It was a head-turning day for television in August 1928.
That’s exactly what was broadcast. A turning head.
It doesn’t sound all that exciting, but the test broadcast from the General Electric television studio in Schenectady, New York made headlines because it was received—not well—by a viewer in Los Angeles.
Another test broadcast in the U.S. the same day also got some attention. Westinghouse in Pittsburgh aired a motion picture. Unfortunately, news reports of the day omitted information such as what exactly was aired and for how long. Instead, there were windy explanations of how the film was sent. (One wire service mentioned the movie was silent, while one Pittsburgh paper talked about one reel).
That same day, there was a television first in the Midwest. The Federation of Labor’s new short wave station in Chicago showed a chart in an hour-long debut broadcast.
Tests seem to have been the thing that month. After a number of delays, WRNY in New York conducted some test broadcasts of live people—then began a regular schedule of programming, five minutes several times a day, three days a week. W6XF in Los Angeles went on the air overnight with a card displaying the station call letters. Even a radio station in Toronto re-broadcast a transmission from WGY Schenectady with none other than Foster Hewitt at the controls. (Hewitt finally appeared on TV in 1952 when the CBC began broadcasting Hockey Night in Canada).
Perhaps the most significant broadcast was another one on WGY, which went on location to air a speech by Democratic presidential candidate Al Smith.
And WOR in Newark put a live puppet show on the air. The Bamberger’s-owned station had a television license off and on through the 1940s but didn’t start regular broadcasts until 1949.
With that overview, we now provide newspaper clippings with TV highlights of the month.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 1928
WRNY will begin a series of television broadcasts within a few weeks. The apparatus is now under construction in Brooklyn and will be installed in the Coytesville, N. J., transmission plant of the station. (Ben Gross, Daily News)
Wilbur Jerman, technician at KWJJ, is still enthused over television, and is working on broadcasting equipment during vacation periods. It is expected that he will have a set in operation within a month or so. In the meantime, discs, motors and motor-generators are finding a place in the Jerman household. (Oregon Daily Journal)
JENKINS PLANS LARGE-SIZE RADIO MOTION PICTURES
Washington Inventor Perfecting Television Device for Reproducing on Screen
WASHINGTON. Apparatus for broadcasting motion pictures so they will be produced on a regular theater-size screen is now being perfected by C. Francis Jenkins, Washington inventor, whose experiments have attracted wide attention in the radio world, he revealed to the Herald Tribune. The plan for large size reproduction is entirely new in principle and has not yet been given the final tests, he stated.A radiovision instrument which has been in use for several weeks will broadcast motion pictures, but daily for six-by-six-inch reproduction, according to Mr. Jenkins. These, in his opinion, present the ultimate in that direction, and because of this he is using a distinctly new basis for the bigger broadcaster.
Tests Successful.
With programs from Washington going out on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for the test of Mr. Jenkins's small radiovision, results have shown clear reception by listeners-in as far West as Chicago and Cold Springs, Iowa, the inventor made known. Reception on the whole, he says, is particularly clear in the ninth radio district, which includes Illinois.
While New York City has made no reports to Mr. Jenkins, the last program of motion pictures sent out over his device was received clearly in Buffalo, and has been received on other occasions from many eastern points. The broadcaster does not penetrate the South to a great extent, seeming, he asserts, to move in waves pushing toward the West.
So far, the inventor has found the best results on the radiovision have been obtained on a resistance coupled amplifier, rather than the usual transformer-coupled amplifier. Any listener may be considerably puzzled by the action with the latter kind of instrument, because of the mechanism which has found conflict with the motion picture transmitter, and should obtain far better results with the former amplifier, Mr. Jenkins stated.
Present Picture Six Inches Square.
Under the present broadcasting the receiving apparatus gets the pictures in a two-and-a-half-inch square, this being magnified to six by six inches with the glass attachment. At present only six or eight persons have been accommodated with the receiving, but this will be multiplied enormously when the regular screen reproduction is made workable.
For films he is broadcasting, the inventor has taken pictures of his neighbor’s children. So far, only two have performed, but he sees no reason why a large group could not be sent with the same results. As matter of fact, he says, the device for small reproduction is well on the way to perfection, but the theater-size broadcaster really offers an interesting experiment in that its potentialities, if successful, are almost beyond imagination.
In a demonstration the latter part of this week at the home of Sam Pickard, member of the Federal Radio Commission, the motion pictures were shown to a small audience, and appeared to be distinct to the smallest feature of the subjects. The children's movements were almost as plain as a well photographed motion picture, and the titles were of a like clarity, according to those who attended. Commissioner H. A. La Fount also attended the demonstration. Mr. Jenkins stated that he expects to continue broadcasting three times a week, with the idea that the listeners-in over the country will be interested enough to help him along with his experiments. (New York Herald Tribune)
MONDAY, AUGUST 6, 1928
WBBC APPLIES FOR TELEVISION
Brooklyn Station Hopes to Install Complete Plant Brooklyn is shortly to have a television radio station. Peter J. Testan, president of the Brooklyn Broadcasting Corporation, announced today that plans are under way to expand the facilities of station WBBC, in the Montague Court Building at 16 Court street to include television and shortwave broadcasting.
“We have already made application to the Federal Radio Commission in Washington for the added facilities and have reason to believe our appeal will be looked upon with favor by that body," said Mr. Testan.
"Less than two years ago it was rumored in engineering circles that television might be made practical within a decade or so, but much doubt was expressed as to whether it would ever be developed to a practical basis. At that time it was said that hundreds of photo-electric cells would he required at the transmitting station to “pick-up” the picture and than [then] an equal number of lamps would be needed at the receiving end to reproduce the image.
"Today conditions are much different. Television has been greatly simplified and the public may now establish television receivers in their homes.
Regarding the short wave station, Mr. Testan said that it would be of 100-watt capacity or more.
"If we are given the assignment it will necessitate the building of a separate studio and considerable added equipment," he said.
Mr. Testan has also requested that the Federal Radio Commission grant an increase in WBBC's broadcasting power to 5,000 watts. If the request is granted it will mean that the entire transmitter equipment of the station will be changed. (Brooklyn Times Union)
TUESDAY, AUGUST 7, 1928
In our last quiz we asked if there are any stations now transmitting television signals. At this very moment, we know of two actually on the air, namely, WGY of Schenectady, and WLEX of Lexington, Mass. Soon there will be many others, including WRNY in New York, a station at Mt. Beacon, N. Y., three stations of RCA, a Westinghouse station and stations in Memphis and Los Angeles. (Austin C. Lescarboura, International Syndicate)
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8, 1928
WCFL OPERATES NEW TELEVISION
CHICAGO (U.P.)—Television for amateurs became a reality today when a new station, 9XAA, authorized by the Federal Radio commission, went on the air for an hour.
The new station, operated by WCFL, the Federation of Labor station on Navy pier, started the television broadcast with a simple black and white chart today, to enable 1,000 amateurs in Chicago and vicinity to check their television receiving sets. The simple chart will be continued this week, during the 10:00 a. m. to 11 a. m. broadcast each morning.
Next week, Virgil Schoenberg, chief engineer, announced a more complicated chart, with talking will be broadcast, while the third week an effort will be made to broadcast moving pictures.
A wave length of 62 meters is used in the broadcast, and the television is obtained by use of a disc containing 45 openings and revolving at rate of 900 revolutions a minute, Schoenberg said.
BROADCAST WORLD’S FIRST RADIO MOVIES
Unique Exhibition of New Process Given by Westinghouse
NEW WONDER VIEWED
Art Still in Laboratory Stage, Belief of Official.
Indicating that the day will soon arrive when a man can sit in his home and view motion pictures received over a radio set in the same way that he listens to music sent by radio, the world's first demonstration of radio motion pictures was held today at Pittsburgh.
This city, the birthplace of radio broadcasting, witnessed the advent of a new radio wonder, when the possibilities of motion pictures sent through the air were proved at the demonstration at the laboratories of the Westinghouse Electric Manufacturing Co.
Although the radio motion pictures are still in the laboratory stage, H. P. Davis, vice president of the Westinghouse Co., under whose direction the demonstration was held, stated that the event heralded the time when the radio owner would sit at home and have motion pictures projected by his own individual radio receiver.
PICKED UP AT PLANT.
The motion pictures were broadcast on radio waves and were picked up on a receiver located in the Westinghouse television laboratory and reproduced before those watching the demonstration. The regular transmission of motion pictures from KDKA will begin in a few months, Westinghouse officials stated.
The apparatus, when produced commercially, will be sold through the Radio Corporation of America, the official said.
"The radio picture transference can be sent across a room, or across the continent," according to the company statement.
POSSIBILITIES UNLIMITED.
If the invention is developed to a degree which the demonstration indicates, a tourist in California could have a motion picture taken of himself, and have it projected on the radio in his living room, appearing before his family in a manner so realistic as to be uncanny.
The possibilities of today's experiments, like those of the first radio broadcasting, are Iimited only by the scope of the imagination. It is one more chapter in the magic era which began with the first transference of speech through the air.
Unlike some inventions which have puzzled the minds of their inventors for years before the answer to the problem was obtained, radio motion pictures have reached their present stage after two months' work. Dr. Conrad, in charge of this branch of the Westinghouse Co. work, was inspired to experiment on this line two months ago.
PROCESS EXPLAINED.
Radio motion pictures were a pioneering step into the unknown, after television. The broadcasting of the motion pictures required the invention of a number of appliances.
Photography in its simplest form consists of the reproduction of spots of light and shadow in the same arrangement as they appear in the subject photographed. If a series of pictures follow each other at the rate of 16 or more per second, the human eye sees it as a single moving picture.
The broadcast of radio motion pictures requires that the spots of light must be transformed into frequencies, some of which are in the audible range, transferred to a radio wave, and broadcast as electrical energy. In receiving the pictures, the process is reversed, the electrical energy is picked up, the frequencies returned to lights and shadows, which when viewed presents the radio motion picture.
In the demonstration the signals traversed a distance of about four miles, two miles from the laboratory to the broadcasting station by wire and two miles back to the laboratory by radio.
USE BEAM OF LIGHT.
In the first step of the process, a pencil of light traverses each picture at the rate of 60 times a sixteenth of a second. This process produces a 60-line picture.
The beam of light passing through the film falls on an electric eye, not unlike an oversized incandescent lamp. Within the cell is a rare metal whose electrical resistance varies with the light falling on it. The result is that each individual beam of light sends an electrical impulse which varies directly according to the amount of light or shade in the film through which it passed.
The beams of light, as electrical impulses, are sent on to the broadcasting station. Here the beams assume definite and varied frequencies, some of which are audible. Dr. Conrad said the frequencies range from 500 to 60,000. Since the human ear is limited to frequencies of 15,000, much of the motion picture wave is inaudible.
These frequencies are transposed on a radio wave and transmitted exactly as ordinary music or the voice.
USE MERCURY LAMP.
To turn the radio waves back into light a mercury arc lamp is used. The weak radio currents control the action of the many times more powerful current operating the arc lamp. This action may be compared to that of a radio tube.The lamp goes bright or dim as fast as the current changes and its light at any instant is proportion to the light that the electric eye at the other end of the system sees at the same instant. To return the dots of light to their original pattern, a revolving disc, similar to an appliance used in the broadcasting, is employed.
The use of a mercury arc lamp permits the pictures to be thrown on a groundglass or screen, the first time this has been done with television apparatus. The sending and receiving discs must be synchronized.
Westinghouse engineers developed a method of synchronism by radio. They transmit a constant frequency wave of 5,000 cycles from the broadcasting station. This wave is produced by a tuning fork and transmitted over a special carrier wave. The constant frequency note is received on a special receiver and by means of special apparatus controls the speed of synchronous motor motors which drive the discs.
PROMINENT MEN ATTEND.
Those present at the demonstration included:
Radio Corporation of America: Sarnoff, vice president; E. F. Alexanderson, chief consulting engineer; Taylor, chief communications engineer, and J. L. Ray, general sales manager.
National Broadcasting Co.: Merlin Hall Aylesworth, president.
Photophone, Inc., E. E. Bucher, vice president.
General Electric Co.: W. R. G. Baker, manager of radio engineering.
Westinghouse Co.: L. W. Chubb, manager of radio engineering; S. M. Kirtner, manager of the research department; C. W. Horn, superintendent of radio operations, and F. E. Eldredge, manager of radio sales. (Pittsburgh Press)
NEW TELEVISION VICTORY SCORED
Image Sent Across Nation at Night
Experimental Station Here Used in Test
Man's Head Distinguished by Interested Group
Radio science won another important victory last night [8], when an image was successfully broadcast across the continent for the first time at night. Sent out from the powerful General Electric Company station, 2-XAD, at Schenectady, N. Y., the image was picked up here by experimental Station 6-XC shortly after 8 o'clock, Pacific time.
Many radio engineers, including representatives of several large electric and radio corporations, who witnessed the reception of the image, pronounced the demonstration the most successful transcontinental television broadcast yet achieved.
OTHERS LESS CLEAR
During the last few weeks several local stations have been experimenting with the reception of images sent across the continent by radio activity, in no case was the image as clear as it was received last night, they said. The experiment started shortly after 8 o’clock. Robert B. Parrish, owner and operator of 6-XC, tuned a powerful radio receivig [sic] set with a loud speaker in on the General Electric wave length.
From the speaker came first the last strains of a musical program, then an announcement from the station manager and finally a series of sharp staccato noises. Parrish started a motor in a large black box, adjusted several dials, fumbled with a few wires and talked with an assistant about tubes and cycles and many subjects too technical for the lay observer [to] understand.
MAN'S HEAD APPEARS
When satisfied that all was in readiness for the test, Parrish turned a switch. Instantly the noises ceased and a man's head flashed forth in a tiny aperture in the black box—the sounds had become a picture.
It was blurred and sometimes the revolving disc on which it was shown moved too rapidly or did something else that caused it to fade completely for a moment, but nevertheless all present could easily distinguish the ears and nose and sometimes the eyes and transcontinental television broadcast at night became established fact.
Once the observers clearly saw the image turn completely about just as the original did an "about face" in the broadcasting laboratories. For the rest of the time, the image was practically always still.
STATIC APPEARS
Static, the abomination of radio fans who enjoy an evening's entertainment home, marred a part of the demonstration. Just as the sounds the broadcasting were turned into an image by the receiving set the static also appeared as a picture.
Transmitted to the revolving disc, it became a series of dark lines that started at the bottom of the image and rippled their way upward until they faded out of the line of the observers' vision.
Further experiments will be conducted next Tuesday [12] at 7:30 p.m., when, according to Parrish, the wave length of the broadcasting station will be increased. It is expected that much better and possibly some very remarkable results will be achieved then, he said.
Parrish, who is a radio engineer, expects to establish a station here soon to broadcast television locally, having already received permit from the Federal Radio Commission. (Los Angeles Times, Aug. 9)
TELEVISION CLUB ORGANIZED HERE
Application for a permit for the first television broadcasting station on the Pacific coast to be started here within three week was made today to the federal radio commission by the television club.
The club was organized in the chamber of commerce last night [5], J. R. Griggs being elected temporary president. Parts of the television broadcaster are being assembled, Griggs said, and arrangements for constructing a standard television receiver are under way.
The television will be broadcast over station KVU, the Boulevard Express Co.’s 250-watt station. (San Diego Sun)
Television Receiver Assembled by KSTP
What is believed to be the first television received [receiver] in the northwest has been purchased and assembled by KSTP, the St. Paul radio station. Kenneth M. Hance, assistant manager at the station, explained the station has bought the receiver for experimental purposes. (Minneapolis Tribune)
MONDAY, AUGUST 13, 1928
WRNY to Start Daily Television Broadcasts; Radio Audience Will See Studio Artists
The first regular broadcasting of images by television over the radio from New York will begin tomorrow, [14] it was learned last night from Station WRNY, in the Hotel Roosevelt. WRNY, which is owned by The Radio News Magazine, has recently completed the installation of equipment tor broadcasting images and yesterday it conducted its first experimental broadcast. The broadcasting was done from the station’s transmitting plant at Villa Richards, Coytesville, N. J. The images sent consisted of the faces of John Geloso, engineer of the Pilot Electrical Company, and John Maresca, chief engineer of WRNY. The first broadcast began at 5:43 p. m. and continued until 6:30. The second began at 11 p. m.
There is no telling how many persons saw the images, according to Hugo Gernsback, President of WRNY. He estimated that there are about 2,500 sets in the metropolitan area equipped for television reception. Owners of sets unequipped for television heard the television transmission as an intermittent high-pitched whirr, varying with the action before the transmitter.
Officers of WRNY saw the images at a set installed in a private home a few hundred yards from the transmitting station.
The television broadcasting scheduled to begin today will be made a part of WRNY's usual programs, Mr. Gernsback said. After a singer or other entertainer has finished, his or her face will be sent out over the air by television. Thus the schedule for the television will be the same as for the regular broadcasting of this station. Considerable experimenting already has been made with television broadcasting by other stations. For some weeks C. Francis Jenkins has been transmitting silhouettes by radio, and other stations which have been developing the television field are WGY, at Schenectady; WLEX, near Boston, and WCFL, the labor station at Chicago.
Mr. Gernsback said that WRNY has received thousands of letters asking for television broadcasting. (New York Times, Aug. 13)
RADIO MOVIES RECEIVED BY TELEVISION FROM WASHINGTON IN HOME AT MALDEN Fading Interferes With Reception—Small Girl Seen Bouncing Rubber Ball—Experts Forecast Great Interest
At his home, 28 Wedgemere road, Malden, James Millen, chief engineer of the National Company of that city last night [13] gave a demonstration of television reception of radio movies transmitted from Washington, D C, an airline distance of about 500 miles. The demonstration was witnessed by members of several prominent engineering companies of Boston and members of the press.
The movies were transmitted on a wavelength of 46.7 meters from the laboratories of C. Francis Jenkins, radio engineer and inventor, at 1519 Connecticut av, Washington. When the transmissions began at 9 p m the television receiver was set in operation by Mr Millen and very soon there appeared in the viewing aperture faint shadows of human forms in motion. Fading interfered somewhat with the pictures, but on occasion they would clear and the silhouette of a small girl bouncing a rubber bail was then visible against the reddish glow of the neon tube which is used In the process of reproducing radio movies.
While previous demonstrations of television reception have been given, Mr Millen’s demonstration last night was very creditable in view of the distance—500 miles—over which the reception was accomplished. Some difficulty was experienced in holding the pictures in focus, and this kept Dana Bacon, Mr Millen’s assistant, busy the greater part of the evening. The demonstration lasted an hour and was interrupted by announcements from 3-XK, the transmitting station, at intervals of 15 minutes.
Commenting on the significance of last night’s experiments, William A. Ready, president- of the National Company, said: “The demonstration of moving picture reception by radio from Washington is one of great promise. The apparatus, as you have seen, is still very crude. In its present state it L. far from perfection, but pictures from so great a distance, crude as they are, will prove exceedingly intriguing to one who is experimentally inclined. I think anyone who is successful In picking motion pictures from the air even to this humble degree will experience as great a thrill as he did the first time he ever heard the human voice over the radio back in the beginning of broadcasting.”
Others who witnessed Mr Millen’s television demonstration last night were: Warren B. Hopkins, vice president and chief engineer of Stone & Webster, Inc, and W. H. Balcke, chief of betterment division of the same company, Louis R. Shafer, general counsel; and H. P. Fessenden, general manager, both of the National Company. (Boston Globe, Aug. 14)
TUESDAY, AUGUST 14, 1928
Regular television broadcast service over WRNY, which was scheduled to begin yesterday [14] in New York has been pushed back to Friday, according to an announcement by Hugo Gernsback, President of the station. {New York Times, Aug. 15)
TELEVISION PICKED UP FROM EAST
Pictures Broadcast from New York Received in Experiment Here
First reception of a special radio television broadcast for western experimenters from Station WGY, Schenectady, N. Y., was effected last night [14] by the television receiver in the home of Gilbert C. Lee, 2274 Hildago avenue. By prearrangement with the Schenectady station the television radio waves were broadcast from 7 to 7:30 p.m. (Pacific Coast time,) but owing to the fact that the broadcasting station was operating on a new wave length, and to static interference, the results obtained were not as good as were expected.
Station WGY broadcasts television regularly during fifteen-minute periods once each week and Lee's previous success in receiving the picture broadcast led to the special demonstration last night. More special experiments with the eastern station are expected. Lee is aided in his work by Kenneth G. Ormiston, radio technician. (Los Angeles Times, Aug. 15)
Television in Plane TestPHILADELPHIA, Aug. 15 (NANA)—The first attempt to transmit a picture from a flying airplane to a broadcasting station was made here yesterday [14] at the Philadelphia airport in the southwestern part of this city.
A picture of Col. Charles A. Lindbergh was chosen for the experiment, and station WFI was selected as “reception” point. While impressions of Colonel Lindberg’s features appeared at intervals on the receiving apparatus, a defective generator on the airplane used in the experiment prevented a complete recording or reception of the picture.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 1928
Another station will enter the ranks of television broadcasters tonight, when a picture transmission is to put on the air at 10, Central standard time, from Station WTMJ, Milwaukee. It will follow a band concert which begins at 9.10 o’clock. (Allentown Morning Call)
FRIDAY, AUGUST 17, 1928
Caldwell Urges Television Test Work Continue
Radio Commissioner Asks Present Wave Channels Be Available for Future
‘Still’ Pictures Developing
Success With Ordinary Set and Phonograph Is Cited
WASHINGTON, Aug. 17.—Recommendations that visual broadcasting experiments—television and “still pictures”—be allowed to continue on the wave channels used at present were made to the Federal Radio Commission to-day on a memorandum by O. H. Caldwell, member in charge of the zone comprising New York and the north Atlantic states.
His report in part follows:
“Visual broadcasting” (as distinguished from aural broadcasting) now comprises two distinctly different groups of service, (1) television or moving pictures of distant moving scenes, and (2) radio phototransmission of still pictures.
“Three popular stations in Zone 1 are now broadcasting short television programs daily, and producing fairly satisfactory results within the limits of the ten-kilocycle broadcasting band. The expressions of a face are clearly shown, and dramatists who have seen these transmissions declare that a technique can be developed which will attractively utilize this new dimension of home entertainment on the ordinary broadcast waves. Another inventor has provided ‘silhouette movies’ of full-length figures, black-and-white animated cartoons, which also require an ether track no wider than the ordinary ten-kilocycle broadcast channel.
“The broadcasting of ‘still’ pictures is also developing rapidly and seems to present great possibilities to the radio audience. Such pictures are received over the ordinary receiving set, coupled with a simple mechanism ingeniously utilizing one’s own home phonograph. The adaptation of this system to the ordinary broadcast station’s standard apparatus is no less ingenious. While in New York I watched a broadcasting director pick up an ordinary flat phonograph record, play it in front of his microphone and a picture of Colonel Lindbergh appeared at the receiver I was watching. Weather maps, diagrams, explanatory pictures and news photographs can now be broadcast in this way, enhancing the usefulness at the ordinary home receiving set.” (New York Herald Tribune, Aug. 18)
SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 1928
Local Amateurs Pick Up WRNY In Television Broadcast Tests
Begin Indefinite Transmission Schedule To-morrow; Hugo Gernsback, Sponsorer of Experiments, Declares Programs Are Intended for Expermenters
Equipped with the special apparatus needed to translate into images the complicated picture waves emanating from the WRNY television transmitter in Coytesville, N. J., amateurs in New York, Long Island, Connecticut and Pennsylvania successfully saw moving images during the first week of the station’s tests.
Beginning with an indefinite transmission schedule on Monday, the station broadcast television images during five minute intervals on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, from 11:30 a. m. until 9:30 p. m. To-morrow [20] the schedule has been announced as beginning at 11:20 a. m. for five minutes, and the same interval of time after 12:30 p. m., 2:30, 3:30 and 5:30 p. m. Persons at the station will be chosen as the subjects to be televised.
Following initial tests during the fore part of the week, on Tuesday evening the receiving apparatus was installed in the home of Hugo Gernsback, president of the station, at 180 Riverside Drive, where it is reported to have worked successfully despite the lack of synchronizing apparatus. The transmitting apparatus was located in the station’s broadcasting plant at Coytesville, N. J. The images were not perfect, but they were readily recognizable. Mrs. John Geloso, wife of the chief engineer of the Pilot Electric Company, who designed the apparatus, was the subject.
The tests were conducted over Station WRNY and its associated short wave station, 2XAL, which operates on a wave length of 30.91 meters. Despite expert opinion that television signals broadcast in regular program channels would be apt to cause interference with those operating on adjacent bands, no “overlapping” was reported, due to the confining of the signals to a 5,000 cycle band.
“A number of other things should be straightened out,” said Hugo Gernsback, of the station. “First, the Pilot televisor is locatted [sic] at Coytesville, N. J., alongside of the actual WRNY transmitter, and is not in the WRNY studio in the Hotel Roosevelt, New York. Therefore, the images of artists per forming before the microphone in the latter place cannot and will not be put on the air at this time. Neither will their photographs be broadcast, as has been mistakenly stated.
“At first we will have one of the WRNY operators act as the subject: other people present at the station on the occasion of a television broadcast will also be asked to sit before the televisor.
“This television broadcasting is entirely for the experimenter—the man who makes or assembles his own apparatus. It is not for the public at large, because there are no commercially-made television receivers, and there probably will be none for some time. We are assured of a large and appreciative audience—or rather observers—because the necessary receiving apparatus is really very simple and can readily he assembled at home.
“Please distinguish the true television work we are doing from the ‘radio movies,’ demonstrated last week by the Westinghouse company. That was not television, but animated radio tele-photography. The pictures on a roll of cinema film were transmitted, not the image of a live person.
“The first public demonstration of the system will be held in one of the halls of New York University in the Bronx. At that time we will announce our plans for a definite schedule of television transmissions, and we will also release technical data on the apparatus itself. We had planned to held this demonstration Friday, August 17, but Mr. Geleso has asked for the extra time to perfect his synchronizing system.” (New York Herald Tribune, Aug. 19)
CFCA’S VISUAL RADIO SERVICE
Last night [19], from 10.15 to 10.30, CFCA (Daily Star) broadcast words and the image of a man in Schenectady for receivers in its own area. The broadcast originated at WGY, Schenectady station of the General Electric Co. CFCA rebroadcast it locally just as it did the 2LO (London, England) audible broadcasts last spring, making it more clearly available for local receivers. In television the signal strength is particularly important and CFCA made it easier for local receivers by broadcasting the WGY signals at full local power on its own transmitting set. CFCA, simultaneously with its broadcast, made experiments in the reception of these images; these receiving experiments will be continued during the week at intervals together with CFCA’S television broadcasts. Picture 1 shows Foster Hewitt of CFCA at the speech input amplifiers of the transmitter at the station. Picture 2 shows Chas. Lowry of H. M. Kipp Co., receiving the WGY signals at his own home, 34 Humber Trail, on a Mercury Super Ten receiver, similar to the one which was used by CFCA in its rebroadcasts from England. Picture 3 shows Gordon McClain, chief engineer of CFCA at his home, 312 Brunswick Ave., with the television receiving apparatus with which he is experimenting on television reception from the CFCA transmission. These pictures were taken last night by a Star photographer. The mode of operation briefly is thus: WGY broadcasts signals which are audible translation of the visual objects being shown. These signals were picked up by Mr. Lowry, sent to CFCA’s studio by land lines and broadcast by the station, being received from the air by Mr. McClain on his receiver with its scanning dish and other equipment to translate the audible results back again into vision. (Toronto Star, Aug. 20)
KSTP has just celebrated the close of its first month of radio picture broadcasting. The St. Paul station is a pioneer in the field of this latest development in radio and on July 16 sent out its first picture from its transmitter at Westcott and received the picture at the St. Paul studios. (Minneapolis Tribune) [Acccording to the paper, “Radio pictures” were transmitted from 10:10 to 10:30 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays, and Saturdays from 1:01 to 2 p.m.]
TUESDAY, AUGUST 21, 1928Television Applied To Radio
Chatham Man Takes Part in First Demonstration Practical Talking Wireless
A PUPPET SHOW GIVEN
Major Herbert M. Dawley Presents Puppets with Music and Talking over WOR From Bamberger Studios
A few years ago radio was a toy; today it is a household necessity and few are the homes which do not have receiving sets. Television is in the offing and it will not be long before pictures will go with the voice and music.
A distinct forward step in this direction in which a Chatham man played most important role, was taken on Tuesday [21] at the studios of WOR, L. Bamberger Company, of Newark, where for the first puppet play, with voice and music synchronizing perfectly, were seen and heard by a gathering of about fortty newspapermen and scientists, while the music and spoken word were broadcast from Station W O R.
The puppet show and synchronized music were prepared and presented by Major Herbert M. Dawley, of Chatham, and his staff, whose creative work along, artistic, scientific and unusual lines has created much comment during recent years.
The apparatus used was developed by Dr. Paul H. Kober, director of engineering at the Daven Laboratories and engineer for Station WOR.
At the demonstration Tuesday afternoon guests looked at a screen three inches square and saw three puppets go through the motions of a marionette play. At the same time they heard through headphones the words spoken for the figures. Dr. Kober said that it was the first time to his knowledge that a complete scene, with figures and voices, had ever been transmitted.
The transmitting apparatus consisted of the radio "eyes," which caught the image illuminated by a strong light and carried it through to a machine which transformed the light waves, broken by means of a perforated revolving disc, into electrical energy. This energy, sent through the wires, was retransformed into light at the receiving end, and these waves recreated into their original lengths by means of another disc revolving at exactly the same speed, and similar in every respect, to the disc in the transmitting machine. Thus was the moving picture projected upon the screen before the view of the audience.
It can not be said that the television apparatus, as seen Tuesday, was in its final stage of perfection. One had to watch closely to catch the movements of the figures. Lines of light constantly played across the screen, at times blurring the performance. This was due to the fact that the two discs were not always moving in exact synchronization. One half of one per cent difference in the speed, it was said, would result in blurring. The two motors which spun the discs were regulated by matched rheostats, which were able to synchronize the motors.
The process is all done with the speed of light, so that the transmission and recording of the pictures are for all intents and purposes instantaneous. (Chatham, N.J. Press, Aug. 25)
FIRST TELEVISION SHOWING BY W R N Y WATCHED BY 200
Group at N. Y. U. See Moving Person at Coytesville, N. J., Transmitting Station.
A girl out in Coytesville, N. J., faced a whirling disc, smiled, talked and turned her head from side to side last night [21], while every motion and expression was watched by a group of college professors, newspaper and other guests gathered around another machine in a lecture room of New York University, 181st st. and University ave., the Bronx.
The occasion was the first demonstration of television and was presented by Radio Station W R N Y, which starts its program of hourly television broadcasts today. About 100 persons were present at the first showing in Philosophy Hall at 7 o’clock last night, and about the same number attended the second at 9 o’clock, composed mostly of manufacturers and scientists. Ted Nelson, director of the station, was in charge, and Hugo Gernsbach, president of the Experimenter Publishing Company, controlling W R N Y, made the addresses.
Image Crude.
Although the image radiated from the station’s transmitter at Coytesville was very imperfect and only in black and white, yet the young woman and other “performers” were quite recognizable and an actual moving image was sent directly, with no intermediate stages of taking photographs or movie film. Also the movements and expressions of the subject’s face were transmitted and projected on the screen at the receiving and practically instantaneously.
The image was only about three inches high. Mr. Gernsbach explained that the invention was still in the experimental stage. W R N Y was beginning its broadcasting at this early stage, he said, so as to allow the more pioneering of the amateurs to follow through and participate in the later developments, in which tremendous strides are yet to be made. Among the possibilities which he discussed was the broadcasting of dramatics and important sporting events, now witnessed by a few thousand at the best, to the many millions of people of the radio audience.
Although it is not yet feasible to transmit sound accompanying images, that is the next step which W R N Y plans to take up in a few months. Whereas today a special television broadcast will be radiated for five minutes at a time at every hour and on the hour throughout the broadcasting day, in a few months it is hoped to make it possible for the listeners actually to see the musical and speaking entertainers at the studio as they are performing.
How it is Done.
In broadcasting an object or person, a revolving, perforated disk allows only a tiny section of the image at a time to pass through a lens and on to a photoelectric cell. If the section is a dark part of the object, it generates in the cell less current; if light, more. This varying current is amplified and in turn, produces radio waves, which produce a similar current at the receiving end. This current is here run through a neon tube, which gives off a varying light similar to the light percolating through the revolving disk of the transmitter. Each section of the picture, then, is received in the order in which it is sent and it is cast on its proper place on a screen by another revolving disk synchronized with the first. Of course, the whole picture is not thrown upon the screen at once, but the succeeding sections follow each other so fast, that the eye sees a complete image. Thus, in brief, was a little image in New Jersey pulled to pieces, changed into something else, shot through the ether and put together again up in the Bronx. (Brooklyn Daily Eagle)
Gov Smith Pioneer in Outside Television Pickup
Albany, N. Y., August 23.—Gov Alfred E. Smith, Democratic candidate for President, went to the electorate of the nation by voice and last night, August 22, when WGY broadcasting an outside television pick-up for the first time, televised the governor as he acknowledged the applause of the crowd before he began his speech of acceptance.
Listeners tuned to WGY or to short wave stations 2XA and 2XAD heard first a short explanation of what was be expected and then followed a peculiar high pitched tone, broken at varying intervals. This was the face of the Democratic candidate for President. The peculiar tones heard on the loud speaker were convertible into the image of Gov Smith by those who were equipped with proper receiving equipment. Transmission of the television signals on short waves permitted those at great distances to receive the signals unhampered and undisturbed by static.
The demonstration marked another great advance in the fascinating art of television. It was made possible by the remarkable simplification of the system of television transmission and reception by Dr E. F. W. Alexanderson, consulting engineer of the General Electric company and chief consulting engineer of the Radio Corporation of America.
The apparatus was erected at a short distance from the bank of microphones used by the National and Columbia Broadcasting chains for the transmission of the notification ceremonies.
The set-up consisted of three pieces of apparatus, two tripod-mounted photo electric cells housed in boxes little larger than a graflex camera and the light source and scanning device in a box about half the size of the familiar phonograph. This was also mounted on a tripod.
The photo-electric cells were placed at the left of Gov. Smith. Within three feet of his face and the light source was placed between the cells face high.
The light from a 1000-watt lamp, broken up by the scanning disc played on the governor’s face. The photo-electric cells, which respond to the slightest changes in light intensity, caught the changing lights as the governor moved his head and these light changes. These were converted into electrical current by the photo electric cells and were amplified and flashed to the transmitter of WGY, 18 miles from the capitol. The electrical signals were then impressed on the antenna as in the case of speech and were flung out in all directions. The loud speaker converted these signals into sounds but the experimenter with a television receiver equipped with a 24-hole scanning disc might see Gov. Smith.Six months ago in Schenectady, Dr. Alexanderson and his assistant, R. D. Keil, demonstrated their simplified home television receiver. Since that time they have been engaged on the other side of the problem, the simplification of the pick-up or transmitting apparatus. Last night marked this first practical application of the equipment.
The demonstration marked another step in the investigator's progress toward television tor everyone. Much very much remains to be done. But the first appearance of television pick-up outside of the laboratory is forerunner of the day when such apparatus will be familiar as the present microphone. It may sometime be expected to find its place at all great public functions, at athletic events, etc., carrying not a verbal description of the event but an actual picture of the event.
WGY is the pioneer station in the broadcasting of television programs. A regular television schedule has been maintained for the past few months. These programs, from 15 minutes to a half-hour in duration are carried on primarily for the assistance of engineers in the development of a system of transmission and reception. But they are offered also to all experimenters who care to use them. Reports of reception of images have been received from Los Angeles, Detroit and several places in Pennsylvania. (Springfield Daily News, Aug. 23)
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The Governor came in at 7:21 p.m. and received an enthusiastic welcome. He wore a carefullypressed blue serge suit, a bow tie, turned down collar and gold studs. He posed for the movies, stills were “shot” for television, and he threw kisses to his women friends. After a few moments, with an air of mock solemnity, he waved for quiet, putting his finger to his lips and bowing.
Chairman Raskob opened the ceremonies on the dot at 7:30. [. . .]
The Governor was introduced at 8 p.m. sharp. He carried his address in a large, leather bound book. The crowd rose and applauded, shrieked and screamed. An admirer sent up a basket of flowers. Mr. Smith turned to a small box on his left from which emerged a quivering, dancing light. This was the television process, the newest device in the gradual elimination of audiences. A dozen flash powders were exploded right under one of the gallery corners, resulting in temporary asphyxiation of a band engaged in performing “The Battle Cry of Freedom.”
Realizing that 78radio stations were hooked up to hear his voice, Mr. Smith motioned for silence and swung into his address. At first, his enunciation was poor and indistinct; gradually, however, as he proceeded with his speech, he became more at ease, and his voice cleared. [. . .]
The Governor finished at 9.20, thus speaking for 15 minutes more than Herbert Hoover did at Palo Alto. (Brooklyn Eagle, Aug. 23)
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 1928
Television Station On County Line Is Applied For
Washington, Aug. 22.—A television station on the border of Hudson County will be built by Dudley R. Hooper of 269 Washington avenue, Rutherford, if he can secure the permission of the Federal Radio Commission. Hooper's application for a constructional permit is now pending in the commission's office.
According to O. H. Caldwell, commissioner for the first zone, it cannot be acted upon within sixty days.
"No licenses are being issued except for experimental purposes," says Caldwell in a letter to Hooper. However, he promises to take the matter up with the commission and the request has not been refused but is simply awaiting further action.
No details as to the proposed station are given in Hooper's application which is in the form of a brief letter asking permission to engage in television broadcasting. (Bayonne Evening News)
FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 1928
RADIO PICTURES AT CHICAGO SHOW WILL DEMONSTRATE TELEVISION AT ANNUAL WIRELESS EXHIBIT.
CHICAGO, Ill. (AP)—Television, the infant of the radio family, will be brought out for exhibition at the seventh annual Chicago radio show.
The show, the oldest exhibition of the radio industry, will at the Coliseum the week of Oct. 8.
Lessons learned from television experiments conducted by a Chicago manufacturer and stations WIBO and WMAQ here will enable the experimenters to give the show patrons a correct picture of the advancement of television.
One transmitter will be set up in the show and between fifteen and receivers will be scattered through the coliseum. All who attend the show may see what progress has been made in projecting images over ether waves.
Radio engineers and certain manufacturers are anxious to prevent commercialization of television until it has been thoroughly tested and perfected to greater extent than is the case with the present apparatus.
For several weeks WMAQ and WIBO been televising images with an apparatus perfected by U. A. Sanabria. This apparatus will be shown at the New York and Chicago radio shows.
The show here, as in the New York exhibition, is sponsored by the Radio Manufacturers' association.
Phonograph manufacturers will be permitted to exhibit at the Chicago show this year. This has not been done before. They will show only models having combination phonographic and radio sets.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 25, 1928
LOS ANGELES STATION TRIES TELEVISION
To Give Public Demonstration at Radio Show Sept. 2-8
Los Angeles, Aug 25.—KGFJ is sending out images on the television transmitter. The wavelength is 62.6 meters; the disc speed is 1080 R.P.M., giving 18 complete images per second; and there are 48 square holes in the disc, giving 48 lines per image. So far, testing is confined to the hours between midnight and dawn, but the station will presently be ready to announce a definite schedule of several hours daily, both during the day and in the evening.
The call letters of the short wave transmitter are 6XF, and this call will be transmitted visually by displaying a white card bearing the letters in black.The station will co-operate with the radio show in the Ambassador auditorium, Sept. 3-8, making possible the actual reception and demonstration of radio television at the show. (Brooklyn Times, Sep. 2)
LICENSE STILL IN DOUBT
On Slade’s Application To Make “Aircraft Television” Experiments
Washington, D. C., Aug. 24. Until John C. Slade of Rural Route 3, Hamilton, Ohio, can satisfy Judge Ira E. Robinson, federal radio commissioner, of his “ability and worthiness in this line," he is not likely to receive the aircraft television license for which he applied four months ago.
Slade hoped to have his station actually in operation June 1, according to his application.
It is now over two months too late for that, and the license has not yet been issued.
A pencilled notation by Judge Robinson on the Slade application would seem to indicate the cause of the hold-up: "Let this applicant explain how and to what extent he proposes to experiment. What do wo know about his ability and worthiness in this line?"
The application was made on April 6. It was forwarded to the commission April 11 by W. M. Edwards, United States supervisor of radio.
Captain S. C. Hooper and G. Blackwell of the technical division of the Radio commission, have both recommended approval of the license but their recommendations have had no effect so far.
The records of the commission fail to disclose whether Slade has convinced a body of his "ability and worthiness in this line," or not.
Experiments Defined.
Aircraft television experiments would be conducted by Slade, if he gets the desired license. The application blank tersely describes the contemplated experiments as from land to plane and plane to land," and says they are to be conducted in conjunction with the Embry-Riddle company, of Cincinnati.
Ten years of experience with “all types of apparatus for wave propagation and reception” are cited as evidence of Slade’s qualifications. He describes his facilities for television broadcasting as including apparatus of various types and machine shop equipment. Only 50 watts power is asked for the proposed station.
Members of the commission have stated that they look on television as still an experiment. While they intend to continue granting licenses, they also intend that no television license shall deprive any regular broadcasting station access to the air. Existing broadcasters will they say, be given the preference. (Hamilton Evening Journal)
STATIC BALKS RECEPTION OF TELEVISION HERE
Homemade Set Of Karas Receives Impulses, Blurred By Interference.
A shower of static while station WGY, Schenectady, New York, was broadcasting an image by television prevented clear reception on the home-made televisor of Alex Karas, North Stratton street, Sunday evening [26]. But the little group in the workshop of the radio expert marvelled at the possibilities and capabilities of the apparatus.
In order to reproduce a television image perfectly, exact synchronization of the sending and receiving apparatuses is necessary and local interference must be at a minimum. Otherwise the reproduced picture will be blurred and distorted.
Claims of uniqueness are made by Mr. Karas for his televisor. The most radical departure from standard receiving machines, to the radio expert, is the bulb which receives the electrical impulses as an ordinary receiving set picks them out ether and transforms them into images which are reproduced.
Uses Helium Gas
According to Mr. Karas, the bulb which he uses in his reproducing contains helium gas instead of neon gas used in bulbs and televisors. With helium gas, described by Mr. Karas as electrically balanced and possessing properties which make it the fastest gas available, a blue light is provided instead of a pink glow furnished with neon gas, thereby giving a clearer and more distinctive reproduction, according to Mr. Karas.
Mr. Karas' receiving set is housed in a black box, and the apparatus contained therein is connected with an ordinary radio set. At 9:15 o'clock, Sunday evening, station WGY announced that it would start sending a picture by television for fifteen minutes.
At the announced hour the loud speaker of the receiving set started up a whirring racket, similar to a long continuous wail of static. Karas assured the group in the workshop that it was the beginning of the television broadcast. Turning out the lights, Mr. Karas cut the impulses from the loud speaker into the televisor, and motors within the box set up a soft whir as the apparatus began functioning.
Immediately, a blue glow appeared at the little "window" in front of the machine, and watchers were given the impression of a developed roll of photographic film being run off before a soft light. At times, the impression was that of smoke rolling up from a huge fire, while at other times, black zigzaggy streaks crossed and re-crossed the televisor window.
At no time during the demonstration was Mr. Karas able to synchronize his apparatus with the sending station, due, he said, to static and local interference. In previous tests, he said, the image appeared clearly to observers, and the streaks and clouds of black were missing.
After the Schenectady station finished broadcasting by television, Mr. Karas tuned the televisor in on music, and the electrical impulses produced by the sounds of various instruments in an orchestra were recorded on the little window of the apparatus. The radio man also demonstrated the sensitiveness of his apparatus to the human voice, speaking into a microphone for this test. Peculiarly, however, while the televisor responded to gentlest-whispered the word, it would not record the human whistle, however shrill.
To synchronize the televisor with the sending station, Mr. Karas has arranged two motors, which are connected with a rotating disc in which there are a series of small holes through which the light from the bulb passes to the screen on which the image is viewed. The speed of the disc is governed by the operator.
According to Mr. Karas, television is in the same stage as radio was ten or more years ago, when persons gathered around crude receiving sets in the hope of picking up broadcasting station signals. He expressed belief that within five or ten years television would be so refined that athletic contests may be broadcast and picked up on televisors in homes. The cost of televisors will be more expensive than an receiving set, he said. (Gettysburg, Pa. Times, Aug. 27)
MONDAY, AUGUST 27, 1928
TELEVISION ON AIR.
WCFL, Chicago, Will Broadcast Pictures Every Day.
CHICAGO, Aug. 27.—Station WCFL, operated by the Chicago Federation of Labor, today announced the federal radio commission had approved its plan for broadcasting television daily between 3 and 4 p. m. (Central standard time) beginning today.
The station will use its present wave length of 483.6 for broadcasting of the television and is planning to send motion pictures as part of its television program.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29, 1928ALFRED HUBBARD, DRY SLEUTH IN OLMSTED LIQUOR CASE, INVENTS RADIO TELEVISION TRANSMITTER HERE; TEST COMES SATURDAY
Former Federal Prohibition Agent Assembles Invention in Basement of Hotel Henry—Confident It Is Better Device Than That in Use Now.
Radio development in the Pacific will advance next week if a radio television transmitter, invented by Alfred M. Hubbard, of Seattle, who has been prominently associated with radio development in the Northwest for many years and who gained national prominence as a dry slueth [sic] in the now famous "Olmsted liquor conspiracy case,” is successful in its first test here Saturday [Sept 1].
Hubbard, who has divided his time in the last seven or eight years as an inventor and also as a prohibition agent, working out of Seattle, has been at work on his invention for the past year and for the past month has been assembling his invention in his workshop in the basement of the Hotel Henry.
Test Saturday
Hubbard admitted today that he is going to give his invention its first test on Saturday. He declared that although there is some similarity with his invention and the radio transmitter put out by the Jenkins Laboratories in the East, his invention carries out several new ideas and if successful, may be an improvement over the transmitter now in use.
"I haven't a thing in this transmitter that infringes on anyone else's patent," Hubbard asserted. "I have had the various parts tested out and they worked like a charm. Patents several of the parts have already been applied for. The parts are already to be assembled and everything will be in readiness for the test on Saturday."
Disk Different
Hubbard explained that the main similarity between his transmitter and the one now in use in the East is the rotating disk for breaking up the image. The radio transmitter, he explained, takes the place of the microphone, giving vision instead of audible sound.“Of course radio transmission is still in the experimental stage and the images may be a bit indistinct or blurry at first but I am confident that this transmitter will be successful," Hubbard asserted. He said that still pictures would be tested out first and then moving pictures.
Hubbard has invested several thousand dollars in his invention and stands in a fair way to realize handsomely on his investment if the transmitter is successful, he admitted.
Not Federal Agent
Hubbard is not in the employ of the federal prohibition department now and has not been employed as a federal agent for some time, he asserted today. It was through Hubbard that the Olmsted conspiracy was revealed a few years ago.
He has been interested in radio development for several years, building the first 1,000 watt station in Northwest for Olmsted. Later he built the KTCL station at Seattle and several other stations. He holds several patents on radio devices. (Bellingham Herald, Aug. 29)
