May 1929

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

January 1929

As 1929 began, the Federal Radio Commission had no idea what to do about television.

In less than two weeks after the start of the year, the Commission revised a decision made in 1928. It agreed to allow television broadcasts on A.M. frequencies between 1 and 6 a.m.—most radio stations then signed off around midnight—while it held hearings in February.

A unbylined story in the Santa Ana Register of January 24th said only WGY Schenectady and WIBO Chicago were licensed for television within the A.M. radio band, but several other stations were operating in the overnight hours “without express commission authorization.”

There was a great to-do about whether the presidential inauguration in March would be televised. There was only one station in Washington, Frank Jenkins' W3XK, on the air three days a week. But it was only airing films of people in silhouette. First, coverage was on. Then it was called a rumour.

There were plenty of inventors in the U.S. working on television; Philo Farnsworth comes to mind. In January 1929, a 22 year old man from Wichita Falls, Texas named Bryan Yancey Cummings, Jr., went on a mission to patent his tele-developments. In 1931, he was granted a patent, filed in 1928, for a radio receiver that had "special arrangements for the reduction of the damping of resonant circuits of receivers." Another patent was awarded in 1934, filed in 1932, with this explanation: "Scanning details of television systems; Combination thereof with generation of supply voltages by optical-mechanical means only having a moving aperture also apertures covered by lenses." Scanning discs were pretty much obsolete by then.

In 1930, Cummings was working in Dade County, Florida as a sounder recorder for a movie company. His Draft Card in 1940 has him self-employed in Fort Worth. He certainly changed careers as in 1950, he was employed in Dallas as an assistant physicist for the Atlantic Richfield Oil Company. He died in Dallas on Dec. 2, 1977.

Below are selected highlights of TV stories for the first months of 1929.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1929
TELEVISION IS ATTRACTING THE PUBLIC INTEREST
NEW YORK, Jan. 2. (AP)—Experiments seeking the development of a successful system of television transmission have keen public interest.
Such is the consensus of a committee headed by H. B. Richmond of Cambridge, and appointed by the Radio Manufacturers' association to study the progress and prospects of sending instantaneous light by radio.
Summing up its survey the committee stated: "One point was evident, that much confusion would be avoided among television interests if a standardization committee on television were appointed. Such a committee was named and has begun its work.
“Television is an actuality today, but only experimentally. Current television pictures are possible, although the pictures are small and reduced in detail.
"They provide excellent entertainment to a skillful experimenter. From the amusement standpoint they are in no way comparable with audio broadcasting. The necessity for close attention to the operation of the receiver should be stressed. A television reproducer cannot be started and left to itself.
"The complicated problem of synchronization is much simpler over wire lines than by radio. The difference should also be emphasized between sending photographs by radio, the sending of images from moving picture films and the more difficult feat of actual television.
"Television apparatus is an additional attachment which may be used with an existing set or connected to a specially designed receiver.
"Going beyond the present small picture means wider channels and under most known methods it would take the entire broadcast spectrum to put out a picture comparable with the moving pictures of the theater. One much discussed television experiment required three transmitters and receivers with a crew of trained engineers to keep the system in operation.
"There still is considerable disagreement as to how far television will go beyond the experimenter interest stage. This is because of the continuous attention required by present visual reproduction. The most careful analysis favor the experimental and strictly professional viewpoint."

THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 1929
TELEVISION PUTS MOVIES IN HOME
Chicago Radio Station Makes Successful Broadcast of Pictures.
CHICAGO, Jan. 3.—(AP)—Television has placed movies in the home within the realm of possibility.
The first successful broadcasting of ordinary motion picture films, not silhouettes, was done by WCFL, the Chicago Federation of Labor's station. Several listeners, with television reception apparatus, saw the movies on miniature screens.
So limitless are the possibilities of televising motion picture film, in belief of Virgil A. Schoenberg, chief engineer of WCFL, that he hopes to radiocast movie films, as well as other public spectacles such as football games and prize fights.
Within a few months, Schoenberg says, the radio fan may be able to see pictures of public events a few hours after they occur as he now sees them in his neighbor theater.
Silhouettes and small objects have been televised before, Schoenberg explained, but never has an ordinary movie film been put onto the air. Now WCFL engineers are experimenting to determine what particular tint of film may be broadcast most successfully.
Talking movies by television may be a reality soon, coming as the next development from experiments which have brought movies into the home, Schoenberg believes.
WCFL's television of motion picture films is achieved by a device which passes the film before a beam light that scans the film from left to right. The light images then are converted into electrical impulses, which are amplified and in turn converted into radio frequency pulses.
Use Standard Reproducer.
For the reception of movies via television, a standard television reproducer is used. It consists of a 48-hole disc revolving at 900 revolutions per minute, scanning from left to right and top to bottom. The output of a receiver including a detector tube may be fed into several stages of any good resistance coupled amplifier and that output in turn feeds into a neon tube set behind the disc.
WCFL broadcasts by television daily between 1 and 2. p. m., except Sundays, on kilocycles. From 9 to 12 p. m., the station's experimental substation 9XAA broadcasts irregularly on a 5,600 kilocycles.
A movie approximately one and one-half inches high appears on the receiver's disc. Lenses ordinarily are used to magnify the pictures. Details are transmitted by the WCFL apparatus SO that a piano player's fingers, for instance, may be singled out. Keys on the piano may be distinguishable, and the pianist's motions followed closely.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1929
DR. POWER LEAVES COLLEGE TO WORK FOR WESTINGHOUSE
The resignation of Dr. A. D. Power as professor of physics and director of radio research at Lawrence college was announced Saturday by Dr. Henry M. Wriston, president of the college. Dr. Power has been engaged by the Westinghouse Lamp company to conduct scientific research for the improvement of radio vacuum tubes at the Westinghouse branch at Bloomfield, N. J. [. . .]
While at Lawrence he has won recognition for his research in radio activity. Under his direction the Lawrence broadcasting station 9EHB has served in the national relay system, and apparatus for television has been set up with successful results. (Appleton, Wis., Post-Crescent)

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 1929
TELEVISION LIMITED TO AFTER MIDNIGHT
WASHINGTON, Jan. 7.—Pending a public hearing which will be held later this month, the Radio Commission today issued an order prohibiting all television broadcasting except between the hours of midnight and 6 A.M.
At the public hearing, the date for which has not been fixed, the commission will hear technical testimony on the status of television. The desirability of placing it in the broadcast band must be shown by its advocates before the new order will be modified.
Louis G. Caldwell, general counsel for the commission, said in a letter sent today to L. A. E. Gale, secretary of the National Association Opposed to Blue Laws, Inc., who had protested against the resolution of the Lords’ Day Alliance for exclusive religious programs on Sunday:
“The commission is without authority to censor programs which are broadcast over the air or to make any regulation interfering with the right of free speech by means of radio communication.”
Senator Dill of Washington, on the floor of the Senate today, read extracts from a letter in which WCFL, the Federation of Labor station in Chicago, asked whether anything could be done by the Senate to allow it to rebroadcast on short waves. The station was allowed 1500 watts by the Radio Board for daylight broadcasting, but was not allowed to broadcast after sunset.
“In other words,” said Senator Dill, “the labor station, designed to serve and reach laboring people of the central part of the United States, was not allowed to broadcast during the night time, the only time when the great masses of laboring people can listen to its program.”
Mr. Dill said that WCFL applied for a full cleared channel and 50,000 watts power. The commission has granted a construction permit for 50,000 watts but denied the station the right to rebroadcast from small stations in various parts of the country.
Senator McKellar of Tennessee, said that Congress should enact legislation to compel the commission to take action in favor of the labor station.
Representative Crowther of New York has introduced a bill in the House to make it mandatory upon the commission to provide fifty cleared channels for radio communication instead of forty.
Following their meeting here today recommendations will be submitted by the directors of the National Association of Broadcasters to the House Merchant Marine Committee tomorrow, on the bill to continue the life of the Radio Commission for another year.
The recommendations will concern the administration of the radio law, length of broadcasting licenses, distribution of radio facilities, power and rebroadcasting. (New York Times, Jan. 8)

SUNDAY, JANUARY 13, 1929
TELEVISION PLANT NOW ESTABLISHED, JENKINS ASSERTS
Jersey City Factory Will have Television broadcasts if License is Granted
That television has reached the commercial stage is confirmed by the news that the Jenkins Television Corporation has acquired a factory at 346-370 Claremont ave., Jersey City, N.J.
“We shall have our general offices and factory, as well as our engineering laboratories, at this address, states James W. Garside, “we shall have a television broadcasting station for the New York metropolitan area [later W2XCR] installed in the annex on the roof of the building, with ideal conditions for satisfactory signal propagation, as of as license is granted by the Federal Radio Commission.
“Meanwhile, our experimental and research laboratories remain in Washington, D. C., in charge of C. Francis Jenkins, our vice president in charge of research.
“We are working toward production on standardized television receiving equipment for the home, as well as transmitting equipment for broadcasting stations desirous of engaging in this new art. The first sets of television receivers are now coming through our production department. Following exhaustive tests and satisfactory demonstration, our mass production schedule will follow. (Brooklyn Daily Eagle)

MONDAY, JANUARY 14, 1929
GENERAL ORDERS OF THE FEDERAL RADIO COMMISSION.
Picture and television transmissions restricted in use of frequencies in the broadcast band (General Order No. 56, January 14, 1929).—From and after the date hereof and until further order of the commission, neither picture broadcasting nor television broadcasting will be permitted in the broadcast band between 550 and 1,500 kilocycles, except upon written application to and formal authority from the commission, and then only between the hours of 1 and 6 a. m., local time at the location of the transmitter. The written applications shall be on forms provided for that purpose by the commission.
For the purpose of determining whether picture broadcasting and/or television broadcasting may be permitted in the broadcast band in the future either at all or to & greater extent than above authorized, the commission has determined to hold a hearing for the presentation of evidence as to whether such broadcasting can be accommodated on a 10-kilocycle band of frequencies; whether such transmission will result in undue interference with the broadcasting of other stations; whether there is any general publie interest in having such transmission take place in the broadcast band rather than in the high-frequency band, and such other questions as will bear upon the issue of whether permission of sfich transmission in the broadcast band will serve public interest, convenience, or necessity. This hearing will be held at the office of the commission at Washington, D. C., on February 14, 1929.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1929
RADIO PICTURES
WGY, Schenectady, has discontinued television transmission on the broadcast band. Hereafter the signals go out only over the companion short wave transmitters, W2XAF, 31.48 meters, and W2XAD, 19.56 meters, on this schedule: Tuesday, Wednesday and Fridays from 1:30 to 2 P. M., eastern time, and Sundays from 11:15 to 11:45 P. M. by W2XAD; Tuesday from 11:30 to midnight by W2XAF. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 1929
Television Is Radio Too Late for Inauguration
BY MARTIN CODEL.
North American Newspaper Alliance
WASHINGTON, Jan. 21.—All talk about television at the inauguration of President-elect Hoover March 4 is pure fabrication.
The inaugural ceremonies will be broadcast to the nation and the world through the great radio networks and their short wave stations, but the process will be the familiar audible one. Visual broadcasting has not reached the point of perfection where the national audience can see as well as hear the great event.
Senator George Moses of New Hampshire, heading the committee in charge of the inauguration, reports that no one has even proposed to broadcast the event visually.
The leading experimenters in the field of television all assert that they are not responsible for the reports.
A reply telegram from the Bell Laboratories in New York says there are no plans to use the Ives televisor at the inauguration This is the apparatus which transmitted living images of Mr. Hoover’s features by wire and wireless between Washington and New York something more than a year ago.
As far as can be learned, Dr. E. F. W. Alexanderson, who has been working on television at the General Electric laboratories in Schenectady, has no idea of introducing his television apparatus by March 4.
Jenkins Not Ready.
C. Francis Jenkins, the Washington inventor, reports that he will have his new television transmitter in operation here before March 4, but asserts that he does not expect to try to broadcast the image of Mr. Hoover making his inaugural address.
He adds, however, that his new station, utilizing a 100 kilocycle band of wave lengths will soon be broadcasting recognizable images in half tone that can be same sets that are now receiving his “shadowgraphs.”
It is practically a certainty both the National and Columbia Broadcasting System will offer the program through their coast-to-coast hook-ups.
One of the innovations of the 1929 inauguration will probably be the placing of a microphone in the United States Senate chamber for the first time. The plan is to broadcast the vice presidential inauguration that precedes the presidential ceremony.
By a curious turn of fate, the man who has consistently opposed placing a radio "mike" in the Senate, Senator Charles Curtis, Republican floor leader, will be the central figure in the ceremony in that chamber.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 1929
Powerful Station For Radio Vision
Soon Be In Operation Few Miles From Washington By The Jenkins Laboratories
Washington, Jan. 25—Radiovision will soon be on the air every night for a large share of the country reports, Science Service. A broadcasting station for radiomovies and television with power of five kilowatts will soon be in operation a few miles outside of Washington by the Jenkins Laboratories, of this city. As the station will operate on a short wave, it is expected that it will have a much greater range than an ordinary broadcasting station of equivalent power. Just what wave length will be used has not yet been determined, as the federal radio commission has not yet announced the wave bands that will be assigned though they have to allocate certain bands each of a hundred kilocycles width for this purpose. With a hundred kilocycle band authorities are agreed that satisfactory details can be transmitted.
Pending the completion of the new station and the granting of a license by the commission, the Jenkins Laboratories are broadcasting three nights a week from their present station W3XX [W3XK]. This is done on two bands, one of 187 meters primarily for nearby reception, and the other of 47 meters, which is heard throughout the eastern part of the country. Though using only 250 watts of power, the radiomovies broadcast Is received regularly in Ohio and Indiana. As the bands licensed for this use are only ten kilocycles width, broadcasts have so far been confined to movies in silhouette, which, however, have been specially prepared for the purpose, and tell stories.
Present-day radiovision broadcasts only faintly portray the future possibilities, thinks C. Francis Jenkins.
“Perfect?” he says. "No, and the receiver looks no more like the ultimate structure will than the old “one lung” horseless carriage of twenty five years ago looked like the eight-cylinder limousine of today.
“But the ten thousand pioneering with our picture broadcasts are the radio pictures engineers of tomorrow, for they are building up a technical experience which will be of inestimable value in the art later on.
“After the day's work is done these youngsters rush home: bolt a hurried dinner: and then race away to the radio shack to tune in on our pantomime broadcasts.
"Exactly the same thrill which came to them with their first crystal set and headphone, now comes again when they pick their first motion pictures out of the air; pictures radiated into invisible space from miles and miles away and put together by their home-made receiver.
“Many of these amateurs have attained such quality of picture that they have moved their apparatus into the living room where the whole family may join in the fun.
"The pictures they see are black and white comparable to the cartoon movies in the theatre and just as interesting.
"Incdentally, it is rather a surprise to those who see these silhouette movies for the first time to find them so entertaining; but the explanation is that in movies the story is told in the action and halftone quality is not necessary to any enjoyment of them. The public is not usually critical of first efforts in any new thing the novelty alone entertains for awhile.
"From many letters we get, apparently the greatest anxiety of our audience, or should I say, optience, is that we will eventually get tired and stop broadcasting.
“On the contrary we are putting up a powerful station a few miles outside of Washington to make their picture reception easier, and the pictures better; and each broadcast from now on will contain at least one picture story.
Direct Vision Of Activities
"We are broadcasting in black and white only at present in order that the frequencies involved in motion picture transmission may stay within the legally permissible width of carrier channel.
“The halftones in regular movie film and in broadcasting from living subjects and scenes, require a broader band. This was recognzied by the federal radio commission, and bands one hundred kilocycles wide will be assigned for such work. The new, more powerful, station we are building outside of Washington is for this width of band, and we shall broadcast for fireside entertainment pictures selected from those now shown in theatres.
"Our present transmission on 6420 K. C. was undertaken principally to learn the possibilities and the limitations of this new entertainment; to build up a radio-movies technique; and to insure later the availability of radiovisors giving larger and brighter pictures, which can conveniently be watched by the whole family and friends of the family circle.
"Already radiomovies are giving pleasure to thousands of radio amateurs and shortwave radio fans. Ultimately this pantomime story-teller will come to our fireside with appropriate sounds and speech, as a fascinating teacher and entertainer, without language literacy or age limitation; an itinerant visitor to the old homestead with photoplays, the opera, and a direct vision of world activities." (Lynchburg News, Feb. 1)

SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1929
Yancey Cummings Perfects Radio Television Set
B. Y. Cummings, Jr., young Wichita Falls inventor, who has perfected an improved machine which he predicts will revolutionize television, has gone to the East where he will spend some time in Washington and New York City, making arragements for the manufacture of his machines.
Attorneys say that Mr. Cummings is entitled to six basic patents. Mr. Cummings and Orville Bullington will probably organize a company here for the manufacture of the machine after the patents are granted.
In the past all telephoto pictures have appeared as silhouettes. Mr. Cummings' machine makes them as half tones and they naturally appear much more likelike. (Wichita Falls Times)

THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 1929
WASHINGTON, Jan. 31.—(AP)—With the erection of a special radio picture broadcasting station five miles north of Washington, C. Francis Jenkins, pioneer radio inventor, plans to transmit pictures every night of the week except Sunday.
The new station will start operating within two or three weeks, Mr. Jenkins says, and it is hoped with an increase in power to serve "lookers" throughout the United States. The band in the short wave field recently set aside by the federal radio commission for television and picture broadcasting is better adapted for clear transmission than the channels on which he is now operating and should eliminate much of the fading which is the bane of good picture reception, he says.
The new transmitter under construction at the Jenkins laboratories will be adjusted for the sending of half-tones and images of living persons. Jenkins has been giving a silhouette movie program. Picture stories also will be broadcast from the new station.
Mr. Jenkins says the radio picture art has passed the stage of early experimentation and is already bringing entertainment to hundreds of enthusiastic "lookers." Picture transmission, he declares, is at a point comparable to the position of KDKA, of Pittsburgh, when it inaugurated aural programs.
Most of the lookers are amateurs in the United States and Canada. Bonafied reports of reception of his pictures have been received, he says, from amateurs in California, Porto Rico, Montreal, Bismarck, N. Texas, northern Michigan, Florida, Colorado and Iowa as well as nearby states. Particularly good reception has been reported by Boston amateurs.
Until the commission designates the particular channels to be used under the new allocation, the Jenkins laboratories will continue to broadcast on 46 and 186 meters. The pictures are broadcast Monday and Wednesday nights from 8 until 9 o'clock, eastern time.

WRNY, New York, telling about 1928, reports that it was on the air a total of 2,192 hours. Included were 53 hours and 15 minutes of television transmission. (Associated Press)

Radio Service Bulletin
The Federal Radio Commission approved the following frequency revisions in January 1929:
East Pittsburgh, Pa., (W8XAV, owned by Westinghouse).—2,000 kilocycles (150 metres) to 2,100 (142.9); power, 40,000 watts.
Ossining, N. Y., (W2XX, Robert F. Gowan).—2,000 kcs. (150 metres) to 2,100 (142.9); power, 100 watts.
The Commission approved the following special station
Iowa City, Iowa (W9XAZ , State University of Iowa).— 200 kcs. (150 metres) to 2100 (142.9); power, 500 watts.

December 1928

Did someone once say the road to television is a boulevard of broken dreams?

Well, it certainly wasn’t Harry Warren and Al Dubin, who wrote the song of the same name for a 1933 movie musical. But I digress.

It may be trite, but true. Look no further than stories about television at the end of 1928.

In December, the Associated Press reported on several would-be television station owners. One was John Shepard, Boston radio station owner and dry goods retailer. He was on the verge of forming the Yankee Network, a small chain of radio stations. You’d think he had the credentials to get a television license. The answer, eventually, was “no.”

Then there was Frank L. Carter, the subject of a feature story in June 1928 in the New York Times. The Corsicana-born Carter was a ham operator starting in 1914. By mid-1928, he had been the service manager of the radio department of Ludwig Baumann and Company. His amateur call letters were 2AZ, but the Federal Radio Commission gave him a special call of 2XBN for “experimental picture broadcast work.” The Brooklyn Daily Times of June 10 revealed he was experimenting on 36.6 metres (8,195 kcs.) every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from his Long Island home using the Cooley system. In other words, he was sending what amounted to facsimile pictures.

Carter asked the Commission to turn W2XBN into a television station. The answer was “no” again. Carter moved on into community and political work. In 1930, he claimed a CBS employee tried to bribe him to end his opposition to the network’s proposed radio transmitter in Hempstead. In 1936 and 1937, he griped railroad power rails and transmission lines interfering with radio reception (within three years he was living in rural Ohio).

And then there’s the story of the Jenkins Television Corporation, tied in with the DeForest Radio Corporation. It announced in December it was getting into the television set manufacturing business and offered common stock. This is just before the start of 1929. We know what happened to stocks that year. Both Jenkins and DeForest opened television stations in New Jersey, with one moving to New York and the other burning down. The companies couldn’t stay afloat and went bankrupt while the New York station went off the air.

The Radio Commission tried to sort out problems with television transmissions bleeding over into radio programmes by ordering them off the a.m. frequencies. Even then, there was a bit of confusion. Some newspaper reports said the stations affected would have their licenses revoked on Jan. 1, 1929. Others said they had a broadcast window allowing them to continue operating. Oddly, the Radio Service Bulletin, which announces General Orders of the Commission does not contain anything in its December 1929 issue. The next ruling, modifying this decision, was published the following month.

The following are the TV highlights for December 1929.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1928
Station WNAC Asks Television Permit
WASHINGTON, Dec. 1—(AP)—Permanent television service will be given “lookers-in” by WNAC, Boston, if the Federal radio commission grants an application for a short wave band of frequencies.
John Shepard, president of the Shepard Norwell Company, which operates the station, has told the commission that the station proposes to synchronize visual and audible broadcasting. He says pictures of an orchestra leader directing his orchestra would be transmitted by short waves for reception by special televisor equipment while the loud speaker would bring in the music.
The station has applied for a band of frequencies kilocycles wide in the vicinity of 5,000 kilocycles. Later it is hoped to reduce the width to 10 kilocycles, the same sized channel now used for audible broadcasting. Power of 1,000 requested.
Frank L. Carter, radio amateur of Long Island City, N. Y., has asked the commission for permission to convert his amateur short wave station to an experimental television station.
Another applicant for an experimental license is A. E. Smith, chief of the technical laboratory of the Aero Products Company of Chicago. Mr. Smith told the commission that television has not reached the practicable stage and the object of his company is to experiment within the laboratory and if the results seem to warrant to put it in service operation.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1928
Another Television Complaint.
Last evening, Wednesday, 14, reception over my set of the story of the steward of the lost steamer Vestris was entirely ruined by the interference of a station announcing itself, as nearly as I could make it out, as W3XK.
The address of Mr. [Frederic] Wile came through beautifully, but at 8 o’clock this interference began and lasted, with occasional breaks, until nearly 9, when the announcer stated that they would be on the air again at 8 p. m. Friday next. The interference was as though a generator was running at high speed, accompanied at intervals by screeches and similar noises.
I called at the Radio Commission’s office today relative to this matter, and gather from what I was told there that this is an amateur station, experimenting with television, which has permission to operate at certain hours not included in those of the program of WRC. It would, therefore, seem that no attention is being paid to the restriction, much to the discomfort of listeners-in to such instructive addresses as those referred to above.
CAPTAIN X. (Washington Post)

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1928
Will Make And Sell Home Movie Television Sets
NEW YORK, Dec. 4.—(AP)—Formation of a $10,000,000 corporation to manufacture and sell home movie television sets was announced today.
The company, to be known as the Jenkins Television Corporation, will have as officers James W. Garside, president of Deforest Radio Corporation, as president and A. J. Drexel Biddle, chairman of Deforest Board of Directors and Trustee of the Duke Endowment, as chairman of the board.
C. Francis Jenkins, inventor of a motion picture television device, will be vice president in charge of research and a director.
The device is a transmitter which works from an especially made film permitting reception of television signals from any broadcasting or short wave transmitter. This device is coupled with a receiver which it is claimed, will project animated pictures into the home.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1928
No newspaper story can be found to accompany this captioned photo. His obituary in the Aug. 30, 1991 edition of the Victoria, Tx., Advocate doesn't mention this accomplishment.
Dudeck was born Oct. 29, 1910, in Toledo, Ohio, to the late Paul Richard and Cornelia Schweibold Dudeck. He received a 5-year degree in electrical engineering from the University of Detroit, where he began his career in radio as an announcer with WMBC.
After graduation, he was employed by Western Electric for research and development of radar. During World War II, he was attached to the Navy, teaching top secret radar installations on submarines. After the war, he was employed by ABC radio and television stations WXYZ in Detroit, Mich. He worked with "Wide World of Sports" and, in 1964, he was in charge of engineering the first live picture transmitted from Innsbruck, Austria, via satellite to the United States. He moved to Houston in 1968 and continued his work with ABC station KXYZ.
He retired from ABC in 1975 and began doing radio and television consulting in the United States and other parts of the world. In 1984, he purchased KQRO radio station in Cuero and retired in June 1991. He died Aug. 28th.

SOUTH AFRICAN FAN BELIEVED TO HAVE TELEVISION RECORD
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Dec. 16.— (AP)—A local resident named Mac Cormick is believed to have established a new television record by receiving today images broadcast from station 2XAL New York. The images as received were fairly clear.
The radio amateur call book magazine lists 2XAL at the Experimenter Publishing Company, Villa Richard, Coyotesville, N. J. Hugo Gernsback, president of the station, was surprised last night [15] when informed that television images had been received at such a great distance. He said that though notices of such receptions by American stations were frequent, this was the first word that had been received of reception in foreign countries other than Canada, and is a record for all stations, as far as he knows.
Mr. Gernsback explained that television images have been broadcast three times a week simultaneously from the two stations since August 12, and that they are the only two in New York City that broadcast television images.

Stations on Regular Schedule
CHICAGO, ILL., 9XAA, Chicago Federation of Labor, 500 watts, 4555-4565 kc. or 66 m. Standard scanning. 2 to 3 P. M. daily, except Sunday. Owners also operate WCFL, 615-625 kc., or 484 m., through which irregular radiovision broadcasts are made in morning hours.
LEXINGTON, MASS., 1XAY, Donald R. Laffin, 300 watts, 4800-4900 kc. or 62 m. Standard scanning. 3 to 4 P. M. daily, and irregularly with WLEX for voice.
NEW YORK, N.Y., WRNY and 2XAL, Experimenter Publishing Co., 250 watts, 914-924 kc. or 416 m. and 250 watts, 9695-9705 kc. or 31 m. 48 lines per picture. 7 ½ frames per second. First five minutes each hour while on air.
SCHENECTADY, N. Y., WGY and 2XAF, 2XAD or 2XO, General Electric Co., 50,000 watts, 785-795 kc. or 38 m. in broadcast band. 13,655-13,665 kc. or 22 m. and 9545-9555 kc. or 31 m. at 25,000 or 40,000 watts on short wave. 24 lines, 20 frames per second. WGY broadcasts Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 1:30 to 2 P. M., Sunday, 11:15 to 11:30 P. M. Sunday broadcasts also on 22 m. and Tuesday on 31 m. schedule effective until Jan. 1.
WASHINGTON, D. C., 3XK, C. Francis Jenkins, 250 watts, 6415-6425 kc. or 47 m. and 1600-1610 kc. or 187 m. Standard scanning. 8 to 9 P. M., Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Radiomovies.
Irregular, or Under Construction
BEACON, N. Y., 2XBU, H. E. Smith, 100 watts, 4560-4600 kc. or 66 m. Standard scanning (Under construction).
CHICAGO, ILL., WIBO, WIBO Broadcasters, 5000 watts, 1475-1485 kc. or 203 m.
LOS ANGELES, CALIF., 6XC, Pacific Engineering Laboratory Co., 500 watts, 4500-4600 kc. or 66 m.
MEMPHIS, TENN., 4XA, WREC, Inc., 500 watts, 2400-2500 kc. or 122 m.
NEW YORK, N. Y., 2XBW, Radio Corporation of America, 5000 watts, 15,000-15,200 kc. or 20 m. The corporation also has been granted construction permits for 2XBV, 4500-4600 kc. or 66 m. and for 2XBS, 4600-4700 or 64 m.
PITTSBURGH, PA., 8XAV, Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co., 2000 watts, 4700-4800 kc. or 63 m. and 15,100-15,200 kc. on 16 frames per second, 60 lines per frame.
WASHINGTON, D. C., C. Francis Jenkins, 5000 watts, 4900-5000 kc. or 61 m. (Under construction).
Standard scanning refers to the standard adopted by the Radio Manufacturers Association—48 lines per picture, 15 frames per second.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1928
MOTION PICTURES ARE BROADCAST BY CHICAGO STATION
CHICAGO, Dec. 17. (AP)—Virgil A. Schoenberg, chief engineer of Radio Station WCFL, owned by the Chicago Federation of Labor, announced today that the station which has been experimenting with television, has succeeded in televising motion pictures.
The movies that were broadcast, he said, were not black and white silhouette film but the same celluloid yardage used in the movie shows. More than $100,000 has been spent in experimental work and Schoenberg is using his own money to carry on and try to perfect his experiments.
Officials of the station said that talking movies, theatrical performances and musical programs might be broadcast and televised simultaneously on a large scale if the indicated results of the investigation and experimentation this far are borne out by later work. Representatives of the Television Corporation of America witnessed the demonstration.

Television Adds to Jam in Radio Wave Channels
WASHINGTON, D. C., Dec. 17—Serious problems on the highways of radio broadcasting as a result of the rapid strides made by television are forecast by the annual report of the Federal Radio commission made public today. The commission ventures the opinion that the problem must be faced soon and says it has not yet determined upon a policy with respect to television, although a few broadcasting stations are being allowed limited experimentation so conducted as not to cause interference with adjacent channels.
"It has been urged upon the commission," says the annual report, "that it should permit regular television service in the broadcast band (as well as in the high frequency band) because of the fact that a large audience is already at hand and in some cases the ordinary receiver can be adapted to receive television by the addition of certain apparatus. Television signals, however, will subject the broadcast listener to objectionable noises. The International radio convention limits the broadcasting band to telephonic signals." (Binghamton Press, Dec. 17)
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1928
PLANS TELEVISION STATION
WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 (AP)—Boyd Phelps, of Jamaica, N. Y., today applied to the radio commission for a permit to construct a television station in Jamaica.

GIVES TELEVISION EXHIBIT AT Y. M. C. A.
A television exhibit was given at Central Young Men’s Christian association dormitory last night [18], a receiving set made by Richard Ackerman and Harry Pearson of 128 Union street being used. The image [from WGY], which was projected through a magnifying glass, was about 2 ½ inches by 2 ½ inches in size. Mr. Ackerman has already given a number of demonstrations with his set which he declares is the best one in the city. Although his home is at Brockton, he is at present employed by the Sager Electric company.
Speaking of the success of television, Mr Ackerman said last night that on cloudy nights the reproduction is distorted, but on clear nights it is generally good. (Springfield, Mass., Republican, Dec. 19)

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1928
Television Broadcast Restricted
WASHINGTON, Dec. 22—Transmission of television on the regular broadcast bands will end on January 1, it was announced to-day by the Federal Radio Commission. Thereafter picture and television transmission will be restricted to a special short-wave band which the commission engineers have not as yet decided on.
Among the few stations broadcasting television are WGY, the General Electric Company station, Schenectady, and WIBO, Desplaines, Ill. These stations have been asked by the commission to report the result of their experience. O. H. Caldwell, commissioner of the first zone, which includes New York, is not in agreement with other members of the commission. Mr. Caldwell, it is said, favors continuing the practice of permitting stations to use their regu1ar broadcast channels for this type of program, provided, of course, they adhere to the general order in this regard, now in effect.
This order permits stations which have an assigned frequency between 550 and 1,500 kilocycles, upon authority from the commission, to broadcast television daily for periods of one hour, except between 6 and 11 p. m. (New York Herald Tribune)

Band Set Aside for Television Radio
Radio Commission Decides Interference Is Caused in Regular Channels.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 22—(AP)—The Radio Commission decided today to set aside a special broadcast band for television experiments and development. The commission also decided it would not renew licenses of individuals or companies who have been conducting television experiments in the regular broadcast bands. These licenses expire Jan. 1.
Radio engineers have found that television experiments in the regular broadcast bands have caused interference. The frequencies to be set aside for television purposes have not been selected.

TO STOP TELEVISION IN BROADCAST BAND
Radio Board Acts on Complaints of Inteference by Experiments.
TWO STATIONS AFFECTED
WASHINGTON, Dec. 22.—That a special broadcast band will be set aside for television experiments and developments was indicated today by the Radio Board when it decided to revoke the licenses of two television stations which have been conducting experiments in the regular radio channels. The two stations affected are WGY of Schenectady and WIBO of Des Plains, Ill.
This action followed reports by radio engineers that the television experiments caused considerable interference in the regular channels.
The stations experimenting with television are working under an order by the commission which provided that picture and television transmission for general reception by the public would be permitted on frequencies above 1,500 kilocycles. This order, however, was to be in effect only from the time it was issued, on Oct. 31 to Jan. 1. (New York Times, Dec. 23) Note: there is no mention of WRNY, which also operated on regular radio channels.

First Television Station Being Built Near Washington
C. Francis Jenkins Gets Broadcasting Permit from Radio Commission.
By ROBERT HEINL.
WASHINGTON, December 22.—What is declared to be the first broadcasting station ever built strictly for the sending of television is now being erected about five miles north of the National Capital by C. Francis Jenkins, veteran radio and motion picture inventor.
The new station, which it is thought will be ready for operation shortly after the first of the new year, is only one of series that are to be constructed. Locations of the other stations have not yet been selected.
"It is our purpose to set up television broadcasting stations of adequate power for the territory said Mr. Jenkins discussing his future plans.
"To these stations motion picture stories will be distributed for broadcast over the territory served by each particular station," he continued. "Radio receivers for the home will be distributed in these territories for the reception of this new type of entertainment in the home. Receivers will reproduce pictures amply large enough to entertain the entire family, and friends of the family. Although the price of the instrument has not been definitely fixed, it is proposed to make it so reasonable as to insure a picture entertainment service to the greatest number.
Like Building Other Stations.
Jenkins stated that the erection of the new television station is very similar to the building of any other broadcasting station. The apparatus is almost identical. However, in sending out the pictures the station has to have a wave of 100 kilocycles, with which Jenkins states it is possible to do a good job, even at the present time. Later it is believed that this width can be narrowed.
The station which is now being erected near Washington will have from 2000 to 5000 watts power and it will be operated on from 4900 to 5000 kilocycles. At the present time Jenkins has a laboratory, and has had for a number of years, where he has been experimenting and using 46 meters for distance transmission of pictures and 186 meters within the City of Washington.
In addition to the television licenses that have been granted to Jenkins by the Federal Radio Commission, there are a number of others outstanding, including those to the General Electric Company, the Radio Corporation of America, the Westinghouse Electric and others. The commission also has on hand a number of other applications for television licenses.
In connection with the intensive work which is now being done by Jenkins, a new corporation has come into existence known as the Jenkins Television Corporation, which has purchased all of the sets of the Jenkins Laboratories, which in turn has controlled number of the Jenkins television patents.
Years of Experimenting.
For several years Jenkins, with a staff of assistants, has been experimenting with television and while there is some dispute as to who first actually transmitted pictures by radio, it is a known fact that Jenkins some years ago transmitted pictures radio from the Naval Research Laboratory to one of the local hotels, which was witnessed by government officials, including Secretary of the Navy Wilbur. This was followed by the transmission of motion pictures between the Jenkins laboratory in one part of the city to his home in another part of the city, which was also witnessed by government radio experts.
The Jenkins laboratories was formed in 1921, to develop and perfect the ideas and Inventions of Jenkins and his associates. For many years he has been a recognized authority, inventor and active worker in image transmission and television. He was also the inventor of the first practical motion picture projector.
During the past few years of television experimenting, Jenkins has gathered a vast fund of practical experience. Suitable television transmitting and receiving equipment have now been developed. It is as the result of this pioneering work, which is virtually completed, that the new corporation has been organized to manufacture and market the new machine.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1928
Cedar Rapids Youth Gets Foretaste Of Pleasures Which Television Promises To Bring To All In The Near Future
'Amateur Builds His Own Set And Sees Scenes 1,000 Miles Away.
BY ADELINE TAYLOR.
"I SEE YOU!"
And it isn't of hide a game and seek around the rocking chair for the “I” sits in Cedar Rapids, and the "you" in Washington, D. C. Across span of a thousand miles one holds the magic binoculars of television to his eyes and looks into the Jenkins station at Washington—3XY [sic].
This is what Leo Hruska, 2619 Bever avenue, is doing with the amateur television set he has constructed in his radio room.
Francis Jenkins, called the inventor of practical television, has asked to add this boy's name to the honor roll of pioneer workers in television. These pioneers are entitled to historical credit for their assistance development of this science, he says.
In this room papered with cards of radio stations with whom Leo Hruska has talked—cards from Canada, Chile, Brazil, France, Germany, Australia and innumerable others—he showed us the receiving set he has constructed to bring in these pictures. It must be such that it will amplify the entire range of sound waves transmitted. When music coming over the air sounds tinny it is because everything is not coming in. The lower notes are missing. Such a set will not work with television.
MARVELOUS DEVICE IS SIMPLICITY ITSELF.
With wonder—and with little doubt—we looked at this outfit which the operator claimed would show us what was happening hundreds of miles away. There was a pasteboard disc with forty-eight holes arranged in spiral form along the edge and attached to this circle of paper was a motor to rotate it. Back of the disc was a neon gas lamp. That was all.
A curtain was dropped on the inside works of this long distance telescope to confine the light and we sat down to look through the magnifying lens to the screen on which a picture would be projected with the space conquering machine. We know now how grandma felt when they told her men could fly.
The room was darkened. The switch was turned on. The motor started spinning the disc. A square of rose light formed on the screen and black clouds started moving swiftly across it. Accompanying the weird shadows came a peculiar sound—it was the picture which sends out different waves according to its shape before the transmitter. The trained ear can hear whether it is an inanimate object, a front view of a person or what not being transmitted.
As the operator turned the rheostat on trying to adjust the vision he murmured things about synchronism, fluctuations, distortions and interference and the doubting Thomas in us rose even closer to the surface.
BEHOLD! A SCENE A THOUSAND MILES AWAY
Then gradually the splashes of blackness stopped racing so quickly after one another in the rose light. And there it was. The patches and lines turned into the silhouette of a woman playing with a baby. She picked the child up and kissed her and then, putting her on the floor, continued to play with her.
True, the picture was small and the edges were jagged. One must strain his imagination a trifle just as he does when he watches the flapper neighbor entertain her davenport date in a lighted room behind a drawn window shade. But those adventurers in the land of science who used to tread on the clouds in 1920 after hearing a grunt and a squeal from the earphones would go into perfect rhapsody of delight at this silhouetted image in a home television receiver.
After seeing a picture that was sent through space, the operator showed us what sound looks like in this television set. As the saxophones and drums and horns sent out their syncopated music, the tunes made a fantastic array of changing designs in checkerboard and modernistic effects on the little screen.
Television "programs" differ—from Washington come radio movies of a child hanging up clothes or bouncing a ball; from Boston, Schenectady or Chicago come profiles of the technicians; or California sends the page from some magazine.
TRANSMISSION OF COLOR POSSIBLE.
The black and white television picture, yet in its infancy, has already spread itself to the field of color. The Baird laboratory in London has transmitted action in actual colors. Leo Hruska points out that three slides are used back of the revolving disc—a green, red and violet one.
The thing this sketchy half-tone, produced by motor-propelled disc and neon lamp, spells for the future seem unbelievable—a football game in progress in the Bowl of Roses watched in the front room an Iowa home; the Metropolitan opera not only heard but seen on a miniature stage in a Cedar Rapids drawing room; and business men will not have to rush home for board meetings—they will see and talk with each other electrically from whatever part of the world they may be in. All of these unbelievable things are not only possible but probable in the future of television.
While sound coming through the air is merely a succession of signals, one after the other, making it one-dimensional, the picture must be dimensional, having both length and width. Since a whole picture cannot be transmitted at once television works on the same principle of retentivity of vision that the moving pictures do. Because of this optical illusion, when several pictures are flashed before the eye in a second, each one different from the one it follows, we see movement.
The pictures are cut up into a large number of dots by a disc, the scanner, and sent through the air as straight line radio signals, then pieced before the eye in such a short time that they appear in one picture.
SYNCHRONISM IS PICTURE'S SECRET.
Synchronism is one of the worries of the amateur television operator. This means keeping the discs at the transmitting and receiving stations going at precisely the same speed. "It's like guiding a car with a faulty steering wheel down a crooked icy path," said Leo Hruska, as he adjusted the rheostat so that exact synchronism he could be reached and a clear image would stay on the screen.
Fluctuations of the electrical current make the picture blur. And distortion will occasionally swell a poor man's face quite out of shape on the screen. But there is one thing that does not trouble the looker-in—that is static. Occasionally static will take the form of a few dots on the screen but it does not noticeably bother the reception. Static to television is merely a snow flurry, not the grating howling screech with which the listener-in has had to contend.
The lamps that are used to receive cannot be the ordinary electric light globe variety because they must not glow for even the smallest fraction of a second when the current is off. For transmitting photoelectric cells are used which permit varying light waves vary, an electric current in accordance with their own intensity. Such globes are now also used to sort beans, count automobiles and measure sunburn as well as transmit vision over space.
Like most of these modern inventions which we proudly credit to the modern twentieth century but which belong to less recent years, television had its birth in 1884 with Paul Nipkow, a German experimenter. Fifty years ago a native Scotchman, Alexander Graham Bell, later an American citizen, showed the world how to hear by electricity. Today another of that nationality, John L. Baird, demonstrated to the world how to see by electricity.
In the clamor speed—for news while it was happening—word pictures of events beat the wheels of time by progressing from letters to telegraph to telephones to radio. But the ears were not enough while the eyes were functioning. As the Chinese say: "A picture is worth 10,000 words." Photographs, the moving pictures, then photo-telegraphy brought pictures of these happenings within minutes after their actual occurrence. Now the eyes of communication are keeping pace with Father Time. With television we see what is happening at a distance and while it is happening.
There are still three other senses to be satisfied. Raymond Y. Yates, former editor of Popular Radio, contends that touch transmitting is not impractical. He says in a recent article in a magazine: "Just as we now employ a scanning device at a television transmitter so we might devise some sort of an exploring 'feeler' that would, for instance, electrically register or impress equivalent impulses on an electromagnetic wave. At the receiver we simply need a membrane sensitive and pliable enough to be 'modulated' with the received impulses of varying intensity." When taste and smell are added, the cycle will be complete. (Cedar Rapids Sunday Gazette and Republican)

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1928
Board Awards 506 Short Wave Channels
WASHINGTON, Dec. 26.—The shortwave channels between 1,500 and 6,000 kilocycles, which have been in great demand by commercial organizations, press associations, newspapers, amateurs and others, were allocated to-day by the Federal Radio Commission. These include 456 high-frequency and fifty low-frequency channels.
Of the 639 channels available 308 were allotted to fixed stations, 148 to mobile services, ninety-five were reserved for government uses and eighty-eight were unassigned at this time. [...]
In general, seventy-three channels are reserved for marine services, sixty-four for aviation, five for railroad purposes, six to portable stations, including geophysical and police. Amateurs were given 134 channels, visual broadcasting 100 telegraph channels, which is equivalent to five television or ten picture channels; four are reserved for experimental ststaions and seventy are set aside for commercial point-to-point services. [...]
“Visual broadcasting was considered entirely experimental at the time both as to its technique and its importance to the public, and the bands set aside for this are entirely in the nature of an experiment [the commission explained].” (New York News Herald, Dec. 27)

Television Case Hearing Put Off
Inability of Dudley R. Hooper, 269 Washington avenue, to attend a hearing of the Federal Radio Commission at Washington, D. C., last week, caused a postponement in decision of the commission on his application to establish a radio television station in Rutherford.
The application will be heard at a later date, Mr. Hooper said last night [25]. If granted it will permit the Rutherford man to establish television transmitting apparatus for experimental work which will be the first of its type in New Jersey. (Passaic Daily Herald, Dec. 26)

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1928
SEE THEIR SON 900 MILES AWAY
First Indiana Couple to Have the Experience by Radio Television.
GARY, Ind., Dec. 26 (INS)—A Gary couple has the distinction of undoubtedly being the first couple in Indiana to see a son 900 miles from Indiana, by radio television in their Hoosier home.
Mr. and Mrs. E. T. Kell, of 448 Harrison street, Gary, sat at their home receiving set here and were able to see their son, Ray Davis Kell, first assistant to Dr. E. F. W. Alexanderson, who was in station WGY in Schenectady, N. Y.
Dr. Alexanderson is the pioneer television engineer of the General Electric Company.
The television program on which the Kells "looked in" is a regular Tuesday night feature broadcast by station WGY at Schenectady from 10:30 p. m. to 11 p. m.
A television set constructed by Mr. Kell and his son was hooked up with a high powered radio set.
The Kells said that the features of their son and of his wife as well as those of several other persons in the WGY laboratory were so distinct that a friend of theirs who also "looked in" and who had seen Ray Kell only once, at once recognized him when his picture appeared.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1928
Radio Service Bulletin
The Federal Radio Commission approved the following frequency revisions in December 1928:
Bound Brook, N.J. (W3XL, owned by RCA)—2,850 kcs. (105.3 metres) to 2,950 (101.7); 6,020 (49.83).
New York, N.Y. (W2XBS, RCA)—2,000 kcs. (150 metres) to 2,100 (142.9).
Portland, Ore.—(W7XAO, William Jerman)—2,750 kcs. (109.1 metres) to 2,850 (105.3).
Rocky Point, N.Y.—(W2XR, RCA)—strike out all particulars. The call letters were reassigned to John Hogan’s television station in 1929.
The Commission approved the following special station:
Jersey City, N.J. (W2XCD, DeForest Radio Co.)—1,604 kcs. (187 metres), 1,704 (176); 3,214 (93.34); 4,324 (69.38); 6,420 (46.72); 8,650 (34.68), 12850 (23.35); 17,300 (17.341), 25,680 (11.682); 34,240 (8.762); 51,360 (5.841).