November 1929

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

Warner Bros. TV, 1930

Imagine a TV network with Bugs Bunny, “Casablanca” and “42nd Street” decades before “The WB.”

It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. In a manner of speaking, Warner Bros. got into the television business—in 1930.

Below you see a list of television stations in the U.S. published that year¹. Several of them can be found in TV listings of newspapers though some had little entertainment value. For example, if you tuned in W2XBS, about all you might see is Felix the Cat or some other statuette revolving in front of a camera for several hours. No music in the background. Then it would happen again tomorrow. And the next day. And the next day.

One station which never appeared in printed schedules was W2XBO, with headquarters on Long Island City and owned by the United Research Corporation.

Who was United Research? Part of the answer comes in a Billboard story published February 22, 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.

If you can pardon some geekiness, this story several days earlier by Martin Codel for the North American Newspaper Alliance has a few specifics.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12—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 transmission.
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.
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 Tuesday 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.
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.
Dr. Carpenter, in charge of developing the cell for practical use, and Dr. Ellsworth Dewitt Cook, chief engineer of the United Research corporation, appeared to request the television channels to pursue researches under actual radio conditions. They assured the commission that there was no stock promotion or other commercial scheme behind the development in its experimental stage.

United Research’s parent company, Brunswick-Balke-Collander, is the Brunswick connected with bowling and billiard equipment. But it also made radios—and pressed records on Brunswick label. And it also lost almost three million dollars in 1929².

It was the perfect company for Warner Bros. to snap up. Besides its movie business, Warners owned a bunch of top music publishers—perfect for artists on the Brunswick label to sing and be played over Brunswick radios. Those same artists could be signed to Warners’ film contracts. Oh, and Warners offered its Vitaphone talkies with sound on disc. It was a win-win. Warners bought the Brunswick music division in April 1930.³ And included in the deal was a brand-new “visual broadcasting station,” approved by the Federal Radio Commission the previous month⁴.

W2XBO was licensed to broadcast between 2000 and 2100 kilocycles (150 to 142.9 metres) and 2750 to 2850 kilocycles (109.1 to 105.8 metres) at 5,000 watts.

All these developments led to all kinds of speculation that Warner Bros. was going to leap into the radio business. Various reports claimed it was negotiating to buy WMCA or WOR in New York⁵. The Brunswick deal meant the company also controlled the National Radio Advertising Agency, which supplied recorded shows to radio stations⁶. Radio plus movies equals television. The potential was endless. Warners could test out its coming films with snippets on television. It could put its recording artists into people’s homes. The possibilities were almost endless.

Unfortunately, Warner Bros. never took advantage of it. Remember, at this point, all United Research had was a construction permit. It applied to the Federal Radio Commission on September 2 to extend the station’s construction permit until June 30, 1931 in connection with new equipment to be installed⁷. On December 15, 1930, the Commission reassigned TV frequencies; W2XBO was left with 2750-2850 kcs⁸.

Did the station ever get on the air? The New York Sun published an excellent weekly television page back in the mechanical era. Its issue of September 19, 1931 has an updated list of stations and states that W2XBO only had a construction permit, but its rotating disc was set to scan 60 lines per inch, the same all other New York stations. It had been granted an extension to its permit to December 31, 1931⁹.

But an article in the Daily Star published at Long Island City on December 16, 1930 discusses local television, and after outlining the operating hours of the John V.L. Hogan station, W2XR, says “Station W2XBO, the other local television broadcast unit, confines itself to private experimental demonstrations.” The article omits the station from the list of ones that are able to send sound.

It adds:

A conservative view of the future of television is presented by Dr. E. D. Cook of Station W2XBO, who declared:
"The problems presented by television are so complex it seems to me they can not be solved successfully for several years. This seemed to be the general opinion at the recent Washington conference.
"Fly-by-night companies which have been attempting to make the public believe that television is a practical reality already have been harming intelligent research. Before expenditure of money on a television set can be justified many important problems will have to be solved.”

The last reference of the station in that newspaper is on November 4, 1931:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 —The United Research Corporation, Long Island City, has passed up an opportunity to protest at a hearing by an examiner of the Federal Radio Commission on the application of the Philadelphia Storage Battery Company, for a television broadcasting permit.
The United Research Corporation sends out its programs in the same band, which is included in the range sought by the new entry from Philadelphia. The Television Laboratory, San Francisco, also seeks this same band.

W2XBO wasn’t the only station using the same “band.” With huge amounts of national publicity on July 21, 1931, CBS put its W2XAB on the air. Unlike NBC’s W2XBS, it wasn’t content to broadcast a silent Felix the cat statuette on a turntable. It had living, breathing singers, dancers, musicians and comedians—and sound. The Associated Press of that date reported the new station would be on the air from 1 to 5 in the afternoon and 7 to 9 in the evening, seven days a week¹⁰. It would use the same frequency range as the Warners-Brunswick station.

When the New York Sun published the latest Commerce Department list of TV stations on February 13, 1932, W2XBO was not on it. The U.S Commerce Department’s Radio Service Bulletin for March 1932 has next to the station’s name “Strike out all particulars” (the same month, similar deaths came to TV stations W9XR, Chicago, and Harold E. Smith’s W2XBU, Beacon, New York).

United Research was still in business, and still researching television. It was assigned a patent on February 2, 1932 for a system where two vibrating mirrors jointly projected a beam of light to produce a picture¹¹. In January 1936, the Long Island lab was moved to the Warners lot in Burbank¹² then sold to RCA about 14 months later¹³.

Warner Bros.’ brush with television could be aptly summed up by a familiar title card from one of the studio’s cartoon releases.

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1 The United States Daily, Friday, Aug. 29, 1930.^↩
2 New York Herald Tribune, Apr 13, 1930.^↩
3 Los Angeles Times, Apr 5, 1930.^↩
4 Radio Service Bulletin, Department of Commerce, March 1930.^↩
5 Variety, “Warners Hot After Its Own Network,” June 18, 1930.^↩
6 Variety, “Warner Bros. Go Heavily Into Radio,” June 25, 1930.^↩
7 Daily Star, Long Island City, Sept. 2, 1930^↩
8 Radio Service Bulletin, Department of Commerce, December 1930.^↩
9 The United States Daily, Wednesday, July 29, 1931.^↩
10 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 22, 1931, pg. 2.^↩
11 Electronics, Feb. 1932, pg. 72.^↩
12 Daily Variety, Jan. 11, 1936.^↩
13 The Hollywood Reporter, March 19, 1937.^↩