July-August 1929

There wasn’t an awful lot to see when W3XK got a new, improved transmitter in July 1929. More people could view the programming, but consisted mainly of silhouette drawings. No live bodies on camera.

W3XK was one of two Jenkins television stations on the air at the time. Frank Jenkins was spending much of his time in mid-1929 trying to transmit from an airplane (which crashed in August, leaving him with a cut over an eye), demostrating a new kind of TV set, and dealing with two lawsuits.

Meanwhile, in the mountains near Poughkeepsie, a television station signed on. You can read more about W2XBU in this post.

The Buffalo News published a roundup of active and semi-active stations from something called the Science Service. This is from July 3, 1929. Later editions added W2XBU, the increase in power of W2XK and put W9XR on the air, so it must have been current.

On Regular Schedule
CHICAGO—W9XAA, Chicago Federation of Labor, 500 watts (approved for 1000 watts) 2000-2100 kc. or 145 m. standard scanning*. Time, daily except Sunday; movies, still pictures and living subjects.
JERSEY CITY—W2XCR, Jenkins Television corporation, 5000 watts, 2100-2200 kc. or 139 m. standard scanning*. 2 to 3 P. M., Eastern Standard Time Mon. Tuesday and Wednesday; 8 to 9 P. M., Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
LEXINGTON, Mass.—W1XAY, Lexington Air Station, 500 watts (construction permit granted for 5000 watts) 2000-2100 kc. or 145 m. standard scanning*. Daily, 3 to 3 P. M. and Friday, 7:30 to 8 P. M.
NEW YORK—W2XBS, Radio Corporation of America, 250 watts (approved for 5000 watts) 2000-2100 kc. or 145 m. 20 frames per second, 60 lines per frame, 72 elements wide, scanning from left to right and top to bottom. Announcement cards, views and living subjects. Daily, (including Sunday) 6 to 10 P. M., Eastern Standard Time.
PITTSBURGH—W8XAV, Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co., 20,000 watts, 2000-2100 kc. or 145 m. 2100-2200 kc. or 139 m. and 2750-2850 kc. or 107 m. 20 frames per second, 60 lines per frame. Transmitting television programs, generally motion picture films, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 5:10 to 6:00 P. M., Eastern Standard Time.
SCHENECTADY—W2XCW, General Electric company, 20,000 watts, 2100-2200 kc. or 145 m. 24 lines, 20 frames per second. Sunday 11:15 to 11:45 P. M., Tuesday, 12 to 12:30 P. M., Wednesday and Friday, 1:30 to 2 P. M., Eastern Standard Time.
WASHINGTON—W3XK, C. Francis Jenkins, 250 watts (construction permit granted for 5000 watts) 2000-2100 kc. or 15 m. and 2850-2950 kc. or 103 m. standard scanning*. 8 to 9 P. M., Eastern Standard Time, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Radiomovies.
Irregular Schedule
BROOKLYN—W2XCL, Pilot Electric company, 250 watts, 2000-2100 kc. or 145 m. and 2750-2850 kc. or 107 m. Construction permit.
CHICAGO—W9XAG, Aeroproducts, Inc., 5000 watts, 2100-2200 kc. or 139 m. Construction permit.
CHICAGO—W9XR, Great Lakes Broadcasting company, 500 watts, 2850-2950 kc. or 103 m. 24 lines per frame, 18 frames per second, scanning from left to right and top to bottom. (Expect to begin operation about July 3.)
NEWARK—W2XBA, WAAM, Inc., 50 watts, 2750-2850 kc. or 107 m.
NEW YORK—W2XCP, Freed-Eisemann corporation, 2000 watts, 2000-2100 kc. or 145 m. and 2850-2950 kc. or 103 m.
OAKLAND, Calif.—W6XN, General Electric company, 10,000 watts, 2000-2100 kc. or 145 m.
SPRINGFIELD, Mass.—W1XAE, Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing company, 20,000 watts, 2000-2100 kc. or 145 m.
WINTER PARK, Fla.—W4XE, William Justis Lee, 2000 watts, 2000-2100 kc. or 145 m.
*Standard scanning refers to the standard adopted by the Radio Manufacturers association. This is 48 lines per second, with scanning consecutive from left to right and top to bottom as one reads the page of a book.
All the above stations have been licensed by the Federal Radio commission. A number of others who have previously been broadcasting still have their applications pending.

W6XN had been testing for several months and had its grand opening in August. The available story is unclear about whether visuals were broadcast.

We’ll skip the Jenkins litigation as we look at highlights in TV in July and August 1929. There isn’t much. The Federal Radio Commission was asked to grant some licenses. RCA wanted a second permit, solely for specific experiments which it outlined to reporters. In San Francisco, Philo Farnsworth conducted another demonstration of his system that eliminated swirling discs in studios and television sets. A short version of the W2AX story appeared in one paper on July 26. Both have the wrong call letters.

MONDAY, JULY 1, 1929
Television Signals from Plane Goal of Washington Inventor
WASHINGTON, July 1 (AP)—Panoramic views flashed by radio from a speeding airplane to a ground station many miles away is the television goal sought by C. Francis Jenkins, Washington inventor.
Army officers are awaiting with interest experiments soon to be made by Mr. Jenkins with his "aerial eye." If television apparatus can be perfected, as the veteran radio engineer hopes, to send pictures of front line warfare, movements of enemy troops and maps of the battle grounds from scouting planes to general headquarters it will be of great military value.
Jenkins has bought a special plane to be used as a "flying television laboratory" and has been piloting it in practice flights. He plans to be at the controls part of the time when the experiments are made. The "laboratory" is a monoplane of special design, seating four passengers and providing space for television apparatus.
A section of the floor of the cabin will be cut away to serve as a scanning apparatus for the aerial eye. Tests will be made as the plane flies over Washington, views of the ground below being transmitted by radio to Jenkins' new television station north of the city.
The new station is known as W3XK, the same call letters assigned to his old laboratory station in the city. A new 5000-watt transmitter has been installed and two 28-foot towers have been erected. The new station will broadcast a daily program of radio movies In silhouette.



WEDNESDAY, JULY 3, 1929
TELEVISION WAVE SOUGHT
WASHINGTON, July 3.—Formal application has been filed with the Federal Radio commission by Station WSVW, Buffalo, operated by the Seneca Vocational school, for authority to construct an experimental television transmitter to be used on 2150 kilocycles with 500 watts power. If the application is granted, it will represent the first opportunity Buffalonians have had to avail themselves of one of the latest developments of the radio art.
According to statements made to the Radio commission by representatives of WSVS, it is the hope of that station eventually to be able to project not only moving pictures in the home, but also the voice and music accompaniment. (Buffalo News)

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 1929
TELEVISION MOVIES NOW BEING MADE
NEW YORK,--A series of short motion pictures, which are being carried to radio fans by television, now is being produced by Visugraphic Pictures, Inc.
These pictures are being broadcast from station W2XCR, Jersey City, owned and operated by the Jenkins Television Corporation, and may be “tuned in” by radio listeners who have receiving sets equipped for television purposes.
Of Widespread Interest
It is interesting to note that the publicity department of Visugraphic received more than 150 newspaper clippings from every part of the United States and Canada bearing on the new television pictures. This indicates the tremendous news value in the science of broadcasting “movies” by television.
From the commercial advertising point of view, the televisual “movies” offers an unexcelled opportunity to manufacturers to popularize a product in a unique and interest-compelling way. (Calgary Herald)

SUNDAY, JULY 7, 1929
Compact Drum Scanner Advances Home Television
The latest television receiver for home use has just been demonstrated at the Jenkins television laboratories and is regarded as one of the simplest and most practical forms of receivers yet proposed. It is a development of the original “drum” type receiver invented by C. Francis Jenkins, a pioneer worker in this field and also in motion pictures.
The new televisor replaces the usual awkward scanning disc, measuring a yard in diameter, with the compact and highly efficient scanning drum. The complete televisor is incorporated in a walnut cabinet measuring approximately 18x18x24 inches, as shown in the illustration. The front end of the cabinet contains a recessed opening or shadow box leading to the large magnifying lens through which the radio-movies are viewed, together with three switches and a “framing” crank. The operation of the Jenkins televisor is simplicity itself. The first switch snaps on a neon glow lamp. A short wave radio set, employed in conjunction with the televisor, is tuned in the usual manner, until the characteristic note of the television signal is at maximum in the loud speaker. The second switch turns on the motor and also serves as a simple method of bringing the scanning drum in step with the picture. The crank is turned so as to frame the picture properly from left to right.
The interior mechanism of the televisor is compact, simple and rugged. The earlier laboratory set-up has been reduced to commercial production equipment for home use. The synchronous motor and scanning drum are mounted vertically and supported by a stanch angle-iron framework.
A special form of distributor serves to flash the four neon lamp plates in succession, illuminating the four quartets of the scanning drum in four successive revolutions. The operation is exceedingly quiet. The framing crank serves to turn the motor and its scanning drum slightly, so as to bring the picture into step with the scanned image. The scanning drum holes are viewed through the magnifying lens, giving an apparent screen size of about six inches square, or sufficient for the simultaneous entertainment of six to eight persons.
As for the nature of the entertainment, only the simplest subjects are being broadcast at this time. Instead of attempting very crude half-tone pictures the engineers are endeavoring to transmit and receive silhouette or black-and-white movies with a fair degree of accuracy. The demonstration of a thrilling boxing contest in silhouette form can be readily followed on the televisor screen and if anything, is so unique as to be perhaps more fascinating than if it were shown to the usual full tone. Titles are included in the television pictures. (New York Herald Tribune)



WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 1929
Bound Brook Likely to be Site Of Television Plant for RCA
Two developments in radio in the metropolitan area are awaiting decisions by the Federal Radio Commission, according to a representative of the Radio Corporation of America. An application has been filed for an experimental television station license for a transmitter to be located at Bound Brook, N. J., where Station WJZ’s transmitting plant is located. The application requests that the thirty kilowatt image broadcaster be permitted to operate on the frequency band of 2,850-2,950 kilocycles, equivalent to 105 to 101 meters.
No definite information relative to the plans of this television outfit will be released, according to the RCA representative, until the license is issued. He declined to say whether this television plant would supplant the one now in operation at 411 Fifth avenue, or whether its entry into the ether lanes would mark the beginning of regular television service for the home. (New York Times)

SUNDAY, JULY 14, 1929
Movies in Home by Radio Object of New Invention
WASHINGTON, July 14.—(Universal News Service)—A 23-year California inventor, E. L. Peterson of Los Angeles, has obtained patent rights on a new and revolutionary new television principal, it was revealed here today.
The Peterson invention solves the present great problem of synchronization between the sender and the receiver of visional broadcasting, according to the inventor and his attorney, Judge Jerome Lyman Richardson of Riverside, Cal., who claimed it will make radio-movies as available as the present vocal radio.
Judge Richardson went to New York today to confer with bidders for the patent rights and for production of the set. He declined to discuss technical details of the new invention, but said:
“It embodies a new and simplified principle, which entirely masters the question of synchronization between the broadcasting and receiving points, heretofore the great problem of televison. All synchronization obstacles of the past have been eliminated and the Peterson invention will make it possible for the average person to sit down in his home, turn a dial and receive the picture broadcast with the aid of no more technical knowledge than is necessary for the operation of the radio.”
The invention is known as ray-o-vision and a corporation has been formed under the laws of California to handle it. Peterson his attorney plan to leave shortly for Europe with a view to interesting foreign operators. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 15)

MONDAY, JULY 15, 1929
WOKO BROADCASTING TELEVISION PROGRAMS
Visual broadcasting, known popularly as television, is now part of the daily radio program of Station WOKO, located on the top of Mount Beacon, near Poughkeepsie, N. Y., according to the Hudson Valley Broadcasting Company, its operators. The images are sent out each after between 2 and 3 o’clock, Easter Daylight Time, on a wavelength of about 145 eters. The call letters are W-2XBU. Subjects used for the visual programs at present are persons, placards, letters and small objects. While images transmitters are said to be “not perfect,” it is expected that experiments will find their reception an interesting diversion and an aid in carrying on television work with home-made receiving equipment.
The apparatus required to intercept the visual programs is a shortwave receiving set equipped with resistance-type audio amplifier, scanning disk, driving motor and neon tube. (New York Times)

WEDNESDAY, JULY 17, 1929
TO TEST TELEVISION OUTSIDE OF CITIES A thorough study of the possibility of reliable television service for large suburban and rural areas will be made at Bound Brook, N. J., if the Federal Radio Commission grants an application now before it for a 30-kilowatt image transmitter, according to Dr. A. N. Goldsmith, chief broadcasting engineer of the Radio Corporation of America, who will direct the tests. The wave length proposed is 101 to 105 meters, or 2,950-2,850 kilocycles. It is expected that a comparatively short time will be required to prepare for the tests.
“Our plan,” said Dr. Goldsmith, “is to determine the limitations of visual broadcasts outside of cities just as we are now studying such problems within cities. We hope to ascertain the general transmission characteristics of rural television, how such signals will be affected by static and fading, and the power required for coverage of definite areas.
“Television signals have a less useful range than that obtained with a transmitter sending out audible programs. The short wave lengths assigned for television work are more highly absorbed between the transmitter and the receiver. The zone of fading on short waves is nearer the sending station, say within 100 to 150 miles. Television also requires very critical and difficult methods of transmission and reception, therefore we need unusually perfect signals for high quality service. All these characteristics and limitations are to be carefully studied, so the tests will be entirely experimental, leading later perhaps to a study of television over greater distances.
Dr. Goldsmith said the 30-kilowatt image broadcaster probably would give adequate image service in an area of 500 to 1,000 square miles. (New York Times)

MONDAY, JULY 22, 1929
TELEVISION BROADCASTING IS INAUGURATED ON NIGHTLY WASHINGTON PROGRAMS
By KENNETH G. CRAWFORD
(United Press Staff Correspondent.)
WASHINGTON, July 22.—(UP)—Picture broadcasting was placed on a permanent nightly basis for the first time here tonight with the formal opening of a new studio by C. Francis Jenkins, pioneer in the development of television and president of the Jenkins Television company.
For more than a year the inventor has been broadcasting tri-weekly programs from a 50-watt station in his downtown studio and has gained an audience estimated at 20,000, most of its members amateur radio operators.
To serve this audience better and recruit new members, Jenkins established his new station in a converted farm house five miles north of the District of Columbia line. He was recently granted permission by the Federal Radio Commission to operate a station on a wave length of 2,900 kilocycles.
With this more powerful station, he hopes to send pictures regularly as far west as the Pacific coast and as far south as Porto Rico. Even from his old station a few amateurs were able to pick up his programs occasionally from those distances.
Opens New Studio.
Jenkins announced with the opening of the new studio that he will attempt to broadcast views of the national capital radioed from his airplane to the ground station. This will be done with the "aerial eye," on which the inventor has been experimenting almost every day for several years.
The inventor pilots his own plane. His first machine was damaged recently in a forced landing and he is now equipping a new one for the forthcoming tests of the panorama broadcasting device. The mechanical "eye" of the equipment will peer through a hole in the bottom of the ship.
The views it picks up will be sent to the new broadcasting station and retransmitted to the television audience. In order to reach remote receiving stations two 130-foot antenna towers have been erected near the country studio.
The opening program of the new station was a one-hour motion picture which Jenkins prefaced with a brief talk. Later he will broadcast scenes enacted by living images, but the room from which this is to be done is not yet completely equipped.
Jenkins has found that television fans prefer to see living objects rather than motion pictures. The change in power and frequency in the new station has made it necessary for members of Jenkins’ audience to reconstruct their sets somewhat. Most of the amateurs who receive television programs have assembled their own sets from parts made at home, or supplied by the Jenkins Company, the inventor said.
The same equipment required to pick up sound waves is used to receive television waves, but this must be supplements with the picture projection device.
The picture as it comes in is about six inches square and shows on an illuminated screen in black and white.
"We know how to broadcast colors," Jenkins said, "but it isn't practical because it would require too many wave lengths. We would ruin the air for everyone else by attempting it."
Jenkins will not use all the power granted by the radio commission in his initial programs, but plans to utilize it all eventually.

SATURSDAY, JULY 27, 1929
Seeks Television License.
WASHINGTON, July 27. (AP)—The Great Lakes Broadcasting Co. of Chicago has applied to the Federal Radio Commission for a new radio station license for a television transmitter.

MONDAY, JULY 29, 1929
Entire Show Is Broadcast By Television
Washington, D. C., July 31.—Television has turned the corner, according to eminent radio authorities after the encouraging results from the Jenkins television broadcast over station W2AX were made known recently.
For the first time in history, a complete picture story was televised. This "television drama" was on the air one hour. Reports of its satisfactory reception were received from points as far west as Chicago, and as far north as Lexington, Mass. Station attendants expect several days to elapse before all reports are received.
The program was the first of a series to be sent out regularly from 8 to 9 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, over the new power transmitter recently installed about five miles north of Washington, D. C. The series was inaugurated in the presence of radio commission officials.
Dr. Jenkins shared the enthusiasm of friends, radio engineers and television fans who witnessed or took part in this epoch-making event. From now on the public will take a keen interest in these broadcasts, and a big impetus will be given to the further development of television which will usher in a new era of opportunity for radio men and the general public. (Tampa Times)

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 1929
'Talkies' in Home Promise of New Television Device
Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of a new television device, which he claims will soon permit owner of radio sets to receive motion "talkie" pictures in their homes, demonstrated his invention last night. A group of scientists witnessed the tests.
Photographs, the silhouettes of moving fingers and the curling upwards cigarette smoke were transmitted in his Green street laboratories, from one room to a receiving set in another, and were visible on a screen.
New Method Used
The scientists who witnessed the exhibition were members of the Board of Directors of the California Research Group of Science of Vision—Prof. R. S. Minor, University of California; Dr. T. A. Brombach, Dr. Van Simonton, Dr. J. R. Morris, Dr. Leland Carter and Al Reinke, lecturer at the University of California.
Professor Minor declared that the demonstration was "most interesting.” He said he was particularly impressed with the new method of “scanning”. The Farnsworth device does not use a "scanning wheel" or scanning disk, as is used in other television system. The picture is "torn down” at the transmitting end and "built up" at the receiving end by electricity.
Farnsworth stated that with his device families possessing radio sets will reasonably soon be able to hear and see in their living rooms musical comedies as they are being acted and sung in some distant city, that they will be able to watch some spectacular play occurring in a football stadium, hear the impact of men's bodies as they buck the line, see the fumbles and the passes and the roaring approval of the stadium crowds.
He promises that pictures of events taken in the sunlight will soon be transmitted clearly by his system.
The astonishing new instrument invented by Farnsworth is not a bulky affair. In a cabinet of ordinary size, it resembles the average home radio receiving set. Instead of a loud speaker there is an attachment on top of the cabinet with a round orifice for the "vision field."
He says that the experiments so far made have convinced him and his associates that the device can be placed in a still smaller cabinet and that plans are under way to put it into practical use on a large scale. (San Francisco Examiner)



TUESDAY, AUGUST 20, 1929
KGO’s program tonight will be a memorable event; impressive from the number of dignitaries to be presented, absorbing from a dra¬matic and musical standpoint and spectacular for those who will witness the broadcast which will originate in the San Francisco Civic auditorium in conjunction with the Sixth Annual Pacific Radio show. KGO will be on the air from 7 to 11 o’clock.
For its night at the radio show KGO has delayed the opening of its 40,000-watt short wave station W6XN. State and civic officials have been invited to participate in this opening which will feature artists of many foreign countries wearing native costumes. This program will be rebroadcast by the New York stations of the General Electric and it is expected that a score of foreign stations also will relay the W6XN transmission.
Preceding the W6XN inaugura¬tion there will be half-hour program by the Rembrandt Trio. the Melodettes, and the Olympians. At 8:30 those celebrated musical no¬mads, the Pilgrims, who have been traversing the ether lanes for nearly four years, will make their appearance, with August Hinrichs directing. Vocal numbers will be sung by Eva Gruninger Atkinson, contralto, Grace LePage, soprano, and the Olympians. (Santa Ana Daily Register)

THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 1929
RCA STATION AT BOUND BROOK ASKS LICENSE RENEWAL
WASHINGTON, Aug. 22.—The Radio Corporation of America applied for a renewal of the television license for the portable station serving New York and New Jersey at Bound Brook, N. J. The call letters are W2XBV. Broadcasting station WJZ is located at Bound Brook. (Home News, New Brunswick, N.J.)

SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 1929
Chicago Station Give Television License
A television broadcasting license has been granted to WENR. The Chicago station has been allocated the visual broadcasting channel ranging from 2,850 to 2.950 kilocycles by the radio commission for television transmission on regular schedule with 5,000 watts power. There are now approximately a dozen stations licensed to broadcast television but all are on an experimental basis. (Chicago Triune

TELEVISION SETS NOW BEING MADE BY JENKINS CORPORATION
With the recent development of a novel combination scanning drum and selector shutter disk by its engineering staff, resulting in a simpler, more economical, and far more practical scanning system, the Jenkins Television Corporation of Jersey City, N. J., now announces the mass production of television apparatus.
“Although we have been in production on experimental television equipment for six months past,” states James W. Garside, President of the Jenkins Television Corporation, “we have withheld mass production of market models until we could be positive of our grounds. Our earlier models were too elaborate and costly for use in the average home, while the results left much to be desired. Therefore, our production until now consisted of sample televisors for use in checking up the efficiency of our television transmitters at Jersey City and Washington, under typical receiving conditions.
48-Line Reception.
“With out [our] latest development, we have evolved a remarkably simple, inexpensive, and highly practical televisor, which can be readily manufactured at a reasonable cost. The new Jenkins televisor will permit of receiving either plain black and-pink radio movies or full half tone pictures, with good detail and illumination within the limitations of our present 48-line system. Should we find it advisable to go to 60 or more lines, based on our present experiments and developments, the Jenkins televisors can be readily changed over to accommodate additional lines and finer detail.
“All in all, I am satisfied we now have a practical televisor with which we can inaugurate everyday television,” concludes Mr. Garside. (Brooklyn Daily Eagle)

FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 1929
Motion Picture Are Broadcast
Distinct Progress Being Made in Television Studios at Pittsburgh
[By ROBERT D. HEINL]
Distinctive progress is being made in the broadcasting of motion pictures at the Westinghouse plant at Pittsburgh. Motion and still pictures are being sent daily from the television studio in Homestead works, thence by wire four miles to the KDKA transmitting station and broadcast from there to the Farm, as the short wave receiving station is known about six miles northeast.
Ordinary moving picture films are used and such subjects being shown a Krazy Kat and Pathe current news events. It was explained that motion pictures were chosen because they are more difficult to than actual objects. However, at the Homestead television studios, scanning devices are also available for the broadcasting of living subjects. A television studio is indeed a curious looking place and with its bright lights not unlike a moving picture studio.
Formerly because of the makeshift apparatus, an observer was constantly reminded of the experimental nature of television, but there is little of this in evidence at Pittsburg. The transmitting apparatus is of a substantial character and finished in appearance. The reels whirl in the same businesslike way as for a regular motion picture and with countless operators the scene presented in the television studio is similar to one so frequently seen in the projection booth of an ordinary movie theater.
Looks Like Going Concern
Likewise there is the air of a going concern at the receiving end. Not a lot of loose junk wired together but the apparatus compactly assembled on a table and resembling a camera outfit about the size a professional photographer uses. Also a thing one rarely sees in an experimental laboratory—the floor was neatly swept. Viewing a television picture recalls vividly the way we used to look at old time motion pictures in a kinetoscope, excepting that here in a darkened room sees the picture by peering into a long cylinder sometimes standing as far as five feet back to get the right focus.
The moving pictures being broadcast at Pittsburgh are as yet small, about three by four inches in size but larger than the Bell telephone pictures being sent over wires in color which are only as big as a postage stamp. In both the Westinghouse and the Bell demonstrations, however, the details of the pictures are surprisingly sharp and distinct.
“If we make as much improvement in the next six months in broadcasting motion pictures as we have in the past six,” a Westinghouse official remarked, “we will really be able to report progress. As soon as we get one thing lacked we go after the next.”
Let not the reader gather from this that any definite time has been set when the last thing will be “licked” or when we may expect to receive regular television broadcasts into our homes. It may be just around the corner and again it may be years. At the moment research is being carried on along two lines. The first is perfecting quality of the transmitted picture and the second is the effort being made by radio manufacturers to design a receiver or an attachment to go on radio sets, capable of receiving broadcast pictures and selling at a price within reach of the general public. Quite tantalizing at Westinghouse is a peep at the new 100,000 watt tubes, said to be the world’s largest, which are in the making for the new KDKA and KYW stations, without being permitted to go into details regarding their construction or possibilities. They look to be about eight feet in length and are the first to have water-colored grids. So intricate is the process of manufacture that, though a new tube is started every week, the net result is only about two completed tubes a month. So it may be some time before the required six are completed for the new KYW station at Chicago and 12 for the new KDKA station near Pittsburgh. Although the Westinghouse people are as silent as clams regarding these great new tubes, it is believed when the facts are known about them they may prove a sensation in the radio world. Rumor hath it that instead of 100,000 watts, tests have shown that they are capable of 150,000 watts power (Tulsa World)

May 1929

Television looked ready to expand in the New York and New England area in May 1929, while the Federation of Labor station in Chicago proclaimed it would be broadcasting every Sunday.

W2XBU in Beacon, N.Y. near Poughkeepsie, and W2XCP in New York were approved to go on the air; W2XBU had already aired test programmes.

W2XBS, now WNBC, announced test broadcasts, as did a station with a much shorter life, W2XCL in Brooklyn.

In Lexington, Mass., W1XAY said it would be expanding its studios, while the Barnberger company conducted a successful test using ultra-violet rays. Bamberger would finally have a TV station on the air for good on Oct. 11, 1949 when WOR-TV began broadcasting on channel 9.

Here’s a summary of TV news for May, 1929.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 1929
Operators of Station WOKO Plan Television Demonstration
Smith and Curtis Soon To Reveal Results Of Long Experimentation in Laboratory Of Radio System on Mt. Beacon
Exhaustive research in a laboratory atop Mount Beacon, 1,545 feet above the Hudson River, by which it is hoped to make television available to the average person in his home at small expense, has just been completed by H. E. Smith and R. M. Curtis, operators of radio broadcasting station WOKO. Although this system of television has not been put on the air, radio tests will be made as soon as a license is granted by the Federal Radio Commission. Meanwhile experiments have been conducted over private wires between the station and its studio in the Hotel Windsor, a distance of about 18 miles.
Simple Apparatus
Like the radio in its infancy, television is as yet a strange thing to the lay person, but inventors and developers such as Mr. Smith and Mr. Curtis hope to make it possible within a short time to transmit television into the homes for reception by small and simple apparatus such as the present radio sets.
The radio laboratory in which this system of television was developed is perhaps the loftiest laboratory in the world, so high on the summit of Mount Beacon, Mr. Smith has given out a few facts concerning his system which he feels will be welcomed by the public interested in radio.
“The system used,” he says, “is what is known as the direct lighting, that is, the subject or person whose image is to be transmitted sits in a small recording studio which is flooded with 4,000 watts of incandescent lamps. Between the recording studio and the recording apparatus there is a small opening in the partition through which the image or subject is focused through a series of lenses upon a scanning disc.
“The signal received after being amplified by the six stages of amplification is then put into the transmitter in the usual way, or in the case of the laboratory tests just conducted, is connected to the neon tube which is placed behind a scanning disc of the same size as the transmitting disc containing the same number of holes and revolving at the same speed. By then looking at the neon tube with the disc revolving in front of it in synchronism with the transmitting disc, the picture is formed, caused by the holes in the receiving disc being between the eye of the observer and the neon tube.
"With the neon tubes now available the received picture is approximately one and one half inches square, but by using a magnifying glass it can be enlarged. But the more it is enlarged the less detail there is."

THURSDAY, MAY 2, 1929
George Nelson 1st Local Man To Get Successful Television
Constructs Set As Part of Thesis Work In Physics
When in Schenectady, N. Y., a man held a playing card before a strange-looking apparatus of tubes, discs, and coils, George H. Nelson, 422 N. Few st., Madison, senior in physics in the university, peered through an eye-piece in another apparatus in Sterling hall on Madison campus to see the five-spot of diamonds take shape before his eyes. Thus was received the first completely successful television transmission in Madison.
The television receiving set in Sterling hall has been constructed by student-physicist Nelson as part of his thesis work in physics. He has been working on the set since November.
In part the apparatus built by Mr. Nelson for the reception of television resembles the ordinary radio receiving set. There is a two-tube, short-wave-length receiver with a four-tube resistance-coupled amplifier. Power is supplied to the outfit from batteries furnishing 225 volts, and from a six-volt storage battery.
Lamp and Rotating Disc
The picture-producing part of the mechanism consists of a round disc, a small electric motor, and a neon tube. The only fundamental difference between an ordinary radio receiver and a television outfit is this additional equipment. The rotating disc has spirally arranged holes around the outer edge. The neon lamp is behind this disc.
Reference is made frequently to the 'screen' of the television receiver. There is no screen. That is probably the reason for the fact that television images resemble nothing one has previously seen. They are not reproduced on any flat surface but are formed from individual dots of light from the neon lamp behind the disc, these dots being distributed by the holes in the scanning disc in such a way as to form a complete image at each revolution of the disc.
This is similar to the method employed for projecting moving pictures, where one picture after another is thrown on the screen in such rapid succession that the eye receives the impression of continuous movement.
It has been said that one of the most fascinating features of television is the strange almost ghost-like appearance of the images. When the receiver is slightly out of phase, the images float across the opening like spirit pictures. The dim, flickering image seems to appear on the rapidly revolving disc.
“One of the chief problems in television is getting the scanning disc at the receiving end revolving at precisely the same speed as the disc at the sending end," comments Mr. Nelson. "In addition to running at the same speed, hole number one of the receiving disc must be in the same relative position as hole number one of the sending disc, just as if both discs were attached to a single shaft, when as a matter of fact they are separated by thousands of miles and connected only by radio waves.
Receives From New York
"If the discs are not running together the picture floats across the field of vision as many times in a second as is the difference between the two disc speeds."
The pictures received by Mr. Nelson's set are 1 ½ inches square, but viewed through a magnifying glass the image is considerably enlarged. Mr. Nelson tunes in with an ordinary pair of headphones. On the television sounds similar to high-speed code transmission, except that the sound is more continuous.
Station WGY at Schenectady is the only station broadcasting television powerfully enough to be received in Madison. As WGY transmits pictures during the time when the university station WHA is or the air with its noon-hour program, Mr. Nelson has some difficulty with the local interference. All of the television broadcasts from WGY are as yet purely for experimental purposes. (Capital Times, Madison)

TELEVISION TO BE BROADCAST DAILY BY WCFL, CHICAGO
BY GEORGE D. BUCK.
Station WCFL of Chicago will broadcast television as a regular feature between 9 and 11 a. m., Sundays excepted. Programs will consist of motion pictures and still subjects. The broadcast is on a wave length of 146.25 meters, standard 48-hole scanning disc, r. p. m. 950. They would like to hear reports from radio fans as to how their pictures are received.
Much progress is being made in television. According to reports from the Westinghouse, Bell Telephone and R. C. A. laboratories, improvements have been made both in enlarging the size of the picture shown and increasing the illumination of it. While early experiments only succeeded in showing a 2-inch picture, it is now possible to project images on a screen 15 by 18 inches. Much encouragement in this field has resulted since the allotment of wider bands of frequencies for these experiments, 100 kilocycle bands now being allowed, making larger pictures and greater detail possible.
Owners of short wave receivers are requested by Station W2XCL, Brooklyn, N. Y., to report on their reception on this station, which broadcasts on 143.5 meters every Monday, Wednesday and Friday between 9 and 11 p. m., with spoken announcements and musical notes of different frequencies. They will not start actual television until they have made these preliminary tests and satisfied themselves that a considerable number of people can hear the station clearly and with good volume. They intend to transmit images of living persons and not merely photographs. (St. Louis Star)

Experiments In Television Being Carried On Here
Television, one of the most modern discoveries in science, is being studied extensively in the Coe college laboratories by Lee Hruska, major student in the physic department. He has received television broadcasts from Washington, D. C., and has already succeeded in making a photo-electric cell, one of the most difficult parts of the television sending apparatus to construct.
Hruska has done a large amount of experimenting with radio and the allied sciences. Recently the Federal Radio commission acted to prohibit the experimental broadcast of pictures but word has just been received from James W. Good, Secretary of War, of a special frequency dedicated to the service of television.
Hruska has been interested in radio since the days when there were no broadcasting stations such are on the air at the present time. He was a member of the Amateur Radio Relay League, an organization composed of the most outstanding radio amateurs of the country, and assisted in communicating with explorers in the Arctic regions. (Coe College Cosmos)

SATURDAY, MAY 4, 1929
20,000 “LOOKERS” ESTIMATE
WASHINGTON (AP)—Short wave station W3XK, which broadcasts television signals from films, estimates that it has an audience of 20,000. This observation was made from a flood of letters that followed a 10-day suspension of transmission on 46.72 meters while changes were made.
Television programs are now being broadcast on a regular daily schedule from W1KAY [sic], Lexington, Mass. Pictures are being sent from W3XAV, Pittsburgh, W2XAF, Schenectady and W3XK, Washington, D. C., three times a week. (Honolulu Star-Bulletin)

W1XAY to Increase Television Equipage
LEXINGTON, Mass., May 4. (AP)—Construction of a new 5,000 watt transmitter is being undertaken by television station W-1XAY, at Lexington, as the result of a granting of a license for experimental television work by the federal radio commission.
SUNDAY, MAY 5, 1929
A few days ago Dr Alfred N. Goldsmith, chief broadcast engineer of the Radio Corporation of America, invited several guests to his home to witness a demonstration of television reception. Gathered about the television receiver in Dr Goldsmith’s Riverside Drive apartment, the guests saw the image of an operator standing before a television transmitter located at 411 5th av. They saw the operator pick up a telephone in answer to a call from Dr Goldsmith, saw him stroke his hair, saw him smile when the doctor spoke in a humorous vein—convincing evidence that he was actually following instructions.
At the conclusion of the demonstration Dr Goldsmith asked his guests if they were satisfied from what they had seen that television had arrived. They were satisfied that it had.
“Well, then” remarked Dr Goldsmith, “I have prepared you for a little surprise. What you have seen demonstrated here tonight is now largely obsolete as far as television is concerned. In our laboratories we have apparatus working which does away with all the cumbersome moving parts and scanning discs used by this machine. We have apparatus much smaller and much easier to manage which is capable of casting images on a screen to the full size of about 15x18 inches. The television receivers of the future, comp1ete and ready for plugging into the light socket, will not occupy a space larger than is now required by a high quality radio set and speaker.” (Boston Globe)

WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 1929
SMITH TELLS COMMISSION HE WILL SPEND $100,000
Seeking a renewal of the television license rescinded a month and a half ago after being in effect since July, 1928, Harold E. Smith, operator of radio station WOKO told the Radio Commission in Washington he is prepared to spend $100,000 on television.
Mr. Smith told The Eagle-News the station was backed financially too make television experiments to this extent and that he hoped to have the license soon so the experiment can be put on the air. Thus far they have been conducted on special wire between the station on Mount Beacon and the studio in the Hotel Windsor, this city.
In making his application for renewal of the license, Mr. Smith requested a frequency of 4,300-4,900 kilocycles but at the hearing Wednesday [8] amended it to whatever frequency is necessary to bring it within the experimental television bands. The same thing was done with his request for 100 watts power. (Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, May 11)

SATURDAY, MAY 11, 1929
A SERIES of motion pictures, which will be carried to radio fans in the New York area by television, now is being produced by Visugraphic Pictures, Inc., New York.
These pictures will be broadcast from station W2XCR, Jersey City, operated by the Jenkins Television Corporation, and will be “tuned in” by radio listeners who have receiving sets equipped for television purposes.
This new development in the science of television and cinematics, made possible by the indefatigable effort and research on the part of radio technicians, brings nearer the time when radio enthusiasts will be able to “tune in” the finest motion picture entertainment—sound, dialogue and all, according to television engineers.
With television movies still at an experimental stage, the Visugraphic productions necessarily will be simple sketches, especially adapted for the purpose.
In the broadcasting of motion pictures, the radio studio presents the appearance of a projection room. There are no "Silence" signs; noise is not picked up by the television apparatus.
One hears the familiar clicking of the motion picture projector and sees the film unreeling through lenses much the same as in ordinary projection work. The graduations of light thrown through the film are transformed into radio impulses and sent out over the antenna to be detected and picked up miles distant and reproduced upon a small screen attached to the receiving set of the television enthusiast.
Experiments made in the production of suitable television subjects in the Visugraphic laboratories indicate tremendous possibilities in this new form of entertainment. (Washington Herald)

MONDAY, MAY 13, 1929
W2XBS, the experimental television station of the Radio Corporation of America, has extended its broadcasting hours to include the period from 7 to 11 p. m. daily. This change has been made in order to allow a greater period for the study of reception at various locations. The transmitted pictures consist of sixty horizontal lines each divided into sixty-two elements laterally. Twenty pictures are scanned per second. (Nick Kenny, Daily News, New York)

TUESDAY, MAY 14, 1929
Buffalo Station Ready to Give Television Service as Soon as Radio Commission Grants an Application—First Broadcast Expected Sept. 1
WASHINGTON, May 14.—Television talkies in every Buffalo home during the coming year is the aim of station WSVS, Buffalo, which today filed an application with the Federal Radio Commission for an experimental television license. The application was filed by John D. Donlon, director of transmission for WSVS, and seeks use of 500 watts on 2050 kilocycles.
If the experimental license is granted, the new equipment will be installed in the Seneca vocational school, operator of WSVS, on Delavan avenue, and the first visual broadcast will take place Sept. 1.
"Buffalo has no station to advance the art of television in that vicinity," Mr. Donlon declared today, adding that "the nearest television stations are in Pittsburgh and Schenectady. They are too far away to do Buffalo any good.
"We propose to begin the visual broadcast service Sept. 1 and will begin by sending ordinary photographs and pictures of living facsimiles. Whan we find these are reaching the Buffalo homes satisfactorily we shall try sending motion pictures.
"The ultimate will come when we can use our broadcasting station to send out music as an accompaniment to the television motion picture which we plan sending out on the short waves.”
Mr. Donlon declared he had been making personal experiments with television for several months and that WSVS is ready to go ahead with the work The new apparatus for the television broadcasting has been ordered and will be installed as soon as the Radio commission approves the application for construction permit.
This is the second application filed by station WSVS with the Radio commission within the two weeks. The former covered the station's broadcast service and requested use of 1200 kilocycles, a Canadian-shared wavelength, together with 200 watts power for daytime use and 100 watts power at night.
The matter is pending before the commission, awaiting word from Canadian radio authorities at Ottawa, who must pass on the desired wavelength before it is assigned to the Buffalo station. At present there are no Canadian stations on the 1200-kilocycle band. (Buffalo News)

ENGINEERS SEE TELEVISION FOR ALL HOMES SOON
By JAMES STOKLEY
Science Service Staff Writer
WASHINGTON, May 14.—The time when television images will be flitting back and forth through the air as thickly as broadcast music today is not far off. Radio engineers are doing all they can to hasten the day and to bring television into every home.
Meeting in Washington is the Institute of Radio Engineers, including the best known names in radio. At their session today they devoted their time to a symposium on visual radio, which includes sending of still pictures by radio as well as the rapid transmission of motion pictures.
One simplification of the television receiver, looking toward bringing it into the home, was described by C. Francis Jenkins, Washington inventor. This is a drum scanner, in which a seven inch drum does the same work as a 36 inch disc in older forms of apparatus. Such a drum, with its driving motor, can be enclosed in a small cabinet, comparable in size with a modern dynamic speaker.
Transmit Picture in Colors
Improvements in picture transmission have now reached the point where a picture in colors has been transmitted by radio across the continent. Captain R. H. Ranger described his latest form of photo-radio transmitter and receiver with which this can be done.
The transmitter makes use of the varying reflection from a picture, wrapped around a revolving drum, to a photoelectric cell. In his newest transmitter, Captain Ranger uses five prisms which split the light into five parts, each of which goes its respective cell.
The receiver records on waxed paper, instead of photographic paper, as in other methods. The incoming signal regulates a jet of hot air, which is squirted at the paper as it moves in step with the original picture. The wax is waterproof but the hot air melts it in spots. These spots are no longer waterproof, and when a dye is applied, the color is absorbed where the hot air struck.
Homes to Have Two Receivers
Dyes of any color may be used and by sending three separate pictures of the red, blue and green of the original, each may be printed in the proper color. In the finished picture, all are combined to produce color print.
Probably the home of the future will have two radio receivers, one for broadcasting, the other tuned to short waves for television. With these two it will be possible to obtain both the voice and view. This is because television is the most difficult form of radio transmission—a view expressed to the engineers by Dr. Alfred N. Goldsmith, vice-president of the Radio Corp. Very special forms of receivers will be required satisfactory television images are to be received, he said. At present the corporation, under his direction, is broadcasting television nightly from a New York studio.

MONDAY, MAY 20, 1929
WILKINSBURG AMATEURS' TELEVISION SET SUCCESS
Pittsburgh boasts of its luxurious and ultra-complete radio stations. There are a number.
But Wilkinsburgh has one that for modesty of surroundings is unequalled.
In a little workshop back of the home of Anthony Mag, 1027 Franklin avenue, is short-wave station W8OW, and every one of the seemingly hundreds of mechanical gadgets in it have been constructed by himself, or his fellow hobbyists, John Clark and Robert Marshall.
On Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights, they get motion and still pictures from KDKA on their home-made television receiving set. For six months the trio labored, finally, the big disk revolved and on it appeared the pictures that meant they had succeeded. Besides their time, the equipment cost them nearly $200.
But that's not all. At odd times during the past 10 years they have caused to grow numerous radio receiving sets. Now they have built a short-wave sending set, so successful that their little station W8OW has been heard in New Zealand, Hawaii, and nearly all European countries.
They have little machines for everything, it seems. One cuts, another polishes, another tests the quartz use in the transmission set crystals. All types and sizes of motors are connected and interconnected. Miles of tiny wiring make the little workshop a labyrinth of mechanics.
Since their grammar school days, all three have had radio as a hobby. Only Marshall works at it directly.
Now they're planning to tear down the first television set and rebuild for greater efficiency. Mag is a night student at Carnegie Tech, and works for Duquesne Light Company during the day. (Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph)
SATURDAY, MAY 25, 1929
Washington, D. C.—Harold E. Smith, owner of the broadcasting station WOKO, Mt. Beacon, today received permission from the federal radio commission to conduct television experiments over his experimental television station, W2-XBU, an hour daily.
The commission for the present will restrict Smith to experiments between 1 and 2 p.m. A license with the proviso is being issued him.
The action was taken on the recommendation of the engineering division which, according Carl H. Butman, secretary of the commission, felt that this would be a fair arrangement for Smith. Later, said Butman, the commission will, if Smith wishes it, consider a more generous allowance of time for him, although it will not at this time pledge itself as to the future.(Beacon News)

TUESDAY, MAY 28, 1929
SHOWS TELEVISION TRANSMISSION BY ULTRA-VIOLET RAY
For the first occasion in radio history, television was transmitted by visible light and ultra-violet rays in a demonstration conducted by the United States Radio and Television corporation at L. Bamberger & Co., in Newark, yesterday [28]. At the same time, the first public transmission of sound by ultra-violet rays was shown.
On the eleventh floor at the Bamberger & Co., in Newark, yesterday, observed a battery of transmitting equipment at one end of the building and a receiving device at the opposite end. A bulb emitted a beam of varying colored light from the transmitting end. The light flickered and changed in intensity in accordance with the speech which an official poured into a nearby microphone connected to apparatus operating the bulb. The bulb behaved the same way attached to the television transmitter.
A loud speaker and ear phones delivered the speech given at the opposite end, while a television screen showed a clear image. Whenever the light was intercepted, the reception stopped.
Following this, a filter allowing only a near ultra-violet ray to proceed was placed over the bulb. Reception of both sound and television still continued except when an object or person was interposed between the receiver and transmitter, thereby cutting off the ray.
EXPLAINS SYSTEM.
Paul A. Kober, television engineer of the United States Radio and Television company, who conducted the showing and developed the process, is an engineer of reputation. Last August he directed over WOR radio station in collaboration with Bamberger engineers, the first television drama synchronised with music.
He explained the television process was by means of a high frequency Mercury induction lamp, the light of which varies in accordance with the electrical impulses representing high lights, half tones and shadows of the image transmitted and, two photo-electric cells which receive the varying light translate it back into a varying current, actuating a neon lamp and causing the image to be recreated on a television screen by the aid of an ordinary scanning disk and light pencil.
RAPID CHANGES.
"Its feasibility," Kober said, "is due in large measure to the extraordinary qualities of the Mercury induction lamp originally developed for therapeutic work, but recently discovered to have characteristics for light modulation beyond the highest frequency needed for television.
A remarkable feature of this lamp is that the radio frequency which actuates it causes it to darken, and glow at least 30,000,000 times a second.
"Moreover, besides its capacity for transmitting television I have employed it as a receiving lamp for television in place of the ordinary glow lamp, making possible a larger and better detailed picture.
"An ultra-violet filter encasing the mercury Iamp will allow only ultra-violet rays to extend in the same path where the light beam would ordinarily be. As to the distance this type of transmission can extend it is safe to say at present it can be projected ten miles. There is, of course, no limit to its possibilities."
The ultra-violet exhibition made apparent immediate scientific usages and opened a wide experimental field. An example is ship to ship communication in time of war when radio signals and light beams would be impractical. In short, an invisible ray, for the transmission of sound and picture, which ray can neither be seen nor heard, has far-reaching potentialities.
In addition to pressmen and officials of the United States Radio and Television corporation and L. Bamberger & Co., a number of electrical scientists were present. (Bergen Evening Record, May 29)

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 1929
FREED EISEMANN GETS TELEVISION STATION PERMIT
BY GEORGE D. BUCK.
Construction permits have granted to the Freed Eisemann Radio Corporation to build a visual broadcasting station to be known as W2XCP. This call letter will cover the experimental work done on both of the wave lengths granted to the corporation, namely, from 2,000 to 2,100, and from 2,850 to 2,950 kilocycles, this being the 100-kilocycle band of frequencies allotted for this kind of broadcasting. Construction work will be started at once, as the research department of the company has been experimenting for some time in anticipation of the granting of this permit. (St. Louis Star)

May-June 1928

There wasn’t much to see on television in mid-1928, but that wasn’t the point. It was the hunt for a signal that was the main thing.

Television took a leap on May 11, 1928 when WGY, the General Electric Radio station in Pittsburgh, began a regular schedule of telecasts. The station switched from sound to picture broadcasts for a half hour, three times a week. You might see someone’s head and not much more. It transmitted at 24 scanning lines, 20 times a second, so the picture wouldn’t have been very clear even in the best conditions.

Others were experimenting, too, including C. Francis (Frank) Jenkins in Washington with his silhouette pictures, WCFL in Chicago, WLEX outside Boston, and Hugo Gernsback’s WRNY radio station with a transmitter in New Jersey. There was a huge to-do about a station in Yonkers but the idea never panned out; it doesn't appear the backers applied for a license from the Radio Commission, which was wrestling with finding appropriate frequencies for visual broadcasting. And Harold E. Smith's W2XBU was given permission by the Commission to go ahead.

This spot on the internet is going to devote its space for the next number of months on those formative years, from mid-1928 through to 1929 (1930 and onward is elsewhere on this blog).

Some stations experimented with sending pictures, but the transmissions were more like sending faxes. Still, at times it was being called “television” to the annoyance of purists. WMCA in New York and WTMJ in Milwaukee were in this category.

This post gives a roundup of highlights in television in June 1928, with a brief look at May.

THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1928
Regular Television Broadcasts Announced
NEW YORK, May 10.—The General Electric Company tomorrow afternoon will start a regular schedule of television broadcasting for the benefit of experimenters and amateurs who have constructed television sets.. Between 1:30 and 2 o’clock tomorrow, Eastern daylight time, the General Electric will broadcast a television program over WGY from the laboratories at Schenectady. Hereafter on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons at the same time WGY will broadcast for television sets.
Faces of men talking, laughing or smoking will be broadcast tomorrow. No elaborate television effects will be attempted in the near future.
WGY broadcast a few moments of television tonight so that listeners might recognize the peculiar sounds of such action by radio. The signal is an intermittent, high-pitched whirring sound, the pitch varying with the action before the transmitter. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 11)

SUNDAY, MAY 13, 1928
A series of radio television demonstrations for the public is to begin about June 10 over the 326-meter wave length of WRNY, according to an announcement yesterday [13] by the inventor, Theodore H. Nakken, President of the Nakken Television Corporation of Brooklyn, a recently formed subsidiary of the Pilot Electric Manufacturing Company. The first tests of the televisor transmitter and receiver, designed for use on the channels of the speech and music broadcaster, are to begin late this week in Brooklyn. Laboratory tests will be followed immediately by tests over greater distances using WRNY, Mr. Nakken said. The first public exhibition is scheduled to be held in Hotel Roosevelt early next month.
The televisor transmitter will be linked with the WRNY control apparatus in the Roosevelt and electrical impulses corresponding to the object or face before the instrument will be sent, over a wire to the WRNY broadcaster at Coytesville, N. J. From that point the radio waves will carry the image back to the Roosevelt to operate the televisor receiver, said Mr. Nakken.
“My object is television which can be employed by every broadcasting station under present conditions, namely, the ten kilocycle variety of television, rather than television which requires a much wider channel,” he continued. “The wider or more perfect television might be better to look at, but there is no available radio band at present for its application because the channels are already crowded.”
Mr. Nakken said his machine is to work on the principle of more perfect individual images or “scannings” but only ten of them per second. The one drawback will be a slight flicker as one image passes off the screen and the next begins, but this must be accepted as one of the limitations due to the impossibility of obtaining a wider television band under the present overcrowded condition of the radio waves, he asserted. One of the limitations of “ten kilocycle” television is said to be the impossibility of transmitting very rapid motion. (New York Times, May 14)

WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 1928
Within a month WRNY will begin a regular television service, Theodore Nakken, inventor, announced in a talk from that station last evening [16]. He warned enthusiasts, however, against the belief that public events, such as parades or baseball games, would be televisioned in the near future. This will not be possible unless some radical improvements are made in existing devices, he said. (Ben Gross, Daily News, May 17)

SUNDAY, MAY 20, 1928
IS TELEVISION HERE?
Present views of leaders in the radio industry on the subject of television are given in a symposium recently printed in the New York Times. The persons interviewed are eminently qualified to place television in its true light. Their statements are authoritative. Here are a few excerpts from their recently expressed views:
"We are not now manufacturing television apparatus for the home, because, frankly, we do not yet know how to make a simplified and low-priced television receiver practicable for home use. Nevertheless, I firmly believe that within the next few years such equipment and service will be developed and made available to the home.”—David Sarnoff, vice president and general manager, Radio Corporation of America.
"Radio vision of moving objects is already an achievement of several laboratories and eventually will be available for the home. But between the scientific accomplishment and the widespread commercial application of television the steps involved seem at present so complex that even the most rapid development of the art can hardly promise satisfactory television service before two or three years at least."—O. H. Caldwell, Federal radio commissioner. “The practicality of television by means of radio has been demonstrated, and it offers a field for future scientific and commercial development,”—M. P. Rice, General Electric Company. "There is no doubt that the development of television will go forward and that eventually television will be commercially used."—Dr. J. H. Dellinger, United States Bureau of Standards.
"While marvelous tests have been accomplished in television it should be understood that these are only experiments. I hold a considerable measure of doubt as to whether television will for many years to come be a matter of popular appeal in American homes.”—L. S. Baker, National Association of Broadcasters.
“Any reasonable-minded man is warranted in predicting that television will come, but let the public know the facts: It is not here now nor anywhere near it."—R. M. Klein, general manager Fada Radio. “I am willing to go on record to the effect that practical, commercial, reasonably priced television equipment for the home will not be on the market within five years, and very likely not within 25 years.”—Dr. Lee de Forest.
"In my opinion prospective radio buyers who postpone their purchases until such a time as television is a practical accomplishment will, unquestionably, deny themselves at least several years of splendid radio entertainment."—Sam Picard, Federal radio commissioner. (Boston Globe)

WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 1928
Radio Pictures Broadcast, Picked Up by Amateurs
WMCA Puts On Co-ordination of Photographs and Talk
In the first co-ordination of radio entertainment and photographic transmission, pictures of Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh, an episode in the last Tunney-Demsep [sic] fight and the group that gave the program, were broadcast by Station WMCA, New York, last night [23].
The pictures were transmitted by the Rayfoto system, developed by Austin G. Coley, and formed an integral part of a special radio program presented by a group of artists and speakers.
Several amateur operators, including Presley Astin, of 62 West Thirty-ninth Street, were successful in receiving the pictures. Future combinations of sound and picture broadcasting are to be presented by Station WMCA on a regular schedule for a number of weeks. (New York Herald Tribune, May 24)
FRIDAY, MAY 25, 1928
Shortage of Radio Channels Seen as Television Obstacle
WASHINGTON, May 27—(AP)— If radio vision is to be made available, like radio sound is today, allocation experts foresee a new problem in finding sufficient space for television channels in the dwindling broadcast spectrum.
For adequate television service of permanent interest to the public the allocation of bands 100 kilocycles wide is essential, Dr. Alfred Goldsmith, chief broadcast engineer of the Radio Corporation of America, told the federal radio commission [on May 14]. A 100-kilocycle band today will afford 10 telegraph or 10 telephone channel and with the perfection of transmitting apparatus soon will accommodate 20 channels. Capt. S. C. Hooper, naval radio engineer, says: “Dr. Goldsmith says that a band width of five kilocycles is required for a 24-line picture, 20 kilocycles for a 48-line picture and 80 kilocycles for a 96-line picture.
“When it is considered that even fairly crude newspaper halftone illustrations have from 150 to 300 lines it will be appreciated that pictures of continuing interest to ‘lookers-in’ will required at least 100 kilocycle bands,” he said.
“Even this will suffice merely for showing action of two or three figures clearly with a certain amount of background detail.”
Dr. Goldsmith has requested assignment of 20 channels, 100 cycles wide, in the frequencies ranging from 1525 to 17,150 kilocycles for experimental work in television broadcasting.

SUNDAY, MAY 27, 1928
WANT SHORT WAVES FOR TELEVISION
RCA Asks 20 Channels for Experiments
Recent bearings of the Federal Radio Commission on the a1location of trans-oceanic short wave channels indicate that television, although not here now, may be reasonably expected as a future development of broadcasting. This fact was brought out by Alfred N. Goldsmith, chief broadcast engineer of the Radio Corporation of America, who has applied for 20 television frequencies in the following wave band: Between 75 and 196.7 meters for urban service; 45.11 and 73.17 meters for suburban and rural service, and 17.49 and 35.39 metera for international service. Each frequency would be about 100 kilocycles wide, or some five times the width of the ordinary radio telegraph channel.
“Intensive development work of a experimental nature has already been carried on and transmission of television material is at hand through confidential experiments and transmissions carried on at Schenectady, Pittsburgh and New York. In other words, television is not a vague and remote project, but, while still experimental, is an imminent and plausible probability. Indeed, a fair parallel is to compare television in its present state of development with ordinary broadcasting in its condition in 1921. The wise policy of the Government which encouraged the development of broadcasting in 1921, if similarly applied to television at the present time, will lead to a tremendous and desirable growth of that art as a service to the public,” Dr Goldsmith declared.
Want Short Waves for Experiments
“The granting of experimental licenses on the various recommended television broadcasting channels will encourage a rapid development of this new art and its corresponding coordination with broadcasting, which will lead to the provision of a completely satisfactory and hitherto unobtainable radio sight-and-sound service to the peop1e of the United States and even of the entire world.
“To develop the three basic types of television broadcasting requires permission from the Federal Radio Commission to explore experimentally the television transmitting capabilities of a considerable number of 100-kilocycle bands between 1500 and approximately 17,000 kilocycles 199-9 and 17.7 meters). We know very little of the television transmission capability of these bands and we shall never determine how to utilize them effectively for the entertainment and instruct1on of the public by television unless encouragement is given those planning to develop the art, through authorization experimentally to transmit television material on such wavelengths and to determine conclusively the sort of service given in urban, suburban and rural and international television services, on eaoh of these bands.” (Boston Globe)

SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 1928
Improved Television Sought As Scientists Work Overtime
BY C. E. BUTTERFIELD
NEW YORK, June 2. (AP)—The world is moving toward television—how fast only time will determine.
Much must be learned and done before this newest form of radio art can be brought into step with sound broadcasting. Yet scientists are working long hours in an effort to perfect the radio moving picture, aided to a certain extent by amateur experimenters.
One of the latest forward steps was the announcement of actual television broadcasts by WGY, Schenectady, on a wavelength of 379.5 meters. These broadcasts are be made each Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 12:30 Eastern time. Whether visual transmission will become as popular, almost overnight as did sound broadcasting depends largely upon the product delivered to the "seer." In the early days of radio the music that came from the receiver did not compare at all favorably with the output of modern apparatus.
A similar situation now prevails in television. The movies transmitted are crude, scientists admit.
Like other forms of radio, the amateur is taking an active interest in television. At every opportunity he is contributing his small part toward the ultimate result. Parts may be available within a short time for the home experimenter, and if he takes to moving picture transmission as he did to sound broadcast the day that television is as much of an actuality as music from the air may be much closer than present developments seem to indicate. The radio movie now is not much more than a silhouet. But subjects are recognizable, even where the pictures have been sent across the Atlantic. Improvements are expected by which it is hoped that the results will be more lifelike even than an ordinary photograph.
While the picture transmitting apparatus is somewhat complicated, the receiver comparatively simple. It generally is attached to an ordinary sound set. It contains receiving tubes and a light tube which changes the electrical impulses into light rather than sound.
Scientists are spending long hours in laboratories in attempting to overcome obstacles.
Prominent among them are three men who see great possibilities for the radio movies.
It is Dr. E. F. W. Alexanderson's apparatus, which is being used in the WGY experiments. These broadcasts may be up on any television receiver, but are being made primarily to aid engineers in advancing the art. Dr. Alexanderson, whose contributions to radio date back several years, has developed a televisor that produces fairly legible pictures.
At Washington, C. Francis Jenkins, another radio picture pioneer, does not hesitate to predict that television will be available in some form by Christmas through an inexpensive receiver. Like other television sets, his reproducer takes the place of the loud speaker in the sound receiver.
Another investigator, John L. Baird, is the most active of the scientists abroad. Pictures from his transmitter have been sent from London and picked up on this side of the Atlantic, In connection with Baird's work, recent announcement was made that an American company had been formed to make television equipment available for amateur use. The backers said they hoped to broadcast pictures through a chain of stations.
Television should not be confused with telephoto, which deals only with photographs or "stills." The same problems do not enter into this method of light transmission. The time element there is not so important, although a single cabinet size photograph has been sent over the air in 90 seconds. In radio movies at least 16 complete pictures must be sent per second to give a recognizable result.
TUESDAY, JUNE 5, 1928
First Television State In U.S. To Be Built Here; Syndicate Asks City Permit
Two Huge Towers To Be Built Atop Proctor’s
America first large television station, capable of broadcasting and receiving across continents and oceans to and from far corners of the world, will be located in Yonkers if city authorities act favorably on an application for a building permit for two tall towers atop Proctor's Theatre Building.
With the revelation today, it also was disclosed that research work has been going on quietly on the Proctor roof for more than a year, and tests also have been made at the Water Tower atop Nodine Hill, and at a point along the Palisades opposite Dyckman Street.
Herbert Z. Fokress of 141 Caryl Avenue, representative of a syndicate of American millionaires, recently acquired the American rights for the English television invention for his company on a trip to London, and on his return admitted the possibility of location of the company's station in this city.
Tests Now Under Way
Today's revelation, however, show that the syndicate had a staff of three government licensed operators conducting research work in eight-hour shifts for a period of about six months, with an expensive sending and receiving apparatus housed on the roof of Proctor's which, as a result of the thorough tests, has been chosen as the best location of the proposed station. The Tahiti Island in the Pacific, Australia and other far-away point were communicated with in the tests, it was learned.
These operations were dlscontinued a month ago after negotiations had been started with Building Inspector James W. Armstrong.
The request to Mr. Armstrong for a permit discloses that two ornamental steel towers will shoot into the air to height of 100 feet, the cost of erecting the station being approximately $75,000.
While Mr. Armstrong has not made any decision on the project he has informed agents of the television syndicate that the plans are all right as far as the apparent sole restriction contained In the building code is concerned. That restriction concerns the area of the base of towers.
No Bar in City Laws
What apparently is keeping the the decision in abeyance is uncertainty as to whether the plan is in conflict with other building or zoning regulations, and it is said officials so far have been unable to find anything under the law governing erection of roof towers for such us a involved in the television station.
Under the company's plane, the Yonkers broadcasting towers would be a remote control station, operated from New York City, with all pictures and other transmissions passing through the station.
So far as is known, no tieup has yet been made or broached for use of television service in the theatre. More than a year ago, it was learned agents of the syndicate obtained, permission to use the Proctor roof for their experiment. The Water Tower had been disapproved because of expense involved in installing necessary electrical power, and the Palisades site also failed to meet the favor of the experts. At the conclusion of their tests, however, they reported the Proctor roof as ideal for the television station.
Tests Here Cover World
A network of wireless experts was thrown over the world for the tests, apparently, and communications were established in code. Atmospheric conditions, climate and other technical conditions were found favorable. Then tests were made to determine whether the station would cause interference with radio receiving sets in Yonkers, and the experts are said to have reported this had been eliminated after many adjustments. They also are said to have eliminated interference of the constant flashing and clicking in the penthouse stop the Proctor building, where the two 50-horsepower elevator motors are located.
Remote Control Necessary
The purpose of locating remote control station in Yonkers instead of the station itself in New York is of the interference in the latter city caused by the numerous radio stations.
One of the Proctor would extend 100 feet into the air from the front roof. The other would be on the lower rear roof, but would be taller, to reach the same height as its companion.
The theatre building itself Is 102 feet high, and the area of its site is 27,720 square feet. The plans for the towers are said to call for bases of 256 feet apiece, so that they would be well within the limit set the building code of 10 per cent of the lot area.
The company planning the station is to be known as the Baird American Television Company, Inc., Board being the name of the English inventor. According to Mr. Pokress, financing of the company involves “many millions” of dollars. In the syndicate he represents, he said, are, among others, Charles Izanstark of Chicago, Nathan Feldstern of Philadelphia, president of the American Radio Stores Corporation and Raymond Rosen of Philadelphia. A month ago Mr. Pokress said it was hoped to have the station erected and ready for operation in 60 days.
He said the company plans to retail television sets for use by amateurs, who, he said, will not require licenses. (Yonkers Statesmen)

THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 1928
WCFL Is First to Employ Television
Chicago, Ill., June 7 (U.P.).—The Chicago Federation of Labor radio station, WCFL, will blaze the trail in television broadcasting on Friday, June 15, according to Ed Nockels, secretary of the Chicago Federation. George Schoenberg, radio engineer, selected WCFL, located on a navy pier, as the only Chicago station adapted to this new form of broadcast. Equipment is being installed in preparation for the experiment.

FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 1928
GREEN BUILDING PERMIT ISSUED
Permit for a new building on Star island to house additional operators and other employes of Col. E. H. R. Green, who announced recently that be will make Miami Beach headquarters for his television experiments, has been issued to John B. Orr, Colonel Green’s contractor. The building will be erected immediately, at an estimated cost of $34,000.
The experiments which are expected to be started early next fall, will be made in conjunction with the work of Colonel Green's laboratories and radio broadcasting station at Round Hills, South Dartmouth, Mass., now being operated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
An attempt will be made to send north by radio special motion pictures of Miami Beach. (Miami News)

TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 1928
CHICAGO RADIO USED TO BROADCAST PHOTO
Chicago, June 12 (AP)—The first demonstration of Chicago-made television apparatus was given today at radio station WCFL.
The demonstration marked the successful development of a device which its inventors claim to be more readily adaptable to the average radio receiver than the equipment already in use. It was designed by M. L. Hayes and U. A. Sanabria of Chicago.
Application to transmit pictures over a 195-meter wave has been made to the federal radio commission.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 1928
STATIC ELIMINATED. RADIO MEN BELIEVE
But Television Still Remote, Expert at Trade Conference Declares.
By OWEN L. SCOTT.
[Freelance newspaper writer]
CHICAGO, June 13.—Static is being licked, eliminating one of the biggest handicaps of radio, but television, regarded by many as the next step forward in the industry, is remote as a practical proposition.
This about sums up the situation confronting the radio trade gathered here for its annual show of advance models. Displays indicate that the industry has taken a big step forward within the past year from an engineering standpoint—with the trend toward all-electrical sets, simple to operate, compact in form and just about fool-proof.
Just one demonstration of television is to be seen. It is not particularly convincing in its practical aspects as a luxury for the home. H. B. Richmond, director of the engineering division of the Radio Manufacturers' association and for 20 years an expert in radio engineering, believes that the television development still is a long way off, except as an experimental move. [...]
"Television has received a good deal publicity than its practical aspects seem to warrant. The sending of individual pictures by wire or radio is entirely different. That is very practical, but television is much more complicated and, except from an experimental engineering standpoint, has little practical interest.
“The image you see now is only about one and one-half inches square and cannot even include an entire person. To enlarge is requires a great deal of equipment. The result is expensive and unsatisfactory from the standpoint of the average person."

FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 1928
Try Television on 40 Kilocycle Band
Experiments in Preparation for Establishing Television for Radio Audience Made
WASHINGTON, June 16.—(AP)—Successful experiments preparatory to the establishment of television service for its radio audience have been conducted by Station WLEX, Boston, John Stewart, manager, has informed the Federal Radio Commission.
The experiments have involved the use of 48 scanning lines repeated 18 times per second In transmitting pictures. This takes a band 40 kilocycles wide in the short wave spectrum. Mr. Stewart told the commission it was possible to transmit television on a 10 kilocycle band by using 24 scanning lines repeated 20 times per second. This method, however, necessitates the loss of the higher frequencies with a considerable loss of detail, he declares.
Mr. Alfred Goldsmith, chief engineer of the Radio Corporation of America, recently told the commission that channels 100 kilocycles wide are needed for adequate television service.
Forty or so meters are the logical wavelengths for television, Mr. Stewart said. The WLEX television transmitter is keyed for 40 meters. This can be changed but the short waves are necessary for successful picture transmission, he asserts. WLEX has not been on the air with its television signal but has conducted its tests through monitoring the signal.

SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 1928
Television Set Will Be Put in Here
WILBUR JERMAN, technical manager of radio station KWJJ, announced yesterday [16] that within two months the station will begin installation of television equipment for broadcast of small pictures on a wavelength of 54 meters.
Jerman's experimental license, 7XAO, for operation on 54 meters, will be used for the broadcast. This being the only experimental license of the kind in the Northwest, several requests have been made of the owner for television experiments.
In response, Jerman promises two broadcasts of one half hour each week. Musical accompaniments will be undertaken by KWJJ [W7XAO] on 250 meters.
Considerable revision and construction of equipment will be made within the construction period, the technician said.
In recent issues of the radio magazine, QST, designs have been shown of a comparatively simple television hookup. Recently an Eastern concern announced moderately priced television sets which are adaptable to ordinary broadcast receiving sets. The report indicated that the machines would be moderately priced.
“The system of transmitting and receiving the small pictures, not more than an inch square, is simple," Jerman says. “In short wave reception of pictures a three-tube regenerative short wave receiver is used, and in place of a loud speaker is used a neon tube, and in front of this tube is a screening disc in synchronism with the disc at the station. Just ahead of the disc is one-inch window in which the image appears.
"In a few weeks I will be able to give more details as to equipment and Installation." (Oregon Journal, June 17)

TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 1928
WCFL MAKES SUCCESSFUL BROADCAST OF TELEVISION
CHICAGO, June 19—(AP)—A successful broadcast of voice and television at the same time was made tonight over station WCFL, the Chicago Federation of Labor, in an experiment under a special permit issued by Samuel Pickard, the Federal Radio Commissioner.
A view of the head and shoulders of E. N. Nockels, secretary of the Chicago federation, was broadcast with his voice and received by the inventors of the process, M.J. Hayes and Ulysses Znarbria [sic], over their receiving apparatus located several miles away from Navy Pier, where WCFL maintains its station.
Officials of WCFL said they would seek permission now for a permanent license to broadcast television.

SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 1928
BROADCAST OF MOVIES HERE JULY 2
Prof. Jenkins Announces the Bginning [sic] of Regular Program in Capital.
Washington, June 24.—A program of motion pictures will be broadcast from the Jenkins’ Laboratory, 1519 Connecticut avenue northwest, July 2, at 8 o'clock. The program will last for an hour and will be sent through television on a wavelength of 46.7 meters, which will enable amateurs in the United States and Canada to pick it up. The pictures will be broadcast at the rate of 15 a second and will contain 48 lines to the picture.
The performance will be repeated each Monday night with a different set of pictures. As the demand grows, the number of performances a week will be increased to three. For a time, the moving pictures will depict only simple action. Later, those with plots will be used.
During the past three weeks, the moving pictures to be shown July 2 have been broadcast a number of times between the laboratory and the home of Prof. C. Francis Jenkins, 5502 Sixteenth street northwest, where they were witnessed by private audiences. The reception was said to have been entirely satisfactory.
Gens [Jeanne] Marie Belote, 6-year-old daughter of Theodore Belote, 1612 Longfellow street, and Catherine and Constance Rounds, daughters of Lieut. Edward Rounds, engineer in the Navy Department, acted for the pictures to be shown July 2. They will be from 5 to 15 minutes long.
The amateur radio operator can equip his set with a picture receiver for $10 or $15, Dr. Jenkins stated. The laboratory, however, he stated, does not manufacture or sell them. It is broadcasting the pictures only in the interest of television. Yesterday [22] Dr. Jenkins gave an account of his work with television before the Washington Round Table luncheon held at University Club. (Washington Post)

CONFERENCE SOON ON TELEVISION AND RELAY ASSIGNMENTS
Washington, June 23—A conference is soon to be called by the Federal Radio Commission of applicants for high frequency assignments to be used for relay broadcasting and television.
The commission has received 40 applications for the 18 channels available, and the applicants will be called on to show the "public interest, convenience or necessity" they would serve if granted assignments.
Already the commission has conferred with engineers about the bands specified by the International Radio Convention for high frequency broadcasting, relay broadcasting and television.
Here are the frequency bands which may be assigned with the approximate distance range for each:
6,000 to 6,150 kilocycles—distance 500 miles at day, 4,000 miles at night.
9,500 to 9,600 kilocycles—distance 1,200 miles at day, 5,000 miles at night.
11,700 to 11,900 kilocycles—distance 2,500 miles at day, 5,000 miles at night.
15,100 to 15,350 kilocycles—distance 2,500 miles at day, 5,000 miles at night.
17,750 to 17,800 kilocycles—distance 3,000 miles at day, 6,000 miles at night.
21,450 to 21,550 kilocycles—distance 4,000 miles at day, 7,000 miles at night.
Television Assignments.
For television, the engineers suggested that experimental development stations be licensed between 4.500 and 5,000 kilocycles, on five 100 kilocycle channels, one channel to be assigned to each zone or night use, and all five channels to be assigned to each zone for day use.
In addition, one 100 kilocycle channel in the band, between 15,100 and 15,350, or the 11,700-11,900 band, and two 100 kilocycle channels above 23,000 kilocycles are recommended for television experimental work.
Channel Shortage.
The engineers suggested that due to the shortage of available channels, that only the most important applications should be considered on the following basis:
1. Overseas and international relay broadcasting.
2. Long Distance broadcasting beyond reliable range of national broadcast network between 550 and 1,300 kilocycles.
3. Television experimental and development work.
4. National relay broadcasting (within United States).
Another thing that the Commission may take into consideration is that the high frequencies are primarily valuable due to their great carrying range at low cost, and that they cause international interference. Therefore, it is suggested by the engineers, they should be assigned for long distance uses when low frequencies are not practical. (Brooklyn Eagle, June 24)

MONDAY, JUNE 25, 1928
Policy of Encouragement Officially Evolved With Reference to Television
BY DEANE KINTNER
NEWS from Chicago that the television broadcast foretold last Sunday resulted in transmission of a speaker voice and likeness simultaneously over a distance of several miles invited attention to this new phase of radio from the viewpoint of the Federal Radio Commission.
In this connection, latest advices from Washington are that a policy of encouragement will be followed by the commission with respect to television, and every assistance possible given to those who are developing this new branch of the radio art, so far as it does not interfere with other established services.
To this end the commission has already granted one or two temporary licenses for television transmission. Among the stations engaged in this work are WOR at Newark, WFCL at Chicago, and C. Francis Jenkins, Washington inventor. The two stations have been working on wave lengths outside the broadcasting band, but Jenkins, who has not yet been assigned a channel, has been operating in the broadcast band while awaiting permission to use a specific wave length.
Cleveland? Not Yet.
So far as can be learned, no Cleveland station has yet made formal application for a license to transmit visual matter and, in fact, only a few persons have so far indicated their desire to go into this branch of the industry. The Radio Corporation of America, at the recent hearings on short waves, asked for a number of channels on which to transmit pictures, but the commission has not yet made any decision on such applications.
The various members of the commission have expressed interest in radio vision, and it has been indicated that no handicaps will be placed in the way of experimenters who are engaged in perfecting the transmission and reception of pictures. It is not anticipated that any permanent licenses will be granted for television until the commission is assured of its perfection, but temporary permits will be granted freely.
Away Up or Down
A report recommending that certain channels, some on long waves and some on short, be set aside for television has been submitted to the commission by its technical adviser, Capt. S. C. Hooper. It seems highly improbable that television will be permitted in the broadcasting band because it requires, in its present stage of development, a much wider channel for a picture than for voice or music. A band of at least 100 kilocycles is required for the transmission of a picture of moderate size; because of this necessity it is deemed impractical to permit transmission within the range of 10 kilocycle channels now assigned to voice transmission.
Statements made at the recent short wave hearing indicated that television was rapidly being perfected and that within a much shorter time than the public generally anticipated it would be possible to offer a complete picture service.
As soon as transmission of moving pictures, toward which a number of experimenters are working, is perfected, the newer art probably will be linked up with broadcasting as it is now known, so that listeners can see as well as hear artists as they perform. Probably the first such entertainments to be given will be from talking motion pictures.
Radio Movies, and Yet—
The WCFL broadcast of voice and image, using apparatus described in some detail last Sunday, was the most ambitious effort to date to provide listeners with "radio movies.”
However, as pointed out then, set owners should not be too greatly exercised, for the image transmitted was very small and somewhat indistinct, and it was, of course, subject to all such radio troubles as fading static and distortion at the transmitting and receiving end.
Part of this distortion of pictures through the air tends to be introduced by the fact that the receiver runs a little faster or a little slower than the transmitter. Perforated scanning discs at either end must be perfectly synchronized to give a clear reproduction.
At WCFL, in co-operation with the Carter Radio Co., this is being accomplished within close limits by using the 60-cycle pulsations of lighting current to control the speed of apparatus at both ends of the ethereal line. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 1928
TELEVISION IN PLANE TESTED
Chicago, June 27. (AP)—Passengers in a tri-motored monoplane cruising over Chicago yesterday [26] listened to the voices and saw the faces of persons several miles away in a radio studio.
It was the first successful experiment in airplane reception of television. The broadcasting was from the studios of WCFL, the Chicago Federation of Labor station.

THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 1928
MAKES HOME-MADE SET
Bloomsburg, Pa., June 29. –(UP)—Louis W. Buckalew, 16, last night [28] received a television picture at the home of his parents. The picture comprised 40 lines and represented a man sending a message.
Buckalew is an amateur radio operator, and he has received word that his station has been heard in Holland. He has heard stations in New Zealand, Russia and England.
[Note: Buckalew was born Dec. 12, 1912 in Bloomsberg and died Dec. 29, 1974 in Orlando. He was a Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Army and retired to Florida where he belonged to the Elks and the Masons. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.]

HAROLD C. SMITH GRANTED PERMIT
Bacon, June 28.—Harold C. Smith, of this city, has been granted a permit from the Federal Radio Commission, it was announced here today, to set up a television transmitting station [W2XBU] on Mount Beacon.
Smith has a staff of three men to aid him and his application stated that he has sufficient capital to finance the venture.

WTMJ TO GIVE DAILY PICTURE BROADCASTS
MILWAUKEE, Wis.—(AP)—A license to broadcast photographs has been obtained by WTMJ, transmission to begin about August 1.
Using the Cooley Rayfoto system, WTMJ expects to arrange to daily schedules of picture transmission, one during the day and the other about midnight. The pictures may be picked u on an ordinary receiver, provided it has photograph reproducer.
WTMJ is the first station wets of New York, where WMCA has been sending out “stills” for some time, to take up the new art, which some experiments see as the preliminary step toward television, or radio movies. (Greenfield Recorder)

FRIDAY, JUNE 29, 1928
RADIO CENTER IN NEW YORK PUTS TELEVISION ON MARKET
Cortlandt Street Shop Windows Already Have Tubes, Scanning Discs, Amplifiers and Other Apparatus on Display.
By C. E. BUTTERFIELD
Associates Press Radio Editor
NEW YORK, June 30—(AP)—Television may not just around the corner, but Cortlandt street, the Fifth avenue of radio, apparently thinks something is in the air.
Cortlandt street, the radio center of downtown New York, has been tempting the never-satisfied experimenter with television apparatus for some time. What is to be expected of this equipment can be determined only after a trial. In the display windows are kits containing television tubes, scanning disks, rheostats and three-stage resistance amplifiers that build up the signal which actuates the light-receiving tube.
Except for the amplifiers, which are standard, the equipment is crude to a certain extent, particularly when compared with some of the sound apparatus. However, if it will bring in television signals, it has done its part toward opening radio’s eye.
What Diagram Reveals.
The diagram of a television amplifier and reproducer indicates that its construction is not so difficult after all. Reception largely is a question of finding such signals on the air. WGY, Schenectady, now is broadcasting "radio movies" each Sunday evening after the regular program, while WLEX, Boston, is planning experiments on 40 to 80 meters. WRNY, New York, also is preparing to send out television signals.
However, the "telemovie" now is at the stage where only the radio fan with wide experience and an inventive turn of mind is in a position to take up experimentation Much patience will be required to get the apparatus functioning properly.
One kit prospectus makes this statement:
“Now that television is being broadcast, it is possible to receive pictures with simple apparatus. Results will depend on the distance of the broadcaster and upon the efficiency of the tuning system of a sound receiver, which is used to tune into the picture broadcasts. Any good set that will receive television signals audibly will give satisfactory results.
New Form Amplifier Described.
"As transformers are unsuited for amplifying all frequencies, a resistance coupled amplifier plays an important part. The audio amplifier of the set is not used, the television intensifier being cut in at the detector output. If the set does not have a detector jack, one must be provided.
"The television tube is connected to the output of the last amplifier tube in place of the speaker. This tube is placed at the rear of the scanning disk, which is set on the shaft of a motor, and a small window is mounted in front or in the rear of the disk. The speed of the disk must be kept in step with that at the transmitter. Speed is regulated by a rheostat, cut into the line feeding the motor. For close adjustment two rheostats will be needed.
How to Get Best Volume.
“Before actually connecting the amplifier to the receiver, it is advisable to tune in to the television signals to get the best volume. Then the audio amplifier is disconnected and the resistance amplifier cut in at the detector jack. The switch controlling the motor is turned on and the disk speeds up slowly, the operator watching for signals through the window. As the disk approaches critical speed, flashes will be thrown across the window and figures will appear when the correct speed is reached. The picture will remain until the speed steps out of synchronization again, but by careful adjustment of the motor rheostat it can be brought back.
"The amount of illumination of the television lamp is governed by the output consumption of the tube and the strength of the signals. In the resistance amplifier two hi-mu tubes are preferable in the first two steps with a power tube in the last step."