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)