October 1937

Nope. Their plans weren’t going to happen.

NBC had talked about remote broadcasts on W2XBS in October 1937. But the equipment wasn’t ready so the idea was postponed. The same with CBS announcing it would get W2XAB on the air “soon.” It had to admit in October 1937 it wouldn’t be ready until 1938.

One station that returned to the air, judging by local newspaper clippings, was W9XK at the University of Iowa. It resumed broadcasting once or twice a week, 15 minutes at a time, that month, after stopping its programmes earlier in the year.

Meanwhile, the FCC assigned frequencies specifically for television, even though manufacturers said they couldn’t be used yet to send signals.

Below are some of the news stories of the month pertaining to television. We’ve again skipped various opinion pieces. There’s a brief description of a W2XBS broadcast, and word that NBC was setting aside space in its about-to-be-built studios at Sunset and Vine in Hollywood. KNBH would not begin broadcasting until 1949. NBC outgrew the lovely building and it was torn down some years ago.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1937
TELEVISION OFF MT WASHINGTON
Summit Station Planned by Col H. M. Teague
Confers Here With National Broadcasting Officials
A long-range radio television station, equipped to send pictorial images through the air in synchronization with speech and music, is being planned for the bleak summit of Mt Washington, 6293 feet above sea level, the highest point in New England.
Out over the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the modern miracle at television will flash to local radio sets, if Col Henry M. Teague, president of the Mt Washington Railway Company—the famous cog railroad—is successful in negotiations he opened in Boston yesterday [4].
He visualizes a sending station on the summit, far above timber line, in the coldest, most windblown spot east of the Rockies, that will be powerful enough to reach to the larger communities—Boston, Portland, Montpelier, Springfield, Providence.
Height Primary Factor
The mountain top, he believes, will be an ideal location for such a station, because height is of primary importance in the broadcasting of television waves. These waves do not follow the curve of the earth like radio waves, but go forth in straight lines. The horizon is practically their range, at the present stage of development.
Col Teague came to Boston yesterday to confer with officials of the National Broadcasting Company. Little was said about the outcome of the day-long conference, but it is known the price of rental is one of the stumbling blocks to a completion of negotiations.
The railway company owns several acres on the summit, reached both by the cog railroad from the western slope and a toll automobile road from the east. A hotel shares the summit with a year-round meteorlogical [sic] station.
Tanks Ready at Fabyans
Col Teague, in anticipation of a successful outcome to his idea, has drawn plans for a site and the necessary equipment. Several steel tanks, to be used for gasoline storage, are loaded on flat cars at Fabyans, ready for the steep trip up the mountain. These tanks, it is planned, will be located near the marker to Lizzie Bourne, who perished years ago during an attempted climb to the top. She died in her father's arms with the summit almost in sight.
The Mt Washington Railway Company is a corporation within itself, although it is virtually a subsidiary of the Boston & Maine Railway. It acquired the rights for the cog railroad and purchased the summit area from the heirs of Coe and Pintree, many years ago.
Col Teague, who is the proprietor of the Mt Kinco House, in the Moosehead Lake section of Maine, spent several hours yesterday with John Shepard, head of WNAC. No statement was made about further discussions. (Boston Globe, Oct. 5)

DAVID SARNOFF REPORTS ON TELEVISION PROGRESS
By DAVID SARNOFF
DURING my five weeks abroad, I studied the latest developments of television in Europe. While interest is shown everywhere in this new branch of the radio art, greater progress has been made in England than elsewhere in Europe. Nevertheless, the experience to date with television in England, has only served to emphasize the formidable nature of the problems which must be solved before a satisfactory service of television to the public can be rendered, and a new industry soundly established.
The question is often asked: "Is England ahead of the United States in television?" I shall try to answer this question by stating the facts as I have now observed them on both sides of the Atlantic.
British Broadcasting Corp. has been operating its television transmitter, located at Alexandria Palace in London, for about a year. The range of this transmitter is more than 25 miles and covers all of London and its immediate vicinity. The system employed is known abroad as the Marconi E.M.I. Television System which is fundamentally based on the RCA Television System first developed in the RCA Laboratories in the United States. Under an exchange of patent licenses, this British company may use RCA patents in England and in turn, RCA and its American licensees may use British Patents in the United States.
Each side is therefore in a position to benefit from developments and improvements made by the other.
For nearly one year BBC has been broadcasting television programs to the public on a regular daily schedule of one hour in the afternoon and one hour in the evening.
Some fifteen British Radio Manufacturers have been offering television receiving sets to the public at prices ranging between $200 and $500 each. At the Olympia Radio show which I visited while in London, all the manufacturers exhibited their latest television sets and the BBC arranged special programs so that the public could view the actual operations of television while visiting the radio show. From a technical standpoint the results were highly satisfactory. The public filled the television booths and showed great interest. But while hundreds of thousands of ordinary broadcast receivers were sold during the show the public bought less than 100 television receivers in total.
During one year's operation of a public television service in England, less than 2,000 receivers in all have been sold to the trade and less than 1,000 are actually in the hands of the public. There is but one television transmitter in London, and I was informed that it will probably be two years more before a second transmitter is erected in any other part of England.
The foregoing represents the present status of television in England despite the fact that geographically its problem is simple compared with the vast area to be served by a television service in the United States. Also it is to be noted that in England the costs of erecting a television station, the establishment of a special organization, and the furnishing of television programs, have been paid by the Government out of license fees paid by the public annually for the privilege of listening or seeing by radio.
The range of the RCA television transmitter atop the Empire State Building now operated by the NBC from its television studios in the RCA Building in New York City, is approximately the same as that of the BBC station in London. The television receivers installed in the homes of our experts, who have been carrying on field tests during the past year, are likewise of the same order of performance as those in use in England.
The major problem of television, in both countries, is to provide a program for the home that will meet public requirements and maintain public interest.
To place television on a commercial basis in the United States, it is necessary to establish a sufficient number of sending stations, that must be interconnected and able to furnish a regular service at least to the population residing within the principal market areas of our country. The erection of such stations, the provision of necessary interconnecting facilities, and the establishment of a regular program service that would meet public requirements and hold public interest, call for vast financial expenditures before any returns can be reasonably expected.
I firmly believe in the American System of private enterprise, rather than Government subsidy; of free radio to the home, rather than license fees paid to the Government by owners of receiving sets; and I have no doubt, that in due time, we shall find practical answers to the practical problems that now beset the difficult road of the pioneer in television. The road calls for faith and perseverance as well as ingenuity and enterprise but it is a road that holds great promise for the public, for artists and performers, and for the radio industry. (Radio Daily)

MONDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1937
Says Tele Must Create Own Program Technique
New Brunswick, N. J. — Television must develop its own program technique, and the ultimate characteristics of such programs should be "spontaneity"— in other words, television must capture images of the world in action — declared Dr. Alfred N. Goldsmith, RCA technical consultant, in a talk before the New Jersey Press Ass'n here yesterday [4].
"Television networks of stations comparable to those existing in sound broadcasting," said Dr. Goldsmith, "must await the development of either the co-axial cable or automatic radio relay stations. Meanwhile, if public service should be inaugurated, individual stations can use local talent, films and traveling units."
Dr. Goldsmith said more than $10,000,000 had already been spent on television experiments, and current research appropriations may total between one and two million dollars a year.
New York presents problems in television transmission that are unique, Dr. Goldsmith stated, because of the effect of tall steel structures on the ultra-short radio waves employed in the new art, but he said that communities in northern New Jersey are in direct air line with the antenna on the Empire State Bldg.
Charles L. Allen, executive secretary of the press association, said newspapers must learn to use television as a supplement for their services in future. He termed coming of television as "an age of terrific competition in eye appeal." (Radio Daily, Oct. 5)

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1937
Television Up Another Notch
Special Demonstration Scores Hit.
By C.E. BUTTERFIELD
NEW YORK (AP)— Television is trying to grow up. It's [sic] latest demonstration had 25 persons in the "cast."
That was when the RCA-NBC system, now being used for field tests in New York, was operated yesterday [7] to give a preview of the National Business show open here Oct. 18.
The special Television studio on the third floor of Radio City was transformed into something on the order of an exhibit hall and the electric camera was moved about much as would a show visitor. The 25 persons included demonstrators, Albert Tangora, champion speed typist [right], and Miss Eleanor Rankin of New York, who was in charge of the televised tour.
The guests, business executives, looked on by means of receivers installed three floors above and connected to the studio by a special wire line. They thought the demonstration “interesting and marvelous." It took 45 minutes for the preview.

Urges Launching Television Without Awaiting Perfection
Upper Montclair, N. J. — The sooner American television goes on a regular program basis, with television sets made available to the public, regardless how crude and no matter what the obstacles may be, the sooner this country will realize practical television. So says Allen B. Du Mont, head of the Allen B. Du Mont Laboratories, a pioneer in the cathode-ray tube field, following his recent return from abroad and an inspection of television progress in England and on the continent.
Du Mont says there has been too much loose talk about television in this country, whereas in England they have gone ahead and started television broadcasts, thereby learning more in six months of practical activity than the U. S. is liable to learn in six more years of laboratory experiments. He believes that the only way to get the right answers to questions about technique, programs, service areas, networks and economics is to bring television out of the laboratory and make a real try.
Some 10,000 television sets have already been sold in England, according to Du Mont. Average price now is $350, but will be reduced to $200 shortly. He said the range of the London BBC transmitter is 100 miles.
Du Mont also declared the BBC has proved there is no absolute need for special co-axial cables for transmission of programs from pickup source to remote television transmitter and to associated stations of a network. (Radio Daily)

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1937
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30—Television program with radio station WSUI, 910 kcs.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1937
BROADCAST TESTS OF TELEVISION TO START NEXT YEAR
By C.E. BUTTERFIELD

NEW YORK, Oct. 13 (AP)—The CBS network, which as soon as technically possible, plans to join in the New York testing of television, reports that work on the installation of its picture transmitter is expected to get under way not long after the first of the year.
This belief is based on the progress made at the RCA laboratories at Camden, N. J., where the equipment is being put together. It is just about ready for the preliminary power checkup before shipment to New York.
The transmitter, designed for ultra short waves, is in two sections, one for sight and the other for sound. It will be placed on the 73rd and 74th floors of the Chrysler building, to be connected by cable to a special studio in a building across the street. The antenna is to be built around the spire on top of the skyscraper.
While no date has been set to begin the actual broadcast tests, it probably will be well on toward summer before they get under way.
Meanwhile, the NCB-RCA setup on the Empire State building, with studios in Radio City, is making preparations to extend experimentation into the outdoor field by the addition of mobile equipment.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1937
Television on 3x4' Screen Is Demonstrated by RCA
First demonstration of the RCA projection tube in the reception of a broadcast television program took place last night on the tower of the Empire State Building with the sending of a program received from the NBC studios back to the RCA Building.
An enlarged picture, approximately 3x 4 feet, was thrown on the screen by the projection tube. Recent advances made in black and white television picture transmission and reception also were shown by RCA. The NBC television transmitter recently was equipped with a new antenna system which is expected to materially improve the field test transmissions.
Demonstration was held in connection with the convention of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, and President David Sarnoff of RCA addressed the group.
The New RCA cathode-ray tube of intense brilliance enabled the projection of moving images in black and white on the 3x4-ft. screen, marking the first demonstration of a broadcast television program on such a screen.
Addressing the engineers, Sarnoff pointed out that although television progress seems slow at times, and "television today is an unfinished product," the size of the screen has been increased from approximately 5x8 inches to 7x10, and in addition important progress has been made in projecting pictures 3x4 feet on a screen.
Television programs will cost much more than present radio shows, Sarnoff stated, and this constituted a tele problem as formidable as the technical problems yet to be solved. A program technique also must be worked out, and advertisers must be provided with assurance that the more costly medium will be worth the expense, he added.
Both film and live talent were used for the demonstration. Show included two dramatic sketches written for television, harp solos by Margaret Brill, a comedy skit by Herman and Banta and a newsreel. The show was picked up by iconoscope cameras in the NBC studios at Radio City, relayed by coaxial cable to the Empire State Tower transmitter, and broadcast from there back to the RCA Building. (Radio Daily, Oct. 15)

PROGRESS MADE BY TELEVISION DEMONSTRATED
Special Studio Show Is Put on for Motion Picture Engineers
By C.E. BUTTERFIELD
Associated Press Radio Editor
NEW YORK, Oct. 15 (AP)—Television on a screen came out of the laboratory temporarily last night [14] to show members of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers how far it has gone.
Studio Show Given
While the images it reproduced were somewhat dim, it did indicate some of its possibilities by putting them on an area three by four feet.
The apparatus was operated under actual broadcast conditions, displaying a 35-minute studio show of both live talent and films, in its first semipublic demonstration. In a test last summer before the Institute of Radio Engineers there was only a still picture without transmission.
The projector, which uses a special cathode ray tube and other apparatus, differs from direct reproduction in that the tube is designed to pass the image through a set of lenses onto the screen. In direct reproduction the picture appears on the flat end of a much larger cathode ray tube, which despite its greater size can handle pictures only about seven by ten inches. However, the resulting detail is better than in the case of projection.
Still in the process of development, the projection tube is part of the research now under way by Radio Corporation of America and National Broadcasting Company engineers. This work includes field testing in New York by the use of a special studio in Radio City and an ultra short wave transmitter for both sight and sound on the Empire State Building.
Receiver Demonstrated
Besides the projection, the movie engineers were shown the direct type of receiver, 13 of which reproduced images in black and white and two of which were operated in the shade of green of earlier cathode ray experiments. The black and white tends to give a sharper picture.
David Sarnoff, president of R. C. A., told the guests that while "television is today an unfinished product," its progress to date led him to express the belief that "the same pioneering spirit of private enterprise that has produced the great industries of the automobile, motion picture and radio will likewise provide us with a nation-wide system of television."
Participating in the entertainment, put together much like a vaudeville revue, was Betty Goodwin, who has become known as NBC’s "television girl." Improvement in production was noticeable in that one scene was blended into another with much greater ease than in previous demonstrations.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1937
PHILCO APPLICATION REFUSED
WASHINGTON, Oct. 15—The Communications Commission returned today to the Philco Radio and Television Corporation, Philadelphia, its application for authority to build a new television broadcast station.
The commission said the Philco application was “not in proper form.”

MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1937
FCC SEES TELEVISION LONG DISTANCE AWAY
Washington.—A virtual admission that television is actually rounding the corner in the United States is seen in the action yesterday [18] by the Federal Communications Commission in clearing the upper traffic bands in an allocation move which is considered one of the most important in recent years. The FCC order is a significant basic step in paving the way for the actual development of reliable service and proper technical standards preparatory to the practical use of television.
Air space will be increased ten-fold by the FCC act. Ultra high frequency bands from 30,000 to 300,000 kilocycles are affected by the new allocation standards set up by the FCC order. Seven channels between 44,000 and 108,000 kilocycles, and 12 channels between 156,000 and 300,000 kilocycles are assigned to television, including in six megacycle width, both pictures and synchronized sound.
In the 41,020 to 43,980 kilocycle band, 75 channels are made available for assignment to aural broadcasting stations. Sixteen channels for relay broadcast stations are provided in the band from 30,830 to 39,820 kilocycles.
The FCC order is effective October 13, 1938, but due to the scarcity of assignments at present in ultra high frequency bands, the commission may make assignments before that date. (Hollywood Reporter, Oct. 19)

Television Test To Be Delayed
More Time Needed To Assemble Equipment.
By C.E. BUTTERFIELD
NEW YORK, Oct. 18.—(AP)—Outdoor pickups of experimental television broadcasts here are not to get under way as soon as it was first hoped. The indications now are that it will be two or three weeks before they do.
The delay is due to the fact that more time is being required to put the equipment together. It is being housed in two mobile units, one for the electric camera and the other for the ultra-short wave relay transmitter. When the apparatus is ready it will be put to work about the streets of New York and other sections of the big city as another adjunct for the field test studio and Empire State transmitter be operated with the RCA-NBC system.
It is not expected that a demonstration will be conducted until some time after the arrival of the apparatus because of a desire to iron out any possible kinks.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1937
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30—Television program with radio station WSUI, 910 kcs.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1937
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30—Television program with radio station WSUI, 910 kcs.

Westmore Says Television Won't Need Freak Makeup
Television performers will be required to use only natural makeup, and probably less of it than the average New York woman uses for street wear, it was predicted yesterday [21] by Percy Westmore, prominent Hollywood makeup man, following an inspection of the NBC television studio in Radio City.
Westmore scoffed at the oft-circulated stories that purple lipstick, green rouge and blue powder would be required for makeup of artists appearing in front of the television camera.
"I have had an opportunity to study studio conditions and see the television image, and I am convinced the development of makeup technique for television will follow the current trend in motion pictures," said Westmore. "We are using less grease paint today, less powder and less lip rouge. There is every reason for television to do likewise, particularly because spontaneity and naturalness are keynotes of the medium."
Makeup's two biggest contributions to television, Westmore believes, will be to define features more clearly and accentuate the plans of the face.
Gloria Dickson, Hollywood actress, accompanied Westmore on his NBC tour and did voluntary duty as a subject for the iconoscope camera. (Radio Daily, Oct. 22)

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1937
Parts for Television Sets to Be Sold Soon
Receiving apparatus, like first radios, will be home-made
New York, Oct. 23 (AP)—The first television sets, like the first radios, will be home made.
Engineers confirmed this today after word leaked out that the Radio Corporation of America will soon market parts from which such sets can be built.
The first sets will probably cost from $200 to $300.
The parts will be sold, it was explained at the RCA offices, because television experts have found no better way of bringing radio pictures from the experimental stage into widespread practical use. Programs too Expensive From the time television emerged from the dream phase, engineers have striven to bring the new medium to life full grown. They wanted receiving sets, broadcasting apparatus and programs perfected together so the thing could start at full tilt. The Federal Communications Commission co-operated in this limiting television broadcasting licenses to an experimental basis.
But experience has shown that television programs are too expensive to attract commercial sponsors unless those sponsors are assured a large audience. The audience will not be there unless buyers of television sets are assured a steady flow of good programs. And—here is the big catch—television engineers are afraid to sell complete sets now because developments are coming so fast the sets soon would be out of date.
So the television men are turning deliberately to the man who, accidentally, was responsible for the development of radio—the great American handy-man-around-the-house—the fellow who can build anything as long as he has the parts.
Builds Own Set
The handyman builds his own set, and when a change comes he makes 'it by inserting a new part instead of buying a whole new set. His experiences help the television engineers, and when commercial sets are ready they are compact and cheaper because they are made for mass consumption.
The growth of television will thus be like that of radio, but it will also be different. In the earliest days of wireless anyone anywhere could sit in his parlor with his crystal and earphones and listen to dots and dashes of the Morse code. That was great stuff then because no one thought of anything better. The voice and music broadcasts which followed could also be heard over a wide range.
The first television sets, on the other hand, will be dependable only within a 100-mile radius of New York and Philadelphia, the two cities from which regular picture programs are now broadcast. Another difference between young television and young radio is that the first radios had innumerable, crude parts.
In television, much of this preliminary detail has already been eliminated in the laboratories. The main part in the home made sets will be a large cathode ray tube, similar in appearance to an over-grown radio tube, through which electrical impulses are filtered, amplified and converted into light rays. Other important parts "scan" the picture, picking up light and shadow line by line just as your eye reads a book, from left to right, down the page; focus the screen and “stepup” the current.
The parts, which will go on the market within a few months, can be assembled and hooked up to an ordinary radio set.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1937
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30—Television program with radio station WSUI, 910 kcs.

Philco has re-submitted to FCC its application for television station, on 204,000 to 210,000 band. (Radio Daily)

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1937
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30—Television program with radio station WSUI, 910 kcs.

Many FCC Tele Channels Too High, Says Murray
Philadelphia — FCC assignment to television of channels 44-108 megacycles has given television companies a number of desired channels, but some of them are so high that they cannot be used today for this purpose, according to A. L. Murray, Philco Television engineer, and Chairman of the Television Committee of the Radio Manufacturers Association. In addition, Murray said, the television channels are sandwiched between those used for other purposes.
He pointed out that the assignment does not cover commercial television. "The commission," he said, "made it very clear that there does not appear to be an immediate outlook for the recognition of television service on a commercial basis. These assigned channels are solely for the continuance of experimentation and the solution of the many problems that still confront television, and must not be taken as an indication that commercial television is right at hand."
The R.M.A. committee told the FCC that before television experimentation could be successfully carried on the whole band from 42 to 90 megacycles had to be cleared for this purpose. (Radio Daily)

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1937
Zenith Amends Charter For Television Activity
Chicago — The way was paved for Zenith Radio to enter the television field at a meeting of stockholders here this week amending articles of incorporation permitting the firm to broaden its activities to include the field of visual radio. An application for permit to build transmitter had previously been turned down by FCC on grounds company charter did not permit television activity.
E. F. McDonald Jr., president of Zenith, told stockholders that while problems of television are not insurmountable, commercial application appears to be well in the future. He expressed the belief that television will come over telephone wires instead of through the air by radio waves. Added that he expects American Telephone and Telegraph Company to handle the transmission of television programs, with the public paying for the service as it does for phone services today. Radio manufacturers, he thought, would probably restrict their television activity to building receivers. (Radio Daily)

NBC STARTS BUILDING IN HOLLYWOOD
TO REPLACE its present Hollywood studios, already outgrown although built only two years ago, NBC will begin immediate construction of its new Hollywood home at the famous intersection of Sunset Blvd. & Vine St., site of the original Famous Players-Lasky film lot.
The new structure will provide for the immediate needs of NBC, occupying about half of the five-acre tract, comprising two city blocks, and leaving ample room for future expansion as well as for television studios when needed. Designed by O. B. Hanson, NBC chief engineer, and the company's design unit, working in cooperation with the Austin Co., which will erect the building, the studios will be patterned after the motion picture unit plan.
Four large individual studios under separate roofs, each with an audience capacity of several hundred persons and four non-audience studios will be used for broadcasting. Executive offices will be housed in a central office building at the corner of Sunset and Vine, which visitors will enter through a three-story lobby from which a huge master control room with its intricate panels and apparatus will be visible. Modern in every respect, with the latest lighting facilities, air conditioning, acoustical treatment, the studios will also represent the latest development of NBC engineers, including an automatic pre-set switching system.
"This development," said President Lenox Lohr [on Oct. 29], "marks a definite step in the importance of Hollywood as a center for the radio industry. That Hollywood is important in radio is borne out by the fact that less than two years ago we opened the most modern broadcasting center we could construct. Already we have outgrown it."
It is expected that Don Lee Broadcasting System, Los Angeles, will take over the present NBC Hollywood headquarters. (Broadcasting, Nov. 1)

September 1937

NBC and CBS duelled over television in September 1937, but neither had much ammunition.

Broadcasts of sports, parades and other outdoor events were announced for W2XBS by NBC, starting a month away. The down side is almost everyone who had a TV set in the New York area worked for RCA. It’s not like anyone at home would catch the New York Giants in action. And the vans weren't delivered to the network until December 12th.

As for CBS, Bill Paley also talked about news and sports broadcasts “coming soon” from its New York station. Not only were there no television sets to view them, the station had no studios or even a transmitter yet.

Meanwhile, Du Mont applied for a license for an experimental station.

The most gimmicky story of the month was one the Associated Press circulated about the mannequin that filled in for humans on NBC test broadcasts. Hot TV lights, you know.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1937
Confirmation of the opinion that high cost is holding back the development of television as a popular medium of entertainment is given by Dr. P. C. Goldmark, chief television engineer of the Columbia system, who has just returned from five weeks of study abroad. Dr. Goldmark reports that in England receiver prices range from $300 to $800. Less than 8000 receivers have been sold despite the fact that the British Broadcasting Company has broadcast visual programs for almost a year.
• • •
So far as picture quality is concerned Dr. Goldmark says that unusually fine transmissions have been made out-of-doors with daylight illumination ranging from bright sun-light to dim haze on foggy days. He notes that the sensitivity of the television camera has been increased beyond that of ordinary photographic emulsions so that the field of usefulness is greatly extended.
• • •
A little known phase of television is the inability of the photoelectric ray tube to equal the color evaluation of panchromatic film. Engineers are striving to reproduce all colors in the spectrum in their original intensities. Thus far this lack of color sensitiveness has required the use of unnatural makeup for television performances. Dr. Goldmark says that the BBC has made definite progress in developing a television camera rendering color in a fair degree of naturalness.
• • •
Dr. Goldmark witnessed the Davis Cup finals at Wimbleton in the London office of the CBS. The small size of the screen made action hard to follow, but Dr. Goldmark was told that by the end of the month a British manufacturer would have a projection type receiver producing images two feet wide. In France television is in more experimental stage. Projection type receivers throwing a picture comparable in size with homo movies were seen in Germany. The images, Dr. Goldmark reported, were as sharply defined and as steady as the ordinary commercial motion picture. Interest in television in the latter country was keen, but the cost of receivers was still too high for mass distribution. (Springfield Evening Union, Sept. 1)

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1937
TELEVISION STATION SOUGHT FOR CAMDEN
N.B.C. Asks U S. Permission to Operate Portable Experimental Set
Washington, Sept. 3.—The National Broadcasting Company today asked permission of the Federal Commission to place in service a portable television broadcasting station to be built on a specially constructed automobile truck and operated from Camden and nearby points.
Transmitter equipment would be operated in conjunction with NBC'S station N2XBS [W2XBS] in New York. Camden was selected as the principal base for testing and reception and transmission from and to New York City because, it was explained, engineers at the Camden plant of the RCA Manufacturing Company also will utilize the facilities for experiments in the development of television.
The transmitters, with associated control gear, including independent source of power supply, iconoscope cameras and required laboratory tests equipment, will be transported on the truck from point to point in the Camden area, the application explained. Only an experimental license was asked. In addition to transmission of images, sending and receiving of sound will be tested both by radio and wire between Camden and the Empire State Building and Radio City, New York. (Courier-Post, Camden)

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1937
MOVIES TO SPEED WITH TELEVISION
Visual Performance Through Ether Will Concentrate Plot and Action
New York, Sept. 4.—(AP)—How would you like to be entertained by a machine gun?
A gun that fired chunks of sight and sound instead of bullets?
That's what television will be like if it follows the pattern Gilbert Seldes, Columbia Broadcasting Company's new experimental television program director, expects.
Seldes predicted in an interview today that when it finally comes into common use the radio's seeing screen will provide the fastest entertainment on earth—a brand new high speed form of fun.
Just as the movies speeded up the stage, so, Seldes said, television will speed up the movies. But the speed increase will be much greater for this reason:
When the movies were new, they took a play or perhaps an incident from a play and elaborated it, enlarging and adding detail, widening the scene of action and the scope of the plot.
Television, Seldes said, will work in the opposing direction. It will boil everything down to bare essentials. It will concentrate entertainment into virtual bullets of sight and sound, much as medicine and food now are concentrated into pills and capsules.
Programs will last only 15 minutes or less generally, because experience has indicated an audience cannot concentrate longer. This short period is one reason why so much must be packed into a small pace.
Seldes, who began his new television job this week after a long career as a writer and critic, would make no prediction of how soon the average man would have television in his home. He stressed the point that none of his statements must be accepted as definite predictions, but rather as well informed speculation.
Television screens will be about two feet or so square, and will be part of the receiving set, not panels in the walls of homes.
Home-made television sets will be possible, just as home-made radios were in the early days.
Radios will continue in use in their present form after television comes in, because "some programs are made to be heard and not seen." Example: Orchestra music.
Movie houses will continue popular after motion pictures are broadcast because "people are naturally gregarious. They like to get together."
Newspapers will prosper rather than be hurt by broadcasting of devised pictures of news events, because "broadcasts only serve to stir up interest. They will never replace the printed word."
Although not sure when all this would come to pass, Seldes said people were wrong in thinking television was "just around the corner.” He said it was "straight down the street, marching this way; a few hurdles, and it will be here."

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1937
NBC Tests Tele Sketch
NBC-RCA television experimental test today will include a script called The Match Maker, featuring James Meehan and Noel Mills. Sketch is scheduled to be televised at 1:45 p.m., and will run for 15 minutes. (Radio Daily)

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1937
TELEVISION PERIL SEEN
Electrical Overload in Homes Held Possible Danger
BEDFORD SPRINGS, Pa., Sept. 9 (AP).—Television may create a safety problem in the American home of the future, George R. Conover of Philadelphia told the thirtieth annual convention of the Pennsylvania State electric association yesterday [8].
He said damage might result from the anticipated heavy “wire load” and recommended to the 600 delegates that their companies take precautions to prevent strain on household wiring.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1937
First testing of television on a much shorter wave-length than that now being used is planned for New York by NBC. At present 6.5 meters are carrying the picture transmissions being sent out on an experimental basis. Under an application filed with the federal communications commission space in the vicinity of one meter is being sought to make further tests. Engineers are anxious to determine whether the lower wave would be more practicable under transmission conditions that prevail in this area. (Flint Journal)

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1937
Meet Patience; She's the Tops For Television
Wearing Only Bathing Suit, She's Charlie McCarthy's Dream Girl
By C. E. Butterfield
New York, Sept 11.—(AP)—Right now, the most televised girl in New York is known only to her co-workers as Miss Patience. Most of the time, all she wears is a black satin bathing suit.
Never protesting about her hours nor the suffering sometimes encountered under the heat-producing high-powered Kleig lights that are just as necessary in television as the movies, Patience shows more than the fortitude of a real trouper [note: the last word was misspelled in some newspapers].
Well she can, for she's a show window dummy, called forward by engineers and program research men to do her share in the television field tests under way in New York.
The black satin bathing suit was selected mainly because of the color contrast it offers to her whitish pink features, giving the camera two extremes of the color range. Patience has her living assistants who also go through their television paces, but most of them never like to stay under the lights longer than can be helped. Patience just smiles on.
Almost any evening she is at work at the special NBC television studio in Radio City, standing on as the camera picks up her image and sends it along to the transmitter atop the Empire State Building for experimental broadcasting purposes.
These broadcasts, in continuation of the tests being conducted with the RCA system, still put on solely for engineer observers at special receiver locations about the city. They come mainly at night, a couple of hours at a time, but not on a regular schedule.
Outside of Patience's efforts, the program material is principally that of the drama, such as small intimate sketches that require only two or three characters and little setting.
The engineers and studio research staff also on occasion look on other acts like singers and dancers, solo scenes for the most part, in their attempts to solve the problems being encountered in the development of suitable program matter for television broadcasting. Lighting effects also come in for consideration.
As soon as they get farther along with the studio research, the engineers plan to take their camera outdoors in the streets of New York and thereabouts to see what results they can obtain under ordinary conditions. When this will be hasn't been determined yet, but it is the next test step.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1937
R. C. A. Prepares Mass Television Production
Negotiates for New Factory Site in Harrison, N. J.
Special to the Herald Tribune
HARRISON, N. J., Sept. 16.—The Radio Corporation of America is making preparations for the mass production of television apparatus, it was earned here today. The corporation already has opened negotiations with the Harrison Town Council, to acquire a block-square site for erection of a television factory.
The R. C. A. has a radio tube manufacturing plant here which employs 8,000 persons. The site under discussion for the television factory lies across the street and as bounded by Sussex, Bergen, Sixth and Seventh Strets.
F. H. Corregan, representing the R. C. A., in a letter today to Harrison town officials, asked for an adjustment of tax arrears which have accumulated on the parcels of property making up the site. Although his letter made no mention of television, town officials and spokesmen at the R. C. A. factory both said that was the purpose of the plant expansion.
The corporation also wrote that its present railroad sidings were inadequate and that it had acquired an option permitting the building of a new siding from the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad to its plant.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1937
18 STATIONS SEND IMAGES
Tele-Stations Scattered Throughout the Country Use Tiny Waves
EIGHTEEN stations are now licensed in the United States to transmit television images experimentally, according to the latest figures of the Federal Communications Commission.
Three licenses are held by the RCA Manufacturing Company at Camden, N. J., two of them being designated for portable stations. The University of Iowa has two permits.
Licenses to conduct experiments in New York have been granted the National Broadcasting Company and Columbia Broadcasting System.
Other licenses are held by: Don Lee Broadcasting System, Los Angeles; Farnsworth Television, Inc., Springfield, Pa.; First National Television, Inc., Kansas City, Mo.; General Television Corporation, Boston; The Journal Company, Milwaukee; Kansas State College of Agriculture and Applied Science, Manhattan, Kan.; Philco Radio and Television Corporation, Philadelphia; Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind.; Radio Pictures, Inc., Long Island City, N. Y.; Sparks-Withington Company, Jackson, Mich., and Dr. George W. Young, Minn.
All television stations are as-signed to one of four groups of ultra-high frequencies. (New York Times)

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1937
NBC Outdoor Television
First Mobile Pickup Unit in America Will Start Experimental Service Next Month, Lohr Announces
First mobile television unit in America, now being built by RCA for delivery to NBC on Oct. 18, will be placed in service next month when NBC inaugurates outdoor pickups on an experimental basis in cooperation with RCA, it was announced yesterday [23] by President Lenox R. Lohr of NBC. The work will be strictly experimental, with a view to improving the equipment and methods of RCA television, Lohr pointed out.
As the public will expect television to bring into the home distant currents events, including sports, parades, elections and other news happenings, and will eventually demand faithful image as well as sound reproduction of the events, the new mobile unit will make a start toward supplying that demand, said O. B. Hanson, NBC chief engineer, in outlining the work to be done.
The immediate purpose, Hanson stated, is to train a group of men in handling the problems of special events. NBC has been conducting experiments for eight years, and Hanson declared that while much progress has been made it would be foolhardy to guess when actual daily television service, even in the limited area of New York City, will be a reality.
The new mobile television station will consist of two specially constructed motor vans, each about the size of a large bus. Apparatus for picture and sound pick-up will be installed in one, and a video transmitter, operating on a frequency of 177,000 kilocycles, in the other. In the metropolitan area, where many tall buildings make high frequency transmission difficult, the unit's workable range will be about 25 miles. Ten engineers will be required to operate the two television units. In the experimental field work NBC's present mobile sound transmitter will be included in the station.
Both picture and sound will be relayed by micro-wave to the NBC television transmitter in the Empire State Building. There the programs will be broadcast to the 100 receivers NBC has placed in the homes of trained observers throughout the metropolitan area. The television system to be used will be entirely electric, based on the cathode ray tube developed by RCA.
The van mounting the video, or picture, apparatus will be the mobile equivalent of a television studio control room. It will be fitted with television and broadcast equipment similar to that now in use at Radio City. This will include two cameras, video amplifiers, blanking and deflector amplifiers, synchronizing generators and rectifiers for supplying the iconoscope beam voltages. The principal sound apparatus will be microphones, microphone amplifiers and sound mixing panels. All the equipment will be mounted on racks extending down the center of the van, affording easy access to any part for repairs, and the alterations which will arise from the outdoor experimentation.
Directly in front of the operating engineers in the semi-darkened control room will be two monitoring kinescopes. One will show the scene actually being transmitted; the other will show the scene picked up by the second iconoscope camera preparatory to transmission. Sound will be picked up by a variety of microphones, including the parabolic microphone developed in the NBC laboratories, and will be monitored by loudspeaker. An elaborate telephone cue circuit will keep the ten engineers in contact with each other.
The two iconoscope cameras, to be mounted on tripods, will be technically equivalent to studio cameras, although considerably lighter in weight. Focusing will be by looking directly onto the plate of the iconoscope, instead of through a separate set of lenses, as in the case of studio cameras. The cameras will transmit the image through several hundred feet of multiple core cable, affording a considerable radius of operations. Four operating positions will also be available on the roof of the van.
The micro-wave television transmitter will be housed in the second van, linked to the first by 500 feet of coaxial cable. Here the principal apparatus will be the radio frequency unit, generating the carrier wave for picture signals, and modulating apparatus for imposing picture signals on this carrier. The signals will be transmitted to the Empire State station's directional receiving antenna either from a single dipole antenna raised on the van's roof, or from a highly directive antenna array raised on the scene of the pick-up. (Radio Daily, Sept. 24)

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1937
Zenith Revising Setup For Television Activity
Chicago — Zenith Radio Corp. is calling a stockholders' meeting [for Oct. 26] to fix its charter so it can apply again to FCC for a television transmitter. Charter at present is not broad enough to cover such expanded activity, the FCC ruled.
President E. F. McDonald Jr. says there is no rush, as television is still far off. He points out that a recent Zenith survey indicates it will take 9,000 television stations to cover the country, and 90,000 miles of coaxial cable at $1 a foot just to link these stations. Elimination of interference and discovering of a way to transmit television beyond the horizon are other problems still unsolved, he said. (Radio Daily)

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1937
Television Station Permit Is Sought by DuMont Lab
Upper Montclaire, N. J. — Allen B. DuMont Laboratories has applied to FCC for construction permit for an experimental television station on 46,000-56,000 kc, 50 watts visual and 50 watts aural power. (Radio Daily)

CBS to Put on Television as Part of Regular Program
New York. Sept. 30—(INS)— Definite plans have been made by the Columbia Broadcasting system to put on television programs from atop New York's Chrysler building, William Paley, president, announced today.
Returning from Europe where he made a study of the progress of television abroad, Mr. Paley said his company would soon begin construction of a transmitter to broadcast pictures through the ether waves.
He discredited reports that Europe is ahead of the United States in television and said that England was on shout a par with her American rivals.
"Television won't progress as rapidly as did radio," he said. "There are still a great many things to be adjusted before it will be perfect."
Experimental programs will be television broadcasts of sports and news events, Mr. Paley said.
Carrying one of the most brilliant passenger lists of the season, the Normandie arrived with a host of notables, including Ambassador William E. Bullitt, envoy to France and a score of stage and screen stars.
Latest importations to Hollywood included Danielle Darrieux, glamorous blonde of the French films, and Fernand Gravet, Parisian screen idol, who is said to be the wealthiest actor in the world.

August 1937

CBS didn’t have a TV studio in August 1937 but that’s the month the company hired someone to take charge of programming from it. The programmer was none other than author Gilbert Seldes. His best-known work at the time was likely “The Seven Lively Arts,” published in 1924, in which he praised George Herriman’s Krazy Kat strip in the newspapers. Seldes was eased out of the company in September 1945, when the network consisted of one station.

Du Mont was not in the television programming business that month, but moved toward it. The company bought a manufacturing plant in New Jersey and intended to carve out studios there.

WFIL in Philadelphia was about to open new studios as well, with an empty floor reserved for television. And W1XG in Boston was revamping operations to accommodate the improved standard for television signals.

NBC continued irregular test programming that month. For the third month in a row, the Home News in New Brunswick, New Jersey, published a feature story about programming on W2XBS in New York. The broadcast sounds much like the one the previous month, with a bit of live programming tossed in amongst newsreels and a Van Beuren cartoon (the one in August 1937 was The Gay Gaucho, made on the west coast by Harman and Ising).

Below are selected TV news highlights for the month. The Newspaper Enterprise Association’s Morris Gilbert wrote a two-part feature on the industry. It was a lengthy situational with no updated news, so we have not included it. Nor have we any specifics about W6AXO other than it continued its brief daily schedule of newsreels and shorts (not identified) from its Los Angeles studios at Seventh and Bixel.

MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 1937
CBS Experimental Tele Studio
An experimental television studio is being built by CBS in the Liederkranz Hall, part of the Park Ave. and 59th St. site where CBS plans its new building. Work on the large new building is expected to be delayed somewhat until the course and prospects of television as well as radio are more clearly charted. (Radio Daily)

Letter Describes Sight Broadcast
Vivid account of an experimental television broadcast is contained in a letter to a Knoxville friend from John S. Van Gilder, of 714 West Hill avenue, who saw the broadcast at the home of W. C. Farrier, New York radio executive who was formerly an assistant co-ordinator for TVA here.
"The set is the size of a cabinet radio," the letter says. "When the set is turned on a picture appears on a mirror in the hinged top of the set. It is not clear at first, but is tuned until it is distinct. "Pictures appeared on the mirror just like on a motion picture screen," the letter says. "Close-up portraits and scenes with crowds were equally distinct. There are about 80 sets scattered within a 50-mile radius of the transmitter atop the Empire State building." (Knoxville Journal)

THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 1937
DuMont Company Buys Mill Here
Takes Over Anna Meyers Mill in January
One of the country's foremost manufacturers of cathode ray and television tubes will soon be included among Passaic’s manufacturers.
The New Industries Division of the Passaic Chamber of Commerce today announced the sale of the former Peterman plant in Main Avenue, opposite the Continental Can Company's Passaic plant, to the Allan B. Du Mont Laboratories, Inc., of Upper Montclair.
The Du Mont company plans to start operations about the first of next year and will move all of its operations here. Included in alteration plans is a television reception and broadcasting station and a complete cathode ray tube manufacturing plant.
Allan B. Du Mont, president of the concern, returned from England and the Continent Saturday after a three-week business and pleasure trip. He said upon his return that television in England is on an established basis and far ahead of developments here. Passaic is not now to him, for he was formerly chief engineer of the De Forest Company, which at one time occupied space in the old Brighton Mills on Van Houten Avenue.
The sale of the factory, presently occupied on lease by the Anna Myers food product company, was consummated by the Joseph J. Garibaldi Organisation, of Hoboken, factory brokers who last week sold a unit of the old Newport Chemical Company property in this City to the Akis Chemical Company of Switzerland.
The building, a two-story structure, contains 13,300 square feet of floor space. There are 93,000 square feet of vacant land in the property.
John Doherty, of this City, was the seller of record. No price was announced. (Herald-News, Passaic).

TUESDAY, AUGUST 10, 1937
WORK ON A TELEVISION TRANSMITTER HERE
The construction of a modern Cathode ray television transmitter, the first of its type in New England, is under way at the Massachusetts Television Institute, under the direction of Robert E. Rutherford.
The television equipment is of the same type as that used in England and which was used in telecasting the coronation parade there.
Rutherford is a pioneer television engineer and in the course of his work he went to England to supervise the installation of television equipment there and also did similar work in Germany. (Boston Globe)

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1937
‘I SAW TELEVISION AT ITS BEST—’
OFFICIALS CLAIM BARRIERS REMAIN
Pictures Now Televised Are as Clear as Home Movies
By WILL BALTIN
Theater-Radio Editor
Television is ready for the public!
There is no further doubt in my mind about it. I feel firmly convinced that television sets could be placed on the market tomorrow and would unquestionably meet immediate favor.
Of course, no television official will admit it, though it still puzzles me why they continue to hesitate. And what is more the pity, television sets will probably not be marketed on a wide commercial scale for at least 18 months or two years, and perhaps longer.
But the fact remains that the technical advance in television has been so rapid that television as it is today—as I myself saw it a few days ago — is as fascinating, as clearly defined, and as thrilling as the best home motion picture equipment on the market.
The Radio Corporation of America afforded this writer an excellent opportunity to study the advances made in television over an eight months period, when it invited me to witness a special demonstration at the National Broadcasting Company studios in Radio City last Wednesday afternoon.
Was Not Disappointed
It was not the first television I had witnessed, but it was the first time I had the privilege of watching a program on the latest type television set employed in the RCA experiments, and I therefore visited the studio expecting to see something "new." I was not disappointed.
Heaps of credit are due RCA for its constant efforts to improve the transmission and reception of televised program. It is this determination to reach the goal of perfection that more than anything else is delaying public introduction of this new, marvelous art.
David Sarnoff, president of the Radio Corporation of America, and a titan in the field of broadcasting and television, asserted recently that premature introduction of television might result in early obsolesence of sets, and that television, unlike radio, must be established on a standard which will be nation-wide.
Mr. Sarnoff, who is now in Europe studying radio and television advances abroad, spiked rumors that "certain interests" were holding back the release of television for various and sundry reasons, when he asserted that no one can stop the advent of television any more than they can halt the flow of the Atlantic Ocean. It simply must come sooner or later, he pointed out, and there is a great future in that field.
The Television Broadcast
Witnessing a television broadcast on an RCA set is an experience one does not easily forget. The program I witnessed last Wednesday was televised from the NBC television studios atop the Empire State Building to the sixth floor of the Radio City building where a group of 15 advertising agency officials, three NBC engineers and the writer observed the show on a fairly large television screen.
I was ushered into a room that had been darkened for the purpose of the experiment. Engineers later said darkening of the room was more for convenience of the large number of persons present than out of necessity, as the pictures tele-vised are sufficiently bright to be seen even in a well-lighted room.
The television set stood about five feet high two and a half feet wide, and was placed in a corner of the room. It looked as attractive as any present model console radio. There were six tuning knobs on the front of the set, as well as a station indicator and space for the dynamic speaker.
The top of the set was opened up vertically, with the interior of the top revealing a mirror. Peering down into the set, one observed a glass tube, 12 inches in diameter, its top surface coated with a fluorescent material. To witness the program, one need only seat himself comfortably within a distance of from five to 15 feet from the set and peer into the mirror, which reflected the picture from the tube.
Impulses on Lines
Last November, I saw a press demonstration of television on a screen five by seven inches, with the televised impulses sent on 343 lines per square inch. The "lines" on a television screen are much the same as the minute dots which may he found on an ordinary newspaper half-tone or cut. They vary in principle, however, in that televised "lines" are interlaced horizontally and vertically.
At last Wednesday's demonstration, vast improvements had been made. The size of the screen had been enlarged to 12 square inches, and the number of interlaced "lines" transmitted had been increased from 343 to 441, thus providing an almost perfectly clear picture. The "lines" are now so fine that they can be detected by the eye only if the observer pokes his nose on top of the tube.
Fifteen minutes before the television program began, O. B. Hanson, chief engineer for NBC, turned on the set and tuned the dials as though he were bringing in a regular radio broadcast. An odd pattern appeared on the television screen. The pattern, which forms a circle and contains a series of broad and thin lines, enables the observer to tune the set into focus and set it for the proper light intensity. Once this was done, the set was ready for the "show."
Program Begins
As 19 individuals looked on, the room was darkened, the test pattern vanished and a striking cloud effect appeared on the 12-inch screen. An atmosphere of expectancy could be detected among the observers. Out of the cloud effect appeared a picture of the Empire State Building, and superimposed on the scene was the inscription "NBC" and "RFCA" Television. The announcer's voice then came through the loud speaker, stating that an experimental television broadcast was to follow.
A strip of film was televised announcing that the first portion of the program was to be presented. The title: "Pathe News" immediately appeared.
Each changing sequence was perfectly clear, without the least suggestion of flicker or other inperfection [sic]. The pictures appeared bright and were of greenish hue instead of black and white. This did not detract from the entertainment value.
The regulation news-reel was televised with scenes including the Lake Placid ice carnival held recently, yacht races and other newsy shots. Every picture was amazingly clear, though in miniature.
Present Studio Show
With the conclusion of the Pathe News, a studio program was presented from the Empire State Building studios. A Japanese xylophonist was introduced by his wife and the musician offered two selections. RCA engineers displayed the flexibility of the television camera in this presentation by televising "close ups" and "long shots" of the musician in action with the same finesse of the motion picture camera. At the first demonstration I witnessed eight months ago, the break between the "close ups" and "long shots" was marred by streaks of light that annoyed the observer.
The short program was concluded with the presentation of a Van Burean [sic] cartoon comedy, "The Gay Gaucho." Here the entertainment value of television was put to test and laughter from the small audience gave evidence the observers were being entertained as well as fascinated by the new invention.
With the broadcast at an end, an NBC engineer. Ferdinand Wankle, answered questions asked by the observers. The big question, of course, was "When will television become public property?" And the usual "shrug of the shoulders" followed.
A hint as to when the public will be permitted to see the advances in television was given when the engineer explained that RCA and NBC will demonstrate the new art at the World's Fair in 1939. But the question of whether the sets may be marketed before that time brought no reply from the engineer.
Sets May Cost $250
The cost of sets was also a question which the engineer said he could not answer. The Film Daily, national theatrical publication, in an exclusive story recently revealed that American television interests can market sets profitably today for $250. Which is not an exorbitant price in view of the voluminous equipment necessary.
A query as to the make-up of the set brought the answer that the sets now operated by RCA have 32 tubes, besides the huge cathode ray tube; that the cathode ray tube is good for more than 1,000 hours of entertainment; that sets weigh 250 pounds and require 6,000 volts to operate; that this high voltage is not dangerous because the entire rear of the television set is shielded and once the shield is removed, the current is automatically broken.
The engineer further revealed that the present range of television transmission is 45 miles or more. At the 1936 demonstration it was pointed out that the range is about 25 miles; thus an improvement was shown in this regard, too. Observers at the program generally agreed that, technically, television is now ready for the home.
But RCA officials insist that the technical aspect is but one of the many problems keeping the invention behind laboratory doors. They point to the difficulty of a nation-wide television service in view of the fact that programs can only be sent 45 miles by air. They point to the prohibitive costs of laying co-axial cables to carry the programs across the continent on a chain system. Television programs cannot be sent by ordinary telephone wire as radio programs are now being sent. They also point to the new program technique necessary to provide real entertainment, and a multiplicity of other barriers to commercial television.
Can Be Marketed Today
Still, I feel television is technically acceptable and therefore should be made public property. Certainly it would start a new era of prosperity for radio dealers, although it is entirely separate from radio, and radio sets will STILL be necessary to pick up regular programs.
The Daily Home News and The Sunday Times own an experimental television set built by Norman Van Heuvel, local radio dealer. The set, while much smaller than the RCA sets, does bring in programs. It is now undergoing changes to enlarge the pictures being received, and will be displayed to the public this fall.
RCA has, of course, developed a much more delicate instrument than the "home-made" set owned by these newspapers. Each RCA set — and there are 100 sets in the metropolitan area now being used in the experiments—is exquisitely built and would fit into any home living room.
Whatever officials may say about the stumbling blocks to television, the fact remains that the new art is much further developed now than radio was during the crystal set era of 1919 to 1923, and that the public should not be denied the privilege of witnessing the new wonder of the 20th century any longer.
Television is here! (Sunday Times, New Brunswick, N.J., Aug. 15)

Initial Television Sets To Cost Less Than Auto
But National Broadcasting Head Says Price Will Be "Considerable"
By BARROW LYONS
Times Special financial Writer
NEW YORK, Aug. 11.—Initial television sets will be sold for less than the cheapest automobile but the price still will be "considerable."
This was predicted today by Lenox R. Lohr, president of the National Broadcasting Co., one of a half a dozen pioneers in the field who are conducting exhaustive tests and experiments.
In an interview Mr. Lohr refused to minimize the financial or technical difficulties but placed the problem of entertainment value above everything else.
"When I am absolutely sure that we have something that is capable of providing entertainment to compete with radio and the movies I'll feel quite confident to launch the ship," he declared. "Something Good"
"I feel certain that we have something good—something that is now perfect enough to capture a considerable following. But is it good enough? And can we make it substantially better within the next year or two?"
Nobody, including Mr, Lohr, appears to know just when television will start commercially. The Radio Corp. of America has plans and specifications for mass production of sets ready to be put in operation on short notice. The NBC, 100 per cent owned by RCA, could put programs on the air as soon as the music started to play.
But despite numerous straws in the wind to indicate that considerable progress is being made, Mr. Lohr indicated that the big companies are content to continue their experiments for some time—barring the sudden introduction of television sets by an unsuspected competitor.
New Sets Needed
"If some unsuspected competitor suddenly were to begin broadcasts and place a set on the market we are prepared to do battle immediately. But the moment the manufacturing of sets begins in a big way we are likely to freeze the art," he said.
"Radio broadcasts can be received by sets of many varieties, from a simple crystal outfit to the most complicated mechanisms. But the sending and receiving apparatus of television must fit like lock and key.
"A fundamental improvement in broadcasting technique probably would call for new sets. Hence we want to be as sure as possible that the first sets we sell will be usable for a reasonable period of years.
"It seems the part of wisdom, as long as we are continuing to make rapid progress in the development of the art, and competition does not threaten, to continue our experimentation for a reasonable time."
"How long do you think that will be?" Mr. Lohr was asked.
Two or Three Years Ahead
"I can only guess," he said. "If I were to say two or three years it might be misleading, for it is impossible to tell. We have announced the first public showing of television for the World's Fair here in 1939."
"Who is to pay for the expense of programs?" Mr. Lohr was asked next.
"Presumably the sponsors will," he replied. "Already some 30 or 40 national advertisers have asked to be considered as early applicants for space, but until we are nearer the threshold of performance we are not attempting to work out any contracts.
"One of the indeterminate elements involved lies in the size of the audience, which must necessarily be smaller than that of the radio audience.
“The cost at which sets will be put out, however, must be a factor in the size and quality of the audience, and this is very important to the advertiser. I believe, however, that the problem of sponsoring programs will not be the most difficult we still have to solve." (Buffalo Daily News)

FRIDAY, AUGUST 13, 1937
New York and Los Angeles Television Centers of Nation
By SCIENCE SERVICE
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — New York and Los Angeles are the two most logical choices for the beginnings of commercial television broadcasting in America, reports the scientific committee of the Research Council of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences here. The great need for talented actors is a primary reason for this decision. On the New York stage and radio and in Hollywood's motion picture studios are the best actors in the country.
Geographically Los Angeles excells New York in its facility for television broadcasts on the "line of sight" properties of the television waves, also reports the committee. While New York and its surrounding area can be covered from towering Manhattan skyscrapers the city of Los Angeles has its own, natural high landmarks. Cahuenga Peak, for example, has an altitude of 1,825 feet, affords an eminence nearly 50 per cent, greater than New York's Empire State Tower, and commands the San Fernando Valley on the north, the greater part of Los Angeles to the south and east and the beach cities of the west. (Longview News-Journal)

MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 1937
$200,000 WFIL Studios Being Occupied Sept. 1
Philadelphia.— WFIL's new $200,000 studio plant will be opened for broadcasting Sept. 1, according to Donald Withycomb, g.m. Located on the 18th floor of the Widener Bldg. in the heart of mid-town, the new plant is now three-fourths completed. Formal dedication of the studios will be deferred until decorative work is finished, probably late in October.
WFIL also has on option the remaining wing of the floor not now in use and also has plans drawn up for an auditorium studio seating 700 to be erected on the roof in about two years. Architects are drawing plans for television studios for the optioned space. (Radio Daily)

SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 1937
TELEVISION DIRECTOR IS APPOINTED BY CBS
New York, Aug. 21.—(AP)—The CBS network, which is making plans again to enter the experimental television field, already had named its picture program director. He is Gilbert Seldes, writer and critic, who is giving up his newspaper connections to take over his new post from September 1.
At the same time the network also announced that it intended to establish a television program center in the Grand Central terminal building in New York just across the street from the Chrysler building, the 75-storey skyscraper which is to house the ultra short wave for the radio images.
Construction of the studios is to begin in the fall, and with the transmitter unit, probably will be ready for the first experiments in a year or so. (C.E. Butterfield)

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1937
New Television System Is Shown by Kolorama
Demonstration of a new television system was given yesterday by Kolorama Laboratories of Irvington, N. J, which has carried on intensive research to construct television equipment adaptable for home use with projection on a large screen. Kolorama officials believe that small pictures, measuring only a few inches on a side, will not be acceptable in the home or useful for commercial application.
At the demonstration, television transmission was highlighted by projecting high definition pictures on a screen measuring 4x5 feet.
Advanced experiments in color for television is still dependent upon the perfection of black and white transmission, it was said.
The Kolorama system is not yet perfected, but engineers claim they have not reached their limitations. (Radio Daily)

THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 1937
VALENTINE SEES TELEVISION AS HELP TO POLICE
Watches Demonstration of Transmission by R. C. A.
New York, Aug. 27—Commissioner Lewis J. Valentine and other officers of the police department saw a demonstration yesterday [26] in the offices of the National Broadcasting company of experimental television and facsimile transmission, as developed by the Radio Corporation of America. Their chief interest was in the application of the devices to police work.
"The police department," said Commissioner Valentine, "is constantly on the alert to adopt new developments in science that will aid us In the detection and prevention of crime and the apprehension of criminals. I hope and believe that we will be able to profit from the millions of dollars that RCA and the National Broadcasting company are pending in their development of facsimile transmission and television."
The officers were of the opinion that television might be used to advantage in broadcasting police lineups in various cities. The lineup in New York police headquarters might he shown in Washington, Philadelphia, and other cities, and the lineups in those cities might be shown here. Detectives in all cities on the circuit in such event, would see every day the crooks picked up the day before in all centers.
Facsimile transmission, it was said, would be of indubitable benefit to police work. It would enable police to transmit within a minute or two exact likenesses of features and finger prints of any one in their hands, or any fugitive for whom they were broadcasting an alarm. The system is said to be proof against errors in transmission.
With receiving sets installed at the principal gateways of the city, it was pointed out, exits could be closed promptly against any known criminal, the police on duty at such points receiving almost immediately his photographic likeness and his finger prints. Facsimile receivers, it was said, might be installed in police radio cars, thus enabling the department to broadcast throughout the city the description of any wanted crook without waiting to have cuts made and hand-bills printed. (Daily News, Springfield, Mass.)

MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 1937
Boston Television Station Readies for Eve. Schedule
Boston — W1XG, television station owned and operated by General Television Corp., is completely rebuilding its television equipment to bring it up to the 441-line standard recently accepted by the Radio Manufacturers Assn., and is using the "Iconoscope" and "Kinescope" developed by RCA.
Station transmits on a frequency of 44 megacycles and starting in October will transmit for one hour each evening to allow television experimenters to work on their receivers. During the past year the station was on an afternoon schedule for its own experimental work. (Radio Daily)

TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 1937
Ordinary Static Does Not Affect Television Reception, Says Baird
Auto Engine In Vicinity Will Generate Enough Interference To Ruin Weak Signal, Hub Engineer Tells Radio Men
Ordinary, static does not interfere with television reception but an automobile engine running in the vicinity of a receiver will generate enough interference to ruin a weak signal, Hollis S. Baird of Boston, pioneer television engineer, told nearly 100 radio men Tuesday evening [31] at a meeting in the Chamber of Commerce under the auspices of the General Television Institute of Boston.
Mr. Baird predicted public sale of television receivers will start in New York City next year and said public interest will determine how rapidly television will spread to other cities. The latest development, he said, is the development of apparatus to throw pietures on a screen three feet by four feet and predicted the usual home size will be 18 inches by 24 inches.
Deveopment of telesivion equipment by the Columbia Broadcasting System, scheduled to start operation about the first of the year, may bring regular scheduled broadcasts, he said. The National Broadcasting Company has been conducting experimental tests jor several years, Mr. Baird explained, but there have been no regular schedules and reception has been restricted to teat sets in the homes of 80 NBC executives.
High power will be necessary to overcome interference in areas where there is heavy automobile traffic, he continued, and to insure reception strong enough to be visible in the average lighted living room. Range of the NBC unit with its aerial on the Empire State Building is about 45 miles, the speaker said, and the range of aerials with less altitude will he about 30 miles.
Network television broadcasting will have to await construction of lines of concentric cable between titles, he said, but pointed out that such a cable already has been installed between New York and Philade!phia. Local stations could transmit motion pictures and local programs before network istellities were available, Mr. Baird declared.
He showed pictures of the experimental equipment of NBC and of the manufacture of television equipment in the General Television Institute. The talk was preceded by a showing of motion pictures of activities of the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company. (Portland Press-Herald, Sept. 1)