Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

top. No power on earth can stop its winged flight. These are only a few of the parts played by radio in thi.s war, but they indicate the vital role of this great new art. Without it global warfare would have many a "lost battalion," "lost fleet," and "lost battlefield." Radio coordinates the combined effort and brings the long and scattered battlefronts into focus. Admiral Halsey, in the southwest Pacific, is no further away in communication, from head- quarters in Washington, than Gen- eral Eisenhower, in Africa. Ad- miral Nimitz and General Emmons, at Hawaii are in the same quick contact with Washington as the Army men in the Aleutians, lee- land or Panama. Radio puts them all on a direct and practically in- stantaneous line. War correspond- ents have reported how the Ameri- can army erected a powerful radio transmitter during the landing operations in Africa, first to calm the local population and enlist aid of the natives. These illustrations of radio activ- ity in the war may convey some idea of the scope of the work that has been in progress in the manu- facturing plants and on the wave- lengths during the past year. To equip every bomber, ship, motorized unit and field base with radio has been a herculean task. The Amer- ican radio industry, which in peace- time produced millions of radio sets and hundreds of millions of radio tubes, has met the challenge su- perbly, as evidenced by the Army- Navy "E" flags flying over many radio factories. Radio has been put on the many fighting fronts by the production workers. Throughout the year they have toiled day and night to equip the United Nations with the finest radio apparatus in the world. Radio manpower, working hours, produc- tion methods and communication were geared every day of 1942 to the winning of the war. Production of civilian radios ended in the Spring of '42. As early as 1939, following outbreak of the war in Europe, the RCA Victor Division had begun conversion from a com- mercial basis to war production. The use of radio in the war and RCA VICTOR DIVISION Unification of RCA With Its Manufacturing Subsidiary Coordinates Operations and Aids War Effort. * I 'HE RCA Manufacturing Company, wholly-owned subsidiary A of Radio Corporation of America, was consolidated with the parent company, effective December 31, 1942, David Sarnoff, RCA President, announced December 29 following a special meeting of the RCA Board of Directors. The manufacturing organization, with its more than 30,000 employees, will be known as the RCA Victor Division of Radio Corporation of America. The management, personnel, operations and sales policies will continue as heretofore. "The unification of the administrative, research and manufac- turing activities of RCA will result in closer coordination and increased flexibility of operation," Mr. Sarnoff stated. "It is e.xpected that this unity and coordination of services will facili- tate the company's war effort." Mr. Sarnoff also announced that at the meeting of the Board, George K. Throckmorton, former Chairman of the Executive Committee of the RCA Manufacturing Company, was elected a Vice President of the Radio Corporation of America, of which Mr. Throckmorton is a Director. The principal plants of the RCA Victor Division are located in Camden and Harrison, N. J., Indianapolis, and Bloomington, Indiana, Lancaster, Pa., and Hollywood, Cal. The RCA Labora- tories are located at Princeton, N. J. of radio-electronic devices in the war-effort of industry, to speed pro- duction and increase efficiency, has brought new recognition to the word electronics, which was born of radio. For years, the radio industry has manufactured more than 100,000,- 000 electronic tubes annually. Ra- dio tubes which produce electrons, control them and harness them to service in communication and in- dustry, have become the heart of electronics. These tubes have paved the way for major advance in the radio art for the past two decades, including broadcasting, short-waves and television. Tubes opened the micro-wave spectrum which borders on the frontier of light. In the elec- tron microscope, they have even passed beyond this frontier, to util- ize the electrons as "light beams" infinitely smaller than the rays of light themselves. Television, operated by NBC in New York, has played an important role in air raid instructions and civilian defense. Its laboratory status is a war secret, but those confident of the success that marks wartime developments, expect tele- vision to emerge from this war in such form as to make possible a great post-war industry. Television, however, is not radio's only post-war promise. The useful services of radio will be broadened far beyond the communication field, into such realms as the RCA Elec- tron Microscope, radio frequency heating, supersonics and no end of applications made possible by the development of new radio tubes, especially those designed to send and receive micro-waves — tiny waves measured in centimeters. The application of radio fre- quency heating to speed industrial processes and at the same time in- crease their efficiency, is rapidly coming to the fore. Radio waves may now be used to heat, dry, glue, stitch, anneal, weld, rivet and even to deactivate enzymes. This new field is known as radiothermics. It can laminate an airplane propeller in minutes compared to hours re- [4 RADIO AGE]