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)

April 1929

Brooklyn had a TV station in 1929, but didn’t have it for long.

The New York Times of March 19, 1929, in a story dated the previous day, said Zah Bauk of Brooklyn had received a construction permit for television station W2XCL. A story on June 23, 1992 in the Baltimore Sun reported it had been operating under the permit since March 27.

In mid-April that year, the station owner, Pilot Radio, began test broadcasts. Radio-Craft magazine, in its September 1929 issue, told readers: “For the time being the transmissions will consist merely of spoken announcements and of musical notes of different frequencies. The purpose of the tests is to determine the quality of the modulation, the ability of the apparatus to handle the wide frequency bands required for television work, and the field strength of the signals in various parts of the Metropolitan area.”

The station didn’t last long. An unbylined story in the Jan. 10, 1930 edition of the Paterson Morning Call told how Pilot had asked the Federal Radio Commission to move the station to Lawrence, Mass., where its manufacturing plant was. The Commission agreed and the station call letters were changed to W1XY by July 31, 1930.

On the other side of the country, W7XAO in Portland was getting closer to being on the air. As well, a story in April 1929 tells how the Charles Freshman company in New York planned to get into the television broadcasting business. The company’s Joseph Freed set up a corporation later that year and was awarded construction permits on two frequencies as W2XCP in Allwood, N.J. The Commission's Radio Service Bulletin of August 31, 1931 says "strike out all particulars."

A story about a DXer with his home-built set mentions he visited C. Francis Jenkins the day of the Hoover Inauguration. There is nothing about a special telecast of film of the event on W3XK, so it likely did not happen.

There isn’t much to report on television for April 1929. The highlights we’ve come across are below.

SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 1922
Those interested in television will be pleased to know that 2XAG [General Electric in Schenectady] is broadcasting television every night from 7 to 9 P. M. on the band from 140.9 to 141.8 meters. (Buffalo Evening News)

FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 1929
Freshman Company To Broadcast Television From Allwood Plant
Announces That Work Will Begin As Soon As Two Channels Are Granted By Federal Radio Commission—Stations To Aid Home Experimenters—Five Years Of Tests Ahead
The Charles Freshman Company, which has practically completed the moving of its radio set manufacturing equipment into a new home in the former Allwood Plant of the Brighton Mills, announced yesterday [12] that it would establish two television broadcasting stations there to aid the rapidly growing number of home television experimenters in the Metropolitan District.
Mr. Freed In Charge
The broadcasting stations will not be placed into operation until the Federal Radio Commission grants the necessary channels, application for which has already been made. Work will be begun as soon as the permission is granted under the direction of Joseph D. R. Freed, vice-president of the company, in charge of engineering.
Mr. Freed said that he did not expect to see television sets for home use on the market before five years. During that time, he said, his concern will devote its time to experimental work.
The Freshman Company is closely allied with the Freed Radio Company, and both concerns will have their main plants in the large Brighton Mills buildings. It is planned to manufacture the sets together to effect economies.
"There is little doubt that within ten years television receivers will be in every home which boasts a radio set today,” said Mr. Freed in commenting the television situation yesterday. "Many will, no doubt, have one within five years, but very few will have them before that time because I doubt that television will be perfected for home use much before five years.
"However, television is developing along lines which will make the radio receivers of today part of the new television receiver. There will not be any scrapping of radio sets in order to enjoy television; they will only have to get supplementary receivers. We are devoting a sum of money to develop television, but we feel that all the labor at this time should be expended in experimental work. (Daily News, Passaic, N.J.)

AERIAL TELEVISION IS DESIGNED
Plane Views Would Be Sent to Ground Receiving Station by Apparatus.
An “aerial television eye,” designed to transmit airplane views of cities or countryside to a ground receiving station, is being constructed by C. Francis Jenkins of this city, noted television inventor.
The apparatus, a sensational development of the Jenkins process of broadcasting visual scenes by radio, is to be tested for the first time shortly in a special plane ordered by the inventor from the Curtiss factory. The plane is to be delivered within a few days.
The experiment undoubtedly will be watched with keen interest by Army and Navy officials, as the device concededly would have great military value in time of war. With the aid of the apparatus, general headquarters of an army would be put within sight range of actual operations at the front.
Refines Visual Detail.
The apparatus will be of special type, built to insure “refinement of visual detail,” Mr. Jenkins said. The panorama below will be recorded in the usual way, by means of a “scanning disc,” light-sensitive cell and broadcasting paraphernalia. The scenes will be received on regular television machines set up in the Jenkins laboratory.
The Jenkins laboratory at present is at 1519 Connecticut avenue, but a new laboratory and television broadcasting station now is under construction in Maryland, on the Brookville Pike. Formal tests may be deferred until the new station is completed.
Mr. Jenkins was reluctant to discuss his plans in detail in advance of the tests, as he said “something might go wrong and spoil the first tests.” He declared, however, that he had “a lot of confidence in the outcome.” Preliminary experiments simulating airplane conditions have been conducted successfully, he stated.
In order to assume personal charge of the operations in the air the inventor has been taking pilot lessons at an air field near Rockville preparatory to securing a Federal license. Mr. Jenkins is an experienced flyer and piloted a seaplane of his own prior to enactment of regulations governing private flying. He was not familiar with land planes until recently, however.
Plane a Laboratory.
The plane which Mr. Jenkins has ordered is termed by him a "flying laboratory.” It is a Curtiss Robin plane of the cabin type, with a special Challenger engine. A complete television broadcasting outfit will be installed in the cabin. The scanning “eye” will focus on the ground through an aperture in the bottom of the plane. Mr. Jenkins will pilot the plane while two assistants operate the television machinery. (Washington Star)

WAYNESBORO MAN BUILDS A TELEVISION SET
A. J. Gardenhour, who is now located in his new quarters in Waynesboro, has devised a machine to serve the purpose of receiving pictures over the air. The power of receiving pictures by means of this apparatus is known as television.
One station can be received with accuracy. From the C. F. Jenkins laboratories, in Washington, D. C., operating through W3XK, television pictures are sent out each Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Mr. Gardenhour tuned in Friday [12] and reported having received several clear objects from W3XK. In the near future, he said, the Jenkins laboratories will start broadcasting every night.
Mr. Gardenhour with a circle of friends a few nights ago operated the radiovisor on which Mr. Jenkins holds a patent. On March 4, 1929, Mr. Gardenhour visited the Jenkins laboratories and had a long conversation with the inventor in which the following explanation of the operation of the television was given:
"Having tuned sharply on the station broadcasting pictures, to get the best signal strength possible, the operator throws over the switch to cut out the loudspeaker and cut in the radiovisor, i. e., the picture received."
Mr. Gardenhour's machine was made entirely by himself. The radiovisor is made from two victrola records clamped around a paper disc with forty-eight line pictures. It operates on 150 meters and fifteen picture frames per second. The explanation continues:
"Now with the rubber driving disc about one and a half to two inches from the scanning disc bearing block, one begins turning the adjusting screw to draw the motor outward. As the operator nears the synchronism, one will see the base line of the picture traveling rapidly upward.
"Continuing the adjustment the picture presently appears, probably obliquely, moving more and more slowly as the operator turns the screw, until it stops, upright, and there is the radio-movie in all its fascination.
"If the picture shows the upper half of the subject and the lower half above it, the operator touches the disc with the finger, once or twice, and the picture will move up until it is framed.
"The picture may be upside down as one looks at the lamp through the shining disc apertures; or it may be wrong right and left, like looking at a photograph in a mirror. However, except in reading titles, it is not often important wheather [sic] the picture is correct right and left or not; but it is very necessary to have the subject's head up. In any event, right and left correction is attained by reversing the motor, while if the picture is upside down one must take off the disc, turn it around and put the other side of the disc next to the lamp.
"The picture may again be negative or positive. To change from one to the other, the best way is to add another stage of amplification, although it can be done by substituting a “C” battery bias for the grid-leak and condenser on the grid of the detector. (Franklin Repository, Chambersburg, Pa., April 15)

SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 1929
Country Has 20,000 Sets for Television
Practically All Built by the Owners
Recently the Jenkins television transmitting station at Washington, D. C., with the call letters W3XK, was closed down for a period of 10 days. Ordinarily, this is on the air on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening of each week, from 8 to 9 p. m., E. S. T. on 46.72 meters (6,420 kilocycles). As a result, the Jenkins Television Corp. offices were virtually flooded with protesting letters from all parts of the United States, asking that the television services be resumed without delay.
"We estimate our own Jenkins Radiomovies audience at no less than 20,000," stated C. Francis Jenkins, the pioneer worker in the practical television field, when interviewed on this subject. “These 20,000 have built their own apparatus¸ which is therefore crude, to say the least. Nevertheless, they are enjoying antimated [sic] radio pictures three times a week, and getting a big thrill out of these pioneering efforts.
"With the early introduction of simplified television equipment for the home, I look forward to a rapid increase in the number of ‘looker[s]-in,’ particularly since the Iaity will then be in position to take part in television developments. Just as the first broadcast programs were received by some 65,000 listeners-in within range of Station KDKA, we have some 20,000 lookers-in tuned to our signals. I look forward to a rapid growth of this audience until we shall be catering to millions through a plurality of scattered television stations." (Washington Herald)

SUNDAY, APRIL 14, 1929
KWJJ PREPARES FOR TELEVISION
Portland Station Sets Pace in Northwest for Latest Innovation in Radio.
That television is on the way is evidenced by the fact that station KWJJ of Portland, Ore., is now installing apparatus to broadcast television and will be in a position to do so within two weeks, according to M. L. Blakemore, sales manager for Lee Olney, distributor for Stewart Warner radios.
First in Northwest.
“This is important in that it is the first move by stations in the northwest to install television," Mr. Blakemore said, "although a number of stations in the east are now doing so. It is not probable the apparatus will be sufficiently powerful to reach Spokane, but it will at least be effective in Portland and it is probable that stations in Seattle and Spokane will soon follow them. They will broadcast on a wave length of 52 meters and their call letters will be W7XAO.
"Everything must have a beginning and those who argue against television are in a class with those who scoffed at the steam engine of Watt, the locomotive of Stevenson and crude airplane of the Wright brothers, all of which eventually became an integral part of our civilization as I believe soon will television.
"It is a salient fact that the engineers of the Stewart Warner corporation feel that television is sufficiently far advanced that they have equipped the company's new model radio so that a television receiving set can be plugged in to it. By fall, in my opinion, television will be broadcast in Spokane." (Spokane Spokesman-Review)

THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 1929
W2XCL, the television short-wave transmitter of the Pilot Electric Mfg. Co. of Brooklyn, will begin broadcasting tomorrow evening [19]. The unit will utilize 250 watts on a wave length of 142.5 meters and will be on the air every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening between 9 and 11 o’clock. A good chance for television fans to prepare to receive the proper signals, so that when television actually becomes a success, the sets will be ready to receive. (David Braton, Brooklyn Times-Union)

FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 1929
Brooklyn Radio Company Tests Television Set
Pilot Plans Regular Schedule After Experiments Friday on Low Waves
Preliminary tests of a short-wave transmitter which will be employed for television were conducted at 9 o’clock Friday [19] by the Pilot Electric Company through its station recently licensed by the Federal Radio Commission. While last week’s tests consisted solely of announcements and musical broadcasts, for the purpose of testing the modulating characteristics of the apparatus, it is expected that television programs will be regular features. Time announced for future broadcasts is between 9 and 11 p. m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
The Pilot company is one of the few metropolitan experimenters to obtain a license for television from the Radio Commission. The station, which has been assigned the call letters W2XCL, uses a power of 250 watts and operates on a wave length of 143.5 meters. The purpose of the tests, in addition to testing the modulation, it was disclosed, was to determine the ability of the apparatus to handle the wide frequency bands required for television and the field strength of the signals in the various parts of the metropolitan district.
Owners of short-wave receiving sets through New York and New Jersey who had been advised of the tests reported excellent reception of the station’s signals. General opinion was that the quality was sufficiently good to handle the wide range of tones necessary for television transmission and reception.
These tests, according to John Gelosi, chief engineer of the company, will not interfere with regular broadcasting. The wave length is sufficiently below the entertainment bands to completely eliminate any tendency of overlapping, even in the vicinity of the apparatus.
“This experimental work will in no way cause interference with regular broadcast programs,” he said, “as it will be done on a wave length completely beyond the range of ordinary broadcast receivers. Two highly developed ‘televisors’ are ready to be connected to the radio transmitter, but actual transmission will not be started until a sufficient number of listeners report the signals of W2XCL to be of sufficient volume and clarity to warrant radio telephotography.
Geloso explained that images of L1iving people and actual scenes would be transmitted over the station as soon as the television programs were under way. Photographic films will not be transmitted regularly, he said, calling this type of transmission “animated radio telephotography.”
The Pilot company is one of the few organizations licensed recently by the Radio Commission for experimental visual broadcasting, having been assigned bands between 2,000 and 2,100 kilocycles (143-150 meters) and 2,750 to 2,850 kilocycles (105-109 meters). Last summer it built the television apparatus used for a few months at Station WRNY. (New York herald Tribune, Apr. 21)

SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 1929
A EXPERIMENT IN TELEVISION IS DAY'S FEATURE
Radio Amateurs on Hand for Outstanding Event of Relay League at Kimball.
Interest at the annual convention of the New England Division of the American Radio Relay League now in Session at the Hotel Kimball, centered this afternoon around a promised demonstration of television reception by C. N. Kraus of Brown University, president of the Radio Club of Rhode Island. Although the demonstration was promised for 1 o'clock, late arrival of his apparatus from Providence prevented Mr. Kraus from getting it assembled, and at 2 o'clock he had been unable to put it into operation.
The great interest in the demonstration brought many without connection with the Relay League to the Kimball ballroom, where they hoped to see small images transmitted from the Washington dance on the small ground glass screen set before a large black scanning disk. Following his television demonstration, Mr. Kraus was prepared to demonstrate his success with transmission and reception on the five-meter band at extremely high frequencies.
Among the interested spectators at the television demonstration was Hollis Baird of Boston, owner of station W1WX, himself a pioneer in the television field. Outside of station W1LEX a commercial station in Lexington, his is the only station in this section regularly transmitting television, and one of the very few amateur stations in the country so engaged. Mr. Baird’s transmitter is partly a standard vision transmitter, and in part an amplifying system of his own development for which he claims five stages of direct amplification of unusual efficiency. His broadcasts have been received 15 miles away with great clarity, and he has made arrangements for amateurs in the western part of the State to attempt to receive his signals. He does not use silhouet transmission as does Jenkins in Washington, whose transmission was to be picked up this afternoon, but transmits halftones which give full gradations of color. (Springfield Evening Union)

WANTS TELEVISION STATIONS TO MAKE KNOWN LOCATION
"Looker" Would Be Able to Adjust His Televisor For Reception.
By Robert Mack
(Consolidated Press Association)
Washington, April 20.—Television tinkerers, and there are some 20,000 of them, who have suffered agonizing hours trying to identify some discordant visual broadcasting station and adjust their televisors to receive its picture-producing signals, may soon be relieved of their plight.
John V. L. Hogan, of New York, one of the foremost radio engineers and inventors and a television enthusiast, has suggested remedial measures to the Federal Radio Commission. In short his plan is to have 20 odd television stations, now operating experimentally, "announce" their call letters and location, along with the speed and character of their pictures before and they actually begin transmission. Thus the "looker" would be able to adjust his televisor for reception of that particular station, rather than grope blindly for the precise set adjustment.
Television peeped out of the laboratory too soon, in opinion of most engineers. But to make up for this error the industry is guarding its childhood very closely. Mr. Hogan's suggestion, which has the support of the commission's engineers, is to correct at the very beginning a shortcoming that might the progress of visual broadcasting.
Mr. Hogan proposed that the commission adopt a general order requiring all television stations to announce, either by radio-telephone or telegraph (code) or both, the essential details of the visual broadcast. The majority of the television fans are radio amateurs and understand code, and anybody who is equipped for television reception can tune in on the short waves with a sound receiver to pick up the "telephone" announcement.
At the present time the television stations do not "announce" their identity and the result is that unless a particular "looker" is adjusted for the reception of a particular station, he gets nothing. Television broadcasting has not been standardized to the extent that the same set adjustment is suitable for all transmissions.
The existing television stations transmit pictures of 24, 48 and 60 lines at speeds ranging from 7 ½ to 20 pictures per second. In order to receive, the televisor must be so adjusted as to synchronize with the speed and number of lines of the pictures transmitted.
By agreement with the North American nations, the radio commission has set aside five television waves in the continental short wave spectrum, one of which is allocated [to] Canada on a priority basis. These channels are one hundred kilocycles wide, or ten times the width of the broadcasting channel. They are set aside for experimental purposes and the development of the visual radio art. (Roanoke World-News)

TELEVISION ALL SET FOR BROADCAST ON THREE TIMES WEEK
Pioneer Says He Will Reach 20,000 From His 5,000 Watt Station in East
By RODNEY DUTCHER
NEA Service Writer
Washington, April 20—Radio movies, still in swaddling clothes, are being slowly but gradually developed by C. Francis Jenkins, the foremost pioneer in the field of television.
Within a few days, Jenkins hopes to be using his new frequencies to broadcast movies from a new 5000-watt station, with a radiovision audience which he already estimates at about 20,000.
Since last July he has been broadcasting only silhouette pictures from his laboratory here, but he now hopes to be able to send out half-tones which will have the same effect as movies in your favorite theater.
By use of a magnifying glass, the radiovision audience which tunes in on the Jenkins programs at 8 o’clock on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings is now able to see the subjects moving on what appears to be a six-inch screen, but the inventor has also developed two-foot screen outfits for home use and larger apparatus for theaters.
"When we get going on half-tones,” Jenkins says “we will be able to broadcast many regular movie films, but not all of them. Right now we can’t carry a great deal of detail and have to have pictures with only three or four subjects.”
His new station, which will continue to be called W3XK, has been set up in a two-story house at Wheaton, Md., some five miles from Washington and the apparatus resembles a regular sound broadcasting station almost identically. Announcements in the regular fashion, of course, accompany the picture broadcasting.
“We are now engaged in keeping up our regular broadcast schedule and at the same time improving transmission," Jenkins says. “Of course the big thing we're engaged on is trying to change from silhouettes to half-tones. That’s why we asked for wider bands.
“Previously we have made brief, simple varied subjects and one or two story pictures and have bought a few cartoon pictures. We have produced ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ and 'Old King Cole’ in one reel features. We have had to content ourselves with subjects without many fine lines.
“But we’re going to do better than that. We are only passing through the novelty stage, just as the motion picture itself had to pass through it. We don't expect perfection at first but, fortunately, neither does the public. “We’ve invited the assistance of the amateurs of the country because they're clever fellows and can give us many ingenious and helpful suggestions. We can't afford to set up a lot of regular stations over the country at our own expense.
“In return, we help the amateurs find the material they need to receive our program. It only costs them about $2.50 and some time and work to set up a radiovision receiver. With a shortwave radio set, an amateur needs only to get the picture receiving set together and attach it."
While Jenkins plugs away here in his laboratory to improve the new science the Jenkins Television Corporation has been building a factory in Jersey City to produce radiovision receiving sets and has already turned out a few preliminary samples. (Times-Signal, Zaneville, Ohio, Apr. 21)

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 1929
A. A. Goeddel went to St. Louis Monday [22] to see a demonstration of the television at the Bentwood-Linze Co. Goeddel states he heard and saw a stage production broadcast from some Canadian station. He compared it to the talking movies and said the vision was very clear except for some spots which appeared from time to time. (Waterloo Republican, Apr. 24)

January-February 1930

Plenty of predictions were made about television when it was still “around the corner” (pretty much for the two decades before 1948), but perhaps one of the more outrageous ones was blurted out at the start of 1930.

A mouthpiece for a radio manufacturer declared to United Press that a TV station would be on the air in San Francisco within 10 days. Not only that, it would be part of a chain along the U.S. West Coast, each station 50 miles apart. The story played so well, three weeks later, the same guy made the same announcement to the another wire service, which reported it as if it were something that just happened. A month later, the same company repeated it all over again, except the station would be signing on “in a few weeks.” Again, it was treated like some brand-new development.

The whole thing was a preposterous bit of marketing. No television license had been issued for San Francisco, or even applied for. But the company was busy making and advertising radios, and had licensed a television set invented by Philo Farnsworth, so this was great P.R. (Not great enough. The company shut down around the end of 1931).

The Bay area did have television at the start of 1930. Kind of. A number of short wave stations were allowed by the Federal Radio Commission to broadcast video. One was W6XN, licensed to General Electric in Oakland. It mainly experimented or re-broadcast radio programmes of KGO but it did put out a television signal at least once—the night in February 1930 that G.E. sent a TV broadcast 20,000 miles to Sydney, Australia from Schenectady, New York. Maybe. A newspaper account of the event seems to contradict itself. Another experiment came two months later when W6XN transmitted the front page of the San Francisco Call Bulletin to Schenectady by fax.

In the East, W2XCR in Jersey City, W3XK outside Washington and W1XAV in Boston carried on with regular schedules, though the programming wasn’t much to speak of. We did find one newspaper story mentioning Bob Emery’s half-hour children’s radio show being simulcast on television. In Chicago, W9XAA (the Labor Federation) seems to have given up on TV and simulcast its A.M. radio programming.

Below are some of the more interesting developments, if they can be called that, in television in the first two months of 1930. Poor Brooklyn never did get a station. The Jenkins-related companies eventually expanded but money troubles (and a fire) a few years later shut them down. Radio Pictures on Long Island eventually morphed into a successful F.M. radio operation. CBS wasn`t in the game yet and NBC was content with a Felix the Cat doll twirling around in front of a camera, though early stirrings about building Radio City were reported.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 2, 1930
[D]own at the very bottom of your dial—187 meters to be exact—there is a new station. W2XCD, soon to be used to transmit sound accompaniments for the Jenkins radio-vision pictures transmitted from W2XCR. Both stations are on the air every day except Sunday from 8 to 10 p. m. Many standard radio receivers will tune low enough to pick up this newcomer which is located at Passaic. (Jersey Journal, Jan. 2)

SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1930
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 4 (UP) — Following closely on the heels of the talking motion picture comes the perfected television, that will-o’-the-wisp that science has, for the past decade, been trailing with but little success.
Within 10 days a television broadcasting station, first of a nation wide network, will be operating in San Francisco, Edgar M. Peak, Kemper Radio Corp. official, has announced.
The Kemper Corp., Peak said, has secured exclusive control of the Philo Farnsworth television unit.
Designed expressly for synchronized hook-up to any type of alternating current radio receiving set, this unit will be placed on the market shortly before completion of the broadcasting station here. The cost of the unit, ready for attachment to the receiver, will be less than $100, company officials said.
It will be equipped with a projection screen or vision field approximately 12 by 14 inches in dimension. Peak expressed the hope, however, that the size of this projection field would be materially increased with future development of the unit.
The screen, embodied in a wooden panel, is designed to stand on top of the radio cabinet, and a hook-up is effected as easily as inserting a loud speaker plug.
At the outset the station here will confine its motion picture broadcasting to educational, feature, musical and skit films. The company anticipates, however, including in its daily program within a short time first run talking pictures, news weeklies, and practically every type of motion picture now showing in theaters.
Range Limited
The television in its present state, Peak assured, shows an exceedingly clear picture and the synchronization of sound, voice and music is perfect.
Following completion of the San Francisco station, other stations will be established along the entire Pacific Coast at intervals of 50 miles, this distance being the broadcast limitation of equipment in its present state of perfection. Rapidly, then, the network that is to stretch from coast to coast, will get under way. In 90 days it is anticipated that a station will be broadcasting in New York city. (George E. Powers, United Press)

SUNDAY, JANUARY 5, 1930
A Newark, N. J. firm already has a television broadcast station and a display studio where the general public is able to see how it is done.
By way of showing their earnest faith in success of the “radio talkie” the company has made Miss Irma Lembke the first television program director. She will plan programs for W2XCR in Jersey City and W3XK just outside of Washington. (Lincoln Star, Jan. 5)

TUESDAY, JANUARY 7, 1930
Within three months, Minneapolis will have a television broadcasting station, and perfected television sets will be available to northwest residents at a small cost, it was reported today.
Radio Corporation of America has perfected the new and cheap system of television broadcast and reception. R.C.A. will start construction on the west coast on the first of a nationwide series of television broadcast stations within 30 to 60 days, it was stated. The stations will possibly be operated in conjunction with R.K.O. Orpheum theaters, it was said, and a rumor was heard here to the effect that such a sight-broadcasting station might possibly be constructed in either the present R.K.O. Orpheum theater or the R.K.O. Seventh Street.
Receiving sets for television, which can be attached to any electrically-operated radio set, already are on sale in the west and soon will be introduced here. Their total cost, it is said, is about $75. Broadcasting already has a radius of about 75 miles from the station and engineers hope to extend the distance greatly within a short time.
Set Found Practical
The new receiving set has been thoroughly tested and has been found to be entirely practicable, it was said. R.C.A. has not yet determined the method of distributing the new receiving sets, it is understood. At present the television broadcasting station has a range limit of 50 to 75 miles. It is possible that receiving sets would be distributed in northwest homes on a rental basis, as the telephone is now used. It is also possible that the sets would be constructed on the "coin-in-the-slot" system, so that the radio owner could drop a dime in the slot of his home television unit and see and hear artists.
Secrecy Maintained
The new unit is equipped with a projecting screen 12 by 14 Inches in dimension. The unit shows an exceedingly clear picture, and the effect is similar to that of talking pictures, as seen in the motion picture houses at present. R.C.A. officers have made no official announcement of this new outfit as yet, and still maintain strictest secrecy on the matter. (Minneapolis Star, Jan. 7)

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 1930
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 8 (AP)—William Gibbs McAdoo, former Secretary of the Treasury, and five members of the United Artists studios of Los Angeles were here today inspecting television apparatus that is expected to revolutionize motion pictures.
The instrument, which is said to produce pictures in sound and color by means of radio, was invented by Philo T. Farnsworth, of Provo, Utah. It was perfected in local laboratories.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 1930
The Everett Mills property in Lawrence, Mass., said to be one of the largest factories in the world, has been purchased by Isidor Goldberg, president of the Pilot Radio and Tube corporation[...]
Lawrence will now have the largest radio tube plant and largest electric decorating lighting plant in the United States. [...]
The Pilot Radio corporation has an extensive expansion program under way. A great deal of the company’s airplane radio experimental work will be done at Lawrence where a suitable aviation field has already been purchased by Mr. Goldberg.
The Pilot company has made application to the federal radio commission for the removal of its experimental television broadcasting station known as W2XCL from its Brooklyn plant to its Lawrence plant, where it expects to immediately proceed with the production of television apparatus. (Paterson, N.J. Morning Call, Jan. 10)

Authority to build television transmitting stations is requested of the Federal Radio Commission in two applications.
Radio Pictures, Inc., of New York, and Voice of Brooklyn, Inc., Brooklyn, N. Y., filed the applications. The former requests a construction permit for a 500-watt station to operate on the television channel 2,100 to 2,200 kilocycles, or 2,850 kilocycles. The Brooklyn applicant asks for a permit to build a 5000-watt visual broadcasting transmitter to operate on the 2,800 kilocycle channel.
General Electric Company seeks renewal of its experimental television license for Station W2XCW at Schenectady, N. Y. The station now operates on the band 2,100 to 2,200 kilocycles with 20,000 watts power.
(Hamilton Evening Journal, Jan. 10)

SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 1930
Radio talkies, or combined and synchronized sight and sound programs are available every week-day night at 8:15 and again at 9 o'clock over stations W2XCD the DeForest Radio Company at Passaic, N. J. and W2XCR of the Jenkins Television Corporation at Jersey City. Station W2XCD at Passaic, operates on a frequency of 1604 kilocycles, or 187 meters. Its signals may be tuned in at the lower end of the dial of the average broadcast receiver.
Station W2XCR operates on a frequency of 2800 kilocycles, or 107 meters, and may be tuned in by means of a short-wave receiver, for television purports. The Jenkins radio talkies consist of half-tone pictures, scanned in 48 lines at a speed of 15 pictures per second. The radiovision pick-up is by means of special film in the Jenkins studio at Jersey City, while the synchronized sound pick-up is by means of disk recordings mechanically coupled with the film pick-up. The sound signals are amplified and transmitting over direct wire to the transmitter at Passaic. (Hartford Courant, Jan. 11)

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1930
Washington, D. C. (AP)—Radio "lookers" who expect to receive in 1930 pictures or images in the broadcast band during the regular evening program hours apparently are doomed to disappointment.
Engineers of the Federal Radio Commission believe television and picture broadcasting have not yet reached a stage of public entertainment value to warrant their transmission on the wavelength now used for sound.
The commission a year ago announced that radio vision would not be permitted in the broadcast band from 200 to 550 meters except between 1:00 a. m. and 6:00 a. m. for experimental purposes. Commission engineers say that while progress has been made the last year in improving television, even the best transmissions are comparatively crude.
A year ago it was consensus of engineering opinion that a channel 100 kilocycles wide was necessary for good television results. In the meantime several experimenters have reported successful transmission on ten kilocycles. The radio commission, however, is not convinced that television in the broadcast ban will not seriously interfere with the reception of other programs. (Wausau Daily Record-Herald, Jan. 14)

THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 1930
What is declared to be the first public demonstration of television by radio synchronized with the voice, will take place today, tomorrow and Saturday, Jan. 16, 17 and 18, in the auditorium of the Lauter Company, 53 Broad street, Newark. The demonstrations will be from 2:30 to 4 o’clock in the afternoon. The evening hours will be from 7:30 to 9.
D. W. May, Inc., radio distributors, the Jenkins Television Corp. of Jersey City, the DeForest Radio Corp. of Passaic and the Lauter Company of this city are uniting in the demonstration. Four of the Jenkins televisors will be in operation on raised platforms, and one Philco receiving set. (Plainfield Courier-News, Jan. 16)

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 1930
NEWARK, Jan. 17 (AP)—Home radio talkies or synchronized sight and sound broadcasting, were shown here yesterday [16] to the radio trade and public for the first time.
The demonstration was not so much a technical advance as it was a practical exhibition, the Jenkins Television Corporation emphasized. Heretofore, it was said, radio talkies had been confined to costly laboratory demonstrations, without immediate applicability to average home use.
The programs for the demonstration were broadcast simultaneously through radio television Station W2XCR at Jersey City, and radio telephone Station W2XCD at Passaic. The film pickup method was employed, the subjects being recorded on film which was placed on a special pickup projector. Some subjects were in the form of sound films, with synchronized sound accompaniment, and others were plain films with vocal announcements.
At the receiving ends, two distinct radio sets were employed. One was a standard broadcast receiver to tune in on the radio telephone signals. The other was a short wave receiver, covering the 100-150-meter band employed for television, which was used to receive the radio vision signals. These signals were amplified and passed on to the radio visor which translated them into animated images.
Two home radio visors were shown. One is intended for those interested solely in radio vision programs and not in the experimental side of the new art. This device is in the form of a cabinet, with recessed opening of shadow box, unique form of Faraday-Eddy current by a magnifying glass, are viewed. The control panel, below the shadow box, has one switch to throw on the usual loud speaker for tuning in the radio vision signal lines more conveniently and then to change over to the television lamp. A second switch serves to start and stop the motor which drives a compact scanning drum, used instead of the usual scanning disc md a selector disc. The latter serves to mask 3/4, or 36 holes, of the drum during each revolution, so that only 12 boles are exposed. The drum makes 4 revolutions to a single revolution of the selector disc, in weaving the 48 lines for one compete image. The speed of operation is 15 pictures, of 48 lines each per second, or 900 per minute, the accepted standard radio vision signal.
The synchronized motor, operated at a constant speed established by the 60 cycle frequency of the power supply system, maintains perfect step with a similar motor employed on the same power supply system at the transmitter.
The radio visor shown is a device intended for those desiring to start out with definite results, yet anxious to engage in experiments. It has provisions for changing scanning discs and rotors, adding another form of synchronizing device, and employs an unique form of Faraday Eddy current motor.

As Western Electric stole a march on sound pictures, so General Electric is preparing for leadership of the television era. That the show world is not cognizant of the nearness of television is pointed out by Radio executives who are sitting in on tests and experiments being conducted from one of their smaller stations to a reception room at RCA.
Tests have become so important a part of the Photophone executives and scientists activities, that for the past few days entire mornings have been devoted to television. A decided improvement over televised pictures shown as recently as just before Christmas is reported of the demonstration given last Thursday morning [16].
Manifestations, however, that the film industry realizes television is on its way are beginning to reflect in the house organs of various chains, particularly Fox. West Coast paper, “Now,” warns exhibitors to prepare for air pictures in the theatre. (Variety, Jan. 22)

New York, Jan. 16 (AP)—Seeing in the dark with the aid of television was given its first public demonstration in America late today.
Without the aid of visible light, persons standing before the television camera could be dearly seen. In another part of the darkened studio in a receiver connected to the transmitter by wire. The system, described as “noctovision,” is a development of John L. Baird, Scottish inventor, and was demonstrated in the Baird television laboratories here.
Infra-red rays, which are invisible to the eye, are used. Special photoelectric cells, sensitive to this ray, are requíred. Otherwise the apparatus is similar to that for television in visible light.
While the demonstration was intended to show that it is possible to see in pitch black darkness, numerous other practical applications have been forecast for the development. These include navigation in the air or on see in dense fog and its use in railroad signal systems under similar weather conditions. (C.E. Butterfield column)

David Schwartz of Plainfield, well known in this city, will participate in a special television test over WRNY January 21. He will appear in a ukulele number at 7:45 p.m. Other stations on which he has had experience are WHN, WKAP and WMCA. (Daily Home News, New Brunswick, N.J., Jan. 17)

TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1930
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 21 (INS)— Scientists and radio engineers today foresaw a big advance in the development of television following the demonstration here of a new device for the radio transmission of light.
The new apparatus, producing what is described as “electrovision,” is the invention of Philo Farnsworth, 23, graduate of the University of Utah. It is designed to operate through impulses broadcast through the ordinary short-wave transmitters used by radio stations everywhere, and to be capable of functioning in connection with present radio receivers.
Double Transmission
Farnsworth says he has been able to transmit light and sound simultaneously with the device and he plans to produce it in quantities within the reach of anyone who can purchase a radio set.
“The apparatus will be simply constructed so that anyone can operate it,” Farnsworth said today. “The image to be broadcast whether still or moving, is focused on to a sensitive photo-electric plate in a dissector tube.
“This plate is located midway in the vacuum tube and, as the image passes the plate, it is converted into an electric image, composed of countless electrons. The electric image is identical to the picture received.
“An electrical det1ecting system, wound within the end of the tube, exposes a sensitized electrode in the end of the tube to the entire picture.
“The television signal from the tube is then run through an amplifier to gain desired strength, and is then sent out through use of the ordinary short-wave broadcasting transmitter.
“The receiving apparatus is very simple, as the television signals can be received in the regular type of radio.
To Make Pictures
“Above the radio will be placed a small box which contains the oscillate or special cathode ray tube, which I developed for the transition of television signals into optical pictures.
“The oscillite receives the television signals when connected into the radio set by means of the same cord-and-jack system now employed for loud-speakers. The electrons pass through the oscillite, and reach a circular screen, made of fluorescent material, within the tube, which returns the image to an optical state.”
A feature of Farnsworth’s invention la the elimination of the “scanning disc” previously used in transmitting pictures through the air.

New York.—Television has required a brand new art of makeup. And it is a strange one.
In order that lips may appear as lips should, they are coated with chocolate brown. The face is covered with a deep ivory. Grease paint and dark shades are used to bring out high lights around the nose. In the case of men, the entire face is covered with a paint almost dark enough to be called brown.
Extraordinary makeup methods are required in television, in order to preserve such important features as the nose, which has an unpleasant way of disappearing when the usual paints and creams are used. (Stockton Journal, Jan. 21)

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 1930
First commercial television broadcast of a vaudeville and picture program for home reception will be sent from the Palace theatre, Cleveland, in either June or September. The city’s telephone wires have already been adapted to transmission of television.
It is reported Cleveland was selected for the initial broadcast because of the close banking connection between North American Public Utility, controlling Cleveland’s telephone system, and Goldman Sachs, bankers for the utility organization. (Variety, Jan. 22)

SATURDAY, JANUARY 25, 1930
PATERSON, N. J., Jan. 25.—Vice-Chancellor Vivian M. Lewis signed an order today calling upon owners of De Forest Radio Corporation to show cause before him on February 4 why the company should not be placed in the hands of a receiver. The order was obtained by H. C. Von Korff, of Staten Island, New York, who is the holder or 1,300 shares of common stock in the corporation.
This is the second bankruptcy petition against New Jersey radio companies filed within the last two weeks before Vice-Chancellor Lewis. On January 14 David Schiffman, of Passiac, asked that a receiver by appointed for the Kolster Radio Corporation, which operates a plant in Newark. [Note: one was appointed Jan. 21]
Charges False Statement
Mr. Von. Korff’s petition states that the De Forest company issued a “fictitious and untrue” financial statement on September 20, 1929, showing a net profit of $261,000 for the year ending on that date, whereas the company actually operated at a loss.
In this statement, Mr. Von Korff charges, advertising expenses were capitalized at more than $100,000 and, that the statement failed to depreciate the value of patent rights listed as worth more than $2,000,000. This depreciation is a proper charge to income, Mr. Von Korff states, and should be shown so that the real earnings of the Corporation can be ascertained the stockholders.
Mr. Von Korff’s petition also states that officers of the De Forest company also are officers of the Jenkins Television Corporation, and that on October 21, last year, when stock in the Jenkins corporation was worth 50 cents a share, these officers “caused to be exchange about 345,680 shares of stock of the De Forest Corporation for 604,940 shares of Jenkins Television, which exchange worked a fraud upon your complainant and stockholders of the defendant corporation.” The petition says that patent rights were carried upon the books of the Jenkins corporation at a fictitious figure.
Says Firm Has No Visible Income
The Jenkins Corporation, the complaint states, has no visible income and controls some patents of doubtful value, it has carried on its business at a loss since its incorporation, the petition charges, and is spending its capital investment in experimental work.
On June 7, 1929, the complaint says, stockholders of record in the DeForest Company were given the right to subscribe to additional stock at $7 a share. At this time, 164,109 shares were sold at that figure. According to a statement filed by the company, Mr. Von Korff’s petition says, $1,005,519 was received, whereas the sum of $1,148,763 should have been received, leaving $143,244 unaccounted for.
The Deforest company manufactures radio tubes and other accessories. Its plant at Jersey City has been closed down, Mr. Von Korff says in his petition, and the company has paid no dividends. This is the second receivership action against the company. The first ended when the company was taken over by creditors about four years ago. J. W. Garside is president of the DeForest company and of the Jenkins Television Corporation. (Herald Tribune, Jan. 26)

More than 400 high schools in some 20 states already have adopted as standard test for physics classes the correspondence course in radio and television provided free through the courtesy of organised Iabor. This unusual good will project is conducted in connection with labor's only radio station WCFL, Chicago, one of the first radio stations to experiment extensively with television.
In response to Insistent demand special high school radio programs are now broadcast at 3:30 p. m., each Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon over stations WCFL and W9XAA, the latter being labor’s shortwave assignment. The aural broadcast is on 970 kilocycles and the simultaneous short-wave broadcast on 6080 kilocycles. A popular feature of these programs is 15 minutes of code practice.
While labor's free course in radio and television is proving unusually popular with high school faculties and students, it is by no means limited to them—the average age of those enrolled is considerably above 25 years. The course has been in operation only a few months, yet nearly 50,000 applications for it have been received and the demand is increasing daily. WCFL is now making arrangements to take care of a million applicants for the first lesson.
A card addressed to WCFL, 623 South Wabash Ave., Chicago, Ill., will bring labor’s free radio and television course to anyone interested. The entire course is furnished absolutely free. (Klamath Falls Evening Herald, Jan. 25)

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1930
HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Feb. 1—Tiffany Productions, Inc., is incorporating television clauses in all its contracts, according to H. William Fitelson, counsel for the film company.
“We retain television and other rights pertaining to future improvements in talking pictures, for improvements in pictures, and their projection is going to surge ahead so fast in the next few years that there is no telling what rights we will have to be purchasing soon if we do not include these things in the present contracts. Television is already here, so nearly perfected that it would astonish most of the world right now, and what is coming out of this perfection of television can only be guessed at at [sic]present, and then only in wonder at the future it opens up.” (Billboard, Feb. 8)

The Chicago Federation of Labor has started to broadcast on the short waves again. The short-wave station is W9XAA on 6,080 kilocycles. They are only broadcasting [radio] test programs at present, but expect to be on a regular-schedule soon. They will broadcast the regular evening broadcasts of WCFL. (Radio Craft magazine, Feb. 1930)

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1930
Here are the stations broadcasting on regular schedules ay present: W2XAD, General Electric Company, Schenectady, N. Y., Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 12:30 to 1:30 p. m. (central standard time) on 21.96 meters, using a twenty-four hole scanning disc revolving 1200 times per second; W2XAF, Schenectady, Tuesdays from 10:30 p. m. to 1 p. m. [sic] , on 31.4 meters with the same disc ad speed; W2XAD may also be tuned in on Sundays on television signals from 10:10 to 10:30.
W3XK, the Jenkins Television Laboratories in Washington, D. C., may be tuned in on a forty-eight-hole disc at 900 revolutions on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 7 p. m. to 8 p. m., on 46.7 meters broadcasting silhouettes. ...
W2XAL, a New York City shortwave station, is carrying on experiments with a forty-four-hold disc traveling at the slower speed of 450 revolutions per minute. It broadcasts every Monday from 2 to 7:15 p. m., Wednesday from 1:45 to 2 p. m., Thursday from 11:45 a. m. to 12 midnight, and Fridays from 2 p. m. to 2:15 p. m.
Chicago Station on the Air Irregularly
Among the stations which may be heard, who have announced their experiments frequencies, are WCFL “Voice of Labor,” Chicago, on 61.5 metres, with a forty-eight-hold-disc at 900 revolutions per minute; KDKA, Westinghouse Electric Company, East Pittsburgh, Pa., on experimental motion-picture transmission on 62.5 meters, with a sixty-hole scanning disc, revolving 1000 times per second; W9XAA of Chicago, using a forty-eight-hole disc on 66.7 meters at 900 revolutions, is transmitting at irregular morning hours.
WLEX of Lexington, Mass., is building new apparatus to operate a forty-eight-hole disc on a wave length of 62 meters.
In addition to the above the radio division of the Department of Commerce has licensed the following for television broadcasting in New York and the East:
W2XBT—Frank Carter, 3978 Bliss street, Long Island City, N. Y., 33.5 meters.
W1XAY—J. Smith Dodge, Lexington, Mass., 62.5 meters.
W2XAL—Hotel Roosevelt, Forty-fifth and Madison avenue, New York City, 37 and 91 meters.
W2XBU—Harold Smith, Beacon, N. Y., 62 and 64 meters.
W8XAV—Westinghouse Electric Manufacturing Company, East Pittsburgh, Pa., 20 and 63 meters.
In Chicago: W9XAG, Aero Products, Inc.1788 Wilson avenue. 64 meters.
Stations which are authorized in the West are: W6XAM, Ben S, McGlashan, Los Angles, Cal., 70 and 150 meters; W6XC, Robert B. Parish, 5155 Grammercy place, Los Angeles, Cal., 67.7 meters; W6XN, General Electric Company, 66 and 140 meters; W6XBW, P. S. Lucas, 422 Holland avenue, Cal., 70 and 140.5 meters. (Hal La Mertha, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Feb. 3)
[Note: this list had to be outdated. The Radio Service Bulletin for Jan. 31, 1929 wrote next to W6XBW "Strike out all particulars."]

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1930
The application of H. C. Von Korff, of Staten Island, and Thomas Gray, of Paterson, for the appointment of a receiver for the DeForest Radio company, of Jersey City and Passaic, on the ground that the officers of the corporation had perpetrated a fraud on the stockholders in the purchase of 638,967 shares of Jenkins television stock, was denied by Vice-Chancellor Vivian M. Lewis in chancery court yesterday [5].
In support of the application, Lawyer Emanuel Shavick, representing Von Korff and Gray, holders, respectively, of 1,200 and 240 shares of stock in the defendant corporation, read from the DeForest concern’s own financial statement as of last Dec. 31, which placed a value of $10 per share on its 638,967 shares of Jenkins television stock, which the concern had set up in its assets.
Declaring this valuation to be fictitious, Lawyer Shavick said that “the market value of Jenkins television on Dec. 31 was $3 a share and today it is about $1,” adding that the officers and offices of the DeForest and Jenkins companies are the same.
Representing the DeForest company, Lawyer Frederic J. Faulks characterized the application as little short of an outrage.
He said that the petitioners had failed to present a proper case and that as far as he could ascertain Von Korff is not a registered stockholder and has no claim on the company.
Counsel added that Von Korff has never communicated with the company for information and that the day the receivership proceedings were brought he disappeared from his home. He said that there was no verification of Von Korff’s allegations as to the financial condition of the company.
Faulk went into a brief history of the company from the time of the receivership settlement in June, 1928. New capital to the extent of $900,000 was put into the company and the business had been so successful that the books show a net profit of $626,000 over the eighteen months period.
“We don’t owe one dollar matured indebtedness, there are no suits pending against us and there are no real stockholders dissatisfied,” said Lawyer Faulk. Despite depression in the radio business De Forest, he said, showed an increase in business during January of twenty-four per cent over the previous month. He explained the closing Of the Jersey City plant by stating that the company moved to Passaic where manufacturing operations were more economical.
At the beginning of the hearing this morning Vice-Chancellor Lewis read a letter which be received from Robert H. McNeill, an attorney of Washington who said he represented the Radio Service corporation, of New York. His client, be said, would lose between $300,000 and $1,000,000 by reason of the Jenkins Television stock deal. (Paterson Morning Call, Feb. 6)

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1930
The walls of a cellar in the Elks Country Club in Columbus do not permit a very great scope of vision, and for the last 18 months Lawrence Huber has not seen much of the outside world during the several hours each day that he has been working industriously in the basement.
Now, however, Mr. Huber whose sister, Mrs. H. B. Tavenner, resides at 584 E. Cecil st., is able to see as well as hear things happening more than 100 miles away without leaving the cellar. Efforts of a year and a half finally have met with success, and the greens keeper at the Country Club has a homemade television outfit which will pick up moving pictures broadcast from Washington, D. C., and Chicago. Furthermore, his set cost him less than $100, and he believe he could erect another one for much leas cost, and certainly with much less labor.
Last week he changed some small adjustment in the instrument, and for the first time was able to look at a revolving disc and see the shadow of a girl advancing towards him bouncing rubber ball [likely W3XK, Washington]. Since then he has picked up television programs from the ether each night. Perhaps some of his Springfield friends, for he has visited in this city many times, will have an opportunity to see his homemade set in operation in the near future.
A television set in operation looks simple, but an explanation of it workings is another matter entirely. It consists of a short wave radio receiving set, a neon tube in which the screen for the picture is set, and a metal disc rotated by a small electric motor. The set picks up impulses from the broadcasting station and carries them to the neon tube, where they appear to the naked eye as merely a flicker. The disc, which contains many holes around the outside circumference, revolves 900 times a minute, and the flickers in the tube, viewed through the revolving disc, bring the pictures into clarity. (Springfield, Ohio, Daily News, Feb. 6)

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1930
Television Broadcasts are being received regularly by the Derr brothers at their home laboratory on a farm near Marshall. Cyril T. and Alvin Derr, who built and operate the receiver, operate an electrical service, and constructed the set in spare hours.
"We receive approximately an hour and a half of clear pictures each night except Sunday," they said, "from WCXK [W6XK], Washington. D. C. They are picked up from films for transmission.
"Only silhouettes are broadcast by the station, however. There are enough difficulties to be overcome in the transmission of these images without attempting to send other classes of broadcasts."
The broadcasts are received between 7 and 9 p. m. on six days a week.
"Television isn't yet ready for the general public," these experimenters assert "Synchronization of transmitter and receiver is too difficult at present to permit widespread adoption of television.
"Many problems must be solved before these radio pictures are available to everybody." (Wisconsin State Journal, Feb. 9)

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1930
WASHINGTON, Feb. 11. (NANA)—New eyes have been found for television in the form of photosensitive cells of infinitesimal size, which can act as retinas in scanning actual or filmed images for radio. The cell is the invention of Russell Hart of Los Angeles, who discovered it in the course of experiments on improved talking motion-picture systems.
Patents covering it have been required and further, researches into its possibilities have been undertaken by the General Research Corporation of Long Island City, N. Y., subsidiary of the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co., of Chicago.
So tiny that it requires a microscope to view it, the Hart cell’s effective area is only two by four millimeters and its thickness about one-sixteenth of an inch. It actually looks thinner than a single human hair.
It was described to the Federal Radio Commission, when applications for television wave lengths were made today by engineers working with it, as an improved type of selenium cell which overcomes difficulties generally experienced with gas, vacuum and liquid cells and the older forms of selenium cells. Selenium is a metallic element which acts as a light-operated valve in an electric circuit, but which, it was said, has been generally discarded by other television workers because of certain unfavorable characteristics.
Dr. Arthur W. Carpenter, motion picture engineer and a former photographer for various Harvard expeditions, told the commission that the cell’s chief advantage is that it can be used to prepare new and simplified scanning devices which do not “stop to think too long.” Lag and inertia, preventing the necessary instant translation of light into electrical impulses, are among the chief problems in television.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1930
Radio television, or radiovision for short, will follow in the footsteps of sound broadcasting, is confirmed by the appearance of the first sponsored television program according to D. W. May of Jersey City. The “lookers-in” following the rapid progress of radio television are being treated to a talk on the present and future of the young art by Dr. Lee DeForest, who appears before them as speaks. The program is a presentation of the DeForest Radio Company of Passaic, N. J., and goes down in history as the first sponsored television program.
The technical means employed for broadcasting this sponsored sight and sound program of Dr. DeForest, inventor of the audion or present day vacuum tube, and a pioneer worker in the broadcasting field, is highly ingenious. The subject has been recorded on film and disk record. The picture values taken from the film by means of a special pick-up machine in the Jenkins Television Corporation’s studio in Jersey City, N. J., are broadcast by the nearby Jenkins television station, W2XCR, on 139 meters. (Bayonne Evening News, Feb. 13)

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1930
New York. Feb. 14.—[Special].—A theater to exploit television, radio, talking pictures, and plays in one immense building has been proposed for the site that was obtained by John D. Rockefeller Jr. for the new opera house. The location, 45th to 51st streets, between 5th and 6th avenues, was rejected by the Metropolitan Opera company, but is held by the Metropolitan Square corporation, controlled by Mr. Rockefeller.
Plans, still in the stage of preliminary negotiation, involve a project whereby the National Broadcasting company, General Electric, Radio-Keith-Orpheum, and other allied groups would unite for a new type of amusement and theatrical center.

W. J. Barkley, assistant to the president of the De Forest Radio Company, announced today [14] that his company had applied to the Federal Radio Commission to increase the power of the experimental broadcasting station in the old Brighton Mills, Passaic, to put it a par with WOR in Newark.
The stlation, the call letters of which are W2XCD, and which has been heard by many Passaic radio fans, has been operating on a power of 5,000 watts. Permission has been asked for an increase of power to 50,000 watts, which will make it one of tire most powerful broadcasting centers in the State.
Officials of the company made it clear today that at present the Increase in power is only for experimental purposes in broadcasting television in conjunction with the company’s Jersey City station.
During the past week regular television programs have been broadcasted by the two stations and have been received by sets at the Hudson County Radio Show in Jersey City. The programs have been the air from 3 to 5 o’clock in the afternoon and from 8 to 10 o'clock at night.
In explaining the broadcasting of television programs, Mr. Barkley stated that the voice is sent from the Passaic station, while the action is broadcast from Jersey City. The two must be synchronized. This difficulty has been overcome by engineers of the company.
By government regulation, television broadcasting is restricted to between 100 and 150 metres to prevent interference with voice programs, which are sent on a higher wave length, Mr. Barkley said. This, he continued, makes it necessary to send the two harmonizing units of a television program from different stations.
According to Mr. Barkley, this regulation will also prevent sets used at present from suddenly becoming out of date and useless. Persons now owning sets, he said, will probably always be able to hear programs as they are now being broadcasted.
Mr. Barkley predicted that television receiving sets will be on the retail market next week at a price not much in excess of that of electric radio sets. (Passaic Daily Herald, Feb. 14)

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1930
Attracting what is said to be a record attendance for a district radio exposition, the Hudson County Radio Show, held all last week in the Armory Radio Salon in Jersey City, will close Wednesday night. Attendance figures up until late last night [15] indicate that more than 100,000 radio listeners will visit the exhibition to view the latest models in radio receivers.
Although the normal time for radio set manufacturers to announce new models is at the June trade show, several have disclosed midwinter developments. These sets attracted wide attention, but perhaps most interest was shown in a public demonstration or television given by the Jenkins Television Corporation, of Jersey City.
Television images were received with good definition on receivers designed for public consumption. Both music and speech were transmitted from the Jenkins television station W2XCR, and received on apparatus installed at the show. An expert in charge of the apparatus explained that signals were being picked up by radio on a wave length of 139 meters from the station, which is on the air daily between 2:30 and 5 p. m. and 7 to 11 o’clock.
Because of difficulties encountered in receiving synchronized sounds with the television pictures over a separate radio channel, voices were transmitted from the television studio by wire for the demonstration, it was said. The Jersey City television station was recently licensed by the Federal Radio Commission and has a power rating of five kilowatts, although only one is used for the actual transmissions. This station operates jointly with a transmitter operated by Dr. Lee De Forest at Passaic, N. J., which normally transmits the synchronized sounds on a wave length of 187 meters.
Receivers used for the demonstration are made by the television company. The apparatus consists of a scanning disk, neon tube, adjustment apparatus and reflector contained in a rectangular-shaped box. The television set operates in conjunction with a receiver tuned to the wave length of the transmitter. An orange-colored image is reflected on a glass screen four inches square. Below the aperture are switches for controlling the disk motor and synchronizing. Reception was of sound films projected before the televisor at the transmitting station. The image was converted into electrical impulses by means of a forty-eight hole scanning disk photo-electric cell. The receiving disks at the demonstration were synchronized with the transmitting disk as to simultaneously reflect the recorded image. Sound was transmitted over telephone wire.
Station WAAT had at the exposition a glass inclosed studio and conducted all broadcasting throughout the week from that point, in this way listeners visiting the show were able to favorite artists of this station perform before the microphone.
Another exhibit which attracted attention was apparatus similar to that used for the transmission of fac-simile pictures across the Atlantic by the Radio Corporation of America. (Herald Tribune, Feb. 16)

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1930
NEW YORK, Feb. 17.—With the Radio Corporation of America, General Electric and Jenkins experimenting with television comes the news that the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company has been and is now doing vast experimental work along similar lines.
Television is evidently the next move in talking pictures. How soon they will be established is a matter of time. However, the big corporations evidently believe that they are thoroly practical and the various organizations are working in a most secretive manner towards the end of perfection.
The Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company has made application to the Federal Radio Commission for a license to operate an experimental television station on Long Island.
Dr. Arthur W. Carpenter, of the United Research Corporation, subsidiary of Brunswick, appeared before the commission in Washington and stated that the Hart silenium [sic] cell used by it is superior to any cell heretofore made. The commission was also told that up to the present time it has been used in the development of talking pictures and has a direct bearing on television and that the organization wants to continue its development along those lines. (Billboard, Feb. 22)

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1930
Schenectady, Feb. 18—(AP)—For the first time in history, according to officials of the General Electric Company here, a television signal was transmitted over a distance of 20,000 miles, today.
The experiment was conducted by Dr. E. F. W. Alexanderson, staff scientist of the General Electric, who transmitted the signal from W2XAF, the company’s experimental short wave station, to VK2MF at Sydney, Australia. The signal was received in Australia and rebroadcast, being picked up again at Schenectady.
A rectangular pattern, about one foot square, was the figure transmitted. The original pattern had very sharp outlines but the image received after traveling 20,000 miles was said to be “fuzzy” in outline, Dr. Alexanderson declared, however, that reception of the Image at all was significant of intimating further possibilities in the transmission of pictures.

Oakland today occupied the center of the stage as more radio history was written. The short wave station of the General Electric company at Schenectady early this morning, in an experimental television broadcast, sent out the picture of a rectangle into the ether.
In faraway Sydney the image was received, and for the first time was rebroadcast.
The broadcast was picked up in Schenectady, and the image, slightly distorted, was recorded in wax.
PICKED UP HERE
The development station of the General Electric here, W6XN, also picked up the television signals and rebroadcast them.
Results of the experiment were made known soon after the rebroadcasting attempt was made.
ln a radio interview with J. E. Doyle, radio editor of The Oakland Post-Enquirer, W. T. Meenam, head of the public relations department of the General Electric company, declared: “The picture we received in Schenectady, the point of origin, from Sydney, where the rebroadcasting took place, was readily recognizable, the only difference being that the lines were ‘rippled’ or ‘shaky.’
ENTHUSIASTIC
Engineers in both Oakland and Schenectady were enthusiastic about the tests.
Conversation between A. B. Hitt in Schenectady and P. M. Farmer, manager of station VK2ME, heard without difficulty in the Oakland studios, was also recorded in the east.
No attempt was made here to reproduce the television, either from the east or Australia. Oakland was tuned in on the Sydney station, however, for rebroadcasting. The television signals sounded much like a huge band saw.
The Post-Enquirer writer in Oakland, talked several minutes with Meenam, Martin P. Rice, director of broadcasting for General Electric, and W. J. Purcell, broadcast engineering chief for the company.
CONVERSATION4 CLEAR
The eastern officials of General Electric, speaking from Schenectady, of course, also conversed with Walter Kellogg, head KGO engineer, and Jack Maxwell of W6XN. Working on a wavelength hitherto unused for such work, the two-way transcontinental conversation was as clear as if the speakers were in the same room.
Engineers here and in east are seeking to determine the ideal short-wave for each hour of the day, hoping to make possible reliable broadcasting of conversation at any time. (Oakland Post-Enquirer, Feb. 18)

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1930
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 22 (UP).—Plans for the erection of a low wave, sound-picture broadcasting station here within the next few weeks are under way. This announcement was made today by representatives of the Kemper Radio Corporation, holder of exclusive rights to the Philo-Farnsworth Television receiving unit.
With the opening of the proposed station, television units, Kemper officials say, will be available for the home at a cost of less than $100.
The Farnsworth unit, declared engineers and radio experts who witnessed a demonstration in the young San Francisco Inventor's laboratories, has passed from the experimental to the stage of reality.
Noise Eliminated
All noise and hum, the principal fault in television, the inventor has successfully eliminated. This was accomplished by using a funnel-shaped receiving tube instead of the usual motor and disc mechanism. The tube is slightly concave at the broad base. This base, heavily frosted, forms the screen on which television subjects are projected, and is the only part of the tune disclosed in the wooden cabinet, which stands on top of the ordinary radio receiving set.
It is planned at the outset to provide receiving tubes with a round base five inches in diameter. Subsequently tubes of larger dimension will be introduced.
Movies Transmitted
At the demonstration given here recently motion pictures transmitted on Farnsworth's receiving unit, reappeared unusually distinct and clear, despite the limited size of the tube screen.
No attempt was made at the demonstration to synchronize sound and picture, but the Kemper corporation declares this feature of the project already has been proved by previous tests.
When the broadcasting station is erected here, and the television unit placed on the market in the near future, officials says, hooking up the unit to radio receiving sets for sound-picture synchronization will be a simple matter.
The broadcasting station, which will have a sending radius of approximately 50 miles, is but one of a chain that planned for the Pacific coast, and later will be extended across the continent.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1930
“Nook” and “Chilkoot”—sons of Chinook—made their radio and television debut last night [26] at the Big Brother Club meeting of Station WEEI, broadcast from the Television Laboratory on Brookline av. Asked to say a few words, they “woof-woofed” in a manner that “Bob” Emery afterward described as “very eloquent.”
The radio appearance of the sons of the famous sled dog who went with the Byrd expedition with his owner, Arthur Walden, ended a busy day. Soon after their arrival in Boston yesterday morning they went out to the Peabody Home for Crippled Children in Newton to entertain the children.
Accompanying the dogs were Mrs. J. Milton Seeley of the Chinook Kennels at Wonalancet, N. H. and Big Brother “Bob” Emery. From the Peabody Home the dogs went to the Hotel Stat1er, where they dined in the kennels in the basement of the hotel after “peeking” into the Palm Room. In the afternoon, the dogs and Mrs. Seeley went with “Bob” Emery to the Children’s Hospital. (Boston Globe, Feb. 27)

(This short film starring Andy Clyde was released later in 1930).