That wouldn’t happen until April. In the meantime, there were more tests. And other would-be TV moguls in New York continued hurrying to get on the air. It took a while for CBS to get there, even longer for DuMont.
Below is a look at television news from the start of the month. A piece in Variety gives a good summary of the situation as it stood at the start of the year. W6XAO in Los Angeles was on the air regularly, and we can get a bit of an idea about its programming. The University of Iowa station was on a maximum of twice a week for 15 minutes.
The FCC decided to investigate transmission standards. This eventually resulted in a decision to ban commercial television until July 1, 1941.
There was talk of CBS television on the West Coast; the company didn’t have any stations on the air at the time. I’ve found nothing to show the experimental station ever transmitted anything. As it turned out, it was moved to a different frequency band which the FCC eliminated for television use in 1941.
Paramount and DuMont got together in a deal that was ultimately a bomb that went off as the FCC limited the number of stations a network could own and treated the two companies as one.
We will have posts taking us through April 1939. Elsewhere, this blog has highlights from May 1939 through to the end of 1947.
Monday, January 2
TRANSATLANTIC TELEVISION
Seen in New York
PROGRAMME FROM LONDON
A "Freak" Occasion?
From our Wireless Correspondent
LONDON, MONDAY.
The B.B.C. has been officially notified that television transmissions from Alexandra Palace have been picked up in New York.
This is, of course, easily a record in long-distance reception of television. The pictures were seen on one of the television sets of the United States Radio Corporation, at the Riverhead Receiving Station, New York, 3,000 miles away from their source.
The feat was made possible only by extraordinarily favourable atmosphere conditions and must at present be regarded as freakish.
A B.B.C. official explained that the uncertainty of transatlantic reception may be illustrated by the fact that on the day these pictures were seen the accompanying sound, which is broadcast on a different wavelength, could not be heard, whereas six days later sound came over well but the pictures did not appear at all. The sound part of television broadcasts has also been known to reach South Africa, but not the vision.
PREVIOUS RECORDS
The official range of the Alexandra Palace television programmes is put at thirty miles, but there have been many instances of good reception over much greater distances, though not approaching the latest figure.
One of the best was reported in June, when pictures transmitted from Alexandra Palace were perfectly recorded on the screen of a £100 set at Ormesby, near Middlesbrough. Success was said to be due principally to the erection of the apparatus on the Cleveland moors, 700 feet above sea level.
Last month the television from Alexandra Palace was seen clearly in Guernsey, 180 miles away, and this was described as “one of the few occasions on which television has been well received across the sea." A B.B.C. official said at the time, "We consider such reception as startling and certainly very significant."
INCREASING RANGE
These figures show that the range of television broadcasting is steadily, if slowly, increasing, and there are hopes that this fact may hasten the day when it will be possible to send out programmes from other centres besides London.
Post Office experts are experimenting with a scheme submitted by Electric and Musical Industries, Ltd., to feed various centres by radio link from Alexandra Palace. The theory is that this would be cheaper than relays by the Post Office co-axial cable, though would entail the erection of a number of receiving and broadcasting stations a certain distance apart. Meanwhile recent weeks have seen an increase in the sale of television sets, and a trade campaign to stimulate public interest still farther will open in a week or two. (Manchester Guardian, Jan. 3)
Tuesday, January 3
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30 p.m.—Television Program with WSUI, 880 kcs.
Milwaukee Seeking Television License
WASHINGTON, Jan. 3. (AP) —The communications commission designated Commissioner T. A. M. Craven, Thad H. Brown and Norman Case today to study television transmission standards.
Proposed standards were recommended to the commission recently by the Radio Manufacturers' association, but no action has been taken.
The Milwaukee Journal company has filed the first application for permission to inaugurate public television service. Licenses issued so far have been for technical experimentation.
Radio Industry Records Gains In All Fields
Sarnoff Says Television Start Here in April Will Launch New U. S. Trade
Although progress in the first six months of 1938 was impeded by the business slump which began in the previous year, general business conditions began to pick up and the second six months witnessed substantial improvement in all branches of the radio industry, according to David Sarnoff, president of the Radio Corp. of America.
Mr. Sarnoff said that the broadcasting service of Radio Corp. of America, National Broadcasting Co., once again surpassed its best previous record, with sales of network time which were the largest in the company's history. The number of affiliated [radio] stations, he said, was increased to 165. The experimental short-wave program services to Europe and Latin America were greatly expanded, he declared, and would soon be augmented further by two additional frequencies.
RCA Communications, Inc., said Mr. Sarnoff, received more programs and radio photos from abroad than ever before in its history. During 1939 several new and important radio products would be introduced, including those related to television, declared Mr. Sarnoff.
Introduction of Television
"Field tests in television conducted by RCA research engineers during the past two and a half years," he continued, "have resulted in development of the new art to a point where its introduction to the public in the areas served by television stations has become practicable. Therefore, RCA announced on October 20 that NBC would begin regular program service, and the RCA Manufacturing Co. would place television receiving sets on the market in April, 1939, coincident with the opening of the New York World's Fair.
New Industry to Start
"Thus, after many years of laboratory development, a modest beginning will be made to launch a new American industry. The RCA television transmitter, at the top of the Empire State Building, will be operated in a limited service to the public by the National Broadcasting Co. Programs telecast by television transmitters can be viewed on home receivers in the metropolitan New York area within a radius of approximately forty to fifty miles from Radio City." (New York Herald Tribune)
Philco Head Looks Forward To Television Debut This Year
Larry E. Gubb, president, Philco Radio & Television Corp., in a year-end statement says that 1939 assumes added importance because of the "long awaited debut of television on a very, very limited scale, in the late spring."
Reviewing what he described as the tremendous obstacles of coverage, financing and engineering research which must be hurdled before television can achieve the general scale of excellence expected and demanded from radio entertainment today. Mr. Gubb declared that television will be in "its swaddling clothes" for years to come.
"Philco is as ready for television as anyone. Years of successful research have seen to that. But we do believe that during 1939, and even 1940 and 1941, people should not, for television's own sake, be led to expect too much." (Wall Street Journal)
CBS SETTING UP TELEVISION EQUIPMENT FOR WEST COAST
Experiments Start At Square Shortly
CBS will open the avenues for its entrance into television broadcasting on this coast early this year. Indicating the mover will be the installation and placing in operation of an ultra-high-frequency transmitter at Columbia Square this month.
The Columbia move is seen as a natural outgrowth of its television activity on the east coast and extension here to meet the announced intention of NBC to telecast daily at the San Francisco world exposition. CBS spokesmen here, however, insisted that the new station will not be involved in television experimentation.
Notwithstanding, those technically informed construe the ultra-high-frequency broadcasting move as one tied undeniably with television activity and expansion.
According to Donald W. Thornburgh, CBS vice-president in charge here, the new transmitter will operate on a 40-hour weekly experimental schedule beginning this month. The transmitter, of 100-watt power, will be designated as W6XDA and operate on a 35.6 megacycle band. This is identified in the ultra-high slice indicated for television.
The new transmitter will be installed at Columbia Square and will be surmounted by a concentric antenna rising 40 feet above the plant. (Hollywood Reporter)
Wednesday, January 4
Television's Future—and When
By Bob Landry
There has been lots of television during 1938—if publicity statements, press showings and headlines are the measure. Separated from this battle of mimeograph the story is one of cautious stepping and obscure progress, if any. A reddish discoloring of the outer electronic epidermis during the year was pronounced a press agent's rash, but the threatened appearance of television receivers in New York department stores prompted a curtailment of RCA's regular schedule of programs which had been in progress for some months and which was obviously the one development encouraging indie set-makers to rush into the market with television receivers.
In a nutshell these are the broad facts about television:
1. Not only does the FCC still classify all television as 'experimental,' but in New York there is no television broadcasting whatever at the moment.
2. Only television activity in New York (latterly in 1938) has been some outside events by the NBC's tele-mobile unit which were monitored and studied by engineers but not put on the air. Indoor activity confined to improving equipment, etc.
3. Sometime in January or February, 1939, the NBC-RC transmitter in the Empire State Bldg. (where a new antenna is being installed) and the CBS transmitter atop the Chrysler Bldg., will begin operating intermittently. Each transmitter will be powered with 7,500 watts. CBS studios will be in Grand Central Terminal, RCA in Radio City and each transmitter will be linked to its studio by A. T. & T. coaxial cable.
4. According to his own announcement, Allen B. DuMont will launch a 50-watt television station in New Jersey sometime during 1939. Paramount Pictures has a 50% stock interest in this enterprise.
5. By April, 1939, when the New York World's Fair opens it is expected that NBC and CBS will have two hours a week of te1evision programs and that television receivers, of several brands, will probably be placed on the market. How good they will be, how much they will cost, whether the public will buy them in any great numbers, are open questions.
Costs
6. Size of image will determine the price of sets. It is probable that sets selling for $150 or thereabouts will throw an image of not over 3 x 4 inches. This is a 'chair-side' set. Around $350 is the estimated cost of sets with an 8 x 10-inch frame which is called 'comfortable' for 3-6 feet scrutiny by small groups.
7. Meanwhile Scophony of Great Britain has set out to invade America. It is now engaged in promoting American capital and to make arrangements for the manufacture of its sets over here. Scophony sets throwing an image 18 x 24 are retailed in England for around $1,200. They are described as producing 'good-looking images' from a mechanical type of television (RCA is electronic in principle).
8. First to apply for RCA television equipment is WTMJ, Milwaukee (owned by the Milwaukee Journal) and the prospective outlay of about $100,000 suggests the costliness of going into television in even a small way. WTMJ envisages a 1,000-watt transmitter. Studios, cameras, coaxial cable, channels, lighting, properties, sound equip-ment, etc., add up the initial investment. (Lubke-Don Lee visio in California is off-standard for America, using a 375-line image instead of the 441-line approved at present by the Radio Manufacturers Assn.) (Variety, Jan. 4)
Thursday, January 5
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30 p.m.—Television Program with WSUI, 880 kcs.
Television Program to War on Accidents
In a novel accident prevention appeal, scientists of the University of California and officials of the Department of Motor Vehicles will don black lip stick, blue and green eye shade and bronze grease paint to appear in a television program broadcast at 7:15 tonight over W6XAO. Coordination of the eyes and feet will be tested by Dr. Ned D. Warren of U.S.C. who will demonstrate a reaction machine on the program. The ability of subjects to react to traffic perils will be shown. Sam Bagby of the State Division of Drivers' Licenses states that it requires 45/100 of a second for persons to see danger and apply the brakes, which means that a person driving 60 miles an hour would travel 45 feet before he even began to stop. (Hollywood Citizen-Reporter)
Tuesday, January 10
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30 p.m.—Television Program with WSUI, 880 kcs.
Capital District to Have Powerful Television Plant
General Electric to Place Transmitter On Hill in Helderbergs in 30 Days
SCHENECTADY—The General Electric Company will operate a television transmitter in upstate New York more powerful than any now in use in this country, it was announced today.Final arrangements for installation "within thirty days" for use in the Spring, was made after the Federal Communications Commission yesterday [9] authorized the company to construct two experimental television stations at Schenectady, one at Albany and one at Bridgeport, Conn.
The television transmitters will be designed to broadcast pictures with much improved "picture definition." One transmitter will be installed at Indian Ladder, in the Helderberg hills, twelve miles from Albany.
Built atop a 1,500-foot hill, with antennae on 100 foot towers, the Indian Ladder station will be at least 270 feet higher than one on the Empire State building in New York, with a power output of ten killo-watts [sic].
Its coverage will embrace the area of Albany, Schenectady, Troy and Saratoga known as the capital district with a combined population of 500,000.
The television studio will be located in Schenectady and programs will be sent by a directional transmitter to Indian Ladder. At such times as studio programs are not available, motion picture programs will be sent.
The second Schenectady station will be for experimental purposes only. The Bridgeport, Conn., station will also be for experimental purposes. It was explained that the Bridgeport plant manufacturers television receivers and the station there will be used to test the receivers. (Middletown Times Herald)
Paramount Buys Into Dumont As First Step Into Television
New York.—Wall street traders see Paramount's entrance into television through the Dumont Television Corp., in which Para has dumped $50,000, and stands ready to kick in with $200,000 more on a ten-year note. Since Paramount showed its hand in the deal, Class A stock has bounced from $12 to $27 a share in over the counter trading. The street regards as the tipoff the corporation's report that it is contemplating piping local news events and film features direct from local transmitters to theatres. Paramount's hand in the deal will be the production of film, using studio talent, and televising it into theatres with plenty of ballyhoo angles stressed for the exhibitor. Dumont's transmitter is located at Passaic, N. J., and goes on the air in ten days, sharing time with NBC's Empire State transmitter. Experimentation will be carried on, with Paramount execs being advised of all angles in order to mesh studio activity when the time is ready to spring out into the open on the deal.
Paramount's original investment was $50,000 for which it received a $36,000 ten-year note bearing three percent interest and $14,000, or all outstanding shares of B stock. In addition, Paramount has options to buy the remaining 42,000 shares of B stock at par value, which is $1 a share. In return for the option, Paramount has agreed to lend Dumont all, or any part, of $200,000 for ten years.
Dumont's capitalization consists of 2000 shares of $25 par value preferred 6 percent stock, of which 1200 shares are outstanding. 56,000 shares of Class A stock of $1 par value, all outstanding, and 56,000 Class B $1 par value of which 14,000 shares are outstanding. The funded debt consists of $16,000 in 6 percent debentures due 1945, a $17,000 secured 6 per-cent note payable in 1942, and the $36,000 Paramount note.
Class A and B stock shares alike in the company dividends, and each class elects three directors. Wall Street reports that the company is breaking even this year, which makes it probably the only television company able to show such results. (Hollywood Reporter)
FCC Skeptical on Television; Fingers Also Crossed on High Frequencies Despite Their Use
Washington, Jan. 10.
Rapid increase of interest in the medium and ultra high frequencies was cited last week in the annual report of the FCC but the government authorities kept their fingers crossed while discussing the prospect for early development of television into a mature commercial enterprise. Services other than those accommodated in the standard 550-1600 kc band—such as relay, international, visual, educational, et al—have grown materially, with a sharp increase during the 12 months ended June 30, 1938. During this period, new rules were promulgated blocking off the spectrum up to 300,000 kc to provide room for expansion and experimentation.
Inclination of newcomers to try out the shorter waves, due largely' to crowded situation in the regular frequency sector, was shown clearly in the statistical review of 1938 accomplishments. Experimenters in radio's upper story were more than half as numerous as the regular operators. From 418 on June 30, 1937, the number of experimental stations mounted to 510 at the end of fiscal 1938. Broken down as follows:
High-frequency broadcast, 48: experimental broadcast, 14; television, 19; international, 13; facsimile, 6; low-frequency relay, 143; high-frequency relay, 266; non-commercial educational, 1.
International
Reception conditions in the international broadcast field did not improve materially during the fiscal year, the report said, adding that experience supports other evidence that higher wattage and directional antennas are required to give reliable service to some foreign areas.
In discussing television, the Commish pointed to evidence that technical phases of visual operation are progressing satisfactorily but still was skeptical about the possibility of providing regular service to the Public. (Report was limited to last fiscal year, consequently not covering announced NBC plans to institute routine transmission this coming spring.)
Television
“Television has developed to the state where complete transmitting equipment is available on the mar-ket,” the report explained, “but such equipment is costly and, because of the experimental status of the art, may become obsolete at any time due to new developments.”
Possibility that new type of synchronized operation will help remedy present shortage of service in some areas was suggested in the discussion of technical progress. Research connected with operation of stations not linked by land lines was successfully completed, report mid, with evidence that theory is practicable. System may be utilized to improve coverage, regulators agreed, remarking that minimum-signal zones were comparatively small and not particularly objectionable.
Research into the high-frequency broadcast field, while encouraging, has not reached the point where certain important conclusions can be drawn. Data turned in by 37 experimenters is not sufficiently comprehensive to permit a conclusive determination of the propagation characteristics of the channels, but present studies give ground for hoping that enough info will be available to allow allocation of frequencies above 30 megacycles. Use of frequency-modulation suggests way to overcome static, particularly from thunderstorms, and holds out hope of good reception at relatively great distances from transmitters. (Variety, Jan. 11)
Thursday, January 12
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30 p.m.—Television Program with WSUI, 880 kcs.
L. A. Television Broadcast Future Eyed
Radio Executive Unable To Say When Service Here Will Be Available
Los Angeles—Hollywood will become one of the nation's principal television broadcasting centers when the growing see-hear medium emerges from its adolescence, Niles Trammell, executive vice-president of the National Broadcasting Co., predicted today.
But Trammell, no rose-colored glasses-wearing prophet, could not say whether that time would be a year or two or three years from now. In the coming year N.B.C. will spend $1,000,000 on television, which the radio executive said is out of the scientific laboratory stage, but is still a commercial experiment.
"It's an experiment and we're going to sink a lot of money in it," said Trammel, visiting at Radio City in Hollywood from New York.
N. Y. Plans Related
The company's television operations will be confined for the present to New York where two hours a week programs will be broadcast from atop the Empire State Building, beginning in April. Concurrently Radio Corporation of America will place on the market television receiving sets, retailing at from $250 to $500 each, Trammell said. The home-receiving sets will have a 9 by 11-inch screen.
Trammell does not gloss over the technical and commercial problems confronting telecasting. He observed:
"It cost 10 to 15 times more to produce television than it did radio in the latter's early days.
"To produce television programs one hour day will cost an estimated $1,000,000 a year.
"The broadcasting range at present is limited to the horizon—about 40 or 50 miles, it is figured—in the New York operations."
Big Problem Cited
Trammel also cited the as-yet-unsolved problem of nation-wide transmission of television broadcasting. He said an estimate of $5000-a-mile cost had been made for the laying of a coaxial cable across the continent for hooking up television stations. Experiments are under way on short-wave transmission, but are still inconclusive.
Because television now is limited to big cities, commercial sponsorship, requiring mass audiences, has not been developed.
The radio company official does not believe television is pointed toward competition with either motion pictures or radio.
"Equipment has not been developed to make theater television practical," he said, citing the necessity of a large-sized reception screen.
"It is my firm conviction that in the years to come television will only supplement radio. Sound broadcasting programs are on the air 18 hours a day. We don't visualize anything like that basis for television programs." (Hollywood Citizen-News)
Saturday, January 14
People Misunderstand Television Prospects
Only Three Cities In Nation Have The Facilities
By JOHN LEAR
NEW YORK, Jan. 14 (AP)—President Roosevelt doesn't have a television set, which makes more difference to you than you may think.
He could have one.
One was offered to him, free.
Arrangements were made, in fact, to install the set in the White House not so long ago. A little ceremony was prepared, and publicity on it was sent to the newspapers in advance by the manufacturer who offered the gilt. But everything was called off at the last minute.
The reason was that somebody explained to the White House that if the President did have a television set, he couldn't get any programs on it.
Misunderstanding Seen
That incident in the busy life of the first household in the nation is illustrative of the misunderstanding most of the nation has of television People have been told that television is here" and they expect to see pictures-by-radio any day.
But chances are that if you bought a television set now you couldn't get any programs on it, either.
The president couldn't receive any programs because there is television broadcasting station in Washington. Unless you live in New York or Los Angeles, your home town is in the same fix.
Television, like radio, has as yet no practical method of network broadcasting. Each station is "on its own," and the range of any station is the distance from the top of the transmitter to the horizon line at that point. This is true became television waves are like light waves and travel in straight lines.
The extent to which this limits the size of the television audience at the present time is indicated by the fact that the greatest range of any station now is a radius of 50 miles. The transmitter of that station is on top of the Empire State building in New York, the tallest structure in the world. Lower transmitters will cover smaller distances.
Only Three Cities
Add to that the fact that only three cities have broadcasting facilities. They are New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Only two of them are ready for anything comparable to the programs of radio. Philadelphia's output being limited to commercial testing.
In Los Angeles, Don Lee’s station now broadcasts programs regularly one hour a night six nights a week with two and a quarter hours Wednesday and Friday nights and an added midday hour on Wednesdays.
The National Broadcasting company station, which has been sending experimental pictures from the Empire State building for the last three years, will begin one-hour programs twice a week in April.
The Columbia Broadcasting company [sic] will start broadcasting from the Chrysler building in New York City "sometime in the spring.
Also “in the spring" the General Electric company will broadcast from a mountain top near Schenectady, N. Y., at least 250 feet higher than the top of the Empire state building. Its area will embrace Schenectady, Troy, Albany, Amsterdam and Saratoga—a total population of 500,000 persons.
First Short Wave.
This effect will mark the first experience at relaying pictures by short-wave radio—in this case from the studio at Schenectady to the main transmitter in the Helderberg hills 14 miles away. If the experiment works and can be applied to long distances, network broadcasting will have been achieved.
To date, the only network connection that has seemed possible to television engineers generally is the coaxial cable, a complex arrangement of telephone wires, Such a cable has been laid from Philadelphia to New York, but its use over long distances is at the present stage of development impractical because of expense. Engineers estimate its cost at $5,000 a wire.
The technicians expect to solve the network problem in time, but not before sales of receiving sets which are now being manufactured are well under way. Although some receivers are now on the market, the beginning of sales on any extensive scale can be expected to be delayed to coincide with the beginning of NBC program broadcasting, for NBC's parent company, the Radio Corporation of America, holds or controls most of the vital patents involved.
Build Your Own
If you like to tinker, you don't need to wait for the readymade sets. You can build one yourself with a kit of parts, which now sells for about $80.00. Otherwise you probably will pay from $125 up for sets which receive pictures without sound; $200 and up for sets which receive pictures and sound together. The better sets will show a picture 7 1/2 by 10 inches in size, reflected into a mirror so you don't need to stand up and peer into the apparatus.
After the sale of sets is on, the growth of the television baby will depend on the enthusiasm the programs invoke among those who live in areas where they can "tune in." From the standpoint spreading interest, the most important part of this initial audience will be at the world's fair in Flushing. Here thousands of visitors from all parts of the country will see a constant stream of special broadcasts. If they like what they see and go back home and talk about it, they may persuade hometown investors that a television station would be a good business proposition.
Some such investors already have made bids to the federal communications commission for licenses. The list of those now under license, under construction or in definite prospect if a license is granted includes New York city, Camden and Passaic, N. J., Albany and Schenectady, N. Y., Bridgeport, Conn., Boston, Philadelphia, Springfield (near Philadelphia), Milwaukee, Kansas City, Iowa City, Chicago and Los Angeles.
Transmitters Costly
For them and for others like them, transmitters are on sale or $60,000 and up. This does not cover the cost of a station site, the construction of studios or of installation of the apparatus.
Prospective broadcasters face other problems than money and licenses. They face the statement of television experts that because of the costs involved, about 20 rehearsals will be required for one actual performance in television, compared to 7 rehearsals to a performance in radio; television requires 10 times more engineers than radio; for every hour of picture broadcasting, 20 people are needed, not counting the entertainers, all of which adds up to a total cost of $2,750 an hour (in England) a station must reach an audience of 100,000 persons. Since the average height of a transmitter in other than major cities has been estimated at 400 feet, this audience must be encompassed within a radius of 25 to 30 miles from the transmitter. And there are only 96 of these 25-to-30 mile circles with that much population in the whole United States.
Even if transmitters were set up in each of the available 25-to-30 mile circles, all residents of those areas who happened to own television receivers might not be able to tune in the broadcasts.
Bouncing Pictures
If a tall building of concrete or steel intervenes between the transmitter and the receiver, the pictures will not penetrate in New York, for example. President Roosevelt's mother cannot receive pictures because skyscrapers stand between her home and the Empire State building. The pictures may also bounce off these buildings and enter receivers on the rebound. That happened here; an engineer picked up seven different images of the same picture at one time — each one bounced off a different building.
Trees do not interfere with the waves, however. No do sand or gravel. Pictures transmitted on the side of a hill made up of such material have been received in the other side. This leads some engineers to hope that the pictures will pass through the top layers of the earth's surface after they hit the horizon, and thus lengthen the broadcasting range.
Another hope of increased range lies in a study of the sun's rays. They can be seen after the sun is over the horizon. Since television rays are light rays, maybe they will do the same.
Sunday, January 15
First Television Broadcast From Night Club Takes Place in New York Sunday
NEW YORK. Jan. 16. (U.P.)—The first television broadcast from a night club took place Sunday [15] but more people saw the performers in the flesh than viewed them on the screen.
The broadcast, demonstrating the mobility of the National Broadcasting Co.'s television equipment, marked the first time in the United States that an entertainment bill was transmitted from a building other than one occupied by experimental studios, according to NBC officials.
They are investigating the feasibility of television broadcasts of entertainment in the city's night spots when the company begins its regular broadcasting service in the spring.
An iconoscope camera was rolled into the Cafe Francais, adjoining the Rockefeller Plaza skating pond, and a half hour variety program was broadcast. Then the camera was moved outside to pick up a figure skater swirling around the pond.
There are "several hundred" television receiving sets in the metropolitan area, officials said, but even if they were all turned on, more people saw the pickup being made than received the actual broadcast. Several thousand Sunday strollers surrounded the ice rink and nearly 100 crowded into the small cafe.
The broadcast got under way shortly after 3 o'clock when Phyllis Welsh, blonde actress known as the "Television Hostess," stepped in front of a microphone, and, as the camera whirled, announced the first act.
A tap dancing team beat out time on chairs and on the floor with a pair of drum sticks, and they finished the act with the man beating a cymbal on his girl partner's head.
Then Frank Gaby, a ventriloquist, exchanged banter with his wooden-headed dummy. Fats Waller sang and played the piano, and the show closed with Sheila Barrett reciting the misfortunes of the "Southern Girl."
The camera and the lights, two clusters of "birdseye" facusing lamps and a kleig, were rolled outside to pick up Vivi-Anne Hui-ten, youthful swedish figure-skating champion.
The program was produced by Warren Wade, who sat out of range of the camera, and listened to the program by telephone as it was received in the RCA building.
Tuesday, January 17
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30 p.m.—Television Program with WSUI, 880 kcs.
Thursday, January 19
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30 p.m.—Television Program with WSUI, 880 kcs.
Invented Television at 14, 'Farm Boy' Tells Probers
WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 (AP)—The stranger-than-fiction story of how a 14-year-old high school boy invented the basis for modern television went into the records of the monopoly investigating committee today. The narrator was Philo T. Farnsworth of Philadelphia, who conceived and patented the first means of television broadcasting without use of moving parts.
Now in his early 30's, the farm boy who had his idea "fairly well developed" when he was 13 told the committee that television service would be available "to the American home before very long" and would be superior to that now provided in England and Germany.
Mr. Farnsworth told how he obtained his first technical training at 12, when he was placed in charge of a farm lighting system in Idaho.
Within a year, he said, the rough idea for "electronic" television had taken shape in his mind. In 1922, with only a "modest high school library" and a static machine in the high school physique laboratory to work with, Mr. Farnsworth continued, his "day dream" first took shape as an actual invention.
A year later, the slight mild-mannered witness said, the Farnsworth family moved to Provo, Utah, where additional laboratory facilities enabled the inventor to complete what has become the present system of television.
In 1926 Mr. Farnsworth's father died and he was faced with the necessity of supporting his widowed mother and a newly-acquired bride. He found two California business men who "agreed to put up $8,000 to see if the invention was worth anything."
Within 18 months he had spent $60,000 advanced by other hackers. Total development cost today, Mr. Farnsworth testified, has been in excess of $1,000,000, and inventors have not yet received any returns.
In 1927 Mr. Farnsworth was able to give his first successful demonstration of transmitting an electronic image.
The first image sent, he told the committee with a smile, was a dollar sign, which "seemed to climax the work when we could see the sign of real money."
Saturday, January 21
Don Lee Web Seeks Regular Tele Sked
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 21.—Deal to aid television on the Coast was set this week by Lewis Allen Weiss, head of the Don Lee network. Only hitch in current plans is whether manufacturing plant contacted can turn out receivers to retail for $175. Don Lee net has reportedly made a deal with the American Television Corp. Present plans call for the manufacturing plant to have its engineers here in 30 days or less to study conditions.
If tests conducted at that time are satisfactory to Weiss and Harry Lubcke, televish engineer for the web, new service will be started and sets put on sale.
If deal goes thru as anticipated. American Television is to turn out 1,000 sets a month. There are now approximately 100 televish sets in this locality receiving regular Don Lee hear and see programs. Don Lee web will have to change its facilities for handling 441-line pictures. Station is now using 330-line images. Lubcke and his staff have been working converting the present equipment so that it will synchronize with the Videor sets.
It is reported that a Coast theater chain is interested in Don Lee television for its houses. Name of the chain was not disclosed. (Billboard, Jan. 28)
Junior Group Falcon Plan
The Falcon Junior Workshop, latest expansion of the Falcon School and the Edith Jane School of Dancing, will open its Spring term intensive theatrical training for children Monday [23]. The course will run daily until July 1. This Children's theater will be conducted in conformity with the Falcon policy of fine training by masters, with first regard to the best mental, moral and physical benefit to the child.
Regular dramatic and musical plays will be produced on the school's large stage and over the air, both by radio and television [W6XAO]. Franklin Bingham of the Television and Educational department at KHJ will personally conduct the television unit, and will collaborate with Lowell Cartwright, authority at the mime station. Diction, fencing, voice, piano and all forms of dancing are available.
The Falcon faculty includes Adolph Balm, Edith Jane, Ralph Faulkner, C. Montague Shaw, Madge Cleveland, Talbot Pearson, Wilda Williams, Betty Powers, Marshall Feimster, Monica Dunn and Paul Ballard. In addition to the stuff, celebrities of screen. radio and stage will give talks at various times. (Hollywood Citizen-News)
Sunday, January 22
Capital to Get Its First Glimpse of Television From Mobile Set
The most extensive demonstration of television with a mobile station ever undertaken, and the first to be conducted outside of New York City, yesterday [22] was promised Washington by Frank M. Russell, vice president of the National Broadcasting Co.
After preliminary test transmissions were successfully concluded here yesterday, Russell, on behalf of N. B. C. and the Radio Corporation of America, invited the press, Government officials, Diplomatic Corps and other groups to witness the demonstration.
The showing of high-definition pictures with associated sound will begin Friday and extend over five days. R. C. A. experimental receivers, installed at the National Press Club will reproduce the sight-and-sound programs.
The transmitting station, the N. B. C. mobile television units which arrived here last week, will be installed at the Agricultural Building, more than half a mile distant. The images will be sent over a radio beam by the units' ultra-high-frequency transmitter; sound will be relayed over a separate radio channel.
No elaborate programming is planned, because technical facilities adequate for such an attempt are not available in Washington, although N. B. C. will launch regular television service for the New York metropolitan area in April. R. C. A. plans to market its first commercial receivers at the same time.
“This showing of television," Russell warned, "should not be interpreted as an indication that a public program service in Washington is close at hand. The National Broadcasting Co. is only just now on the eve of regular television broadcasting from Radio City.
"Present indications are that reception will be limited to a service area extending not more than 55 miles from the Empire State tower transmitter. Washington will probably not have television until the problem of networking is solved. As yet, the engineering and economic problems involved in television networking lie beyond our powers of solution."
Tests Satsfactory [sic]
Decision to hold the television demonstrations was reached only after the N. B. C. television field group was satisfied that a satisfactory image could be transmitted by radio to the receiver location. The telemobile station, licensed as Station W2XBT, was not designed for broadcasting directly to the home receiver.
As used in New York City it constitutes a low power wireless extension of N. B. C.'s permanent television facilities at Radio City and the Empire Spite Building. Its function is to pick up and relay outside programs, such as parades, sports events, night-club shows and the like, over a narrow radio beam for broadcast by the main transmitter in the Empire State Tower.
The television methods and apparatus to be demonstrated here will be those developed by R. C. A. The system produces images in 441 scanning lines at the rate of 30 complete pictures a second. The moving image is bright and entirely free of flicker, which was eliminated by a complicated scanning method known as interlacing.
The system, built without a single moving mechanical part, is based primarily on two ingenious vacuum tubes. The iconoscope, an amazing "electric eye" invented by Dr. Vladimir K. Zworykin, director of R. C. A.'s electronics research laboratory, registers and analyzes the image of a person or scene. Dr. Zworykin's reproducing device, a large funnel-shaped tube called the kinescope, converts received electrical impulses into light values and distributes these in their correct order on a fluorescent screen at the end of the tube. This synthetic process reproduces an exact, moving image of the televised person or scene. Action of the two tubes is synchronized to within one-millionth of a second. (Washington Post, Jan. 23)
‘Gunga Din’ Being Prepared For Television Broadcast
For the first time in motion picture history, a special film is being prepared expressly for television broadcast use through co-operation between RKO-Radio and the National Broadcasting company.
A special television version is being made of “Gunga Din,” starring Cary Grant, Victor McLeglan [sic] and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., directed by George Stevens, with Pandro S. Berman in charge of production.
The television condensation of “Gunga Din” will be approximately 1,000 in length, running about nine or ten minutes. It will be composed of close-ups and medium close-up scenes, and gaps in the action will be bridged by subtitles, and sound. The entire film will be dubbed with special sound to give a smooth-flowing continuity.
After conferring with National Broadcasting company television experts, plans were made to adapt “Gunga Din” as a vehicle perfectly suited to the new medium because of its preponderance of outdoor scenes. In addition to the high contrast of scenes photographed in sunlight, a special acid solution and optical printer is expected to give the print extreme clarity and fidelity.
The “Gunga Din” synoposis was specially edited by Henry Berman, who handled the picture itself, and will include only scenes specially suitable for television methods.
A special effort will be made to finish the picture this month for shipment to NBC television engineers in New York, where it will be put through exhaustive tests. It will be televised general when the NBC telecast schedule opens. (Santa Barbara News-Press)
Monday, January 23
Don Lee Telecasts Get School Outlets
Don Lee Broadcasting will expand its television activity beginning next Wednesday [25] with a special series of educational programs which it will release in four Southern California schools through the cooperation of the L. A. Board of Education. Television receivers will be installed at USC, Pomona College and the Poly-technic high schools at Los Angeles and Long Beach. Thomas S. Lee, president, has authorized a series of both live and film programs to be telecast over W6XAO in the new program group. Hollywood Television Society is also associated with the educational series. (Hollywood Reporter)
Tuesday, January 24
Television Corner
NBC announces the appointment of television’s first woman program director. She is Miss Thelma A. Prescott, who will represent the feminine interest in this new art. She will look after fashion shows and other programs [that] will appeal primarily to women (Jo Ransom, Brooklyn Eagle)
Wednesday, January 25
Television Is Demonstrated at Poly High
The first public school demonstration of television was given last night [25] with radio and television classes in Hollywood, Los Angeles and Long Beach participating to receive the program broadcast by the Don Lee station W6XAO.
A member of the W6XAO staff was present for the local reception which was held at Polytechnic High School through co-operation of Roger Howell, local television research exponent, and Charles Farrand, instructor of the Poly High radio class. The local reception was declared to be superior in all ways to that at the television station W6XAO.
Five-inch tubes were used by the Hollywood and Los Angeles groups while Howell used his 9-inch tube, his personnal property, for the occasion. The program last night included a sport talk by Frank commentator, a reading, an address and a skit by the Vine Street Theater Players.
Another honor tame to Long Roth Wit night with the presentation of a citation and membership in the Hollywood Television Society to Roger Howell and A L. Lubke [sic] of the Don Lee station, for their research and development of television equipment. George Seward is the president of the Hollywood Television Society.
Station WIXAO is received on 45 megacycles and broadcasts its television programs daily at 7:30 to 8:30 P. M. on regular broadcast periods of fifteen minutes.
Mr. Farrand, radio instructor, announced that the radio club at Polytechnic High School will build its own television receiving equipment some time this year in readiness for next school year activities. (Long Beach Morning Sun, Jan. 26)
Friday, January 27
Television Is Shown Here For First Time
Speaker Bankhead Talks of Weather and Press Club Feels Cold
Washington yesterday [27] saw its first demonstration of television.
Representative William Bankhead, speaker of the House, was standing in front of the Agriculture Building, chatting with Bill Crago, N. B. C. announcer, about the cold. And a crowd of newspapermen, business executives, Government officers, were gazing at the Speaker's face as it appeared on the glass screens of the half dozen receiving sets in the National Press Building, watching his lips move, hearing his voice, seeing him shiver under his upturned coat collar and feeling that they, too, were standing on that windy street corner.
Every detail in the picture was clear. No blur, no confusion, no flicker, no distortion. The camera moved from one member of the little group to another; "panned" down the line of Government buildings along the Mall.
No sound was made by the spectators in the Press Club; the room was filled with the sounds of that street corner on the Mall. With all eyes glued to the screen, the spectators felt that they, too, were standing beside Representative Bankhead.
Representative Bankhead expressed his pleasure at being the first "guinea pig" of the demonstration. Asked if he thought the introduction of television cameras in Congress would have any effect on the government, he said, "it might make some of the members take their feet off the chairs, but I don't think it will have any appreciable effect on the patriotic work they are doing there."
Edith Rogers Speaks
Representative Edith Nourse Rogers, the next to be interviewed, congratulated N. B. C. and the Radio Corporation of America, and promised that Congress would do what it could about the weather. Representative Rayburn (Democrat), of Texas, and Minority Leader Joseph W. Martin, jr., added their congratulations. Representative Martin declared he "couldn't conceive what it would mean to the world." But Congress, he thought, "will readjust itself" if it has to deliberate under the eyes of televiewers.
The sight-and-sound broadcasts, which will take place at 10-minute intervals from 11 a. m. to 3:30 p. m. daily through Tuesday, are sent from the "telemobile station," designated as Station W2XBT, which consists of two specially built motor trucks containing a complete telecasting unit. Pictures and sounds are sent through the ether by special directional beam to the receiving sets in the National Press Building in the same manner as standard television broadcasts.
The telemobile unit, the first of its kind ever to be made, was designed for field work in connection with the N. B. C. television studio in Radio City, New York. Its original purpose was to relay outdoor scenes to the studio for rebroadcast, and it is now making its first appearance outside New York. (Washington Post, Jan. 28)
Tuesday, January 31
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30 p.m.—Television Program with WSUI, 880 kcs.
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