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)