputably to the Gowen home station of the De Forest Labs was attested in the official proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers, vol. 13, no. 1, page 123, in February 1925. Although KDKA Pittsburgh (Westinghouse Electric Corp.) had received its call letters from the government in November 1920, a review of events showed without doubt that Mr. Gowen's work on Station W2XX took precedence even over the beginning of the Westinghouse station which had originated in an employe's (Conrad's) home.
On March 13, 1921, the Ossining engineer set another precedent. On that date the first radio vaudeville show was broadcast from Mr. Gowen's home with the Duncan sisters,. Rosetta and Vivian, of "Topsy and Eva" Broadway fame, as featured performers. The Duncan sisters lived in White Plains.
But Robert Gowen's interest in electronics and the infant broadcasting industry did not begin with his association with Dr. De Forest.
Experiment Fails
In the summer of 1902, just before going to college, young Robert had rigged up two plates, one on the roof of the family home on Maurice Avenue and one on the roof of the old Park School, both Ossining, in hope of transmitting messages. But nothing happened. This did not daunt the young inventor. He built a receiving set from directions given in an 1898 edition of the Scientific American and took it with him to Harvard.
There he formed the first radio club in the United States, learned Morse code and transmitted messages as a "ham" operator in Harvard Yard. He also enrolled in the first college radio course, taught by Dr. G. W. Pierce of the physics department, although he admits to "giving teacher a hand" at times with some of the instruction.
The inventor retired just three years ago from a long and action-packed career with many "firsts."
He left the De Forest Co. in 1921 to become chief engineer for a British-American concern in Canton, China, in charge of building 18 radio stations for the Chinese government. Mr. Gowen had built the equipment for these at the De Forest plant at High Bridge in New York City, the previous year.
The young engineer had exactly four days to acquire 11 trunks of necessary materials and supplies and more important, a bride, he married the former Miss Grace Chadeayne, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Chadeayne of Ossining, on Oct. 7, 1921 and, one hour after the ceremony, set out on the first leg of the journey to the Orient.
The couple remained in Canton for six months. Mr. Gowen completed four stations and before leaving, opened a school and through interpreters, taught the Chinese how to build, and maintain the radio stations.
"Who's Who" lists in detail the myriad accomplishments of this pioneer electronics engineer and they are further attested by a wealth of clippings and other memorabilia in several volumes of scrapbooks.
Thus a whole new industry was born.
Mr. and Mrs. Gowen still make their home on Overton Road.

Gowen came up with improvements to the vacuum tube, and got into a patent battle with two different groups. The courts ruled against him in both cases on January 27, 1930.

As for television and W2XX, judging by the Radio Service Bulletin issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Gowen’s five watt station with a license as an “experimental and technical and training school” station, operating on unassigned frequencies, was changed. In the Bulletin for January 31, 1929, the listing is now as a “special” station, operating between 2,000 and 2,100 kcs. (150-142.9 metres) with 100 watts. The word “television” is in brackets.

An Associated Press story datelined Schenectady, Sept. 22, 1929, said that W2XX transmitted on short waves. The story doesn’t say what was being broadcast, even if it was visual.

The Bulletin of June 30, 1931 reads “Strike out all particulars” next to W2XX. In the next edition of November 30, 1931, W2XX returned, but the call letters had been assigned to American Telephone and Telegraph in Ocean Gate, New Jersey, and licensed to broadcast experimental, relay and visual broadcasting at three frequencies with 20,000 watts.

Gowen had other interests. In 1928, he began making documentaries and educational films, and screened movies in the theatre in his home garden. Perhaps he showed some of his films on W2XX, but we may never know. Gowen died in a nursing home Ossining on June 2, 1966 at the age of 82. His obituary in the New York Times says nothing about television.

December 1928

Did someone once say the road to television is a boulevard of broken dreams?

Well, it certainly wasn’t Harry Warren and Al Dubin, who wrote the song of the same name for a 1933 movie musical. But I digress.

It may be trite, but true. Look no further than stories about television at the end of 1928.

In December, the Associated Press reported on several would-be television station owners. One was John Shepard, Boston radio station owner and dry goods retailer. He was on the verge of forming the Yankee Network, a small chain of radio stations. You’d think he had the credentials to get a television license. The answer, eventually, was “no.”

Then there was Frank L. Carter, the subject of a feature story in June 1928 in the New York Times. The Corsicana-born Carter was a ham operator starting in 1914. By mid-1928, he had been the service manager of the radio department of Ludwig Baumann and Company. His amateur call letters were 2AZ, but the Federal Radio Commission gave him a special call of 2XBN for “experimental picture broadcast work.” The Brooklyn Daily Times of June 10 revealed he was experimenting on 36.6 metres (8,195 kcs.) every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from his Long Island home using the Cooley system. In other words, he was sending what amounted to facsimile pictures.

Carter asked the Commission to turn W2XBN into a television station. The answer was “no” again. Carter moved on into community and political work. In 1930, he claimed a CBS employee tried to bribe him to end his opposition to the network’s proposed radio transmitter in Hempstead. In 1936 and 1937, he griped railroad power rails and transmission lines interfering with radio reception (within three years he was living in rural Ohio).

And then there’s the story of the Jenkins Television Corporation, tied in with the DeForest Radio Corporation. It announced in December it was getting into the television set manufacturing business and offered common stock. This is just before the start of 1929. We know what happened to stocks that year. Both Jenkins and DeForest opened television stations in New Jersey, with one moving to New York and the other burning down. The companies couldn’t stay afloat and went bankrupt while the New York station went off the air.

The Radio Commission tried to sort out problems with television transmissions bleeding over into radio programmes by ordering them off the a.m. frequencies. Even then, there was a bit of confusion. Some newspaper reports said the stations affected would have their licenses revoked on Jan. 1, 1929. Others said they had a broadcast window allowing them to continue operating. Oddly, the Radio Service Bulletin, which announces General Orders of the Commission does not contain anything in its December 1929 issue. The next ruling, modifying this decision, was published the following month.

The following are the TV highlights for December 1929.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1928
Station WNAC Asks Television Permit
WASHINGTON, Dec. 1—(AP)—Permanent television service will be given “lookers-in” by WNAC, Boston, if the Federal radio commission grants an application for a short wave band of frequencies.
John Shepard, president of the Shepard Norwell Company, which operates the station, has told the commission that the station proposes to synchronize visual and audible broadcasting. He says pictures of an orchestra leader directing his orchestra would be transmitted by short waves for reception by special televisor equipment while the loud speaker would bring in the music.
The station has applied for a band of frequencies kilocycles wide in the vicinity of 5,000 kilocycles. Later it is hoped to reduce the width to 10 kilocycles, the same sized channel now used for audible broadcasting. Power of 1,000 requested.
Frank L. Carter, radio amateur of Long Island City, N. Y., has asked the commission for permission to convert his amateur short wave station to an experimental television station.
Another applicant for an experimental license is A. E. Smith, chief of the technical laboratory of the Aero Products Company of Chicago. Mr. Smith told the commission that television has not reached the practicable stage and the object of his company is to experiment within the laboratory and if the results seem to warrant to put it in service operation.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1928
Another Television Complaint.
Last evening, Wednesday, 14, reception over my set of the story of the steward of the lost steamer Vestris was entirely ruined by the interference of a station announcing itself, as nearly as I could make it out, as W3XK.
The address of Mr. [Frederic] Wile came through beautifully, but at 8 o’clock this interference began and lasted, with occasional breaks, until nearly 9, when the announcer stated that they would be on the air again at 8 p. m. Friday next. The interference was as though a generator was running at high speed, accompanied at intervals by screeches and similar noises.
I called at the Radio Commission’s office today relative to this matter, and gather from what I was told there that this is an amateur station, experimenting with television, which has permission to operate at certain hours not included in those of the program of WRC. It would, therefore, seem that no attention is being paid to the restriction, much to the discomfort of listeners-in to such instructive addresses as those referred to above.
CAPTAIN X. (Washington Post)

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1928
Will Make And Sell Home Movie Television Sets
NEW YORK, Dec. 4.—(AP)—Formation of a $10,000,000 corporation to manufacture and sell home movie television sets was announced today.
The company, to be known as the Jenkins Television Corporation, will have as officers James W. Garside, president of Deforest Radio Corporation, as president and A. J. Drexel Biddle, chairman of Deforest Board of Directors and Trustee of the Duke Endowment, as chairman of the board.
C. Francis Jenkins, inventor of a motion picture television device, will be vice president in charge of research and a director.
The device is a transmitter which works from an especially made film permitting reception of television signals from any broadcasting or short wave transmitter. This device is coupled with a receiver which it is claimed, will project animated pictures into the home.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1928
No newspaper story can be found to accompany this captioned photo. His obituary in the Aug. 30, 1991 edition of the Victoria, Tx., Advocate doesn't mention this accomplishment.
Dudeck was born Oct. 29, 1910, in Toledo, Ohio, to the late Paul Richard and Cornelia Schweibold Dudeck. He received a 5-year degree in electrical engineering from the University of Detroit, where he began his career in radio as an announcer with WMBC.
After graduation, he was employed by Western Electric for research and development of radar. During World War II, he was attached to the Navy, teaching top secret radar installations on submarines. After the war, he was employed by ABC radio and television stations WXYZ in Detroit, Mich. He worked with "Wide World of Sports" and, in 1964, he was in charge of engineering the first live picture transmitted from Innsbruck, Austria, via satellite to the United States. He moved to Houston in 1968 and continued his work with ABC station KXYZ.
He retired from ABC in 1975 and began doing radio and television consulting in the United States and other parts of the world. In 1984, he purchased KQRO radio station in Cuero and retired in June 1991. He died Aug. 28th.

SOUTH AFRICAN FAN BELIEVED TO HAVE TELEVISION RECORD
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Dec. 16.— (AP)—A local resident named Mac Cormick is believed to have established a new television record by receiving today images broadcast from station 2XAL New York. The images as received were fairly clear.
The radio amateur call book magazine lists 2XAL at the Experimenter Publishing Company, Villa Richard, Coyotesville, N. J. Hugo Gernsback, president of the station, was surprised last night [15] when informed that television images had been received at such a great distance. He said that though notices of such receptions by American stations were frequent, this was the first word that had been received of reception in foreign countries other than Canada, and is a record for all stations, as far as he knows.
Mr. Gernsback explained that television images have been broadcast three times a week simultaneously from the two stations since August 12, and that they are the only two in New York City that broadcast television images.

Stations on Regular Schedule
CHICAGO, ILL., 9XAA, Chicago Federation of Labor, 500 watts, 4555-4565 kc. or 66 m. Standard scanning. 2 to 3 P. M. daily, except Sunday. Owners also operate WCFL, 615-625 kc., or 484 m., through which irregular radiovision broadcasts are made in morning hours.
LEXINGTON, MASS., 1XAY, Donald R. Laffin, 300 watts, 4800-4900 kc. or 62 m. Standard scanning. 3 to 4 P. M. daily, and irregularly with WLEX for voice.
NEW YORK, N.Y., WRNY and 2XAL, Experimenter Publishing Co., 250 watts, 914-924 kc. or 416 m. and 250 watts, 9695-9705 kc. or 31 m. 48 lines per picture. 7 ½ frames per second. First five minutes each hour while on air.
SCHENECTADY, N. Y., WGY and 2XAF, 2XAD or 2XO, General Electric Co., 50,000 watts, 785-795 kc. or 38 m. in broadcast band. 13,655-13,665 kc. or 22 m. and 9545-9555 kc. or 31 m. at 25,000 or 40,000 watts on short wave. 24 lines, 20 frames per second. WGY broadcasts Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 1:30 to 2 P. M., Sunday, 11:15 to 11:30 P. M. Sunday broadcasts also on 22 m. and Tuesday on 31 m. schedule effective until Jan. 1.
WASHINGTON, D. C., 3XK, C. Francis Jenkins, 250 watts, 6415-6425 kc. or 47 m. and 1600-1610 kc. or 187 m. Standard scanning. 8 to 9 P. M., Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Radiomovies.
Irregular, or Under Construction
BEACON, N. Y., 2XBU, H. E. Smith, 100 watts, 4560-4600 kc. or 66 m. Standard scanning (Under construction).
CHICAGO, ILL., WIBO, WIBO Broadcasters, 5000 watts, 1475-1485 kc. or 203 m.
LOS ANGELES, CALIF., 6XC, Pacific Engineering Laboratory Co., 500 watts, 4500-4600 kc. or 66 m.
MEMPHIS, TENN., 4XA, WREC, Inc., 500 watts, 2400-2500 kc. or 122 m.
NEW YORK, N. Y., 2XBW, Radio Corporation of America, 5000 watts, 15,000-15,200 kc. or 20 m. The corporation also has been granted construction permits for 2XBV, 4500-4600 kc. or 66 m. and for 2XBS, 4600-4700 or 64 m.
PITTSBURGH, PA., 8XAV, Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co., 2000 watts, 4700-4800 kc. or 63 m. and 15,100-15,200 kc. on 16 frames per second, 60 lines per frame.
WASHINGTON, D. C., C. Francis Jenkins, 5000 watts, 4900-5000 kc. or 61 m. (Under construction).
Standard scanning refers to the standard adopted by the Radio Manufacturers Association—48 lines per picture, 15 frames per second.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1928
MOTION PICTURES ARE BROADCAST BY CHICAGO STATION
CHICAGO, Dec. 17. (AP)—Virgil A. Schoenberg, chief engineer of Radio Station WCFL, owned by the Chicago Federation of Labor, announced today that the station which has been experimenting with television, has succeeded in televising motion pictures.
The movies that were broadcast, he said, were not black and white silhouette film but the same celluloid yardage used in the movie shows. More than $100,000 has been spent in experimental work and Schoenberg is using his own money to carry on and try to perfect his experiments.
Officials of the station said that talking movies, theatrical performances and musical programs might be broadcast and televised simultaneously on a large scale if the indicated results of the investigation and experimentation this far are borne out by later work. Representatives of the Television Corporation of America witnessed the demonstration.

Television Adds to Jam in Radio Wave Channels
WASHINGTON, D. C., Dec. 17—Serious problems on the highways of radio broadcasting as a result of the rapid strides made by television are forecast by the annual report of the Federal Radio commission made public today. The commission ventures the opinion that the problem must be faced soon and says it has not yet determined upon a policy with respect to television, although a few broadcasting stations are being allowed limited experimentation so conducted as not to cause interference with adjacent channels.
"It has been urged upon the commission," says the annual report, "that it should permit regular television service in the broadcast band (as well as in the high frequency band) because of the fact that a large audience is already at hand and in some cases the ordinary receiver can be adapted to receive television by the addition of certain apparatus. Television signals, however, will subject the broadcast listener to objectionable noises. The International radio convention limits the broadcasting band to telephonic signals." (Binghamton Press, Dec. 17)
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1928
PLANS TELEVISION STATION
WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 (AP)—Boyd Phelps, of Jamaica, N. Y., today applied to the radio commission for a permit to construct a television station in Jamaica.

GIVES TELEVISION EXHIBIT AT Y. M. C. A.
A television exhibit was given at Central Young Men’s Christian association dormitory last night [18], a receiving set made by Richard Ackerman and Harry Pearson of 128 Union street being used. The image [from WGY], which was projected through a magnifying glass, was about 2 ½ inches by 2 ½ inches in size. Mr. Ackerman has already given a number of demonstrations with his set which he declares is the best one in the city. Although his home is at Brockton, he is at present employed by the Sager Electric company.
Speaking of the success of television, Mr Ackerman said last night that on cloudy nights the reproduction is distorted, but on clear nights it is generally good. (Springfield, Mass., Republican, Dec. 19)

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1928
Television Broadcast Restricted
WASHINGTON, Dec. 22—Transmission of television on the regular broadcast bands will end on January 1, it was announced to-day by the Federal Radio Commission. Thereafter picture and television transmission will be restricted to a special short-wave band which the commission engineers have not as yet decided on.
Among the few stations broadcasting television are WGY, the General Electric Company station, Schenectady, and WIBO, Desplaines, Ill. These stations have been asked by the commission to report the result of their experience. O. H. Caldwell, commissioner of the first zone, which includes New York, is not in agreement with other members of the commission. Mr. Caldwell, it is said, favors continuing the practice of permitting stations to use their regu1ar broadcast channels for this type of program, provided, of course, they adhere to the general order in this regard, now in effect.
This order permits stations which have an assigned frequency between 550 and 1,500 kilocycles, upon authority from the commission, to broadcast television daily for periods of one hour, except between 6 and 11 p. m. (New York Herald Tribune)

Band Set Aside for Television Radio
Radio Commission Decides Interference Is Caused in Regular Channels.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 22—(AP)—The Radio Commission decided today to set aside a special broadcast band for television experiments and development. The commission also decided it would not renew licenses of individuals or companies who have been conducting television experiments in the regular broadcast bands. These licenses expire Jan. 1.
Radio engineers have found that television experiments in the regular broadcast bands have caused interference. The frequencies to be set aside for television purposes have not been selected.

TO STOP TELEVISION IN BROADCAST BAND
Radio Board Acts on Complaints of Inteference by Experiments.
TWO STATIONS AFFECTED
WASHINGTON, Dec. 22.—That a special broadcast band will be set aside for television experiments and developments was indicated today by the Radio Board when it decided to revoke the licenses of two television stations which have been conducting experiments in the regular radio channels. The two stations affected are WGY of Schenectady and WIBO of Des Plains, Ill.
This action followed reports by radio engineers that the television experiments caused considerable interference in the regular channels.
The stations experimenting with television are working under an order by the commission which provided that picture and television transmission for general reception by the public would be permitted on frequencies above 1,500 kilocycles. This order, however, was to be in effect only from the time it was issued, on Oct. 31 to Jan. 1. (New York Times, Dec. 23) Note: there is no mention of WRNY, which also operated on regular radio channels.

First Television Station Being Built Near Washington
C. Francis Jenkins Gets Broadcasting Permit from Radio Commission.
By ROBERT HEINL.
WASHINGTON, December 22.—What is declared to be the first broadcasting station ever built strictly for the sending of television is now being erected about five miles north of the National Capital by C. Francis Jenkins, veteran radio and motion picture inventor.
The new station, which it is thought will be ready for operation shortly after the first of the new year, is only one of series that are to be constructed. Locations of the other stations have not yet been selected.
"It is our purpose to set up television broadcasting stations of adequate power for the territory said Mr. Jenkins discussing his future plans.
"To these stations motion picture stories will be distributed for broadcast over the territory served by each particular station," he continued. "Radio receivers for the home will be distributed in these territories for the reception of this new type of entertainment in the home. Receivers will reproduce pictures amply large enough to entertain the entire family, and friends of the family. Although the price of the instrument has not been definitely fixed, it is proposed to make it so reasonable as to insure a picture entertainment service to the greatest number.
Like Building Other Stations.
Jenkins stated that the erection of the new television station is very similar to the building of any other broadcasting station. The apparatus is almost identical. However, in sending out the pictures the station has to have a wave of 100 kilocycles, with which Jenkins states it is possible to do a good job, even at the present time. Later it is believed that this width can be narrowed.
The station which is now being erected near Washington will have from 2000 to 5000 watts power and it will be operated on from 4900 to 5000 kilocycles. At the present time Jenkins has a laboratory, and has had for a number of years, where he has been experimenting and using 46 meters for distance transmission of pictures and 186 meters within the City of Washington.
In addition to the television licenses that have been granted to Jenkins by the Federal Radio Commission, there are a number of others outstanding, including those to the General Electric Company, the Radio Corporation of America, the Westinghouse Electric and others. The commission also has on hand a number of other applications for television licenses.
In connection with the intensive work which is now being done by Jenkins, a new corporation has come into existence known as the Jenkins Television Corporation, which has purchased all of the sets of the Jenkins Laboratories, which in turn has controlled number of the Jenkins television patents.
Years of Experimenting.
For several years Jenkins, with a staff of assistants, has been experimenting with television and while there is some dispute as to who first actually transmitted pictures by radio, it is a known fact that Jenkins some years ago transmitted pictures radio from the Naval Research Laboratory to one of the local hotels, which was witnessed by government officials, including Secretary of the Navy Wilbur. This was followed by the transmission of motion pictures between the Jenkins laboratory in one part of the city to his home in another part of the city, which was also witnessed by government radio experts.
The Jenkins laboratories was formed in 1921, to develop and perfect the ideas and Inventions of Jenkins and his associates. For many years he has been a recognized authority, inventor and active worker in image transmission and television. He was also the inventor of the first practical motion picture projector.
During the past few years of television experimenting, Jenkins has gathered a vast fund of practical experience. Suitable television transmitting and receiving equipment have now been developed. It is as the result of this pioneering work, which is virtually completed, that the new corporation has been organized to manufacture and market the new machine.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1928
Cedar Rapids Youth Gets Foretaste Of Pleasures Which Television Promises To Bring To All In The Near Future
'Amateur Builds His Own Set And Sees Scenes 1,000 Miles Away.
BY ADELINE TAYLOR.
"I SEE YOU!"
And it isn't of hide a game and seek around the rocking chair for the “I” sits in Cedar Rapids, and the "you" in Washington, D. C. Across span of a thousand miles one holds the magic binoculars of television to his eyes and looks into the Jenkins station at Washington—3XY [sic].
This is what Leo Hruska, 2619 Bever avenue, is doing with the amateur television set he has constructed in his radio room.
Francis Jenkins, called the inventor of practical television, has asked to add this boy's name to the honor roll of pioneer workers in television. These pioneers are entitled to historical credit for their assistance development of this science, he says.
In this room papered with cards of radio stations with whom Leo Hruska has talked—cards from Canada, Chile, Brazil, France, Germany, Australia and innumerable others—he showed us the receiving set he has constructed to bring in these pictures. It must be such that it will amplify the entire range of sound waves transmitted. When music coming over the air sounds tinny it is because everything is not coming in. The lower notes are missing. Such a set will not work with television.
MARVELOUS DEVICE IS SIMPLICITY ITSELF.
With wonder—and with little doubt—we looked at this outfit which the operator claimed would show us what was happening hundreds of miles away. There was a pasteboard disc with forty-eight holes arranged in spiral form along the edge and attached to this circle of paper was a motor to rotate it. Back of the disc was a neon gas lamp. That was all.
A curtain was dropped on the inside works of this long distance telescope to confine the light and we sat down to look through the magnifying lens to the screen on which a picture would be projected with the space conquering machine. We know now how grandma felt when they told her men could fly.
The room was darkened. The switch was turned on. The motor started spinning the disc. A square of rose light formed on the screen and black clouds started moving swiftly across it. Accompanying the weird shadows came a peculiar sound—it was the picture which sends out different waves according to its shape before the transmitter. The trained ear can hear whether it is an inanimate object, a front view of a person or what not being transmitted.
As the operator turned the rheostat on trying to adjust the vision he murmured things about synchronism, fluctuations, distortions and interference and the doubting Thomas in us rose even closer to the surface.
BEHOLD! A SCENE A THOUSAND MILES AWAY
Then gradually the splashes of blackness stopped racing so quickly after one another in the rose light. And there it was. The patches and lines turned into the silhouette of a woman playing with a baby. She picked the child up and kissed her and then, putting her on the floor, continued to play with her.
True, the picture was small and the edges were jagged. One must strain his imagination a trifle just as he does when he watches the flapper neighbor entertain her davenport date in a lighted room behind a drawn window shade. But those adventurers in the land of science who used to tread on the clouds in 1920 after hearing a grunt and a squeal from the earphones would go into perfect rhapsody of delight at this silhouetted image in a home television receiver.
After seeing a picture that was sent through space, the operator showed us what sound looks like in this television set. As the saxophones and drums and horns sent out their syncopated music, the tunes made a fantastic array of changing designs in checkerboard and modernistic effects on the little screen.
Television "programs" differ—from Washington come radio movies of a child hanging up clothes or bouncing a ball; from Boston, Schenectady or Chicago come profiles of the technicians; or California sends the page from some magazine.
TRANSMISSION OF COLOR POSSIBLE.
The black and white television picture, yet in its infancy, has already spread itself to the field of color. The Baird laboratory in London has transmitted action in actual colors. Leo Hruska points out that three slides are used back of the revolving disc—a green, red and violet one.
The thing this sketchy half-tone, produced by motor-propelled disc and neon lamp, spells for the future seem unbelievable—a football game in progress in the Bowl of Roses watched in the front room an Iowa home; the Metropolitan opera not only heard but seen on a miniature stage in a Cedar Rapids drawing room; and business men will not have to rush home for board meetings—they will see and talk with each other electrically from whatever part of the world they may be in. All of these unbelievable things are not only possible but probable in the future of television.
While sound coming through the air is merely a succession of signals, one after the other, making it one-dimensional, the picture must be dimensional, having both length and width. Since a whole picture cannot be transmitted at once television works on the same principle of retentivity of vision that the moving pictures do. Because of this optical illusion, when several pictures are flashed before the eye in a second, each one different from the one it follows, we see movement.
The pictures are cut up into a large number of dots by a disc, the scanner, and sent through the air as straight line radio signals, then pieced before the eye in such a short time that they appear in one picture.
SYNCHRONISM IS PICTURE'S SECRET.
Synchronism is one of the worries of the amateur television operator. This means keeping the discs at the transmitting and receiving stations going at precisely the same speed. "It's like guiding a car with a faulty steering wheel down a crooked icy path," said Leo Hruska, as he adjusted the rheostat so that exact synchronism he could be reached and a clear image would stay on the screen.
Fluctuations of the electrical current make the picture blur. And distortion will occasionally swell a poor man's face quite out of shape on the screen. But there is one thing that does not trouble the looker-in—that is static. Occasionally static will take the form of a few dots on the screen but it does not noticeably bother the reception. Static to television is merely a snow flurry, not the grating howling screech with which the listener-in has had to contend.
The lamps that are used to receive cannot be the ordinary electric light globe variety because they must not glow for even the smallest fraction of a second when the current is off. For transmitting photoelectric cells are used which permit varying light waves vary, an electric current in accordance with their own intensity. Such globes are now also used to sort beans, count automobiles and measure sunburn as well as transmit vision over space.
Like most of these modern inventions which we proudly credit to the modern twentieth century but which belong to less recent years, television had its birth in 1884 with Paul Nipkow, a German experimenter. Fifty years ago a native Scotchman, Alexander Graham Bell, later an American citizen, showed the world how to hear by electricity. Today another of that nationality, John L. Baird, demonstrated to the world how to see by electricity.
In the clamor speed—for news while it was happening—word pictures of events beat the wheels of time by progressing from letters to telegraph to telephones to radio. But the ears were not enough while the eyes were functioning. As the Chinese say: "A picture is worth 10,000 words." Photographs, the moving pictures, then photo-telegraphy brought pictures of these happenings within minutes after their actual occurrence. Now the eyes of communication are keeping pace with Father Time. With television we see what is happening at a distance and while it is happening.
There are still three other senses to be satisfied. Raymond Y. Yates, former editor of Popular Radio, contends that touch transmitting is not impractical. He says in a recent article in a magazine: "Just as we now employ a scanning device at a television transmitter so we might devise some sort of an exploring 'feeler' that would, for instance, electrically register or impress equivalent impulses on an electromagnetic wave. At the receiver we simply need a membrane sensitive and pliable enough to be 'modulated' with the received impulses of varying intensity." When taste and smell are added, the cycle will be complete. (Cedar Rapids Sunday Gazette and Republican)

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1928
Board Awards 506 Short Wave Channels
WASHINGTON, Dec. 26.—The shortwave channels between 1,500 and 6,000 kilocycles, which have been in great demand by commercial organizations, press associations, newspapers, amateurs and others, were allocated to-day by the Federal Radio Commission. These include 456 high-frequency and fifty low-frequency channels.
Of the 639 channels available 308 were allotted to fixed stations, 148 to mobile services, ninety-five were reserved for government uses and eighty-eight were unassigned at this time. [...]
In general, seventy-three channels are reserved for marine services, sixty-four for aviation, five for railroad purposes, six to portable stations, including geophysical and police. Amateurs were given 134 channels, visual broadcasting 100 telegraph channels, which is equivalent to five television or ten picture channels; four are reserved for experimental ststaions and seventy are set aside for commercial point-to-point services. [...]
“Visual broadcasting was considered entirely experimental at the time both as to its technique and its importance to the public, and the bands set aside for this are entirely in the nature of an experiment [the commission explained].” (New York News Herald, Dec. 27)

Television Case Hearing Put Off
Inability of Dudley R. Hooper, 269 Washington avenue, to attend a hearing of the Federal Radio Commission at Washington, D. C., last week, caused a postponement in decision of the commission on his application to establish a radio television station in Rutherford.
The application will be heard at a later date, Mr. Hooper said last night [25]. If granted it will permit the Rutherford man to establish television transmitting apparatus for experimental work which will be the first of its type in New Jersey. (Passaic Daily Herald, Dec. 26)

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1928
SEE THEIR SON 900 MILES AWAY
First Indiana Couple to Have the Experience by Radio Television.
GARY, Ind., Dec. 26 (INS)—A Gary couple has the distinction of undoubtedly being the first couple in Indiana to see a son 900 miles from Indiana, by radio television in their Hoosier home.
Mr. and Mrs. E. T. Kell, of 448 Harrison street, Gary, sat at their home receiving set here and were able to see their son, Ray Davis Kell, first assistant to Dr. E. F. W. Alexanderson, who was in station WGY in Schenectady, N. Y.
Dr. Alexanderson is the pioneer television engineer of the General Electric Company.
The television program on which the Kells "looked in" is a regular Tuesday night feature broadcast by station WGY at Schenectady from 10:30 p. m. to 11 p. m.
A television set constructed by Mr. Kell and his son was hooked up with a high powered radio set.
The Kells said that the features of their son and of his wife as well as those of several other persons in the WGY laboratory were so distinct that a friend of theirs who also "looked in" and who had seen Ray Kell only once, at once recognized him when his picture appeared.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1928
Radio Service Bulletin
The Federal Radio Commission approved the following frequency revisions in December 1928:
Bound Brook, N.J. (W3XL, owned by RCA)—2,850 kcs. (105.3 metres) to 2,950 (101.7); 6,020 (49.83).
New York, N.Y. (W2XBS, RCA)—2,000 kcs. (150 metres) to 2,100 (142.9).
Portland, Ore.—(W7XAO, William Jerman)—2,750 kcs. (109.1 metres) to 2,850 (105.3).
Rocky Point, N.Y.—(W2XR, RCA)—strike out all particulars. The call letters were reassigned to John Hogan’s television station in 1929.
The Commission approved the following special station:
Jersey City, N.J. (W2XCD, DeForest Radio Co.)—1,604 kcs. (187 metres), 1,704 (176); 3,214 (93.34); 4,324 (69.38); 6,420 (46.72); 8,650 (34.68), 12850 (23.35); 17,300 (17.341), 25,680 (11.682); 34,240 (8.762); 51,360 (5.841).

November 1928

U.S. government regulators tried to solve a problem with television at the end of 1928.

Radio stations were sending out TV shows, a few of them on a regular schedule. But there wasn’t enough bandwidth on medium wave frequencies (that is, today’s A.M. band) to accommodate pictures.

The Radio Commission decided to tell stations to get telecasts off A.M. by January 1, 1929, and erect short wave transmitters to broadcast television. Oh, they’d need a license to that.

This mainly affected WGY in Schenectady and WRNY near New York. The latter was drastically forced to curtail most of its telecasts to 15 minutes at 3 p.m. Mondays and Fridays, 2:45 p.m. Wednesdays and 12:45 a.m. Thursdays. It also wasn’t helped by radio frequencies being re-assigned on November 11, and WNYR being forced to share time with three other stations. The company filed for bankruptcy in February 1929.

Hugo Gernsback’s “Science Service” supplied newspapers with a list of television stations and their statuses. We have an image file of one for November 1928 below. It confirms W4XA in Memphis was on the air, at least occasionally, and W6XC in Los Angeles had a regular schedule. The latter was operated in tandem with KGFJ, the radio station credited with being the first to broadcast 24 hours a day. Jeff Falewicz has a found a link to the TV operations.

You’ll notice there is no mention at all of NBC’s W2XBS. RCA’s David Sarnoff also doesn’t mention the station in an interview published that month. Either the transmissions were super-secret, or the impression that W2XBS went on the air immediately after getting a license in July that year isn’t accurate.

TV stations were told to stay off the air on federal election night to allow radio stations to broadcast the returns without TV-caused interference. Nevertheless, WCFL did have a telecast, airing a photo of the President-Elect.

Highlights for the month are below.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1928
BROADCAST BAND FOR TELEVISION TO BE LIMITED
Rigid Regulation Seen Until New Process Is Perfected
BY ROBERT MACK
WASHINGTON, Nov. 2.—Television and picture broadcasting will be permitted on the broadcast band until January 1, at least, but under strict limitation and rigid regulation.
To permit visual broadcasting to remain within the reach of the general radio public, the federal radio commission has decided—and shortly will announce—that such broadcasting will be authorized to a limited extent within the broadcast spectrum. Whether it will eventually go into the short wave band, where special equipment requiring some technical knowledge is necessary, remains to be decided. However, the commission has broken the deadlock of some months standing as to what to do about television because of its questionable public interest to listeners on the broadcast band, and its nuisance possibilities at this stage of development.
With the commission’s action there will be an immediate demand of stations for authority to broadcast pictures and television, supplementing the ten or so already operating experimentally. The order, it is learned, will make mandatory that formal applications be filed and formal authority obtained before stations may operate. Visual broadcasting will be conditioned upon specifications designed to prevent interference to regular reception, with the band of frequencies occupied by any television station not to exceed ten kilocycles.
One Hour Allowed
One hour during daylight will be the maximum time for both television and picture broadcasting. It must cease at 6 p. m. standard time and not begin again until after 11 p. m.
After January 1 the commission again will take up the problem, better enabled to cope with it by virtue of the experiments of the two months of trial in the broadcast band. The interference caused and the popularity of visual transmission with the radio public will be taken into consideration, along with an interpretation of the obligations of the United States under the International Radio Telegraph convention of 1927, regarding the presence on the broadcast band of anything other than telephonic transmissions.
The commission's action is of much significance in the development of television. It is almost certain that television must go into the short-wave spectrum eventually, because of the severe space limitations in the broadcast band, but experiments with the new radio art insist that to do this now would seriously impede Its development, because it would be out of the reach of practically all listeners and little would be gleaned in the way of public reaction. The commission has met the issue by a compromise.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1928
McCULLA OPERATES TELEVISION DEVICE
Following Tuesday’s election [6], station WCFL, Chicago, transmitted Hoover’s picture by television and again on Wednesday.
As is well known to Waukegan radio fans, W. K. McCulla, of McCulla & Co., the Majestic dealers, has done considerable work with television and owns and operates an outfit which he designed and built at the McCulla store.
Wednesday afternoon while WCFL was broadcasting the picture of the president-elect, Mr. McCulla was receiving it on his machine at his place of business. (Waukegan Daily Sun, Nov. 10)

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1928
Television Broadcast
WMAK will continue its television transmissions in conjunction with Station WGY at Schenectady on Tuesday night at 11:30 o’clock, the program to run for one-half hour. (Buffalo Courier Express, Nov. 11)

TELEVISION NOW REALITY TO DETROITER
Pictures From WGY Plainly Seen on Home Made Set.
In another column on the radio page is an article on television by David Sarnoff, who looks forward to “radio sight” within “three to five years.” However the amateur experimenter is already at work and Arthur West, 5065 Beaconsfield avenue, reports that his home-built receiver is getting the transmissions from WGY, Schenectady.
Mr. West had as credentials a letter from WGY confirming his reception on the evening of November 11, when he saw an American flag waving its salute on his screen. WGY transmits on its regular wave length of 790 kilocycles on Tuesdays at 11:30 o’clock and Sundays at 10:15 o’clock.
The Free Press has asked Mr. West to describe his apparatus which he assembled himself, and his article will appear on the radio page next Sunday. (Detroit Free Press, Nov. 25)

Predicts Television in 3 to 5 Years For The Radio Fans.
NEW YORK. (NEA)—With some radio stations already announcing "television broadcasting," with radio amateurs longing for "televisor sets" and the listening public anxious to feast the eye as well as the ear—how close are we to practical television? NEA Service popped this question at David Sarnoff, vice president and general manager of the Radio Corporation of America. His answer may be summarized as follows:
Sight transmission by radio is inevitable. Progress made thus far points to a new system of telegraphic service, when messages and pictures will be transmitted and received photographically through the air; to radio motion pictures, when one transmission may serve a million homes; to television; and even to the transmission of scenes by radio in their natural colors.
We may expect to witness such developments in a period of from three to five years, Sarnoff adds.
Present Difficulties
For the present, however, the fact remains that:
1. Television is still in an experimental stage;
2. Many improvements and some new engineering solutions are required to advance the art; and
3. The broad highway in the ether required for the establishment of an organized television service is still to be located.
Vast Improvements Needed
"More sensitive and photo-electric cells, more brilliant and flexible lighting devices and more perfect synchronization of light elements are among the problems now being studied by radio scientists.
"The clearing of a road through space to accommodate visual transmission is another major problem. While a wave 'side band' of 5,000 cycles can be used for sound transmission, a wave band of 20,000 to 100,000 cycles or even more is needed to make visual broadcasting effective."
The problem of radio television, Sarnoff suggests, is best visualized in considering the vast differences between the ear and the eye.
"With all that science, discovery and engineering have accomplished in equipping man for the struggle of life, the eye still looks out naked upon the aided to a limited extent by pieces of curved polished glass. A sensitive photographic apparatus, the eye demands that every scene be contracted to its limited field of vision. It tolerates but little interference.
"Shake a feather before the eye and you blot out the view of a mountain. Project two views simultaneously and you create confusion before the sight.
Ear Is Less Susceptible
"Contrast this to the ear. The ear receives sounds from all directions. It is able to recognize and interpret the slightest tonal differences. By an act of concentration we can almost eliminate from consciousness the poise of a room full of people and conduct a conversation with a single auditor.
"Radio broadcasting found a pliable and sympathetic organ of reception in the ear.
"But in attempting to serve the eye the radio stands squarely before the fundamental problems of electro-magnetic wave propagation through space. Engineering solutions alone will not suffice to life the bandage that has limited human vision.
"A sudden blur of interference, hardly noticeable in sound broadcasting, may for an instant blot out a distant scene projected by visual transmission. Static, now overridden in the broadcasting of sound, may vitiate entirely the broadcasting of sight.
What We May Expect
"Within three to five years, however, I believe we shall be well launched into the dawning age of sight by radio, involving among others the following developments: "Radio Motion Pictures: The transmission in rapid succession of a series of still pictures otherwise motion pictures is a logical element in the development of sight transmission. Thus an educational or other event might be broadcast by a single radio operation to 100,000 or to 1,000,000 homes in the country.
"Radio Television: The instantaneous projection through space of light images produced directly from the object in the studio or the scene brought to the broadcasting station through remote control involves many further problems. Special types of distribution networks, new forms of stagecraft and a development of studio equipment and technique are required.
Can't Repeat Scenes
"New problems would rain in upon the broadcasting station. New forms of artistry would have to be encouraged and developed. Variety, and more variety, would be the cry of the day.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1928
Television Delivers
Silhouettes of Cecil B. DeMille, Will Hays and other notables were used as demonstrations of the television given by the radio station KGFJ last night [13] at the Roosevelt Hotel at the dinner meeting of the Wampas. The demonstration was arranged through Ben McGloshan [sic] KGFJ. Mr. De Mille, Al Rockett of First National, Wesley Ruggles, Robert North and other well known directors were honour guests at the dinner. Frank Murray and James Loughborough were joint chairmen. (Hollywood Daily Citizen, Nov. 14)

LOCAL MAN BUILDS TELEVISION SET
He may have done it in preparation for the days after January 1 when his work as city commissioner will require his supervision over city employees. On the other hand he may have done it just for the fun of it.
At any rate, George B. Patterson, 909 Lake Adair circle, has completed a home-made television instrument, with which he “tele-saw” an acrobatic act broadcast from Station WGY, Schenectady, N. Y., Tuesday night [13].
All of the instrument was made by Mr. Patterson, with the exception of the lamp used, he said, the construction of the machine requiring only a few weeks.
He hopes to improve his machine later. (Orlando Morning Sentinel, Nov. 15)

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1928
BROADCASTERS ASK TO SEND PICTURES
Shepard of Boston One of Applicants
WASHINGTON, Nov. 17—Growing interest in television on the part of broadcasting companies is indicated by applications now pending with the Federal Radio Commission for construction permits for television stations.
Hearings have been held on a number of those applications, including those of the Shepard Norwell Company, Boston; Frank L. Carter, Long Island City, N. Y.; Aero Products Company, Chicago, Ill.; Great Lakes broadcasting Company, Chicago; Brooklyn Broadcasting Company, Brooklyn; and Walter J. Allen, Salina, Kan.
The commission has already issued a number of licenses for experimental television broadcasting and is permitting the use for not exceeding one hour a day of wave lengths in the broadcasting band for television experiments. General transmission of television, however, has been confined to the short wave lengths, and the use of the broadcast band during the next few weeks is permitted in order that it may be determined whether it will be possible to use broadcasting wave lengths for television transmission without interference with other services. (Boston Globe, Nov. 18)

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1929
“COOKOO” IS NOW TESTING TELEVISION
Tuinucu is tuning in on television, according to Grant Jones, the Cuban-American broadcaster, lyric writer and radio experimenter. Mr. Jones reported reception of WGY’s television transmission on the afternoon of November 20, and his report was confirmed by the log of the General Electric Company’s Schenectady station.
Mr. Jones began dabbling in radio several years ago. Within a few days after WGY went on the air in February 20, 1922, he reported by cable receiving dance music from the station. Not only did he hear the music, but he and his friends danced to the music. In 1922 that was a most unusual achievement.
Now Mr. Jones has outfitted himself television receiver and he is among the most distant to report reception of images from Schenectady. He was tuned to WGY’s short wave transmitter W2XAF. The image he saw was that of A. O. Coggeshall, one of the announcers of WGY. The voice of Mr. Coggeshall was very familiar to Tuinucu listeners and this was the first opportunity to view his face.
Mr. Jones interest in radio was not limited to reception. In the fall of 1922 he started his own broadcasting station 6KW on the sugar plantation and since that time he has received nearly half a million letters from listeners. A short-wave station, 6XJ, operating on 21.95 meters is also operated by Mr. Jones at Tuinucu, and if the experimenter is consistent, he will probably soon be sending images of himself and friends to the far corners of the United States. (Washington Herald, Jan. 5, 1929)

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1928
Daily Television Programs on Air From Station W1XAY
By JOHN B. KNOX
Associated Press Features Editor
LEXINGTON, Mass., Nov. 22—(AP)—Regular daily television broadcasts have become a reality at station W1XAY at Lexington.
Every afternoon between 2 and 3 o'clock this station, operated in conjunction with station WLEX, puts on a program of visual radio entertainment for such fans and experimenters as are equipped to pick up the broadcasts. The broadcasts are being developed under the supervision of Alfred J. Pote, engineer in chief, and Carl S. Wheeler, owner of the stations.
Studio In Somber Colors.
The studio is a study in somber colors, dominated by a black background. The subject, whose image is to be broadcast, is placed several feet away from a machine resembling a motion picture projector and employing a high intensity arc light.
Just in front of the outermost lense [sic] of the projector is the edge of a steel disc about two feet in diameter. In a spiral arrangement within a narrow band next to the edge of the disc are cut forty forty-eight tiny square holes, When the disc is set in motion and the arc turned on, sharp lines of white light pass in continuous stream across the subject to be televised. The disc turns 900 revolutions per minute.
Photo electric cells, sensitive to every variation in light and shadow, pick up the form of the subject and his every movement. The differences in light-intensity are translated into electric impulses just as the radio microphone changes sound energy into electrical energy.
These electrical impulses pass directly to amplifiers employing eight vacuum tubes which build up the signal before it is put on the air. A forty-foot aerial of high efficiency is employed to send out the signals on a wavelength of 61.5 meters with 500 watts power.
Every amplifier tube heavily sheathed with lead. Extraordinary precautions been taken to prevent the slightest vibrations from reaching the tubes. The cabinets containing the tubes are thickly padded with felt. An area ten feet square may be covered by the broadcasting equipment, but in practice such large broadcasts are not owing to various limitations.
Reports of receipt of the programs have come from New York state and Connecticut. St. Joseph Gazette)
Magazine-Street Home Has Television Receiver
George A. Thurling, Radio Experimenter, Among Pioneers in This City to Realize Dream of Bringing Photo Broadcasts Into His Apartment—Pictures Not as Clear as Popularly Believed. But Experiment is Impressive Even to Layman
Television experimenting is latest thing with local radio fans, particularly those with sufficient knowledge and experience to be able to fashion their picture receivers in whole or in part. While reception among those who have such sets is not yet all that it should be they are hopeful that the day is not far off when the when the rewards of pioneering will be theirs.
Among the first to equip himself with such a set is George A. Thurling of 27 Magazine street. He is an enthusiast on television and there are few night picture-broadcasts which he passes by without tuning in. His favorite station, however, is WGY, Schenectady and he reports fairly successful reception from this point.
Laymen Attend “Séance”
Last Tuesday [20], the press was called in to attend the “séance,” for, to the uninitiated, that is just what it suggests. There were five guests present when the lights were turned off at 11:30 in anticipation of the ghostly figures that come by air, not in silence, but attended by a drumming staccato somewhat like the intermittent roar of an airplane motor heard some distance away. The performance began.
The first presentation was what might be taken for a curtain with the letters WGY printed diagonally across it from top to bottom. Because of the fine adjustment of the dial controling the motor rotating the disc, in front of the television tube and just behind the inch-square screen on which the radioed image appears, the picture at times traveled to the right or left of the line of vision. There were at times what appeared to be sparks flying across the picture—these, it was explained, correspond to static in tonal radio. The phenomena of fading was distinctly noticeable several times during the broadcast, the image losing its sharpness of tone and then regaining it with corresponding dimunition or increase in the buzzing noise attendant upon the reception.
“Pictures” Indistinct
The clearest picture seen during the evening was that of a man, the outline of his head being very clear at times, and his movements noticeable to the extent that it could be easily distinguished whether he was facing the televisor head on, or whether only his profile was being broadcast. There was no such thing as simultaneous transmission of light and sound as is imagined by those who talk lightly of television, but the results of the experiment were impressive and convincing enough even for the lay-observer. Television, as a practical medium of communication, is not yet “here,” but it is on the way.
Mr. Thurling is an experimenter of considerable experience, having operated some years ago an amateur station under license of the Canadian government. He has been experimenting with television several months and the results he obtains are noteworthy, when one considers that his apartment is on the fourth floor of an apartment house, the roof of which is cluttered with alien antennas. Had he the sweep of the country from a hilltop vantage point, he claims, the clarity of the televised photos and subjects would be much greater.
He recently took his set to North Adams, where he says, the results were far better than he has been able to obtain locally. The reasons are less interference, and closer proximity to the point of origin of the broadcast. (Springfield, Mass., Union and Republican, Nov. 25)

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1928
Television Latest Fad For Screen Stars
Many Have Installed Apparatus In Their Homes Already
Television is the latest fad of the screen stars. With the new home television and projected general broadcasting of radio pictures, many screen celebrities are installing the apparatus in their homes.
Tod Browning, director; Lon Chaney and William Haines now have sets working. Buster Keaton is preparing to build his. So far broadcasting is hard to receive on the Pacific Coast, but when Western broadcasting stars many players plan to follow the new hobby. (Baltimore Sun)

Television Test Interferes With Radio Reception
Television tests from station WGY at Schenectady last night [25] caused no small trouble for Norfolk radio fans who believed WTAR was on the air or that some interference was being caused by the local broadcasting station.
Manager Jack Light of WTAR said that television tests are made every Sunday night from 11:15 to 11:30 o’clock, and that because the WGY frequency of 790 kilocycles is so near the 780 of WTAR, a good many persons thought the local station was causing the trouble. WTAR, however, went off the air at 9:10 p. m.
Television, said manager Light, causes a whining sound such as a low-flying airplane makes and that reception within certain channels virtually is impossible. (Virginia Pilot, Nov. 26)

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1928
HOOVER INAUGURATION MAY BE FIRST BIG TELEVISION ‘CAST
By ISRAEL KLEIN,
Science Editor, NEA Service.
When Herbert Hoover takes his oath of office next March 4 as president of the United States, he may be seen doing so as well as heard by radio!
For television may play an important part in his inaugural ceremonies.
Television is far from perfect. It is altogether experimental. It has its limitations in broadcasting. But considering what has been done with it heretofore, it is quite likely that a television transmitter will be working in front of the next president at his inauguration, alongside the battery of microphones which already has been, accepted as a public institution.
Broadcasting such an event by television will not be new by any means. It has already been done and found quite successful. When Governor Al Smith accepted the presidential nomination the party last August, he faced not only a battery of microphones but a set of television cameras which broadcast his movements as far off as Los Angeles.
Great Inventions on Job.
This was the work of E. F. W. Alexanderson and his staff of General Electric engineers at Schenectady. Alexanderson has since improved on his apparatus so that he can visualize a larger scene than a head and broadcast it with the aid of daylight.
In the Bell Telephone laboratories in New York, Dr. Herbert E. Ives, famous optical expert, has been developing a television apparatus that has broadcast scenes in daylight and transmitted them to large "screens" consisting of rows of neon tubes.
The receiver images, so far, have been rather vague and jumpy. But they show great promise toward perfection of as good reproduction as see today in the movies.
In Washington, C. Francis Jenkins, the inventor, comes forth with a more highly developed receiver for television. On the basis of the new principle he employs in transmitting and reception, he predicts that the coming inaugural ceremonies will be seen as well as heard by radio.
Jenkins' new apparatus demands the use of 2304 tiny lamps in the radio-vision receiving equipment whereby the light for producing the incoming picture is multiplied many thousand times.
In other words, that deception of the eye which makes for persistence of vision is displaced by the persistence of light in the novel radio-vision received which Jenkins is now building. Just as the illumination of the electric-llght bulb in our home or office lingers for moment after the switch has been snapped off, the exciting current employed in this radical principle of visual radio persists for an appreciable time—about one-tenth of a second.
At present, at least three methods of transmitting and receiving pictures by radio are in vogue—the scanning disk, first used in 1884; a lens-disk, in which tiny lenses are placed over the scanning, disk holes; and the so-called drum-scanner, recently developed by Jenkins.
The latter device, resembling the hub of a wheel with its tiny glass-rod spokes, is said to permit light to flow through these quartz rods like water rushing through a pipe. However, even with the use of this new drum-scanning device the elementary area of a picture being received by radio is illuminated only one 2304 part of the whole time—again calling for deception of the eye.
Reason for Dim Image.
"And let me remind you," asserts Jenkins, "that the apparent intensity of illumination of the whole picture is the intensity of the light coming to the eye from a single elementary area, divided by the elementary time fraction, which is also equal to the number of elementary areas, namely 2304. That is why the picture seems so dully lighted when the machine is running though the scanning spot is very bright when the machine stops.
"Multiplying this light reduction by the fractional inefficiency of the current, it will be seen that the total current-light efficiency on the eye in the scanning disk method is less than of one per cent."
Because of a similar light limitation in the drum-scanner, Jenkins is looking to a new principle for solving the immediate problem of television. At least seven other laboratories are attacking the problems of visual radio—each in their own way—and this would seem to justify the prediction that the inaugural ceremonies will be seen as well as heard by radio.
Broadcasters Interested.
The broadcasting stations now engaged in the experimental transmission of images are: WRNY, New York; WGY, Schenectady; KDKA, Pittsburgh; WOR, Newark, N. J.; WABC, New York; WLEX, Boston, and WCFL, Chicago.
It is rumored that at least 150 broadcasting stations are soon to install equipment for picture transmission—sending still photographs, sketches, telegrams, cartoons, motion pictures or other crude images.
Picture-receiving mechanism is now being manufactured on a large scale for introduction in the homes. This apparatus, however, is not to be confused with so-called television equipment—the sending and receiving by radio of animate objects or moving scenes from distant points—since television is in a crude, experimental stage.

PROFESSSOR BUILDS TELEVISION SET
A radio television set, in Physics laboratory at the Stephenson hall of Science, Lawrence college, was recently built by Dr. A. D. Power, professor of physics and Lloyd Root, Appleton, a senior in college. They have been conducting experiments dally in a darkened room and two weeks ago received pictures from WCFL, Chicago, as a clear as newspaper illustrations.
Because the broadcasting stations recently decreased their wave lengths, their receiving set is useless and the experimenters are building a short wave receiver to pick up some 40-meter wave length stations in the east, 3XK, WGY, 2XAD.
The experimental television set is based on the Nipkow scanning disk which dates back to 1883. It is a rotating plate with tiny holes placed in a spiral near the edge and its speed is determined by the number of images transmitted per second. The speed of the disk at the receiver must be the same as that of the transmitter. This is obtained by synchronization.
The present need of television is automatic synchronization instead of hand control, which was used by the Lawrence experimenters. The number of holes in the disk is equal to the number of lines in the image. There are 48 holes in the disk used in the experiment but the larger the number, the better the picture. (Appleton Post-Crescent)