Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1960)

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VOL. 16; No. 1 21 Zenith’s Million-a-Year: Burgeoning Zenith picked up another laurel last week and strengthened its argument that it was No. 1 in TV sales in 1959. It announced that it had already produced more than a million sets this year — thus probably becoming the only company besides RCA ever to have reached the million-a-year mark. Zenith’s million means that it has made one-sixth of all TV sets turned out by the industry this year. Just last Aug., Zenith’s output was estimated by financial consultant Edgar A. Greenebaum at 975,000 for this year in his annual guesstimate of TV manufacturer rankings. In 1958, Greenebaum ranked RCA first with an output of 900,000 sets, in 1957 first with a million, in 1956 first with 1.15 million. Actual TV production figures by companies probably never will be known — they’re usually closely guarded trade secrets. Canadian electronics industry is beset by increasing foreign invasion, leaders note in year-end comments. Said RCA Victor Co. Ltd. vp-gen. mgr. J. D. Houlding: “While Canadians are buying radios in increasing volume, most of the increase has been accounted for by an alarming increase in importation of foreign-made sets, which in 1959 amount to about 40% of such sales. A similar situation exists in sale of replacement tubes, and to a lesser extent in original equipment tubes. If this trend continues into 1960 & subsequent years, it will seriously threaten Canadian tube production.” Said Canadian Marconi Pres. S. M. Finlayson: “The outlook for 1960 seems to indicate a continuation of the competitive conditions with the probability that a greater proportion of the domestic market for electronic equipment will be filled by imports from Europe & Japan.” (For comments by Dominion Electrohome Industries Pres. C. A. Pollock, see Vol. 15:52 p20). Record Westinghouse sales in 1960 have been forecast by Pres. Mark W. Cresap Jr. in a year-end statement that predicted a gain by all product lines “to produce billings at least 10% over 1959. At the same time, incoming orders should increase about 15% over the 1959 total.” Cresap said Westinghouse will invest some $190 million in 1960 R&D activities, cover such fields as thermoelectricity, molecular electronics. Referring to the latter, he said that “this new means of creating electrical devices 1,000 times smaller & lighter than their conventional counterparts will make possible the compactness & the great reliability of performance which is vital for the equipment which will be used to explore outer space. Westinghouse scientists within the last year have used molecular electronic principles to control the ‘growth’ of germanium crystals so that the material for semiconductor devices such as transistors can be produced in exactly the form in which it is used.” Britain’s expanding Harper Group, engineering & business management team serving electronics, nucleonics, automation and other industries, will open offices shortly at 420 Lexington Ave., N.Y. 17. Harper’s embraces various British corporations, is traded on the London Stock Exchange. Pending opening of the N.Y. office, details of the nature & services of the Harper Group may be obtained from Harper Engineering & Electronics Ltd., 19 Hanover Square, London, W.l, England. Seven-tube FM table model is being offered in the Indianapolis-Bloomington market area for $19.95 by Sarkes Tarzian Inc., Bloomington TV station operator and electronic-equipment manufacturer. Trade Personals: Richard G. Evans named Sylvania Home Electronics mgr. of special accounts, with responsibility for sales to national accounts, hotels, motels, and educational & institutional accounts . . . Max F. Balcom, retired Sylvania chairman and 2-time pres, of EIA, installed as Grand Master of the Masons of Pa. . . . Don Hughes promoted from ad & sales promotion mgr., Sylvania electronic tubes, to head a new dept, which is a consolidation of ad, sales promotion & merchandising activities. Francis J. Dunleavy, ex-Yale & Towne Mfg. Co., named RCA industrial & automation div. gen. mgr.; Loren F. Jones appointed to new post of product planning mgr. . . . William T. Buschmann promoted from renewal & equipment sales merchandising mgr., Sylvania Electric Products, to Eastern regional distributor sales mgr., succeeding Samuel J. McDonald, named asst, distributor sales mgr. . . . Samuel Schwartzstein named Admiral Corp. div. vp for Eastern distributing branches . . . Harold F. Cook named sales planning mgr., Tung-Sol; Robert E. Bilby appointed ad & sales promotion mgr.; Donald A. Bewkes named production planning & customer service mgr. Stanley J. Sadlowski named to new post of mfg. dir., Thomas Electronics; I. J. Posner appointed to new post of sales mgr., branded renewal tube sales, components, & export . . . John F. Bishop named Textron Electronics exec, vp; Mark K. Hewlett appointed mktg. vp. Both men were formerly with Beckman Instruments . . . Dr. Leland G. Cole, ex-Consolidated Electrodynamics Corp., elected research vp, Beckman Instruments . . . O. L. Dewey to head Raytheon’s new electronic services div., a consolidation of govt. & industrial electronic equipment service & support functions . . . Leonard G. Taggart, ex-Sylvania, named to new post of Stromberg-Carlson’s special products div. materials mgr.; Frank P. Norton Jr. promoted from telecommunication div. controller to controller of electronics div., succeeded by Robert L. O’Connor. Dr. M. John Rice Jr. appointed semiconductor material engineering mgr., CBS Electronics . . . Walter H. Canfield named promotion mgr.. International Resistance Co. mktg. div. . . . Rod Kershenstein, ex-Ampex, named gen. sales mgr., Glaser-Steers Corp. (phonos). Engineering enrollments of undergraduates at universities & colleges dropped 5.4% to 243,000 in the fall of 1959 from 257,000 a year earlier, reports U.S. Education Comr. Lawrence G. Derthick. And for 2nd straight year freshman registrations for engineering studies declined in 1959 by 3%. Graduate engineering enrollments totaled 35,000 in 1959 vs. 33,000 in 1958. But, said Derthick, the figure reflected increased undergraduate enrollments in earlier years. Electronic brains are smarter than the men who create them and may one day enslave mankind, MIT math prof. Dr. Norbert Wiener suggested last week in an address before the American Assn, for the Advancement of Science. He said that thinking machines had been developed to ai point where they possess sufficient originality to consider,! test and then accept or reject suggestions fed into them. The electronic brains, he added, produce answers long before their operators can determine the nature or long-range wisdom of the machines’ thinking & decision-making. Sylvania semiconductor sales office, to serve New England equipment makers & components distributors, has been established in Wilmington, Mass., at 281 Main St. The new office will be HQ for the New England sales force and ad & distributor sales depts. of semiconductor div.