Education by Radio (1932)

Wirewireless Broadcasting on Power Lines George O. Squier asa research student in physics and electrical engineering under Rowland and Duncan in the golden “*• age of the Johns Hopkins University over forty years ago, I well remember the discussions which then took place as to the relative merits of direct and alternating current for power transmission. When the alternating current system be¬ gan to appear the major decision to be made was to select the frequency. Little did the small group . . . realize that when the number sixty cycles per second was selected after wide discussion thruout the small engineering profession in the United States at that time, at a single stroke a step was taken which has determined the design of the whole vast power-wire pattern which today links this country from ocean to ocean, and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Today this aristocratic number sixty throbs incessantly thru¬ out a vast territory extending from the remote farmer’s cot¬ tage to the heights of the Empire State Building in New York City. This national pendulum ticks with a regularity and accuracy which permit us to live in a split-second world which it has created. There was another key decision made at that time whose history is not so easy to determine. Some unknown mechanic or electrician casually decided to construct the standard lamp socket of the diameter of one inch, and to employ the basic principle of the screw for reliable electrical contact. Today the number of these standard sockets in use in the United States is roughly estimated as 500,000,000. On September 18, 1910, for the first time, two separate telephone conversa¬ tions were carried on over a single “twisted pair” wire tele¬ phone circuit between the Signal Corps Laboratory at the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D. C., and the small laboratory at 1710 Pennsylvania Avenue. Then was born the new art of wire-wireless communication engi¬ neering. At the annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences in April 1931, I brought to their attention a new development of wire-wireless called the monophone, or one-way telephone for broadcasting, and pointed out at that meeting the aston¬ ishing fact that our telephone plant, which has now reached eighty million miles of wire, was operating only about eighteen minutes a day or at an “overall inefficiency” of some 98 per¬ cent. The magazines recently announced that these idle wire facilities are being reserved for a two-way long distance tele¬ vision service as supplementary to the point-to-point service on the regular telephone plant. At 4pm on March 24, 1922, in the presence of the Asso¬ ciated Press and a group of radio engineers, occurred the first demonstration of wire-wireless broadcasting of programs on the regular standard electric light circuit in the office of the chief signal officer of the army, in the Munitions Building, across the street from the National Academy of Sciences Building in Washington. Today, after nine years, I have to report a practical development extending continuously thru¬ out this period at a cost of some three millions of dollars where at present a staff of seventy-five men are employed in the laboratory at Ampere, New Jersey. Superimposed upon the sixty cycle power transmission plant without interference, is a thirteen kilocycle carrier current which is stepped up in mul¬ tiples of the lucky number thirteen to deliver three separate programs simultaneously into the homes of subscribers from the standard light socket on frequencies of 26, 39 and 52 kilo¬ cycles per second. The complete equipment designed, manu¬ factured, and tested for 270,000 homes is now ready for ship¬ ment to Cleveland, Ohio. — Science, Volume 74, Number 1929, December 18, 1931, p636. The radio is capable of unlimited development. No one will hazard a guess as to its immediate possibilities. . . There must be the greatest vigi¬ lance in the enactment of legislation and in the ad¬ ministration of it to protect the public in the use of the radio and against monopoly and unfair dis¬ crimination in granting licenses for broadcasting stations. — Representative William W. Hastings of Oklahoma, Congressional Record, May 31, 1932, pl2063. Education by radio is published by the National Committee on Education by Radio at 1201 Sixteenth Street, Northwest, Wash¬ ing, D. C. The members of this Committee and the national groups with which they are associated are as follows: Arthur G. Crane, president, the University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, National Association of State Universities. J. O. Keller, head of engineering extension, Pennsylvania State College, State College, Pa., National University Extension Association. Charles N. Lischka, 1312 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington, D. C., National Catholic Educational Association. John Henry MacCracken, vicechairman, 744 Jackson Place, Washington, D. C., American Council on Education. Joy Elmer Morgan, chairman, 1201 Sixteenth Street, Northwest, Washington, D. C., National Education Association. James N. Rule, state superintendent of public instruction, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, National Council of State Superintendents. Thurber M. Smith, S. J., St. Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri, The Jesuit Educational Association. H. Umberger, Kansas State College of Agriculture, Manhattan, Kansas, Association of Land-Grant Colleges and Universities. Jos. F. Wright, director, radio station WILL, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, III., Association of College and Univ. Broadcasting Stations. Everyone who receives a copy of this bulletin is invited to send in suggestions and comments. Save the bulletins for reference or pass them on to your local library or to a friend. Education by radio is a pioneering movement. These bulletins are, therefore, valuable. Earlier numbers will be supplied free on request while the supply lasts. Radio is an extension of the home. Let’s keep it clean and free. [79]