October 1928

Sometimes, a first isn’t a first.

Take, for example, a nationally-publicized “first” television wedding that capped the Chicago Radio Show in October 1928. There had been another wedding on TV, only a month before and in connection with the New York Radio Fair.

There weren’t many other firsts in television that month, unless you count that for the first, and only, time, television was banned from broadcasting results of the 1928 U.S. election. In fact, it was banned from the airwaves altogether that night. The Federal Radio Commission felt TV signals would cause all kinds of interference with radio stations nearby on the A.M. dial that were providing listeners with the returns.

WRNY re-announced a regular schedule. The only difference, it seems, was in the transmitting equipment.

Re-announcing his electronic television system without a mechanical scanning disc was Philo T. Farnsworth.

There was loads of speculation about television’s future after R.C.A.—the owner of NBC—became part of a consolidated company, the R-K-O Corporation. There was talk of NBC putting programming into R-K-O theatres, but the network was nowhere close to providing any kind of TV broadcasting. You’ll see claims NBC had put W2XBS on the air once it got its license in July 1928. If so, there’s no mention of it in the press at the time. Below, you will see a programming roundup of what was on the air on a regular basis that October.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1928
SPOKANE STATION SENDS PICTURES BY TELEVISION
Local Radio Fan "Listens In" On the Transmission.
The transmission of pictures by the television process is being accomplished by a broadcasting station located as close to Missoula as Spokane, it was learned here yesterday [3] by a local radio fan.
When A. F. Peterson tuned in on his radio about 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon, he heard announcer at station KFPY, Spokane stating that pictures were about to be transmitted by television. Mr. Peterson said this morning that the transmission could be received on the broadcasting wave, and that the sound produced was a high whistle which came with slight changes in pitch.
Although there are probably no picture receiving sets in Missoula now, it will not be long before some of the radio amateurs will be making them with success, he prophesied. That there are many such sets now in use is evident, or the Spokane station would not make the picture transmission by the television process a part of its program. "Of course the pictures are as yet only a simple outline, but the thing is extremely interesting," Mr. Peterson said. (Missoula Sentinel, Oct. 4)

MONDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1928
Chicago Fans to See Television at Work
Chicago, Oct. 5.—(AP)—Fans of Chicago, eager for a glimpse at television, will be given the opportunity at the seventh annual radio show here October 8 to 14.
The show, like the Radio World's fair just concluded in New York, is sponsored by the Radio Manufacturers' association, and it provides manufacturers an opportunity for the display of the latest in receivers, speakers and radio necessities.
The television layout will be similar to that shown to the public for the first time in New York. It will include transmitters and reproducers which will be connected by wire rather than radio. A part of the display will be a picture transmitter built for WMAQ.
Dr. R. E. Harris, head of the department of physics at Lake Forest college, has been named technical consultant of the show. He will be in charge of the television display and exhibits from the country's foremost scientific laboratories.
A broadcast studio is being fitted up, and radio stars will present their programs in view of the show visitors. Included in the local stations to broadcast these features will be KYW, WGN, WLS, WENR and WMAQ. Artists to appear will include Amos and Andy, Uncle Bob, Mike and Herman and the Salerno brothers. Jack Nelson, pioneer Chicago announcer and director, will be in charge of the programs.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1928
KSTP PURCHASES FIRST RADIO TELEVISION RECEIVER
Keeping abreast of the scientific! development in radio, KSTP, the National Battery station of St. Paul has purchased and assembled the first television receiving set in this section of the country.
The television set is entirely different from the picture receiver previously installed by KSTP to test results of its picture broadcasts, inaugurated three weeks ago. The new apparatus reflects images about one inch square like on a motion picture screen.
The basic mechanical unit of television is the Nipkow disc resembling a large phonograph record on edge and behind this is the Neon receiving lamp. A speed regulator and an image recorder with a frosted glass and lense completes the equipment. The magnifying lense through which the image of the picture is enlarged is arranged so that a group of people can see the result.
The KSTP set is not being used to pick "sights" out of the air as yet, due to the distance from Washington and Schenectady stations so sending out such signals, but as soon as [possible the] receiver will be used to test the results.
The National Battery station transmitter at Westcott, Minnesota, was so built as to permit the insallation [sic] of television transmitting equipment immediately following the development of this step in radio to the point where there are a reasonable number of receiving sets in listeners' homes.
(Marion, Ind., Daily Chronicle, Oct. 10)

PHOTO BY AIR IS FASTER THAN IS TELEVISION
The present status of television and picture broadcasting is well summarized in the survey made by Edgar H. Felix, New York expert for the Federal Radio Commission.
"Picture broadcasting differs from television," Felix reported to the commission. "No recording is attempted with television. The observer looks directly at light impulses controlled by the radiosignal. A complete image is reconstructed by the effect of persistence of vision. The entire image must therefore be repeated each sixteenth of a second. This fundamental limitation accounts for the crudeness of television and the vast ether space required to send an image having more than mere curiosity value.
"The use of sensitive paper for collecting images employed in picture reception overcomes all of the problems of television and accounts for the fact that television is limited to laboratory demonstrations conducted principally as a means for releasing blatant publicity while picture is spreading quietly from city to city and into the homes of countless experimenters.
"Several television or radio motion picture transmissions are in progress or projected on the broadcast band. This meritorious development work should be encouraged, but, when regulation is considered from the standpoint of the average listener, the respective stages of development of the two arts must be considered. It might be a service on the one hand to restrict the hours that television broadcasting is permitted and to permit unlimited broadcasting of still pictures. It is therefore worth while to consider the position of the two respective arts.
COMPARISON OF DEVELOPMENTS
"Picture broadcasting is already developed in practical commercial form; television is still an experiment offering an uncertain result. The parts for making picture receivers are on the market at reasonable cost, about that of a five or six tube home-built receiver. Any experimenter who was able to build his own set (more than 2,000,000 have done so in the United States in the last five years) can build up the simple three-tube outfit which constitutes a picture recorder.
"The improvement in clarity and detail of still picture transmission is about two thousandfold and accounts for the fact that a useful picture may be transmitted by Rayfoto while television is still limited to silhouettes of outlines, where the most that can be hoped for is a recognizable close-up of a single face.
Picture broadcasting may be received with an ordinary radio receiver. The listener requires no re-equipment of a substantial nature. He has most of the devices necessary to receive picture broadcasting. For the reception of television of the limited 24-line type special studio amplifiers must be built which will respond readily to the rapid frequency changes involved. If more than 24-line pictures are attempted the listener must purchase a new shortwave receiver and the Federal Radio Commission must establish a television band of considerable magnitude on short waves. (Evansville Courier)

Ayres, Malinoff and Rasche, now dancing in “Luckee Girl,” at the Casino Theatre, will perform before the television broadcasting camera tonight. It is expected that several hundred television receivers now in operation will tune in. They are among the first stage artists to test the invention. (Yonkers Herald)

Television Machine C-J Show Feature
You no doubt heard of television. You have probably read about this revolutionary advance in the field of radio. But you have never seen the remarkable machine which permits you both to see and hear the performer and performance? Not in Evansville.
The management of The Courier and Journal Radio Show which opens Wednesday evening [10] for three nights of radio demonstration and entertainment holds the distinction of securing the first television machine ever to be exhibited here.
So you may inspect this marvel at close quarters and carry away a better mipression [impression] of the very latest development in radio when you have visited the show.
As Evansville is too far away from any station broadcasting television, the radio show announces it will not be posible [sic] to demonstrate the television machine in action. However it will be possible to tune in on station WGBF and what music looks like in pictures (Evansville Courier)

MAY PUT TELEVISION IN SHORT WAVE CHANNELS
By ALEXANDER R. GEORGE
Associated Press Feature Writer
WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 (AP)—The ultra-enthusiastic televisionist dream, of the day when a fan sitting in an easy chair before an open fire in his home or club will watch a world series or a football thriller reproduced on a screen by radio.
The radio scientist, reluctant to predict achievements greater than the current development of the art warrants, is usually more modest in his expectations for radio “sight.”
One of the biggest problems from the standpoint of the commission is the selection of wavelengths most suitable for picture transmission which will not greatly curtail other important radio services. Most radio men are of the opinion that the short waves are best adapted for television. With the increasing demand for these waves for aircraft, ships and other communication purposes, the assignment of bands 40, 50 and 100 kilocycles wide, such as is required for worthwhile television must be restricted, government engineers say.
For adequate television service of permanent interest to the public, channels 100 kilocycles wide are essential, Dr. Alfred N. Goldsmith, chief broadcast engineer of the Radio Corporation of America, told the commission when he applied for 20 channels of that width. The commission now has about 20 applications for television channels.
Commissioner O. H. Caldwell, however, reports that he saw a demonstration in a New York laboratory of two men boxing, fencing and swimming, the transmission coming with “fair clarity” over a band only 40 kilocycles wide. Some stations have broadcast very small pictures on a channel 10 kilocycles wide in the broadcast hand.
The transmission of the pictures is accompanied by a series of buzzes and whistles in the aural receiving sets tuned to that wave. This interference of visual broadcasting with listeners presents another problem to the commission which believes serious encroachment on aural broadcasting should not be allowed.
To prevent interference with other services, the engineers of the commission plan to recommend the segregation of television to a special band of channels in the short wave spectrum. With the development of new devices and the perfection of equipment, the engineers hope that television service of value to the public can be given eventually on narrower channels.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1928
Simplicity of Operation Is Seen In Investigation Of Home-Built Set
PITTSFIELD, Oct. 11—The simplicity of television, in the face of its many problems before it can be put to popular use, is brought out in the following description of a home-built outfit that has been used for the reception of television plays broadcast from WGY at Schenectady.
The apparatus was built by G. Camilli, an engineer at the Pittsfield works of the General Electric company, and is described by a fellow engineer, A. Boyajian. It is very much like the apparatus designed by Dr. E. F. W. Alexanderson, inventor of television, and used at the recent television demonstration at Schenectady.
“The outfit looked like a small motor-driven grinding wheel, except that the wheel was a thin black disc,” says Boyajian. “The source of light was mounted in back of this disc and there was a large magnifying lens on the other flat side of the disc.
Tiny Spot of Light
“We were told to look through the magnifying lens. The screen was black except for a tiny spot of light. A switch was turned on, and the motor started spinning the disc. The tiny spot of light began to move across the black background and traced a bright line on it then another spot came and traced another bright line just below the preceding one; then another line and then another until it got to the bottom of the screen.
“As the disc spun faster and faster, these bright lines, instead of appearing successively, began to appear simultaneously, so that the entire screen was illuminated by a series of bright lines. As the disc gained greater speed, some patches like clouds appeared on the miniature screen, moving very fast and across the field.
“We are approaching synchronism now,” said Camilli. “As soon as we get exact synchronism, the picture will stay on the screen and be clear.
“Reaching a rheostat, he turned the knob gently. These patches began to move slower and slower across the screen when finally at exact sychronism they stayed on the screen.
"We craned our neck closer. There was the head of a person, fair forehead, black eyebrows, dark eyes, a little crooked nose and lots of cheeks, making faces at us, as real as though looking face to face.”
Trouble to Overcome
That’s all there is to television reception—outside of a few difficulties that may require years to iron out, says Boyajian. For instance, there's synchronization, which means keeping both the transmitting and receiving discs revolving at exactly the same speed.
Then there are fluctuations in the electric current which moves the image back and forth on the screen and tends to blur it. To this is to be added distortion introduced in transmission.
Yet television compares favorably in its simplicity with the complex apparatus Boyajian invented 17 years ago.
“It consisted of a multiplicity of selenium cells,” he recalls, located in the squares of a sending screen, a corresponding multiplicity of receiving lamps located at the squares of a receiving screen, a corresponding multiplicity of transmitting sets and wavelengths and a corresponding multiplicity of receiving sets, each square having its own sending and receiving station and frequency of transmission.” (R.J.A., Scranton Republican, Oct. 11)

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1928
Can See Pastor
Miss Cora Dennison, 4157 Clarendon avenue and James Fowlkes of Kansas City, were principals last night [13] in what was heralded as the “first television marriage.” They were married by the Rev. Gustav A. Kienle of St. Luke’s Evangelical church, 62d and Green streets. The minister stood in a radio studio [WIBO] at Des Plaines, Ill., while the bride and groom murmured their responses before a crowd at the radio show in the Colesium.
Dr. Kienle, with the help of television, could see the couple and hear them. They, listening to the marriage service, could see the minister.
The bride was an employee of the Bismarck hotel which provided a huge wedding cake for the supper following the ceremony. (Chicago Tribune, Oct. 14)
NEW COMPANY ORGANIZED TO OPERATE STATION WKEN
Formation of the Great Lakes Broadcast System, Inc., to operate radio broadcasting and radio television was announced Saturday. The new corporation has been organized to take over the time of Station WKEN and has state charter rights for television broadcasting, according to Dr. John Richelen, Kenmore, one of the stockholders.
There has been no change in organization of WKEN by formation of the new company, majority of stock still being held by Louis P. A. Eberhardt of Kenmore. Louis K. Eberhardt is president of the radio station. Other stockholders in the new concern which has 800 capital shares of no par value are Mrs. Ethel Wyllie and James A. Elve, both of Kenmore. (Buffalo News)

MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1928
LIGHT AND POWER SHOW FOR 10 DAYS Annual Exhibition.
Will Be Opened In Grand Central Palace, Wednesday; Companies Show Wares
With a display of thousands of electrical appliances, including the very latest in labor saving and health making machines, the 21st annual Electrical and Industrial Exposition will open at the Grand Central Palace on Wednesday, October 17, for a 10-day exhibition, ending Saturday, visitors October 27. More than 200,000 visitors are expected to attend this year's show.
The first three days will be given exclusively to the trade as the first electrical trade show ever held anywhere. Contractors, wholesalers, retailers and others engaged in the electrical business throughout the United States will here have an opportunity to inspect the latest products of the manufacturers. The new show is an expansion on a national basis of the annual electrical show.
The show will be open to the general public beginning Saturday morning, October 20. Television will be demonstrated daily through the assistance of Radio Station WRNY and the courtesy of the Pilot Electric Manufacturing Company of Brooklyn. Visitors at the show will have an opportunity to be televised.
The apparatus will be the same as used in the first public demonstration of television, which drew crowds at the recent radio show.
The showings will be just the same as if the subject were being televised from a distant point, as in the case of the images now being broadcast regularly at Station WRNY.
A glass enclosed broadcasting studio will again be in operation on the third floor where the public can watch programs being broadcast by Station WRNY, and hear through amplifiers erected outside the studio. Each night from 6 to 7 o'clock a contest will be held for singers, speakers, musicians and others who have never gone on the air before. The best contestants will be selected to enter the final contest on the closing night, when judges will name four winners for $50, $25, $15 and $10 prizes. (Yonkers Herald)

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1928
Television Limitations Are Emphasized in R.M.A. Report
By R.P. Clarkson
NEW YORK—There are now in the United States approximately 640 radiocasting stations, ranging in power from five watts up to a permitted maximum of 50,000 watts. These are only the stations in the so-called “broadcast band” which officially extends from 199.9 meters to 545.1 meters, but is commonly spoken of as the 200 to 600 meter band. Many of these stations have “short wave” associates, or companion stations which send out on wave-lengths below 100 meters the same programs, at least during certain hours.
Any television reception by the general public at the present time involves one of two things. Either the sending of images must take place within the 200 to 600 meter band or the public must buy special television receivers. If the sending of television images should be done in the radiocast band, it is admitted that most of the up-to-date receiving sets could be used for reception, and in place of the loudspeaker one would merely plug in a device to make the signal visible instead of audible. For the experimenter, this can be done.
However, the number of stations which are sending images is small, the results to date are crude and difficult to receive, the apparatus to create the image is cumbersome, and involves moving machinery which in turn requires electrical connections entirely apart from the set. Incessant attention is required for the instant to instant regulation of the device, while no one device can be used except for the particular station it matches, so that there can be no possible appeal to the general public.
The first step in any wide, general development of television will be for the establishment of sufficient transmitting stations so that a purchaser, wherever he may live, has at least one possible program he can tune to. And, of course, he would prefer a choice. Then, instead of the very few minutes occasionally given to a radiocast at present, there would be radiocasts of such length at to permit some degree of enjoyment. It is also obvious that there must be a standard adopted by the various stations which will permit a receiver to be used equally well on all of them. Otherwise, there can be no nation-wide use of sales of television receivers.
Transmission Widely Varied
At the present time, so far as the general public is concerned, there are only two stations attempting anything approaching consistent television radiocasting. These are WGY at Schenectady, on a wavelength of 379.5 meters, and WRNY in the New York area, on 326 meters. There are short waves carrying these programs also, as follows:
2XAL—New York, 30.9 meters.
2XAD—Schenectady, 21.96 meters.
2XAF—Schenectady, 31.4 meters.
In addition there is 3XK near Washington, D. C., operating on 46.7 meters, and carrying a program of dancing shadows or silhouettes, transmitted from a film, a sort of miniature moving picture in a rather simple form. There are several stations in the middle West contemplating this type of radiocast this winter.
At one time WLEX of Boston on 62.5 meters and 1XAY on the same wave had regular schedules, but they have been discontinued. Also WCFL, in Chicago on 61.5 meters has been radiocasting as has also 8XAV of Pittsburgh on 62.5 meters, and both continue.
In all cases the hours devoted to this type of radiocasting are few and the time subject to change. In the New York area, there are daily five-minute periods at various hours. The Schenectady radiocasts are of half hour or full hour duration several times a week.
Even aside from the widely different receivers necessary to get every one of these radiocasts, ranging as they do from 379.5 meters to 21.96 meters. it would be necessary also to have different television apparatus, for the different stations send their images at different speeds, and the images themselves are of different “screens” or numbers of lines corresponding to the screen of a half-tone production. At present the screens used are either 24 or 28, or approximately that. WRNY is using 14, and the Chicago station 25. The Schenectady radiocasts are 24 and the rest are 48, which bids fair to become the most popular. The speeds range from 450 R. P. M. at WRNY to 1260 at WGY. This means from about 8 pictures per second to 21. The usual “movie” is 16 per second.
In spite of those pioneering stations, most of whom are carrying on this work either to gain experience and knowledge against the time when television actually arrives, or to aid in the encouragement of experimentation, there is no general tendency for radiocasting stations to enter this field. In fact, it is a question whether the Radio Commission will permit the stations now indulging to continue, except as suggested by one of the commissioners, it be done after midnight.
Cause of Lack of Interest
It is the unsuitability of the radiocast band which is largely responsible for such lack of interest on the part of most of the television radiocasters and is largely responsible, also, for the poor results on the part of those who have taken up the matter. This arises from the legal separation of stations by only l0,000 cycles. The effect of this restriction is to limit the frequency transmitted from any station to 5000 cycles, because even Galli-Curci’s highest note will not reached 1500 cycles and the overtones of a violin of its harmonics will be of little power above 5000 cycles. For television purposes, however, a frequency limitation of 5000 cycles immediately makes impossible either quality or action. If 16 pictures per second are transmitted, no one picture can be made up of more than 312 impulses or dots. Assuming a square picture of even an ordinary newspaper cut, the maximum size possible would be about one-quarter of an inch square.
By using a single sideband, and thus utilizing the entire 10,000 cycles, the area would be doubled. By reducing the action to the flickering stage of the old movies, and being satisfied with a quality poorer than the crudest of the printer’s work, one can secure an image 1¼ inches square.
In one or two instances, for demonstrations only, the Radio Commission has granted permission to ignore the legal limitations and fair results have been obtained in an image about three inches square. It can be demonstrated that this size is about the limit that can ever be reached with a good image showing moderate action, using the rotating disk system without a multitude of receivers.
Ignoring any difficulties to be overcome, however, it is certain that even 20,000 or 40,000 cycles separation of stations will not ultimately suffice. That means television must go down to the short waves. (Christian Science Monitor)

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1928
TELEVISION BROADCAST PROGRAMS NOW SENT OUT DAILY BY CHICAGO STATION
Technicians Fast Putting New Invention Into Home; Carter Company Making Parts for Set to Plug Into. Radio Receiver and Draw Power From Socket.
THE marvels of television are very much in the spotlight, from the eagerness with which re- [missing sentence] on the newest developments in this field are received. Scientists, radio engineers and laboratories are focusing their skill on television, seeking to simplify it for common use.
Not since the birth of radio broadcasting has any scientific development been greeted such flights of fancy and conjecture as television. Apparently our sense of romance in comforts and luxuries has not been dulled by the magic parade of electricity, movies, radio, automobiles, industrial chemistry and aviation. It is well to stop and take stock of the status of this budding new division of the radio industry.
Although as yet comparable in results with our experiences with radio eight or ten years ago, technicians are applying to television the experience they gained from the radio industry in the last ten years. They have accelerated the progress of this new art so rapidly that it will be placed in the home in less time than was music by radio.
Regular Wave Bands Used.
The vast field of opportunities television offers is indicated by the entrance into it of one of the largest and oldest radio parts manufacturers—the Carter Radio company of Chicago. Believing the first requisite in establishing television on a sound basis to be the development of the right kind of broadcasting equipment, the Carter company installed a unit of this apparatus in Chicago. Unlike most other systems, which are operated on short waves, the Carter transmitter broadcasts television over the regular wave bands that broadcast receiving sets tune to.
The trial test of television reception, as broadcast by Carter through the WCFL Chicago station, was received at a point three miles from the transmitter: Although the receiving apparatus was of the laboratory type—rather crude in appearance—the results were good. One could plainly see the facial expression of the subject who was standing before the photo-electric cells in the WCFL studio. The expression of his face, the movement of the lips and action in wiping his face with handkerchief plainly visible by looking at the little spot about two and one-half inches square on the receiving scanning disc. Radio parts manufacturers and distributors who attended the test were of the opinion that here was the advent of a vast new period of activity in radio and the art of home entertainment, according to Lloyd Edison Back in the September issue of the Chicago Commerce.
Another novel test was staged when a giant tri-motored Ford plane soaring 3000 feet above the Chicago television successfully, picked up the television broadcast from the WCFL transmitter.
The Carter company has just installed more advanced equipment in station WIBO, Chicago, whence television broadcast programs are sent out daily. Only a few nights ago, for the first time in television history, voice and pictures were broadcast simultaneously on one wave band.
The heart of the system is the magic photo-electric cell. Briefly, this is what takes place: An intense beam of light from an arc lamp passes from right to left through a whirling perforated disc, the successive beams falling on the subject's form. As the reflected light beams fall on the four large photo-electric cells, minute photoelectric currents are produced. These currents are then highly amplified, passed on to the transmitter, onto the antenna and into the air on a carrier wave.
Image Can Be Magnified.
This wave is then intercepted by the radio receiver very much as music is now received. This intercepted signal then amplified through a special amplifier or through the regular audio amplification department of some commercial receivers, and passed on to the Neon tube. This is the television receiving tube and is distinguished by two small plates on which the image is impressed. This tube is placed behind a receiving scanning disc, which is rotated at exactly the same speed as the transmitting disc by a synchronous motor.
The reproduced image is seen by looking through a diaphragm ni [in] front of the whirling disc at the spot where the Neon tube is located. The visible image is ordinarily about two and inches square, but can be magnified to larger dimensions by the use of lenses installed in front of the television receiver.
The Carter company is in the process of manufacturing parts for a receiver consisting of a Neon lamp, scanning disc and motor properly installed in an attractive cabinet. It is designed to plug into the average good radio receiver, socketing its power from the light socket. (The Sunday Oregonian)

Abey Owns Two Sets
The only two television receiving sets in Fort Worth belong to Bob Abey, radio dealer and service expert, an associate member of the Institute of Radio Engineers. He is frank in stating that his results in experimenting with the devices are very unsatisfactory and that since he purchased the receivers in June no satisfactory images have been received. He still is experimenting, however, and believes that in time better results will be obtained.
Abey says his chief troubles are short wave ''jumping" and scanning disk (screen) synchronization. Explaining “jumping," he said that this merely is keeping the receiver “tuned in" properly on the transmitting station. The matter of synchronization with the transmitting station lies in keeping the scanning disk, of 48 apertures (screen 48), revolving at the same rate of speed as the transmitting apparatus. In other words, if the disk ought to revolve 960 revolutions per minute, any quickening or slowing down of the electric motor driving it will cause distortion of the image. This necessitates, Ahey says, the use of a rheostat to control the speed of the motor. The operator must watch the image—a rheostat in his hand—and constantly correct faulty images. The tubes in the receiver are Neon gas filled.
Abey believes that it will be at least three years before television enters the realm of the practical. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram Oregonian)

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1928
A NEW GIANT IS CREATED
R. C. A., K-A-O and Film Booking Office Join Forces
The amusement industry has a new giant to-day, a new consolidation, the Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corporation, which brings one step nearer to actuality what was, a few years ago a wild dream—television entertainment.
The new combination places the powerful Radio Corporation of America and its two subsidiaries, R. C. A. Photophone, Inc. and the National Broadcasting Company, in a commanding position in the amusement world.
Keith-Albee Orpheum controls 700 theatres. The National Broadcasting Company offers the best available talent and experience for making programmes, and the third member of the new group, Film Booking Office Productions, provides facilities for producing films.
While talking pictures constitute the primary production aim, the alluring financial possibilities in broadcasting programmes, already held technically possible, are regarded as factors which will lead to immediate experiment with television.
Thus, within a few years, a single show may be shown simultaneously throughout this and in England, or even on the continent.
Heading the new group as chairman of the board of directors is David Sarnoff, vice-president and general manager of the Radio Corporation. (Brooklyn Times-Union)

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1928
Board Clears Ether for Good Reception of Election Returns
FRIDAY, OCT. 26—(AP)—Because of the “widespread public interest in satisfactory reception of election returns,” the Federal Radio Commission today took steps to insure clear reception conditions from 8 p. m., Nove. 6 to 12 o’clock noon, Nov. 7.
Each amateur and experimental station, including television sets, was asked to cease operation during the period “if and to the extent that each station causes interference with reception from broadcasting stations.”
Broadcasting stations not entirely engaged in sending the returns were requested, so far as consistent with the carrying on of necessary communications, to conduct their stations with the minimum of interference.

Tube Takes Place of Disc in New Television Set Up
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 26 (AP)—Transmission of 20 pictures a second, without moving mechanical elements, is accomplished by a new television process devised by Philo T. Farnsworth, 22 year old inventor of San Francisco.
The scanning discs at transmitter and receiver of other systems, which must be synchronised to revolve in unison, are done away with. Instead electron beams are produced by cross vibrations to form an image on a fluorescent screen at the receiver.
The entire picture or image of any object that is to be transmitted is reproduced almost instantaneously, with 8,000 elements or “pin points” of light in each picture to give detail. The number of elements can be increased indefinitely, but at the present stage of development the sharpest image is obtained with that degree of detail. It is equivalent to a newspaper half-tone with a 100 line screen.
The system is built around a special dissector cell. This is a vacuum tube containing a cathode coated with photoelectric material, preferably potassium or caesium hydride. The picture is focused on this plate which at every point gives off electrons to proportion to the light shining on it. These electrons form an electric counterpart of the image cast upon the plate.
The electric image is produced in the plane of a tiny aperture which collects at one instant only the electrons having a single emitting point on the cathode. Therefore when the electric image is stationary a current is produced in the output of this tube which varies in magnitude with the light incident on perhaps the center of the cathode plate.
This electric image may be moved magnetically over the collecting aperature, so that the aperature receives in succession and in regular order the electrons from each point on the cathode plate.
Synchronizing involves generating two currents at the receiver identical to those at the transmitter used for scanning or breaking the image into pin points of light. This synchronization is automatic.
The transmitting tube is about the size of an ordinary quart jar. The receiving tube containing the screen is no larger.
The inventor estimates that the receiving apparatus could easily be attached to an ordinary receiver and manufactured to retail at $100 or less.
For the last three years Farnsworth has been perfecting his system to the Crocker Research laboratory, his efforts being financed by two San Francisco businessmen, R. N. Bishop and W. W. Crocker.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1928
WRNY TELEVISION SCHEDULE OPENS
Immediately following the public demonstration at New York University, Aug. 21, of the television system developed by the Pilot Electric Manufacturing Company, television transmitting, using this apparatus, was put on regular schedule over WRNY, the Coytesville (N. J.) station of Radio News. Television will be transmitted from this station during the first five minutes of every radiocasting hour.
The images transmitter by the Pilot system, according to the engineers present at the public demonstration, are remarkably clear and steady, faces being as easily recognizable as those of the average newspaper half-tone. The images have the pleasing quality of a fine wood cut, being made up of horizontal lines. (Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 27)

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1928
Television Broadcasts
LEXINGTON, Mass., Oct. 30. (AP)—Radio station W1XAY announced today that it would start regular television broadcasts today at 3 p. m. Radio pictures will be broadcast daily from 3 to 4, excepting Saturdays and Sundays.
The broadcast will be sent out on a wave length of approximately 4850 kilocycles, or 62 meters. A 48-line picture will be used on a disc doing 900 revolutions a minute, the disc being driven by synchronous motors.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER, 31, 1928
GENERAL ORDERS OF THE FEDERAL RADIO COMMISSION
Regulations governing picture and television transmission (General Order No. 50, October 31, 1928).—Picture and television transmission for general reception by the public will be referred to herein by the commission as picture broadcasting and television broadcasting.
Picture broadcasting and television broadcasting will be permitted (but only upon written application to, and formal authority from, the commission) on frequencies above 1,500 kilocycles, the exact frequencies, or bands of frequencies, to be determined by further order of the commission.
Between the date of this order and January 1, 1929, picture broadcasting and television broadcasting will be permitted to a limited extent (but only upon written application to, and formal authority from, the commission) in the broadcast band between 550 and 1,500 kilocycles, subject, however, to rigid conditions designed to prevent interference with the reception from broadcasting stations. Among such conditions will be the following: (1) That the band of frequencies occupied by any such transmission shall be not wider than 10 kilocycles, and (2) that such picture broadcasting and television broadcasting be limited to period of not more than one hour per day at a time of the day other than between 6 and 11 p. m.
The extent to which picture broadcasting and television broadcasting in the broadcast band of frequencies will be permitted to take place after January 1, 1929, if at all, will be determined by later orders of the commission, which will depend on investigation by the commission of the results of permitting such operation with respect to interference and the popularity of such transmission with the general public, and will further depend upon the interpretation which the commission shall be advised is proper of the obligations of the United States under the International Radio Telegraph Convention of 1927, with respect to permitting anything other than telephonic transmission in the broadcast band.