May 1929

Television looked ready to expand in the New York and New England area in May 1929, while the Federation of Labor station in Chicago proclaimed it would be broadcasting every Sunday.

W2XBU in Beacon, N.Y. near Poughkeepsie, and W2XCP in New York were approved to go on the air; W2XBU had already aired test programmes.

W2XBS, now WNBC, announced test broadcasts, as did a station with a much shorter life, W2XCL in Brooklyn.

In Lexington, Mass., W1XAY said it would be expanding its studios, while the Barnberger company conducted a successful test using ultra-violet rays. Bamberger would finally have a TV station on the air for good on Oct. 11, 1949 when WOR-TV began broadcasting on channel 9.

Here’s a summary of TV news for May, 1929.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 1929
Operators of Station WOKO Plan Television Demonstration
Smith and Curtis Soon To Reveal Results Of Long Experimentation in Laboratory Of Radio System on Mt. Beacon
Exhaustive research in a laboratory atop Mount Beacon, 1,545 feet above the Hudson River, by which it is hoped to make television available to the average person in his home at small expense, has just been completed by H. E. Smith and R. M. Curtis, operators of radio broadcasting station WOKO. Although this system of television has not been put on the air, radio tests will be made as soon as a license is granted by the Federal Radio Commission. Meanwhile experiments have been conducted over private wires between the station and its studio in the Hotel Windsor, a distance of about 18 miles.
Simple Apparatus
Like the radio in its infancy, television is as yet a strange thing to the lay person, but inventors and developers such as Mr. Smith and Mr. Curtis hope to make it possible within a short time to transmit television into the homes for reception by small and simple apparatus such as the present radio sets.
The radio laboratory in which this system of television was developed is perhaps the loftiest laboratory in the world, so high on the summit of Mount Beacon, Mr. Smith has given out a few facts concerning his system which he feels will be welcomed by the public interested in radio.
“The system used,” he says, “is what is known as the direct lighting, that is, the subject or person whose image is to be transmitted sits in a small recording studio which is flooded with 4,000 watts of incandescent lamps. Between the recording studio and the recording apparatus there is a small opening in the partition through which the image or subject is focused through a series of lenses upon a scanning disc.
“The signal received after being amplified by the six stages of amplification is then put into the transmitter in the usual way, or in the case of the laboratory tests just conducted, is connected to the neon tube which is placed behind a scanning disc of the same size as the transmitting disc containing the same number of holes and revolving at the same speed. By then looking at the neon tube with the disc revolving in front of it in synchronism with the transmitting disc, the picture is formed, caused by the holes in the receiving disc being between the eye of the observer and the neon tube.
"With the neon tubes now available the received picture is approximately one and one half inches square, but by using a magnifying glass it can be enlarged. But the more it is enlarged the less detail there is."

THURSDAY, MAY 2, 1929
George Nelson 1st Local Man To Get Successful Television
Constructs Set As Part of Thesis Work In Physics
When in Schenectady, N. Y., a man held a playing card before a strange-looking apparatus of tubes, discs, and coils, George H. Nelson, 422 N. Few st., Madison, senior in physics in the university, peered through an eye-piece in another apparatus in Sterling hall on Madison campus to see the five-spot of diamonds take shape before his eyes. Thus was received the first completely successful television transmission in Madison.
The television receiving set in Sterling hall has been constructed by student-physicist Nelson as part of his thesis work in physics. He has been working on the set since November.
In part the apparatus built by Mr. Nelson for the reception of television resembles the ordinary radio receiving set. There is a two-tube, short-wave-length receiver with a four-tube resistance-coupled amplifier. Power is supplied to the outfit from batteries furnishing 225 volts, and from a six-volt storage battery.
Lamp and Rotating Disc
The picture-producing part of the mechanism consists of a round disc, a small electric motor, and a neon tube. The only fundamental difference between an ordinary radio receiver and a television outfit is this additional equipment. The rotating disc has spirally arranged holes around the outer edge. The neon lamp is behind this disc.
Reference is made frequently to the 'screen' of the television receiver. There is no screen. That is probably the reason for the fact that television images resemble nothing one has previously seen. They are not reproduced on any flat surface but are formed from individual dots of light from the neon lamp behind the disc, these dots being distributed by the holes in the scanning disc in such a way as to form a complete image at each revolution of the disc.
This is similar to the method employed for projecting moving pictures, where one picture after another is thrown on the screen in such rapid succession that the eye receives the impression of continuous movement.
It has been said that one of the most fascinating features of television is the strange almost ghost-like appearance of the images. When the receiver is slightly out of phase, the images float across the opening like spirit pictures. The dim, flickering image seems to appear on the rapidly revolving disc.
“One of the chief problems in television is getting the scanning disc at the receiving end revolving at precisely the same speed as the disc at the sending end," comments Mr. Nelson. "In addition to running at the same speed, hole number one of the receiving disc must be in the same relative position as hole number one of the sending disc, just as if both discs were attached to a single shaft, when as a matter of fact they are separated by thousands of miles and connected only by radio waves.
Receives From New York
"If the discs are not running together the picture floats across the field of vision as many times in a second as is the difference between the two disc speeds."
The pictures received by Mr. Nelson's set are 1 ½ inches square, but viewed through a magnifying glass the image is considerably enlarged. Mr. Nelson tunes in with an ordinary pair of headphones. On the television sounds similar to high-speed code transmission, except that the sound is more continuous.
Station WGY at Schenectady is the only station broadcasting television powerfully enough to be received in Madison. As WGY transmits pictures during the time when the university station WHA is or the air with its noon-hour program, Mr. Nelson has some difficulty with the local interference. All of the television broadcasts from WGY are as yet purely for experimental purposes. (Capital Times, Madison)

TELEVISION TO BE BROADCAST DAILY BY WCFL, CHICAGO
BY GEORGE D. BUCK.
Station WCFL of Chicago will broadcast television as a regular feature between 9 and 11 a. m., Sundays excepted. Programs will consist of motion pictures and still subjects. The broadcast is on a wave length of 146.25 meters, standard 48-hole scanning disc, r. p. m. 950. They would like to hear reports from radio fans as to how their pictures are received.
Much progress is being made in television. According to reports from the Westinghouse, Bell Telephone and R. C. A. laboratories, improvements have been made both in enlarging the size of the picture shown and increasing the illumination of it. While early experiments only succeeded in showing a 2-inch picture, it is now possible to project images on a screen 15 by 18 inches. Much encouragement in this field has resulted since the allotment of wider bands of frequencies for these experiments, 100 kilocycle bands now being allowed, making larger pictures and greater detail possible.
Owners of short wave receivers are requested by Station W2XCL, Brooklyn, N. Y., to report on their reception on this station, which broadcasts on 143.5 meters every Monday, Wednesday and Friday between 9 and 11 p. m., with spoken announcements and musical notes of different frequencies. They will not start actual television until they have made these preliminary tests and satisfied themselves that a considerable number of people can hear the station clearly and with good volume. They intend to transmit images of living persons and not merely photographs. (St. Louis Star)

Experiments In Television Being Carried On Here
Television, one of the most modern discoveries in science, is being studied extensively in the Coe college laboratories by Lee Hruska, major student in the physic department. He has received television broadcasts from Washington, D. C., and has already succeeded in making a photo-electric cell, one of the most difficult parts of the television sending apparatus to construct.
Hruska has done a large amount of experimenting with radio and the allied sciences. Recently the Federal Radio commission acted to prohibit the experimental broadcast of pictures but word has just been received from James W. Good, Secretary of War, of a special frequency dedicated to the service of television.
Hruska has been interested in radio since the days when there were no broadcasting stations such are on the air at the present time. He was a member of the Amateur Radio Relay League, an organization composed of the most outstanding radio amateurs of the country, and assisted in communicating with explorers in the Arctic regions. (Coe College Cosmos)

SATURDAY, MAY 4, 1929
20,000 “LOOKERS” ESTIMATE
WASHINGTON (AP)—Short wave station W3XK, which broadcasts television signals from films, estimates that it has an audience of 20,000. This observation was made from a flood of letters that followed a 10-day suspension of transmission on 46.72 meters while changes were made.
Television programs are now being broadcast on a regular daily schedule from W1KAY [sic], Lexington, Mass. Pictures are being sent from W3XAV, Pittsburgh, W2XAF, Schenectady and W3XK, Washington, D. C., three times a week. (Honolulu Star-Bulletin)

W1XAY to Increase Television Equipage
LEXINGTON, Mass., May 4. (AP)—Construction of a new 5,000 watt transmitter is being undertaken by television station W-1XAY, at Lexington, as the result of a granting of a license for experimental television work by the federal radio commission.
SUNDAY, MAY 5, 1929
A few days ago Dr Alfred N. Goldsmith, chief broadcast engineer of the Radio Corporation of America, invited several guests to his home to witness a demonstration of television reception. Gathered about the television receiver in Dr Goldsmith’s Riverside Drive apartment, the guests saw the image of an operator standing before a television transmitter located at 411 5th av. They saw the operator pick up a telephone in answer to a call from Dr Goldsmith, saw him stroke his hair, saw him smile when the doctor spoke in a humorous vein—convincing evidence that he was actually following instructions.
At the conclusion of the demonstration Dr Goldsmith asked his guests if they were satisfied from what they had seen that television had arrived. They were satisfied that it had.
“Well, then” remarked Dr Goldsmith, “I have prepared you for a little surprise. What you have seen demonstrated here tonight is now largely obsolete as far as television is concerned. In our laboratories we have apparatus working which does away with all the cumbersome moving parts and scanning discs used by this machine. We have apparatus much smaller and much easier to manage which is capable of casting images on a screen to the full size of about 15x18 inches. The television receivers of the future, comp1ete and ready for plugging into the light socket, will not occupy a space larger than is now required by a high quality radio set and speaker.” (Boston Globe)

WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 1929
SMITH TELLS COMMISSION HE WILL SPEND $100,000
Seeking a renewal of the television license rescinded a month and a half ago after being in effect since July, 1928, Harold E. Smith, operator of radio station WOKO told the Radio Commission in Washington he is prepared to spend $100,000 on television.
Mr. Smith told The Eagle-News the station was backed financially too make television experiments to this extent and that he hoped to have the license soon so the experiment can be put on the air. Thus far they have been conducted on special wire between the station on Mount Beacon and the studio in the Hotel Windsor, this city.
In making his application for renewal of the license, Mr. Smith requested a frequency of 4,300-4,900 kilocycles but at the hearing Wednesday [8] amended it to whatever frequency is necessary to bring it within the experimental television bands. The same thing was done with his request for 100 watts power. (Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, May 11)

SATURDAY, MAY 11, 1929
A SERIES of motion pictures, which will be carried to radio fans in the New York area by television, now is being produced by Visugraphic Pictures, Inc., New York.
These pictures will be broadcast from station W2XCR, Jersey City, operated by the Jenkins Television Corporation, and will be “tuned in” by radio listeners who have receiving sets equipped for television purposes.
This new development in the science of television and cinematics, made possible by the indefatigable effort and research on the part of radio technicians, brings nearer the time when radio enthusiasts will be able to “tune in” the finest motion picture entertainment—sound, dialogue and all, according to television engineers.
With television movies still at an experimental stage, the Visugraphic productions necessarily will be simple sketches, especially adapted for the purpose.
In the broadcasting of motion pictures, the radio studio presents the appearance of a projection room. There are no "Silence" signs; noise is not picked up by the television apparatus.
One hears the familiar clicking of the motion picture projector and sees the film unreeling through lenses much the same as in ordinary projection work. The graduations of light thrown through the film are transformed into radio impulses and sent out over the antenna to be detected and picked up miles distant and reproduced upon a small screen attached to the receiving set of the television enthusiast.
Experiments made in the production of suitable television subjects in the Visugraphic laboratories indicate tremendous possibilities in this new form of entertainment. (Washington Herald)

MONDAY, MAY 13, 1929
W2XBS, the experimental television station of the Radio Corporation of America, has extended its broadcasting hours to include the period from 7 to 11 p. m. daily. This change has been made in order to allow a greater period for the study of reception at various locations. The transmitted pictures consist of sixty horizontal lines each divided into sixty-two elements laterally. Twenty pictures are scanned per second. (Nick Kenny, Daily News, New York)

TUESDAY, MAY 14, 1929
Buffalo Station Ready to Give Television Service as Soon as Radio Commission Grants an Application—First Broadcast Expected Sept. 1
WASHINGTON, May 14.—Television talkies in every Buffalo home during the coming year is the aim of station WSVS, Buffalo, which today filed an application with the Federal Radio Commission for an experimental television license. The application was filed by John D. Donlon, director of transmission for WSVS, and seeks use of 500 watts on 2050 kilocycles.
If the experimental license is granted, the new equipment will be installed in the Seneca vocational school, operator of WSVS, on Delavan avenue, and the first visual broadcast will take place Sept. 1.
"Buffalo has no station to advance the art of television in that vicinity," Mr. Donlon declared today, adding that "the nearest television stations are in Pittsburgh and Schenectady. They are too far away to do Buffalo any good.
"We propose to begin the visual broadcast service Sept. 1 and will begin by sending ordinary photographs and pictures of living facsimiles. Whan we find these are reaching the Buffalo homes satisfactorily we shall try sending motion pictures.
"The ultimate will come when we can use our broadcasting station to send out music as an accompaniment to the television motion picture which we plan sending out on the short waves.”
Mr. Donlon declared he had been making personal experiments with television for several months and that WSVS is ready to go ahead with the work The new apparatus for the television broadcasting has been ordered and will be installed as soon as the Radio commission approves the application for construction permit.
This is the second application filed by station WSVS with the Radio commission within the two weeks. The former covered the station's broadcast service and requested use of 1200 kilocycles, a Canadian-shared wavelength, together with 200 watts power for daytime use and 100 watts power at night.
The matter is pending before the commission, awaiting word from Canadian radio authorities at Ottawa, who must pass on the desired wavelength before it is assigned to the Buffalo station. At present there are no Canadian stations on the 1200-kilocycle band. (Buffalo News)

ENGINEERS SEE TELEVISION FOR ALL HOMES SOON
By JAMES STOKLEY
Science Service Staff Writer
WASHINGTON, May 14.—The time when television images will be flitting back and forth through the air as thickly as broadcast music today is not far off. Radio engineers are doing all they can to hasten the day and to bring television into every home.
Meeting in Washington is the Institute of Radio Engineers, including the best known names in radio. At their session today they devoted their time to a symposium on visual radio, which includes sending of still pictures by radio as well as the rapid transmission of motion pictures.
One simplification of the television receiver, looking toward bringing it into the home, was described by C. Francis Jenkins, Washington inventor. This is a drum scanner, in which a seven inch drum does the same work as a 36 inch disc in older forms of apparatus. Such a drum, with its driving motor, can be enclosed in a small cabinet, comparable in size with a modern dynamic speaker.
Transmit Picture in Colors
Improvements in picture transmission have now reached the point where a picture in colors has been transmitted by radio across the continent. Captain R. H. Ranger described his latest form of photo-radio transmitter and receiver with which this can be done.
The transmitter makes use of the varying reflection from a picture, wrapped around a revolving drum, to a photoelectric cell. In his newest transmitter, Captain Ranger uses five prisms which split the light into five parts, each of which goes its respective cell.
The receiver records on waxed paper, instead of photographic paper, as in other methods. The incoming signal regulates a jet of hot air, which is squirted at the paper as it moves in step with the original picture. The wax is waterproof but the hot air melts it in spots. These spots are no longer waterproof, and when a dye is applied, the color is absorbed where the hot air struck.
Homes to Have Two Receivers
Dyes of any color may be used and by sending three separate pictures of the red, blue and green of the original, each may be printed in the proper color. In the finished picture, all are combined to produce color print.
Probably the home of the future will have two radio receivers, one for broadcasting, the other tuned to short waves for television. With these two it will be possible to obtain both the voice and view. This is because television is the most difficult form of radio transmission—a view expressed to the engineers by Dr. Alfred N. Goldsmith, vice-president of the Radio Corp. Very special forms of receivers will be required satisfactory television images are to be received, he said. At present the corporation, under his direction, is broadcasting television nightly from a New York studio.

MONDAY, MAY 20, 1929
WILKINSBURG AMATEURS' TELEVISION SET SUCCESS
Pittsburgh boasts of its luxurious and ultra-complete radio stations. There are a number.
But Wilkinsburgh has one that for modesty of surroundings is unequalled.
In a little workshop back of the home of Anthony Mag, 1027 Franklin avenue, is short-wave station W8OW, and every one of the seemingly hundreds of mechanical gadgets in it have been constructed by himself, or his fellow hobbyists, John Clark and Robert Marshall.
On Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights, they get motion and still pictures from KDKA on their home-made television receiving set. For six months the trio labored, finally, the big disk revolved and on it appeared the pictures that meant they had succeeded. Besides their time, the equipment cost them nearly $200.
But that's not all. At odd times during the past 10 years they have caused to grow numerous radio receiving sets. Now they have built a short-wave sending set, so successful that their little station W8OW has been heard in New Zealand, Hawaii, and nearly all European countries.
They have little machines for everything, it seems. One cuts, another polishes, another tests the quartz use in the transmission set crystals. All types and sizes of motors are connected and interconnected. Miles of tiny wiring make the little workshop a labyrinth of mechanics.
Since their grammar school days, all three have had radio as a hobby. Only Marshall works at it directly.
Now they're planning to tear down the first television set and rebuild for greater efficiency. Mag is a night student at Carnegie Tech, and works for Duquesne Light Company during the day. (Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph)
SATURDAY, MAY 25, 1929
Washington, D. C.—Harold E. Smith, owner of the broadcasting station WOKO, Mt. Beacon, today received permission from the federal radio commission to conduct television experiments over his experimental television station, W2-XBU, an hour daily.
The commission for the present will restrict Smith to experiments between 1 and 2 p.m. A license with the proviso is being issued him.
The action was taken on the recommendation of the engineering division which, according Carl H. Butman, secretary of the commission, felt that this would be a fair arrangement for Smith. Later, said Butman, the commission will, if Smith wishes it, consider a more generous allowance of time for him, although it will not at this time pledge itself as to the future.(Beacon News)

TUESDAY, MAY 28, 1929
SHOWS TELEVISION TRANSMISSION BY ULTRA-VIOLET RAY
For the first occasion in radio history, television was transmitted by visible light and ultra-violet rays in a demonstration conducted by the United States Radio and Television corporation at L. Bamberger & Co., in Newark, yesterday [28]. At the same time, the first public transmission of sound by ultra-violet rays was shown.
On the eleventh floor at the Bamberger & Co., in Newark, yesterday, observed a battery of transmitting equipment at one end of the building and a receiving device at the opposite end. A bulb emitted a beam of varying colored light from the transmitting end. The light flickered and changed in intensity in accordance with the speech which an official poured into a nearby microphone connected to apparatus operating the bulb. The bulb behaved the same way attached to the television transmitter.
A loud speaker and ear phones delivered the speech given at the opposite end, while a television screen showed a clear image. Whenever the light was intercepted, the reception stopped.
Following this, a filter allowing only a near ultra-violet ray to proceed was placed over the bulb. Reception of both sound and television still continued except when an object or person was interposed between the receiver and transmitter, thereby cutting off the ray.
EXPLAINS SYSTEM.
Paul A. Kober, television engineer of the United States Radio and Television company, who conducted the showing and developed the process, is an engineer of reputation. Last August he directed over WOR radio station in collaboration with Bamberger engineers, the first television drama synchronised with music.
He explained the television process was by means of a high frequency Mercury induction lamp, the light of which varies in accordance with the electrical impulses representing high lights, half tones and shadows of the image transmitted and, two photo-electric cells which receive the varying light translate it back into a varying current, actuating a neon lamp and causing the image to be recreated on a television screen by the aid of an ordinary scanning disk and light pencil.
RAPID CHANGES.
"Its feasibility," Kober said, "is due in large measure to the extraordinary qualities of the Mercury induction lamp originally developed for therapeutic work, but recently discovered to have characteristics for light modulation beyond the highest frequency needed for television.
A remarkable feature of this lamp is that the radio frequency which actuates it causes it to darken, and glow at least 30,000,000 times a second.
"Moreover, besides its capacity for transmitting television I have employed it as a receiving lamp for television in place of the ordinary glow lamp, making possible a larger and better detailed picture.
"An ultra-violet filter encasing the mercury Iamp will allow only ultra-violet rays to extend in the same path where the light beam would ordinarily be. As to the distance this type of transmission can extend it is safe to say at present it can be projected ten miles. There is, of course, no limit to its possibilities."
The ultra-violet exhibition made apparent immediate scientific usages and opened a wide experimental field. An example is ship to ship communication in time of war when radio signals and light beams would be impractical. In short, an invisible ray, for the transmission of sound and picture, which ray can neither be seen nor heard, has far-reaching potentialities.
In addition to pressmen and officials of the United States Radio and Television corporation and L. Bamberger & Co., a number of electrical scientists were present. (Bergen Evening Record, May 29)

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 1929
FREED EISEMANN GETS TELEVISION STATION PERMIT
BY GEORGE D. BUCK.
Construction permits have granted to the Freed Eisemann Radio Corporation to build a visual broadcasting station to be known as W2XCP. This call letter will cover the experimental work done on both of the wave lengths granted to the corporation, namely, from 2,000 to 2,100, and from 2,850 to 2,950 kilocycles, this being the 100-kilocycle band of frequencies allotted for this kind of broadcasting. Construction work will be started at once, as the research department of the company has been experimenting for some time in anticipation of the granting of this permit. (St. Louis Star)

April 1929

Brooklyn had a TV station in 1929, but didn’t have it for long.

The New York Times of March 19, 1929, in a story dated the previous day, said Zah Bauk of Brooklyn had received a construction permit for television station W2XCL. A story on June 23, 1992 in the Baltimore Sun reported it had been operating under the permit since March 27.

In mid-April that year, the station owner, Pilot Radio, began test broadcasts. Radio-Craft magazine, in its September 1929 issue, told readers: “For the time being the transmissions will consist merely of spoken announcements and of musical notes of different frequencies. The purpose of the tests is to determine the quality of the modulation, the ability of the apparatus to handle the wide frequency bands required for television work, and the field strength of the signals in various parts of the Metropolitan area.”

The station didn’t last long. An unbylined story in the Jan. 10, 1930 edition of the Paterson Morning Call told how Pilot had asked the Federal Radio Commission to move the station to Lawrence, Mass., where its manufacturing plant was. The Commission agreed and the station call letters were changed to W1XY by July 31, 1930.

On the other side of the country, W7XAO in Portland was getting closer to being on the air. As well, a story in April 1929 tells how the Charles Freshman company in New York planned to get into the television broadcasting business. The company’s Joseph Freed set up a corporation later that year and was awarded construction permits on two frequencies as W2XCP in Allwood, N.J. The Commission's Radio Service Bulletin of August 31, 1931 says "strike out all particulars."

A story about a DXer with his home-built set mentions he visited C. Francis Jenkins the day of the Hoover Inauguration. There is nothing about a special telecast of film of the event on W3XK, so it likely did not happen.

There isn’t much to report on television for April 1929. The highlights we’ve come across are below.

SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 1922
Those interested in television will be pleased to know that 2XAG [General Electric in Schenectady] is broadcasting television every night from 7 to 9 P. M. on the band from 140.9 to 141.8 meters. (Buffalo Evening News)

FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 1929
Freshman Company To Broadcast Television From Allwood Plant
Announces That Work Will Begin As Soon As Two Channels Are Granted By Federal Radio Commission—Stations To Aid Home Experimenters—Five Years Of Tests Ahead
The Charles Freshman Company, which has practically completed the moving of its radio set manufacturing equipment into a new home in the former Allwood Plant of the Brighton Mills, announced yesterday [12] that it would establish two television broadcasting stations there to aid the rapidly growing number of home television experimenters in the Metropolitan District.
Mr. Freed In Charge
The broadcasting stations will not be placed into operation until the Federal Radio Commission grants the necessary channels, application for which has already been made. Work will be begun as soon as the permission is granted under the direction of Joseph D. R. Freed, vice-president of the company, in charge of engineering.
Mr. Freed said that he did not expect to see television sets for home use on the market before five years. During that time, he said, his concern will devote its time to experimental work.
The Freshman Company is closely allied with the Freed Radio Company, and both concerns will have their main plants in the large Brighton Mills buildings. It is planned to manufacture the sets together to effect economies.
"There is little doubt that within ten years television receivers will be in every home which boasts a radio set today,” said Mr. Freed in commenting the television situation yesterday. "Many will, no doubt, have one within five years, but very few will have them before that time because I doubt that television will be perfected for home use much before five years.
"However, television is developing along lines which will make the radio receivers of today part of the new television receiver. There will not be any scrapping of radio sets in order to enjoy television; they will only have to get supplementary receivers. We are devoting a sum of money to develop television, but we feel that all the labor at this time should be expended in experimental work. (Daily News, Passaic, N.J.)

AERIAL TELEVISION IS DESIGNED
Plane Views Would Be Sent to Ground Receiving Station by Apparatus.
An “aerial television eye,” designed to transmit airplane views of cities or countryside to a ground receiving station, is being constructed by C. Francis Jenkins of this city, noted television inventor.
The apparatus, a sensational development of the Jenkins process of broadcasting visual scenes by radio, is to be tested for the first time shortly in a special plane ordered by the inventor from the Curtiss factory. The plane is to be delivered within a few days.
The experiment undoubtedly will be watched with keen interest by Army and Navy officials, as the device concededly would have great military value in time of war. With the aid of the apparatus, general headquarters of an army would be put within sight range of actual operations at the front.
Refines Visual Detail.
The apparatus will be of special type, built to insure “refinement of visual detail,” Mr. Jenkins said. The panorama below will be recorded in the usual way, by means of a “scanning disc,” light-sensitive cell and broadcasting paraphernalia. The scenes will be received on regular television machines set up in the Jenkins laboratory.
The Jenkins laboratory at present is at 1519 Connecticut avenue, but a new laboratory and television broadcasting station now is under construction in Maryland, on the Brookville Pike. Formal tests may be deferred until the new station is completed.
Mr. Jenkins was reluctant to discuss his plans in detail in advance of the tests, as he said “something might go wrong and spoil the first tests.” He declared, however, that he had “a lot of confidence in the outcome.” Preliminary experiments simulating airplane conditions have been conducted successfully, he stated.
In order to assume personal charge of the operations in the air the inventor has been taking pilot lessons at an air field near Rockville preparatory to securing a Federal license. Mr. Jenkins is an experienced flyer and piloted a seaplane of his own prior to enactment of regulations governing private flying. He was not familiar with land planes until recently, however.
Plane a Laboratory.
The plane which Mr. Jenkins has ordered is termed by him a "flying laboratory.” It is a Curtiss Robin plane of the cabin type, with a special Challenger engine. A complete television broadcasting outfit will be installed in the cabin. The scanning “eye” will focus on the ground through an aperture in the bottom of the plane. Mr. Jenkins will pilot the plane while two assistants operate the television machinery. (Washington Star)

WAYNESBORO MAN BUILDS A TELEVISION SET
A. J. Gardenhour, who is now located in his new quarters in Waynesboro, has devised a machine to serve the purpose of receiving pictures over the air. The power of receiving pictures by means of this apparatus is known as television.
One station can be received with accuracy. From the C. F. Jenkins laboratories, in Washington, D. C., operating through W3XK, television pictures are sent out each Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Mr. Gardenhour tuned in Friday [12] and reported having received several clear objects from W3XK. In the near future, he said, the Jenkins laboratories will start broadcasting every night.
Mr. Gardenhour with a circle of friends a few nights ago operated the radiovisor on which Mr. Jenkins holds a patent. On March 4, 1929, Mr. Gardenhour visited the Jenkins laboratories and had a long conversation with the inventor in which the following explanation of the operation of the television was given:
"Having tuned sharply on the station broadcasting pictures, to get the best signal strength possible, the operator throws over the switch to cut out the loudspeaker and cut in the radiovisor, i. e., the picture received."
Mr. Gardenhour's machine was made entirely by himself. The radiovisor is made from two victrola records clamped around a paper disc with forty-eight line pictures. It operates on 150 meters and fifteen picture frames per second. The explanation continues:
"Now with the rubber driving disc about one and a half to two inches from the scanning disc bearing block, one begins turning the adjusting screw to draw the motor outward. As the operator nears the synchronism, one will see the base line of the picture traveling rapidly upward.
"Continuing the adjustment the picture presently appears, probably obliquely, moving more and more slowly as the operator turns the screw, until it stops, upright, and there is the radio-movie in all its fascination.
"If the picture shows the upper half of the subject and the lower half above it, the operator touches the disc with the finger, once or twice, and the picture will move up until it is framed.
"The picture may be upside down as one looks at the lamp through the shining disc apertures; or it may be wrong right and left, like looking at a photograph in a mirror. However, except in reading titles, it is not often important wheather [sic] the picture is correct right and left or not; but it is very necessary to have the subject's head up. In any event, right and left correction is attained by reversing the motor, while if the picture is upside down one must take off the disc, turn it around and put the other side of the disc next to the lamp.
"The picture may again be negative or positive. To change from one to the other, the best way is to add another stage of amplification, although it can be done by substituting a “C” battery bias for the grid-leak and condenser on the grid of the detector. (Franklin Repository, Chambersburg, Pa., April 15)

SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 1929
Country Has 20,000 Sets for Television
Practically All Built by the Owners
Recently the Jenkins television transmitting station at Washington, D. C., with the call letters W3XK, was closed down for a period of 10 days. Ordinarily, this is on the air on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening of each week, from 8 to 9 p. m., E. S. T. on 46.72 meters (6,420 kilocycles). As a result, the Jenkins Television Corp. offices were virtually flooded with protesting letters from all parts of the United States, asking that the television services be resumed without delay.
"We estimate our own Jenkins Radiomovies audience at no less than 20,000," stated C. Francis Jenkins, the pioneer worker in the practical television field, when interviewed on this subject. “These 20,000 have built their own apparatus¸ which is therefore crude, to say the least. Nevertheless, they are enjoying antimated [sic] radio pictures three times a week, and getting a big thrill out of these pioneering efforts.
"With the early introduction of simplified television equipment for the home, I look forward to a rapid increase in the number of ‘looker[s]-in,’ particularly since the Iaity will then be in position to take part in television developments. Just as the first broadcast programs were received by some 65,000 listeners-in within range of Station KDKA, we have some 20,000 lookers-in tuned to our signals. I look forward to a rapid growth of this audience until we shall be catering to millions through a plurality of scattered television stations." (Washington Herald)

SUNDAY, APRIL 14, 1929
KWJJ PREPARES FOR TELEVISION
Portland Station Sets Pace in Northwest for Latest Innovation in Radio.
That television is on the way is evidenced by the fact that station KWJJ of Portland, Ore., is now installing apparatus to broadcast television and will be in a position to do so within two weeks, according to M. L. Blakemore, sales manager for Lee Olney, distributor for Stewart Warner radios.
First in Northwest.
“This is important in that it is the first move by stations in the northwest to install television," Mr. Blakemore said, "although a number of stations in the east are now doing so. It is not probable the apparatus will be sufficiently powerful to reach Spokane, but it will at least be effective in Portland and it is probable that stations in Seattle and Spokane will soon follow them. They will broadcast on a wave length of 52 meters and their call letters will be W7XAO.
"Everything must have a beginning and those who argue against television are in a class with those who scoffed at the steam engine of Watt, the locomotive of Stevenson and crude airplane of the Wright brothers, all of which eventually became an integral part of our civilization as I believe soon will television.
"It is a salient fact that the engineers of the Stewart Warner corporation feel that television is sufficiently far advanced that they have equipped the company's new model radio so that a television receiving set can be plugged in to it. By fall, in my opinion, television will be broadcast in Spokane." (Spokane Spokesman-Review)

THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 1929
W2XCL, the television short-wave transmitter of the Pilot Electric Mfg. Co. of Brooklyn, will begin broadcasting tomorrow evening [19]. The unit will utilize 250 watts on a wave length of 142.5 meters and will be on the air every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening between 9 and 11 o’clock. A good chance for television fans to prepare to receive the proper signals, so that when television actually becomes a success, the sets will be ready to receive. (David Braton, Brooklyn Times-Union)

FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 1929
Brooklyn Radio Company Tests Television Set
Pilot Plans Regular Schedule After Experiments Friday on Low Waves
Preliminary tests of a short-wave transmitter which will be employed for television were conducted at 9 o’clock Friday [19] by the Pilot Electric Company through its station recently licensed by the Federal Radio Commission. While last week’s tests consisted solely of announcements and musical broadcasts, for the purpose of testing the modulating characteristics of the apparatus, it is expected that television programs will be regular features. Time announced for future broadcasts is between 9 and 11 p. m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
The Pilot company is one of the few metropolitan experimenters to obtain a license for television from the Radio Commission. The station, which has been assigned the call letters W2XCL, uses a power of 250 watts and operates on a wave length of 143.5 meters. The purpose of the tests, in addition to testing the modulation, it was disclosed, was to determine the ability of the apparatus to handle the wide frequency bands required for television and the field strength of the signals in the various parts of the metropolitan district.
Owners of short-wave receiving sets through New York and New Jersey who had been advised of the tests reported excellent reception of the station’s signals. General opinion was that the quality was sufficiently good to handle the wide range of tones necessary for television transmission and reception.
These tests, according to John Gelosi, chief engineer of the company, will not interfere with regular broadcasting. The wave length is sufficiently below the entertainment bands to completely eliminate any tendency of overlapping, even in the vicinity of the apparatus.
“This experimental work will in no way cause interference with regular broadcast programs,” he said, “as it will be done on a wave length completely beyond the range of ordinary broadcast receivers. Two highly developed ‘televisors’ are ready to be connected to the radio transmitter, but actual transmission will not be started until a sufficient number of listeners report the signals of W2XCL to be of sufficient volume and clarity to warrant radio telephotography.
Geloso explained that images of L1iving people and actual scenes would be transmitted over the station as soon as the television programs were under way. Photographic films will not be transmitted regularly, he said, calling this type of transmission “animated radio telephotography.”
The Pilot company is one of the few organizations licensed recently by the Radio Commission for experimental visual broadcasting, having been assigned bands between 2,000 and 2,100 kilocycles (143-150 meters) and 2,750 to 2,850 kilocycles (105-109 meters). Last summer it built the television apparatus used for a few months at Station WRNY. (New York herald Tribune, Apr. 21)

SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 1929
A EXPERIMENT IN TELEVISION IS DAY'S FEATURE
Radio Amateurs on Hand for Outstanding Event of Relay League at Kimball.
Interest at the annual convention of the New England Division of the American Radio Relay League now in Session at the Hotel Kimball, centered this afternoon around a promised demonstration of television reception by C. N. Kraus of Brown University, president of the Radio Club of Rhode Island. Although the demonstration was promised for 1 o'clock, late arrival of his apparatus from Providence prevented Mr. Kraus from getting it assembled, and at 2 o'clock he had been unable to put it into operation.
The great interest in the demonstration brought many without connection with the Relay League to the Kimball ballroom, where they hoped to see small images transmitted from the Washington dance on the small ground glass screen set before a large black scanning disk. Following his television demonstration, Mr. Kraus was prepared to demonstrate his success with transmission and reception on the five-meter band at extremely high frequencies.
Among the interested spectators at the television demonstration was Hollis Baird of Boston, owner of station W1WX, himself a pioneer in the television field. Outside of station W1LEX a commercial station in Lexington, his is the only station in this section regularly transmitting television, and one of the very few amateur stations in the country so engaged. Mr. Baird’s transmitter is partly a standard vision transmitter, and in part an amplifying system of his own development for which he claims five stages of direct amplification of unusual efficiency. His broadcasts have been received 15 miles away with great clarity, and he has made arrangements for amateurs in the western part of the State to attempt to receive his signals. He does not use silhouet transmission as does Jenkins in Washington, whose transmission was to be picked up this afternoon, but transmits halftones which give full gradations of color. (Springfield Evening Union)

WANTS TELEVISION STATIONS TO MAKE KNOWN LOCATION
"Looker" Would Be Able to Adjust His Televisor For Reception.
By Robert Mack
(Consolidated Press Association)
Washington, April 20.—Television tinkerers, and there are some 20,000 of them, who have suffered agonizing hours trying to identify some discordant visual broadcasting station and adjust their televisors to receive its picture-producing signals, may soon be relieved of their plight.
John V. L. Hogan, of New York, one of the foremost radio engineers and inventors and a television enthusiast, has suggested remedial measures to the Federal Radio Commission. In short his plan is to have 20 odd television stations, now operating experimentally, "announce" their call letters and location, along with the speed and character of their pictures before and they actually begin transmission. Thus the "looker" would be able to adjust his televisor for reception of that particular station, rather than grope blindly for the precise set adjustment.
Television peeped out of the laboratory too soon, in opinion of most engineers. But to make up for this error the industry is guarding its childhood very closely. Mr. Hogan's suggestion, which has the support of the commission's engineers, is to correct at the very beginning a shortcoming that might the progress of visual broadcasting.
Mr. Hogan proposed that the commission adopt a general order requiring all television stations to announce, either by radio-telephone or telegraph (code) or both, the essential details of the visual broadcast. The majority of the television fans are radio amateurs and understand code, and anybody who is equipped for television reception can tune in on the short waves with a sound receiver to pick up the "telephone" announcement.
At the present time the television stations do not "announce" their identity and the result is that unless a particular "looker" is adjusted for the reception of a particular station, he gets nothing. Television broadcasting has not been standardized to the extent that the same set adjustment is suitable for all transmissions.
The existing television stations transmit pictures of 24, 48 and 60 lines at speeds ranging from 7 ½ to 20 pictures per second. In order to receive, the televisor must be so adjusted as to synchronize with the speed and number of lines of the pictures transmitted.
By agreement with the North American nations, the radio commission has set aside five television waves in the continental short wave spectrum, one of which is allocated [to] Canada on a priority basis. These channels are one hundred kilocycles wide, or ten times the width of the broadcasting channel. They are set aside for experimental purposes and the development of the visual radio art. (Roanoke World-News)

TELEVISION ALL SET FOR BROADCAST ON THREE TIMES WEEK
Pioneer Says He Will Reach 20,000 From His 5,000 Watt Station in East
By RODNEY DUTCHER
NEA Service Writer
Washington, April 20—Radio movies, still in swaddling clothes, are being slowly but gradually developed by C. Francis Jenkins, the foremost pioneer in the field of television.
Within a few days, Jenkins hopes to be using his new frequencies to broadcast movies from a new 5000-watt station, with a radiovision audience which he already estimates at about 20,000.
Since last July he has been broadcasting only silhouette pictures from his laboratory here, but he now hopes to be able to send out half-tones which will have the same effect as movies in your favorite theater.
By use of a magnifying glass, the radiovision audience which tunes in on the Jenkins programs at 8 o’clock on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings is now able to see the subjects moving on what appears to be a six-inch screen, but the inventor has also developed two-foot screen outfits for home use and larger apparatus for theaters.
"When we get going on half-tones,” Jenkins says “we will be able to broadcast many regular movie films, but not all of them. Right now we can’t carry a great deal of detail and have to have pictures with only three or four subjects.”
His new station, which will continue to be called W3XK, has been set up in a two-story house at Wheaton, Md., some five miles from Washington and the apparatus resembles a regular sound broadcasting station almost identically. Announcements in the regular fashion, of course, accompany the picture broadcasting.
“We are now engaged in keeping up our regular broadcast schedule and at the same time improving transmission," Jenkins says. “Of course the big thing we're engaged on is trying to change from silhouettes to half-tones. That’s why we asked for wider bands.
“Previously we have made brief, simple varied subjects and one or two story pictures and have bought a few cartoon pictures. We have produced ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ and 'Old King Cole’ in one reel features. We have had to content ourselves with subjects without many fine lines.
“But we’re going to do better than that. We are only passing through the novelty stage, just as the motion picture itself had to pass through it. We don't expect perfection at first but, fortunately, neither does the public. “We’ve invited the assistance of the amateurs of the country because they're clever fellows and can give us many ingenious and helpful suggestions. We can't afford to set up a lot of regular stations over the country at our own expense.
“In return, we help the amateurs find the material they need to receive our program. It only costs them about $2.50 and some time and work to set up a radiovision receiver. With a shortwave radio set, an amateur needs only to get the picture receiving set together and attach it."
While Jenkins plugs away here in his laboratory to improve the new science the Jenkins Television Corporation has been building a factory in Jersey City to produce radiovision receiving sets and has already turned out a few preliminary samples. (Times-Signal, Zaneville, Ohio, Apr. 21)

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 1929
A. A. Goeddel went to St. Louis Monday [22] to see a demonstration of the television at the Bentwood-Linze Co. Goeddel states he heard and saw a stage production broadcast from some Canadian station. He compared it to the talking movies and said the vision was very clear except for some spots which appeared from time to time. (Waterloo Republican, Apr. 24)

March 1929

On a rainy day in Washington, D.C., March 4, 1929, Herbert Hoover took the U.S. presidential oath of office as radio covered the story with its top commentators of the era.

What about television?

C. Francis Jenkins, owner/operator of a small station in the nation’s capital, announced elaborate plans to film, broadcast, then re-broadcast part of the ceremony.

Did it happen? In looking through newspapers, broadcasting magazines and other publications of the day, no story exists to say if there was a telecast, let alone how good or bad it was. A sub-headline in the March 5 New York Herald Tribune read “Television Sends Photos of Action During Event” but the actual story, written the day before, doesn’t mention TV at all, just radio. A unsourced, unbylined story in the Gresham, Neb. Gazette on March 8 stated: “Every modern method of dissemination, except television, was used to give the nation and the world instant pictures of the events of the day” and goes on to mention “sound pictures” were made and people “saw the inaugural ceremony in their uptown ‘movie’ places a few hours after the occurrence.” Indeed, Variety reported mentioned Fox Movietone and Pathe News rushed to get the newsreel footage into theatres. Some newspapers wrote about the radio coverage and talked about television progressing so it could air the 1932 inauguration.

Jenkins himself gave quite a number of interviews about television and his station station’s programming to newspapers. Not once did he mention a special inauguration broadcast. There’s no proof it did happen, so I have my doubts.

The decision by the Federal Radio Commission in late February to clear the standard radio band of television signals meant some scrambling, except for WRNY which apparently took advantage of the rule exemption between 1 and 6 a.m. Stations had to change frequencies. As well, several new stations got on the air in the next several months to run tests, including W2XCL in Brooklyn.

There’s a mention in the press of W7AXO in Portland, owned by an engineer at KWJJ radio.

CBS wasn’t in the television business yet, but Bill Paley was planning ahead, reserving space for TV studios in the soon-to-be-built 485 Madison Avenue tower.

Below are some of the major stories in television for March 1929. We’ve omitted dozens and dozens of speculation pieces, including at least a half dozen from Frank Jenkins.

SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 1929
TO SEND FILM OF INAUGURAL BYTELEVISION
Firm Plans to Transmit Moving Pictures of Parade 30 Minutes After Event
WASHINGTON, March 2.—Anyone unable to come to Washington for the inauguration of Herbert Hoover, but who possesses a television receiving set, will be able to see movies of the parade within half an hour after it passes the moving picture cameras, according to plans of the Jenkins Television Company of Washington and New Jersey.
Moving pictures will be taken of the parade, the film rushed to the laboratory where it will be developed and run through the transmitter of the apparatus, the elapsed time being 30 minutes, C. Francis Jenkins, noted inventor and head of the Jenkins Television Co. explained. The program will continue from the time the parade starts, shortly after noon, until 9 p. m., Mr. Jenkins said, owing to the fact that many of the television audience are employed during the daytime and will not be able to "look-in" until after the parade is over. For the benefit of these the films will be re-broadcast in the evening.
Those who are in a position to sit close to their scanning disks, however will see the parade within 30 minutes after it has been glimpsed by the crowds in Washington. It is pointed out that pictures taken of the parade when it leaves the Capitol will be available to the television audience in scattered parts of the country at about the exact time that portion of it swings around the Treasury Building on its way past the White House.
The films will average 200 feet in length and will be run through the transmitter at the rate of about 15 feet a second. After each section of film is transmitted an announcement will be made as to the nature of the next to be shown, and another 200 feet of film will be broadcast.
This will continue while the parade is in progress and will then be re-broadcast in the evening. To overcome showing pictures of parade in reverse form, as would be the case in looking at a photographic film, the electrical equipment of the television transmitter will be reversed, Mr. Jenkins said.
The transmission will be over two short wave channels which were granted to the Jenkins company this week by the Federal Radio Commission. For local reception a 2,000 kilocycle band will be used, and for distance the broadcasting will be over a band of approximately 3,000 kilocycles. The bands will be 100 kilocycles in width, Mr. Jenkins pointing out this is necessary for the broadcasting of movies. In the regular broadcast band with a channel but ten kilocycles wide it is difficult to transmit anything of a visual nature other than still pictures.
The Jenkins company has in course of construction in Maryland a 5,000 kilowatt station, but it is not believed that this will be completed in time to send out the inaugural parade. The transmitter, therefore, will be located in Mr. Jenkins’ laboratory at 1519 Connecticut Avenue. (Springfield News-Sun, Mar. 3)
SUNDAY, MARCH 3, 1929
TELEVISION SCHEDULES
Radiovision Broadcasts Are Finding Place.
Pittsburgh, Pa.—W8XAV, Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co., 20,000 watts, 2000-2100 kc. or 145 m. and 2100-2200. kc or 139 m. 20 frames per second, 60 lines per frame. Transmitting television programs, generally motion picture films, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 5:10 to 6 a. m., eastern standard time.
Schenectady, N. Y., W2XAF, 2100-2200 kc. or 145 m. General Electric Co., 24 lines, 20 frames per picture. Sunday, 11:15 to 11:45 p. m. Tuesday, 1[2] to 12.30 p. m. Tuesday. Wednesday and Friday. 1:30 to 2 p. m.
Washington, D. C., W3XX. C. Francis Jenkins, 250 watts, 2000-2100 kc. or 145 m. and 2850-2950 kc. of 103 m. Standard scanning. 8 to 9 p. m., eastern standard time. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Radio-movies.
EXPERIMENTAL.
Brooklyn, N. Y.—Pilot Electric Co., license approved, but frequency not yet assigned.
Chicago, Ill.—W9XAA, Chicago Federation of Labor, 500 watts, 2000-2100 kc. or 145 m. Standard scanning.
Chicago, Ill.—Aeroproducts, Inc. 2000-2100 kc. or 145 m.
Jersey City, N. J.—Jenkins Television Corp., 2100-2200 kc., or 139 m.
Lexington, Mass.—W1XAY, Lexington Air Station, 300 watts, new frequency not yet assigned. Standard scanning. Daily, 3 to 4 p. m. and Friday, 7:30 to 8 p. m. Will soon be equipped to broadcast voice and vision simultaneously.
Newark, N. J.—WAAM, Inc., license approved, but frequency not yet assigned.
New York, N. Y.—W2XBW, Inc., [sic] license approved, but frequency not yet assigned.
New York, N. Y.—W2XBW and W2XBV, Radio Corp. of America, 5000 watts. 2000-2100 kc. or 145 m. and 2100-2200 kc. or 139 m.
Oakland, Cal.—General Electric Co., 2000-2100 kc. or 145 m.
Springfield, Mass.—Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co., 2000-2100 kc. or 145 m.
Winter Park, Fla.—William Justis Lee, license approved, but frequency not yet assigned.
NOTES.
Standard scanning refers to the standard adopted by the Radio Manufacturers Assn. This is 48 lines per picture, 15 frames per second, with scanning consecutive from left to right and top to bottom as one reads the page of a book.
All the above stations have been licensed by the Federal Radio Commission. A number of others who have previously been broadcasting still have their applications pending. (Pittsburgh Press)

SUNDAY, MARCH 10, 1929
The new and powerful transmitter, now being constructed by the Jenkins television corporation in Jersey City, will be ready for preliminary tests on April 1. Its call letters will be W2XCR and it will operate on a frequency of 2150 kilocycles with a variable power up to 5 kilowatts. (Ben Gross, Daily News)

Television Space in New 25-Story C. B. S. Building
Realizing that television as a means of transmitting visually action that takes place in studios is somewhere in the future, engineers of the Columbia Broadcasting System are providing lighting equipment, control rooms and conduits for this purpose in their new 24-story [sic] building now in the course of completion at Madison Avenue and 52d Street, New York.
The five top stories of the structure, which will bear the name "The Columbia Broadcasting System Building," are being specially constructed. They will provide executive offices of the company, as well as tiny studios for individual speakers, medium studios for such presentations as orchestras, and huge, auditorium-like rooms for accommodating up to 250 entertainers. There will be fifteen studios in all. Visitors will be able to witness performances from glass enclosed balconies above the larger studios, which will be two stories high in some cases.
The building is expected to be ready for occupancy by early fall. Officials of the company hope that they may be able to celebrate Columbia's second birthday in the new quarters. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

So far, nothing has been heard of the television films to be made at the Hoover-Curtis inaugural for transmission shortly thereafter.
But, scanning the public prints, Static refuses to mourn a lost opportunity to see ex-President Coolidge again under a top hat. (“Static” radio column, Cleveland Plain Dealer)

TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 1929
TELEVISION STATIONS BEING ERECTED
JERSEY CITY, N. J., March 12.—Having been granted the necessary transmitting licenses by the Federal Radio Commission, the Jenkins Television Corporation of this city is now building a powerful television transmitter here and another In Washington. D. C. According to James W. Garside, president of the corporation, the Jersey city transmitter will operate at a frequency of 2150 kilocycles, which is equivalent to about 140 meters, a variable power up to 5 kilowatts. The construction work should be completed in time to have the transmitter on the air for preliminary tests by April 1. The transmitter is being installed in the radio room on the roof of the Jenkins Television plant. The call letters of this transmitter will be W2XCR.
Meanwhile, a similar license has been granted the Jenkins Television Corporation for the Installation of a television transmitter in the vicinity of Washington. The site will be in Montgomery County, Me., [sic] between Norbec and Rockville. A 5-kilowatt transmitter will be installed to serve Washington, Philadelphia. Baltimore and other surrounding cities. (Burlington Press, Mar. 13)

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 1929
TELEVISION PERMIT GRANTED LEXINGTON
Station to Use 5000 Watts on 2000-2100 Kilocycles
The Lexington Radio Station was notified yesterday [13] by the Federal Radio Commission that the petition of the company for a 5000-watt television transmitting wave band has been granted. This station will be the first station New England to have a television transmitter.
At present there are but three other licensed television stations. They are owned by the Westinghouse Corporation, General Electric Company and the Jenkins Television Corporation.
The Lexington station will have a band covering 2000 to 21000 kilocycles [sic].(Boston Globe, Mar. 14)

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 1929
Demonstration of Outdoor Scene By Improved Television
By DR. R. W. KING
ENGINEERS of Bell Telephone Laboratories, who nearly two years ago gave the first demonstration of television, disclosed some of the further progress which they have made during their continued researches by demonstrating a new transmitting device which is capable of putting upon the television circuit outdoor scenes. On the roof of the Laboratories actors boxed and danced, swung baseball bats and golf clubs to appear in brightly illuminated pictures in one of the laboratories on the eighth floor. The present apparatus differs radically from that of the first demonstration when the scene to be transmitted was illuminated by a powerful artificial light and only the actor’s head and shoulders appeared in transmission. With the improved apparatus the scene was illuminated by ordinary sunlight and covered the area occupied by the golfer.
In the first form of apparatus, demonstrated in April, 1927, the scene was illuminated by a rapidly oscillating beam from a powerful arc light, and that limited the scene to be transmitted to a very small area. The new development frees television from one of its most serious limitations.
The scene or event to be transmitted is reduced to the form of an image by a large lens, this image being scanned by a rapidly rotating disc similar to but much larger than that previously employed. The lens served somewhat the same purpose in the television apparatus as the large lens of an astronomical telescope, and like the latter it should be large to gather as much light as possible.
The experiments show that moving persons and objects can be successfully scanned, although at a considerable distance from the lens, and therefore in such a position that the focus of the lens does not require changing from moment to moment. Light passing through the lens and scanning disc actuates a light responsive device of extreme sensitiveness and generates an electric current which after amplification may be transmitted either by wire or radio.
The developments in television which were demonstrated were perfected by Dr. Frank Gray of the Laboratories working in collaboration with Dr. Herbert E. Ives. They illustrate the continued interest and progress of the telephone engineers in the problems of television, but the engineers themselves refused to prophesy as to future developments or applications. They pointed out that the improvement was in the television transmitter and that its use required no fundamental change in the two types of receiving equipment for use by either single individuals or larger audiences which were developed and demonstrated year ago. (Paterson Morning Call)
THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 1929
That Strange Sound in Radio Is Nightly Television Program
NEW YORK, March 22—Radio fans who twist the dials between 7 and 9 o'clock these nights are hearing, when they get down between 142.8 and 149.9 meters, a strange stuttering gibberish and unmusical mixture of musical sounds which only a few amateurs, those who are experimenting with television, are able to untangle.
Dr. Alfred N. Goldsmith, vice-president and chief broadcasting engineer of the Radio Corporation, let the secret out yesterday [21] and explained this nightly program is sent an almost unknown broadcasting station at No. 411 Fifth Avenue and is for the enjoyment of "lookers in" not "listeners in."
In the small laboratory at 411 Fifth Avenue, where the 250-watt transmitter is situated, every now and then Dr. Goldsmith, instead of making the usual announcement, "This is station W2XBS,” reaches over and picks up a placard on which simply “W2XBA” has been printed and holds this up to the electric "eye" of the television transmitter.

Immediately this "eye" flings its retinal message into space, making that mysterious gibberish for the "listeners in" but recording a perfectly intelligible message in the television receivers or "electric brains" which a few scattered experimenters have set up on Long Island, in Jersey or upper New York State or Connecticut, attached to wires strung over apartment roofs.
Although David Sarnoff, executive vice-president of the Radio Corporation, said only two months ago that it would be three to five years before television equipment was on the market for anybody to buy and set up, in the same fashion as sound broadcasting goes on at present, Dr. Goldsmith let it be known that the scheme has already reached a very research workable stage, thanks to the research work of Dr. E. F. W. Alexanderson of the General Electric Company and Dr. Frank Conrad of the Westinghouse laboratory, not to mention Dr. Goldsmith's present work. (Springfield Union, Mar. 22)

OFF THE ANTENNA
For over six months past the Jenkins laboratories of Washington, D. C. have been broadcasting television pictures for members of the American Radio Relay league and radio amateurs at large. This service has proved highly popular. Many "lookers-in” have built their own television receivers or have made use of the simple kit offered by Mr. Jenkins for purely experimental purposes. However, of late there is a steadily increasing demand for a simple, compact and practical television receiver which will soon be met by the production of the Jenkins televisor.
The Jenkins radio movies, as they are termed, are broadcast on 46.72 meters (6420 kilocycles), in the form of a 48-line picture with 15 pictures per second. The station call is W3XK. The same pictures are also simultaneously broadcast on 186.92 meters (1605 kilocycles) for Washington and neighboring receivers within the skip distance of short-wave signals. The radio movies are broadcast on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings at 8 p. m., eastern standard time.
The Jenkins broadcasts have been in the form of experimental tests. Mr. Jenkins, a firm believer in the great laboratory of everyday application, has had the active co-operation of experimenters throughout the country who have tuned in his television signals. At first, simple subjects have been sent out, but of late Mr. Jenkins has arranged for more elaborate subjects, step by step, in keeping with the experimental facilities of his scattered collaborators. Each subject is preceded by an announcement (both in code and phone at present) and each picture story finishes with “End,” which means, of course, that the looker-in must throw a switch back to the loud speaker for the next announcement.
Until now, the subjects have been in the form of silhouet or black-and-white pictures and the action has been relatively simple. This simplicity has been for the purpose of making reception easier for amateurs, and also to insure best results with the frequency bands available. However, Mr. Jenkins has about completed a new broadcast transmitter for working in the band of 4900 to 5000 kilocycles, which will permit of transmitting half-tone pictures in place of the present black-and-white or silhouet pictures. Nevertheless, it has been found by repeated broadcasts of Jenkins radio movies that stories in silhouet can be made quite as entertaining as movie cartoons in the theater, not forgetting in addition the appeal of the mystery of movies by way of radio.
Within the very near future the first practical television receiver or televisor will be placed on the market for use with any standard short-wave or broadcast receiver, as the case may be, in place of the usual loud speaker for the reception of the Jenkins radio movies and other television signals. Through the medium of the Jenkins radio movies projector, a sufficient number of stations will broadcast television signals throughout the country for a nation-wide service. (Springfield, Mass. Daily News)

SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 1929
TELEVISION EXHIBITED
Demonstration Features Verona Business Show.
A television demonstration is a feature of the Verona Business show at the Gearty building, Bloomfield and Fairview avenues, Verona. The show, which opened Wednesday and will end tonight, is being held under the auspices of the Verona Chamber of Commerce.
The television apparatus is being shown by Leland St. George, radio dealer, through an arrangement with Station WAAM, Newark. Demonstrations have been given nightly to large crowds. (Montclair, N.J. Times)

TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 1929
GRANT TELEVISION PERMIT
WASHINGTON, March 26.—(AP)—The radio commission today granted stations WHAS, operated by the Courier-Journal and the Louisville Times Co., permission to engage in television and picture broadcasting on 820 kilocycles between the hours of 1 and 6 a. m. The commission also granted the station a construction permit to increase its power from 5,000 to 10,000 watts.

TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 1929
WASHINGTON, March 26, (AP)—Twenty-two visual broadcast stations soon will be transmitting pictures and television images on channels assigned by the federal radio commission.
Twelve of the stations are located in the east, four in the middle west, two in the far west and one in the south. Three are portables owned by the Radio Corporation of America. One station, WRNY, Coytesville, N. J., operated by the Experimenter Publishing Company, is operating on 1010 kilocycles in the broadcast band. The others send on channels, 100 kilocycles wide, in the high frequency band.
Stations operating on short waves and their frequencies follow: W1XAE, Springfield, Westinghouse Company, 2000 to 2100 kilocycles; W1XAY, Lexington, Lexington Air Stations, 2000 to 2100; W2XBA, Newark, N. J., WAAM Inc., 2750 to 2850; W2XBS, portable, RCA, 2000 to 2100; W2XBV, portable, RCA, 2000 to 2100; W2XBW, portable, RCA 2000 to 2100; W2XCL, New York, Pilot Electric Manufacturing Company, 2000 to 2100 and 2750 to 2850.
W2XCO, New York, RCA, 2100 to 2200; W2XCR, Jersey City, Jenkins Television Corporation; 2100 to 2200; W2XCW, Schenectady, N. J., General Electric, 2100 to 2200; W2XX, Ossining, N. Y., Robert F. Gowen, 2000 to 2100; W3XK, Washington, Jenkins Laboratories, 2000 to 2100 and 2850 to 2950; W3XL, Bound Brook, N. J., RCA, 2850 to 2950; W4XE, Winter Park, W. J. Lee, 2000 to 2100; W6XN, Oakland, Cal., General Electric, 2000 to 2100; W7XAO, Portland, Wilbur Jerman, 2750 to 2850.
W8XAV, Pittsburgh, Westinghouse, 2000 to 2100, 2100 to 2200 and 2750 to 2850; W9XAA, Chicago, Federation of Labor, 2000 to 2100; W9XAG, Chicago, Aero Products, 2100 to 2200; W9XAO, Chicago, Nelson Bond and Mortgage Company. 2000 to 2100; W9XAZ, Iowa City, University of Iowa, 2000 to 2100.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 1929
TELEVISION PERMIT SOUGHT BY WENR
Chicago Station Proposes to Give All-Day Service
Special Dispatch to the Globe
WASHINGTON, March 27—John V. Hogan, consulting radio engineer of New York City, today appeared before the Federal Radio Commission on behalf of Station WENR, Chicago, which has an application before the commission for television broadcasting. WENR wishes to erect a 5000-watt station to broadcast pictures on a frequency of about 2000 kilocycles from 7 in the morning until midnight.
Speaking of television, Hogan told the commission that he knew of no visual broadcasting with any program that was available to the public the present time. “However,” he said, “it is of a character and in a condition that should be encouraged as much as possible. As a program service television is very much in need of technical and program development. Even in its present state it has aroused interest to the extent that there now between 500 and 1000 receiving sets in the vicinity of Chicago.”
At the same hearing WENR also applied to the Commission for several short wave channels to use experimentally for relay broadcasting. E. H. Gager, chief engineer for WENR told the Commission that for the past little while his station had been conducting experiments in the rebroadcasting of programs from WWVA at Wheeling, W. Va, and WDRC at New Haven, Conn.
“If the Commission will permit us the use of these short wave channels we are asking for,” he said, “We hope to distribute ours to WRUF, Gainesville, Fla., and WEBR, Buffalo, and eventually over the South and West of the United States, after we have solved the national problem we will attempt to do some international relay broadcasting." (Boston Globe, Mar. 28)

FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 1929
GREAT LAKES COMPANY ASKS STATION PERMIT
WASHINGTON, March 29.—The Great Lakes broadcasting Company, Chicago, today applied to the federal radio commission for permission to construct a broadcasting station having 5000 watts power and operating on the 6000 kilocycle wave length.
Application was made also for permission to erect television apparatus having 20,000 watts power and to be operated between 7 a. m. and midnight daily. (Camden Evening Courier)

February 1929

It took a mere four days for the Federal Radio Commission to make some decisions about television after a public hearing on February 14, 1929.

More or less, it maintained the status quo. Stations needed permission to go on the air in the broadcast band (that is, the a.m. band), and could only do it between 1 and 6 in the morning. Otherwise, they had to operate in the short waves.

The Commission also granted licenses for 17 TV stations, though many had already been operating, but only on a six-month basis. It held off on a decision on 15 others—some of them had been licensed and on the air—and rejected three others. The most interesting “on hold” one was by Alfred M. Hubbard, who set up a radio station in Seattle for a major bootlegger, and became a dry agent who turned state’s witness in a trial involving the head of the dry squad. He had apparently tested some television equipment in 1928, but was never did get a license. One of the rejections was pioneer Boston radio broadcaster John Shepard III.

The off-again/on-again live coverage of the Hoover inauguration in March was both off and on in February.

As ironic as it was, one of the people who appeared and spoke on television in February 1929 was D.W. Griffith, the silent film director.

Below are some highlights, and they are few, of television for the month, including a transcription of the Commission ruling. For some reason, it didn’t appear in the Radio Service Bulletin put out by the government in February, it was in the March edition, along with the tabulation of approved TV stations. We have a biographical note about one of the losers below.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1929
EXPECT 200,000 AT INAUGURAL
Giant Radio Hookup Arranged for Ceremony
WASHINGTON, Feb. 1. (UP) — With Inauguration day little more than a month away, the nation’s capital is preparing to receive the 200,000 guests who are expected to see Herbert Hoover take his oath of office March 4. Four thousand persons saw Calvin Coolidge inaugurated in 1924.
Reviewing stands to seat 28,000 along the line of march from the White House to the capitol are under construction. Washington’s leading hotels already are booked to capacity.
Each mail brings the inaugural committee reservations for the charity ball at Washington auditorium the night of inauguration day.
Preparations for the most extensive radio “hook-up” in history are being made. Combined networks of the National and Columbia broadcasting chains, co-operating with independent stations, will carry a reportorial account of the parade and the speeches of President-Elect Hoover and Senator Curtis.
Powerful short-wave stations will speed descriptive words of the ceremonies even to foreign countries.
Also a television broadcast of the inaugural scene is being considered by radio engineers and the committee.

Television to Bring Producer's Voice and Figure From N. Y. to L. A.
Opening a new era in radio television transmission and reception, an arrangement has been made between the United Artists Theater and the General Electric Company to have D. W. Griffith, producer of "Lady of the Pavements," now at the local playhouse, broadcast his voice and form over the experimental short wave station of the electrical company at Schenectady, New York [W2XAD]. The television picture and voice will be broadcast Sunday, 4:30 p. m. local time, and will be received here after traveling through 3,000 miles of space.
The picture and voice will be received by Gilbert Lee, consulting engineer of General Electric, and foremost of local radio experimenters, on his short wave set stationed at 2274 Hidalgo street. His apparatus was constructed especially to receive the Griffith speech, which is in the form of a serious experiment to decide the future of commercial television. (Los Angeles Evening Express)

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1929
TELEVISION TO BE REPLACED BY SOUND PICTURE
Experiments Throughout The Country Are Making Rapid Progress
New York, Feb. 2. (INS)—Experiments now in progress will bring television out of the "peep-hole stage," in the opinion of James W. Garside, president of the DeForest Radio Company and president of the newly formed Jenkins Television Corporation.
"In television, as in other fields, there varying degrees of progress,” said Mr. Garside today. "There are experimenters throughout the country working with huge scanning disks, large neon lamps, and speed control, with the ‘looker-in’ gazing at a tiny image woven by the whirling holes in the scanning disk.
Like Penny In Slot
"This is the peep-hole of television, and is comparable to the penny-in-the-slot stage of the motion picture industry before C. Francis Jenkins of Washington, D. C. developed pictures on the screen, so that hundreds, and even thousands, might view them at one time.
"For several years past Mr. Jenkins has working, on television. Long before demonstrations early last year Dr. E. F. W. Alexanderson of the General Electric Company and the Radio Corporation of America, as well as other workers in this field, Mr. Jenkins was transmitting and receiving television pictures over considerable distances.
“For more than six months past his transmitter, W3XK, at Washington, D. C. has been broadcasting simultaneously on two wave lengths, namely, short waves for distant 'lookers-in' and broadcast waves for Washington and nearby. "Although Mr. Jenkins, in order to foster interest in practical television, has distributed thousands of simple television outfits with cardboard scanning disks to amateurs and experimenters at cost, he has progressed far beyond the usual scanning disk technique.
"Indeed, he has discarded the scanning disk in preference of a special scanning drum of compact dimensions. Instead of the usual neon lamp with a single large plate requiring considerable output so that a special power amplifier or considerable B-batteries are required, Jenkins employs a four-plate neon lamp of his own invention, with each plate flashing in rotation so as to be scanned by one quarter of his scanning holes, in turn.
“An ingenious optical system projects the whirling dots of light on to a magnifier screen, so that not one but a dozen 'lookers-in' may enjoy the television program. Here, again, we have the transition that took place when selfish radio with its headphones made way for unselfish radio with its loudspeaker.
"The entire televisor, as he terms it, occupies less room than the average radio receiver. It may be operated on the usual radio set in place of the loud-speaker, if tuned in for a television signal. The operation is simple that the average broadcast listener can handle it.
Transmission Progress
"And at the transmitting end, Mr. Jenkins has scored comparable progress. While most television workers are struggling with the limitations of the television stage, with its small dimensions, scanning disk, sensitive photo-electric cells, lighting conditions and so on, as well as the search for so-called television faces or faces that televise properly with or without make-up, Jenkins has gone ahead with his radio movies.
"In this process he films suitable television subjects in any place and manner desired. The negative film is printed up on one or more positive film, and these are available for his radio movies projector. This device simply takes the film and converts it electrical impulses which are impressed on the outgoing waves from a broadcast transmitter, just as the microphone picks up sound waves, converts them into electrical terms, and impresses these on the outgoing radio waves.
"As the direct result of Jenkins' radio movies, any broadcasting station, with a simple device, is set up for television work. Ample subjects are made available. It becomes possible to prepare television subjects for the entire country without the trouble and cost of wire networks."
Projecting Image
Even that does not tell the whole story, Mr. Garside said. He declared that Jenkins has a scanning disk with matched lenses so that it becomes possible to project the television image on a fair sized screen, in order that the entertainment can be followed by a small theatre audience.
Jenkins is working on a television camera for is outside work will permit of picking up far greater detail and scope than has so far been attempted. He has a checkerboard lamp device which will convert television images into a powerful light-woven pattern, with many advantages over tiny holes of the usual scanning disk with so little light for magnifying purposes.
"I firmly said Mr. Garside, speaking of the future, "that television will find a place alongside our present radio programs. There will be television features just as there are sound features.
"Perhaps in some instances simultaneous broadcasting of sight and sound may be attempted, for it is entirely practical, even now."

Portland Man Will Operate Television Plant.
Permit Granted to Wilbur Jerman to Transmit Pictures.
WILBUR JERMAN, one of Portland's pioneer radio experimenters and broadcast operators, has been granted permission to operate a vision and still picture transmitter on 107 meters, using his experimental station call, W7XAO.
Television equipment supplied by the Daven corporation will be used for the transmission of pictures from W7XAO. The first pictures will be broadcast in about three weeks, according to Mr. Jerman, who is assembling the equipment in conjunction with station KWJJ.
Television is the broadcasting of images, the annihilation of distance for the eye, as aural radio has done for the ear. At the transmitter is a photoelectric cell. A beam explores the object to be "televised" reflected to the cell. This cell mondulates [sic] the carrier wave, just as though it were a microphone. Varying light actuates it just as varying sound actuates the microphone. At the receiver, in place of the loud speaker, is a glow lamp—a neon tube in one form or another—which changes its brilliance in step with the received impulses from the photoelectric cell. The light from this lamp is made to explore a screen in synchronism with the beam at the transmitter. The usual method of swinging the beams of light and down and over the object and screen is a mechanically revolving disc perforated spirally with holes, a device patented by Nipkow licensed in 1884.
There are two stations licensed for visual broadcasting within the broadcast band, WGY at Schenectady and WIBO, Chicago, and approximately 20 operating on short waves. Television and still-picture broadcasting, which heretofore have been permitted experimentally within the broadcast band, have been ruled out of that band, except between midnight and 6 A. M. However, W7XAO will be permitted to operate at any time on 107 meters. (Oregonian)

Griffith’s Face Seen in L. A. By Television
The features of David Wark Griffith and the sound of his voice were seen and heard in a tiny garage atop a hill at 2214 Hilalgo Street in Los Angeles yesterday [3] while he was speaking in Schenectady, N. Y. His likeness and voice were transmitted over the short wave stations of the General Electric Company there by television [picture on 2XO, short wave, 21.58 metres, sound over 2XAF 31 metres].
Mr. Griffith’s half-hour talk on the motion picture of the future and on the possibilities of receiving them in the home came over the air with little interference, but the outlines of his face were visible only for a few minutes and could not be picked up again. Gilbert Lee, an amateur experimenter, conducted the Los Angeles tests. (Hollywood Daily Citizen, Feb. 4)

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1929
Improves Tube for Television
Chicago Man With Meagre Apparatus Designs a New Television Tube
By JOE LOVE
(NEA Service Writer)
BERWYN, ILL., Feb. 7—With hand-made apparatus and in the laboratory he has assembled in the basement of his home, William L. Cummings has constructed a new kind of television reproducing tube which may leave a decided impression on perfected television apparatus of the future.
For 20 years he has studied and done research work with special interest in photo-electric phenomena. At one time, in 1919, Cummings says he received an invitation from Lord Northcliffe to return to England and continue his experiments.
The reproducer now in use is the neon type, the result of the labors of Dr. MacFarland Moore. The shortcomings of this tube prompted Mr. Cummings to set about his experiments.
Neon, which gives off an orange light, has not the power to cast an image successfully upon a screen. When so done the result is like shadows rather than a clear cut and positive image. What was needed, others as well as Cummings believed, was a white light tube.
Improves Talkies, Too
Cummings started work with two ideas in mind; to make a tube that would give a black and white image on a ground glass and to do away with the oscilligraph used in the film registering of sound waves for phonograph records and talkie-movies. He succeeded in both.
The new tube looks like a regular radio tube, but instead of a flat surface of light as in the neon, it has a point source of light suspended like a ball of fire. The gas in the neon, due to cohesion to the plates, Cummings says, slows it up while the point source of light in his tube has no mechanical or physical losses. Cummings figures his new tube responds in one twenty-four millionth of a second!
Cummings finds that with a three-stage amplifier his tube gives superior service to the neon with an eight-stage amplifier and as a much lower cost.
This new tube, Cummings, says is more of an approach to the cathode tube in the matter of speed than anything he knows of. Another advantage over the neon tube is in the matter of enlargement of the image. In the neon the image is in the tube itself.
Has Large Range in Size
In the Cummings tube the light is projected upon a ground glass giving it a larger range of size. With the present tube a four by five-inch image is possible. Cummings plans to make a larger tube capable of an image eight by 10 inches in dimensions.
Cummings says his tube will be of service in the making of film records for modern phonographs and the production of talkie movies. The rays that are necessary for the recording of sound waves on film are emitted by this tube. With this tube, he claims, a portable outfit can be assembled which will do away with the cumbersome oscillograph now necessary the making of talkies. Not only that, but it will register any sound that is capable of being made and without undertones or overtones.
“I do not want to give anyone the impression that I myself am trying to perfect television. What I do is in the hope that I can supply those who seek that perfection with apparatus that will function better,” he says.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1929
LINDBERGH IS INVITED TO HOOVER INAUGURATION
Sound Movies of Ceremonies Assured but Television Reproduction Hope Wanes
WASHINGTON, D. C., Feb. 9 (AP)—Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh was invited today to participate in the Hoover inaugural festivities.
The inaugural committee mailed the flier a specially embossed invitation. Assistant Postmaster General Glover, executive secretary of the committee, said Lindbergh will stop in Washington on his return flight from Central America. It was indicated that the request that he participate in the ceremonies will be personally confirmed at this time.
Asserting that the inauguration will be “the most photographed event in history,” committee members today were busy assisting photographers in making arrangements. More than three hundred, it was said, will “cover” the event. Sound movie producers have guaranteed to reproduce scenes at the ceremonies of inducting the president and vice president on Broadway on the evening of March 4. Films will be transported to New York in airplanes which will be specially equipped to allow development of the negatives en route.
Hope that the ceremonies would be reproduced by television dwindled today when members of the committee said plans by television operators had been virtually abandoned.

Homemade Television Set Thrills Observers at Easton
EASTON, Md., Feb. 9.—J. Valentine Muller of Easton has completed the manufacture of a home-made radio television apparatus.
Mr. Muller has been one of the most active television enthusiasts on the Eastern Shore and has been widely known for several years for his experiments in radio receiving apparatus of all kinds.
Muller constructed out of home made parts his television receiver, using a 24 inch disc, a neon gas-glow lamp, and adjustable speed motor. He has had good reception of Jenkins' "radio movies" on 47.7 meters, he declares.
The few privileged to watch Mr. Muller's production in action have had the thrill of their lives by looking through the small square glass window and observing the radio "movie actors."
The receiver is of the short wave type, using aero coils and three stages of transformer coupled amplifiers. Muller has made it possible to use a transformer-coupled amplifier as his transformers are exceptionally large, with heavy cores.
Practically all television engineers, Muller said, have considered resistance coupled to be necessary because of its comparatively smooth amplifying characteristics. Muller's transformers with the large and heavy cores may account for his success with them. (Every Evening, Wilmington, Delaware)

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1929
Scanning Disc Is Adjustable To Four Transmissions
THE usual difficulty encountered by experimenters with television receivers is inability to synchronize the signals from more than one or two stations, due to the difference in the number of holes in the scanning discs. This has necessitated the use of a different disc for every station picked up. The speed can easily be controlled by either friction or resistance devices, but the discs cannot be changed so easily.
These difficulties can be overcome by using one of the devices illustrated on this page. It is 24 inches in diameter and contains two discs of aluminum, one behind the other. One of these discs is fitted with a bushing for the motor shaft, while the other is cut out in the center and mounted on the first by several machine screws. The main disc is drilled with several lines of holes, in the usual spirals, and the second also is pierced by similar spirals; but they are so arranged that the holes of only one spiral coincide in the two discs at the same time. The second disc is mounted with slotted holes and a key is provided so that any of the spirals can be used by merely sliding the discs with the key until the holes match. An indicator shows which set of holes is in line.
The disc is provided with four sets of holes. The first has 24 holes and is suitable for use when receiving WGY, W2XAD, W2XAF, Schenectady, or W4XA, Memphis, Tenn. The second has 36 holes for W6XC at Los Angeles. The third has 45 for WCFL and WIBO, Chicago; and the fourth has 48, the recommended standard, used by other transmitters such as WRNY and W2XAL, New York and W3XK, Washington. (Radio News, March 1929)

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1929
RADIO COMMISSION WEIGHS TELEVISION
National Authorities Drawn Into Hearing on New Phase of Wireless
OPTIMISTIC OF FUTURE
Jenkins Corporation Head Says 5,000 Amateurs Pick up His 'Movies'
WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (AP)—The radio commission Thursday began consideration of one of its remaining major problems—television and picture broadcasting—and in doing so drew to its hearing room a number of the country's leading authorities on radio.
The hearing developed into a highly technical discussion.
C. Francis Jenkins, head of the Jenkins Television corporation of Washington, told the commission that by using the low frequency assigned him and through co-operation of amateurs he knew that motion pictures broadcast from his studios were being received by at least 5,000 persons.
He said he believed it should be tried out on the public to see what reaction came from "lookers in."
Lee De Forrest, one of the pioneers in the development of radio, said he believed the business of television and picture broadcasting should be encouraged and that if it would further the progress of such broadcasting to include it in the regular broadcast band he believed it should be included.
Frank Conrad, of Pittsburgh, in whose station KDKA first began operations, told the commission he believed television should not be allowed in the broadcast band at this time. He was joined in this belief by Julius Wineberger, representing the Radio Corporation of America.
The commission was told by C. E. Hoffman, engineer for the Jenkins Television corporation, that his concern was broadcasting a series of animated cartoons on a 10 kilocycle frequency very successfully. He said a regular receiving set properly equipped with a televisor could receive these animated cartoons and that the cost of a televisor would not be more than the cost of a good loud speaker.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1929
RADIOVISION BROADCASTING SCHEDULE.
(Copyright, 1929, by Science Service)
On Regular Schedule.
LEXINGTON, Mass., W1XAY, Lexington Air station, 300 watts, 4800-4900 kc. or 62 m. Standard scanning. Daily, 3 to 4 P. M. and 7:30 to 8 P. M. Will soon be equipped to broadcast voice and vision simultaneously.
PITTSBURGH, W8XAV, Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co., 20,000 watts, 4700-4800 kc. or 63 m. 20 frames per second, 60 lines per frame. Transmitting television programs, generally motion picture films, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 5:10 to 6 P. M. Eastern Standard time.
SCHENECTADY, N. Y.—W2XAF and W2XAD, General Electric Co., 24 lines, 20 frames per picture. Sunday, 11:15 to 11:45 P. M., W2XAD, 19.56 meters or 15,340 kc. Tuesday, 12 to 12:30 P. M., W2XAF, 31.18 m. or 9,530 kc. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, 1:30 to 2 P.M., W2XAD.
WASHINGTON, D. C.—W3XK, C. Francis Jenkins, 250 watts, 6415-6425 or 47 m. and 1600-1610 kc. or 187 m. Standard scanning. 8 to 9 P. M., Eastern Standard time, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Radiomovies.
Irregular Schedule.
BEACON, N. Y.—W2XBU, H. E. Smith, 100 watts, 4500-4600 m. or 66 m. Standard scanning. (Under construction).
CHICAGO, Ill.—W9XAA, Chicago Federation of Labor, 500 watts, 4560 kc. or 66 m. Standard scanning. At present standing by, awaiting sanction from Federal Radio commission.
LONG ISLAND CITY, N. Y.—W2XBT, Frank L. Carter, 8190-8200 kc. or 36.6 m. Irregular nightly experimental broadcasts.
LOS ANGELES, Cal.—W6XC, Pacific Engineering Laboratory Co., 500 watts, 4500-4600 kc. or 66 m. Will start on definite schedule within next six weeks.
MEMPHIS, Tenn.—W4XA, WREC, Inc., 5000 watts, 2400-2500 kc. or 122 meters.
NEW YORK, N. Y.—W2XBW, Radio Corporation of America, 5000 watts, 15,100-15,200 kc. or 20 m. The corporation also has been granted construction permits for W2XBV, 4500-4600 kc. or 66 m. and for W2XBS, 4600-4700 kc. or 64 m.
NEW YORK, N. Y.—W2XAL, Experimental Publishing Co., Radiovision suspended pending hearing by Federal Radio commission.
WASHINGTON, D. C.—C. Francis Jenkins, 5000 watts. (Under construction.)
Standard scanning refers to the standard adopted by the Radio Manufacturers association. This is 48 lines per picture, 15 frames per second, with scanning consecutively from left to right and top to bottom, as one reads the page of a book.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1929
(RULES AND REGULATIONS GOVERNING VISUAL BROADCASTING)
The Federal Radio Commission has adopted the following rules and regulations governing visual broadcasting:
That visual broadcasting be designated to include both television broadcasting and picture broadcasting, or moving-picture broadcasting and still-picture broadcasting, and that ali licenses issued be of an experimental nature for & period of six months only, the licensees to report to the commission the results of their experiments; the transmitters to be located outside the city limits and sufficiently distant from important receiving centers to avoid interference.
For joint use to visual broadcasting licensees the commission authorizes the following bands of frequ encies for experimental use only; 2,000 to 2,200 and 2,750 to 2,950 kilocycles. In addition, the commission will authorize the operation of visual radio broadcasting transmitters in the band hetween 2,200 and 2,300 kilocycles, on the condition that they do not interfere in any way whatever with the services of any other nation on the North Ameriean Continent and in the West Indies, and that licenses be subject to revocation in case there are any complaints from any other nation of any such interference. The commission may continue to issue experimental television or visual licenses in the broadcast band for operation between 1 and 6 a. m. only, in accordance with General Order 50.
The commission adopted the following rules of priority in the granting of applications:
1. Those engaged in experimentation to improve the technique of visual broadcasting.
2. Those who employ methods which give the maximum definition with the minimum radio frequency band widths.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1929
Board Limits Hour and Wave For Television
Regular Band May Be Used Only Between 1 and 6 and After Licenses Expire
Short Waves Assigned
R. C. A. and Jenkins Receive Vision-Sending Permits
From the Herald Tribune Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON, Feb. 23.—Transmission of television will not be permitted in the regular broadcast band after present licenses expire, except for experimental purposes between 1 and 6 a. m., the Federal Radio Commission announced this week [19] in granting numerous licenses for visual broadcasting. A number of relay broadcasting permits also were authorized. A public hearing, at which well known engineers from all parts or the country appeared and expressed their views on television, was held last week by the commission and it was generally agreed at this hearing that the regular broadcast band should not be used for television until it was out of the experimental stage.
In addition to the high frequency channels, between 2,000 and 2,200, and 2,750 and 2,950 kilocycles, which have been in use experimentally for visual broadcasting, the commission authorized use of the frequencies between 2,200 and 2,300 kilocycles. If any interference is caused with services operated by North American countries by the use of these channels, licenses will be revoked, it is stated. Licenses will be issued for periods of only six months.
Twenty-seven frequencies, lying between 6,020 and 21,540 kilocycles, were designated by the commission for relay broadcasting. This consists of high frequency transmission of programs between stations which, when picked up, are sent out over the regular bands. These frequencies were not assigned for the exclusive use of any one station, it was explained, and will be issued to others who may later qualify. The present licenses are issued for terms of six months, but longer-term licenses may be issued if, after six months’ trial, it is found that a station is operating in the public interest.
Licenses Issued
Those issued visual broadcasting licenses include two stations of the Radio Corporation of America located in New York and New Jersey—W2XBW and W2XBV—and a construction permit for a third station; one license to the Jenkins Laboratories, Inc., W3XK, to be located in Washington, and a construction permit or another station in Jersey City; four licenses to the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company for stations to be located in East Pittsburgh, Pa., and Springfield, Mass.; two to the General Electric Company in Schenectady and Oakland, Calif.; one each to WAAM, Inc., Newark, N. J.; Lexington Air Station; Lexington, Mass.; the Pilot Electric Manufacturing Company, Brooklyn, N. Y.; the Chicago Federation of Labor, Chicago; William Justice Lee, Winter Park, Fla., and Aero Products, Inc., Chicago.
The following applications for similar licenses or construction permits, while not denied by the commission, were set for a hearing in order that the applicants might have an opportunity to establish whether or not public interest, convenience or necessity would be fulfilled by the granting of licenses: The Great Lakes Broadcasting Corporation, Chicago; John Milo Lutts, Los Angeles; Dudley R. Hooper, Rutherford, N. J.; Radio Air Service Corporation, Cleveland; Charles A. Johnson, Philadelphia; T. L. Kidd, San Antonio, Tex.; Harold E. Smith, Beacon, N. Y.; Ben S. McGlashan, Los Angeles; Stewart Warner Speedometer Company Corporation, Chicago; Alfred N. Hubbard, Seattle; Crocker Research Laboratories, San Francisco; Nelson Brothers Bond and Mortgage Company, Chicago; Robert B. Parrish, Los Angeles; Durham & Co., Inc., Philadelphia, and Western Broadcast Company, Los Angeles.
- - -
Three [applications] were denied, including Boyd Phelps, Jamaica, Long Island, N. Y.; Frank L. Carter, Long Island City, N. Y., and Shepard-Norwell Company, Boston. (Herald-Tribune, Feb. 19)
[Note: Boyd Phelps was the operator of amateur station 2EB in Jamaica, New York. He was born in Blunt, South Dakota in 1899 and became interested in radio at the age of 12. During World War, he was a radio operator and instructor in the Navy. After the war he spent time with the American Radio Relay League in Hartford before moving to New York by 1925. In 1928, he was sent a “radio photo” (like a fax) from the S.S. Berengaria in in the mid-Atlantic from its test with a television station in London. While in New York, he worked as a radio engineer. He moved to Minneapolis in November 1932 where he continued to work as an engineer and operated ham station W9BP. He soon settled in Morningside, Minnesota. He was killed in a car crash near Zimapan, Mexico in 1959, age 60. He was a Shriner, an Elk, a member of the VWF and the Radio and Teletype Club].

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1929
TELEVISION EQUIPMENT NOT INSTALLED HERE
Westinghouse May Take Some Time Before Provision is Made for Broadcasts
No provision has yet been made at the local plant of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing company for a program of television broadcasts, General Manager A. B. Reynders said last night [20]. The company has recently been issued four television broadcasting licenses by the Federal Radio commission. According to the application for the licenses, the tests are to be conducted at Pittsburg and Springfield.
When the plan called for in the licenses is put into effect, local radio experimenters will have an opportunity to try out television reception. Special equipment will first have to be installed at the local plant, which may require some time to complete.
The licenses cover short-wave tests on frequencies from 2000 to 2300 and 2750 to 2950 kilocycles. Broadcasting will be restricted from 1 to 6 mornings. Up to this time experimenters have relied on stations operated by the General Electric company at Schenectady, C. Francis Jenkins stations at Washington, and the Lexington air station at Lexington. Since January 1 television tests have not been permitted within the broadcast area and those who have continued attempts to receiving pictures by radio have built short-wave sets and tried for the television broadcasts to be found in the high frequency bands. From occasional reports this reception has not been reliable. (Springfield Daily Republican, Feb. 21)

WBZ TELEVISION NOT TO BE TRIED FOR SOME TIME
Steps Await Changing of Radio Board's Ruling on Land Wire, Says Engineer Myer.
No immediate steps to broadcast television from radio stations WBZ at Boston, or KDKA at Pittsburgh are contemplated by officials of the Westinghouse Electric Manufacturing Company, unless the Federal Radio Commission changes its ruling that no station may use a radio circuit to broadcast television where a land wire is possible, it was learned last night [20] from D. A. Meyer, engineer in charge of broadcasting for the Westinghouse in Massachusetts.
Not because the distance between the East Springfield and Pittsburgh plants of the company is so great, but because a land wire may be used, the company comes under this ban. A change in the ruling would probably in result in television broadcasting from both stations, but the present plant to plant communication between East Springfield and Pittsburgh is done on a low wavelength and with high frequency, which makes possible only point to point communication.
Should the company be allowed to undertake television broadcasting on an experimental scale, Mr. Myer said, there is still little possibility that the broadcasts would benefit experimenters, because of the fact that television is not standardized. The work is so complicated, said Mr. Myer, that unless an understood the equipment being used in the broadcasting and constructed his own equipment to conform with that, there would be little success to reward his efforts. (Springfield Union, Feb. 21)

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1929
Inaugural Movies May Be Televised
The inauguration ceremonies of March 4 may be seen by some fifteen or twenty thousand lucky persons outside of Washington, if the plans of C. Francis Jenkins, the noted television inventor, do not go awry.
Jenkins expects to take motion pictures of the inaugural and put these on the air by means of his own invention—a radio movie transmitter.
These pictures would go out on short waves to amateurs and others equipped with the proper television receiver. Jenkins says he is prepared to take movies of the inaugural all day and even up to ten in the evening, and have them on the air within fifteen minutes after taking. (Olean Evening Times)

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1929
Wilbur Jerman, KWJJ technician, reports that he awaits only photo-electric cells to begin the television broadcast [on W7XAO]. Jerman said that as television is still in experimental stages it will not be advisable for those interested to invest in receiving equipment because when the problems confronting the engineers are solved and television becomes practical, receiving equipment will probably differ in many respects from that in use today. (Oregon Daily Journal)