November 1929

As 1929 neared a close, it was a tale of television technology in the U.S.

In Chicago, U.A. Sanabria was showing off his transmission/reception system, which required less of a frequency range than some stations were using. In Rochester, New York, the Institute of Radio Engineers heard about—but didn’t see—a system devised by Westinghouse’s Vladimir Zworykin. Like the one invented by Philo Farnsworth, it didn’t using scanning discs. It was electronic, taking advantage of the cathode ray tube.

Sanabria’s system was mechanical. Within a few years, it became as obsolete as a 9,600 baud modem in a home today. Zworykin was hired by RCA and, with its seemingly endless bankroll (not to mention chairman David Sarnoff’s loud, unceasing publicity drumbeat) eventually some people came to believe Dr. Z. was the inventor of television.

There’s little other television news around the end of 1929. W9XR went on the air in Chicago. W2XCP in Allwood, N.J. planned a gala opening but there’s no evidence it ever happened. W2XCR, the Jenkins station in Jersey City, changed frequencies because of interference.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1929
TELEVISION TEST PROVES SUCCESS
Chicagoans Claim Development Is Almost Ready to Be Placed in Homes.
BY MARTIN CODEL.
CHICAGO, November 9 (N.A.N.A.).—Radio artists, who might easily be recognized in the flesh, and symbols almost as legible as the ticker tape quotations of stock markets were viewed through “television eyes" at a private demonstration given yesterday [8] in North Shore Hotel. The demonstration represented the fruits of the experiments of an earnest group of young engineers, who confidently believe that their television development is about ready to emerge from the laboratory to go into the home.
The full face of a blue songs singer as he played a guitar, the head of a girl singing popular selections to a piano accompaniment, a hand sketching cartoons and cards bearing letters, numbers and symbols were thrown on a celluloid screen as the radio impulses were received from a short-wave station 2 miles away. The voices and accompaniments were synchronized perfectly to the movements of the images, although they came from the broadcasting transmitter of station WIBO [W9XAO], several miles farther away.
Screen Determines Picture Size.
The images, falling in a pinkish glow on the small screen, were seen at best advantage when the witnesses sat about 12 feet away from the receiving set, which to all appearances was an ordinary highboy radio cabinet. The screen swung by a gate before an aperture from which the light emanated.
The size of the picture, which consisted of 45 lines, was determined by the position of the screen. The images of clearest definition were about 6 by 6 inches, although the inventors say that they have produced, experimentally, figures 18 inches square. When full-length pictures were shown the figures were not as clear and distinct, but all their motions could be discerned. There were no disturbing blurs or flickers in any of the pictures, but these were more or less discernible, especially if a person sat at an angle to the screen.
The receiving cabinet was attached to an ordinary electric sound-receiving set of late design. The technicians explained that certain parts of the receiver were changed to receive the sound signals, so that the photo-electric cells in the cabinet could translate them into the pins of light forming the full picture.
Most receivers now being marketed can be adapted for the television attachment without losing their available qualities, the inventors said.
At the studio the multiple spiral scanning disk, with tiny pinholes and revolving rapidly before a projector lamp, was shown. The television subject is placed before the path of the beam, the reflection is picked up by the photo-electric cells and the light points go on the air as sound signals to be picked up by the synchronized apparatus at the receiving end.
Corporation Is Formed.
The television system is known as the “Sanabria system,” for its inventor, Ulysses A. Sanabria, a young Chicagoan of Spanish descent, who entered the radio engineering field by way of the amateur ranks. He is chief engineer of the Western Television Corporation, formed to exploit the development. Lloyd P. Gamer, a former instructor in electrical engineering at the University of Illinois, is in charge of research and development.
The system is the one that Capt. Guy Hill, acting chief engineer of the Federal Radio Commission, came to Chicago to view last September. The claim was then made, and it is made now, that the broadcasting of images is done in a wave band of less than 10 kilocycles, which is considerably less than the number of channels required for most, if not all other, television experiments. Only four of the receiving sets have thus far been built.
The inventors say the short waves will carry their signals a radius of at lease [least] 20 miles without Interference from fading, static or other causes. (Washington Evening Star, Nov. 9)

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1929
WENR'S TELEVISION STATION STARTS
Another television transmitting station has been put in daily operation.
It is station W9XR which has just been granted a license by the federal radio commission and which is owned by the Great Lakes Broadcasting which operates radio station WENR, Chicago. At present it is using only 500 watts in power, but this will be increased to 5000 watts in the near future. There are only one or two other television stations in the United States that operate with the latter amount. The television schedule is from 3 to 4 p. m. and 7 to 10 p. m. daily and the wave length is the 100 kilocycles band between 2850 and 2950 kilocycles. In scanning, there are 24 lines per picture; 15 pictures per second, and from, left to right and top to bottom. According to E. H. Gager, chief engineer, the scanning will be increased to 48 lines soon.
The new plant, which has just been completed, is on the transmitting property of WENR, Downers Grove, Ill., 30 miles from Chicago. At present, a specially prepared moving picture film is being used. This film gives a number of circus views and, in addition, geometric figures which give the observer a chance to check distortion. (Honolulu Star-Bulletin)

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1929
Station Being Erected in New Jersey for Regular Broadcasting.
Within 30 days, the television broadcasting stations, known as the W2XCP, being erected by the Freed-Eisemann Radio Corporation, will begin to broadcast regular programs from the Allwood, N. J., plant of the Freed-Eisemann Radio Corporation. At the present time, the antenna has been erected, and the equipment is already radiating energy during the preliminary tests which are being made prior to the broadcasting of regular programs. Both wave lengths granted to the corporation, 2,000 to 2,100 kilocycles and 2,850 to 2,980 kilocycles, will be utilized.
It is expected that the Dodge Twins, noted Broadway stars, and many other theatrical luminaries, together with the Governor of New Jersey will be present at the inauguration of programs from this station.
While the station has been built and will be run for the purpose of developing television apparatus, It will also enrich the programs available to the group of television enthusiasts who are building and operating their own receivers at the present time.
There is no question but that this little group of experimenters will be the forerunners of a tremendous group of men and women who will be receiving television entertainment in their own homes in the future, according to Joseph D. R. Freed, president of the Freed-Eisemann Radio Corporation, who is personally supervising the erection of W2XCP.
While it is contended that from five years to a decade la almost sure to pass before televised programs will present themselves on a home receiver basis, nevertheless the work being done by the experimenters at this particular time is vital in the development of apparatus which might be retarded were it not for these enthusiasts. (Washington Post)

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1929
BIG CATHODE RAY TUBE MAY BRING PRACTICAL TELEVISION
ROCHESTER, N.Y., Nov. 18 (AP)—Television which can be viewed by a roomful of spectators rather than by one or two was announced today by Dr. Vladimir Zworykin, research engineer of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, to members of the Institute of Radio Engineers. The use of a cathode ray tube as a receiver gives this new type of television many advantages over the well known scanning disc method of visual broadcasting.
The inventor is already in position to discuss the practical possibility of flashing the images on a motion picture screen so that large audiences can receive television broadcasts of important events immediately after a film of these is printed. These visual broadcasts would be synchronized with sound.
No Moving Parts in Set.
The cathode ray television receiver has no moving parts, making it more easily usable by the rank and file of the radio audience. It is quiet in operation and synchronization of transmitter and receiver is accomplished easily, even when using a single radio channel.
Another advantage is that, using a fluorescent screen, the persistence of the eye’s vision is added and it is possible to reduce the number of pictures shown each second without noticeable flickering. This in turn allows a greater number of scanning lines and results in the picture being produced in greater detail without increasing the width of the radio channel.
The apparatus described by Dr. Zworykin is now being used in experimental form in the Westinghouse research laboratories. A number of similar receivers are being constructed in order to give the set a thorough field test through station KDKA, Pittsburgh which already is operating a daily television broadcast schedule with the scanning disc type of transmission.
The pictures formed by the cathode ray receiver are 4x5 inches in size. They can be made larger or brighter by increasing the voltage used in the receiver.
The transmitter of this new television apparatus consists of a motion picture projector rebuilt so that the film to be broadcast passes downward at a constant speed. This film is scanned horizontally by a tiny beam of light which, after passing through the film, is focused as a stationary spot on a photo-electric cell. The scanning motion of the beam is produced by a vibrating mirror which reflects the light from one side of the film to the other.
A New Type Cathode.
Dr. Zworykin was forced to develop an entirely new type of cathode ray tube for his receiving apparatus which he calls a "kinescope." In this tube a pencil of electrons is bombarding a screen of fluorescent material. The pencil follows the movement of the scanning light beam in the transmitter, while its intensity is regulated by the strength of the impulses received from the transmitter. The movement of the scanning beam consequently of the cathode ray pencil are so rapid that the eye receives a perfect impression of a continuous miniature motion picture.
A reflecting mirror mounted on the receiver permits the picture to be observed by a number of spectators.
System Has Great Possibilities.
This condensed description of the methods used by Dr. Zworykin to effect television transmission can give only an idea of the possibilities of the new system. To the radio public it means, when perfected, a means of television which will be simple to operate because it has no scanning disc or other moving mechanical part. The receiver will operate in silence, offering no interference to sound broadcasts.
To the radio engineer the invention is important for the same reasons and because it will not be wasteful of radio wave bands. This because the transmitter and receiver can be synchronized using but one channel.
The name of Dr. Zworykin is not new to the radio public. Earlier this year he was brought into the limelight in connection with his facsimile transmitting device for telegraphing photographs letters drawings and documents.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1929
Television Station Changes Wave-Length
Jersey City, N. J.—The television station of the Jenkins Television Corporation, W2XCR, has changed its wave length by authority of the Federal Radio Commission, to 107 meters, or a frequency of 2,800 K. C. in the 2,750 to 2,850 band. The change has been made from the former frequency of 21,500 K. C. or 139.5 meters, because of interference with other television stations in the vicinity.
According to D. E. Replogle, assistant to the president of the Jenkins Television Corporation, Station W2XCR, will continue to be on the air with its program broadcasting from 3 o'clock to 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and from 8 o'clock to 10 at night, until further notice. (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)