Radio age (May 1922-Dec 1923)

30 RADIO AGE— "THE MAGAZINE OF THE HOUR' Pallophotophone If you have tuned in to 370 meters recently and have picked up WGY you have probably been surprised at the purer and truer tone quality of music and speech from the General Electric Company broadcasting station, at Schenectady, N. Y. The answer is the Pallophotophone. A new use has been found for the remarkable device which photographs sound on motion picture film and then reproduces the sound from the film. C. A. Hoxie, the inventor, has now devised a pick-up or microphone using the principle of the Pallophotophone reproducer. The microphone is the link between the artist or instrument in the studio and the electrical circuit; it converts or transforms the variations of tone into corresponding variations of current. Microphones now in general use are constructed on the principle of the telephone transmitter in which the compression or expansion of granular carbon affect the electric current. In the Pallophotophone pick-up a very sensitive diaphragm is set vibrating by sound. The movement of the diaphragm is communicated to a mirror^ three sixty-fourths of an inch square. A strong 'light strikes the dancing mirror which reflects the light beam at a sensitive light cell. The variation in the beam of light, caused by the vibration of the mirror varies the effect on the light cell and thus produces a corresponding variation in the electric circuit. Amplification is then obtained in the ordinary way by means of pliotrons. The new pick-up eliminates the hiss which accompanies the use of the ordinary microphone; it is more sensitive and responds more readily and accurately to sound waves, capturing harmonics which would ordinarily be lost. A feature of the new pick-up is the weight of the moving or vibrating part. The diaphragm and mirror combined weigh one-tenth of a g^rain or half as much as the head of a common pin. The Pallophotophone pick-up is now a permanent part of the studio equipment of WGY. Many letters complimenting WGY on the improvement of its tone quality were received after the program of January 30, when the play "Bought and Paid For," which was put out through the new pick-up, was presented. How Radio Grows Editorial (Continued from page 17.) be seen. Lack of a new law makes it necessary for the Department of Commerce to continue under legislation enacted ten years ago when broadcasting was unknown and there were few commercial and amateur stations. It is probable that the Secretary will undertake the partial reallocation of wave lengths, within the limits of the existing radio law, in an effort to reduce interference and make for peace in the ether. Number of licensed radio and on J a slalionz nuary 1, on June 1923. 30. 1913, 1913 1923 Broadcasting class A 544 Broadcasting class B. ^ 25 Amateur 1.312 3 10 7 14 64 1 479 16,898 201 Experimental « . 291 Technical and training schools Point to point inland 126 167 Coast stations communicating with ships „ 39 Transoceanic 12 Ship stations 2,762 Total. 1,890 21,065 Number of operators licensed during fiscal years 1913 and 1922. 1913 1922 Commercial 1,832 8 1 1,075 766 3,136 Experimental and instruction Cargo ; _. Amateur, first class 43 14 4,530 4,390 Total 3,682 12,113 Just what plan the Department has for improving conditions in the present radio pandemonium is not known, but a plan for execution within a few months is being worked out, it is understood. The decision of the District Court of Appeals requiring the Secretary of Commerce to re-issue a license to the Inter-City Radio Company of New York, although that station had been severely complained of due to interference will be appealed, it was announced recently. Secretary Hoover and his solicitor have taken the matter up with the Attorney General's office requesting that the case be appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States. It was the action of the Court of Appeals that caused Secretary Hoover to state recently that: "This removes the last shred of the Department's authority over radio." Super Radio Survey (Continued from page IS.) resultant to modulate her short wave transmitter. This method introduces marked losses and distortion and could never be practically applied on a large scale to voice and music unless radical improvements in audio frequency circuits are made. After all, it is not the novelty, or priority of suggestion of a new method which concerns the general public; it is the actual reduction to practice in engineering form and work is well under way to assure that the above plan for the coordination of radio effort towards the elimination of static will be in operation before the coming summer static season settles its usual blight on radio. Station KYW Radio fans of the United States will be entertained on the evening of April 17 with another feature attraction from VVestinghouse Station KYW. Since the entire production of Shore Leave was broadcast from Powers Theatre several months ago Wilson J. Wetherbee and Walter C. Evans, director and chief engineer respectively of KYW have endeavored to develop the broadcasting of spoken drama to meet the popular demand of the invisible audience for this form of entertainment. Their efforts have culminated in arranging through the cooperation of Jessie Royce Landis, director of the North Shore Players company, a schedule of one-act plays to be produced from time to time in the studio of KYW. • The first of these is entitled Bargain Day and was arranged and directed under the personal supervision of Mrs. Landis. The part of the harassed husband will be played by Sidney M. Spiegel, Jr,. who acted the role when the play was given in Chicago. The finale lead will be interpreted by Jessie Royce Landis. Station KYW is now widely known to be the first broadcasting station in America to have broadcast an entire drama directly from the stage of a theatre and the aim of the management is to give KYW's audience more plays and to make the station a theatre without a stage. War Secretary on Radio Secretary of War Weeks delivered an address before the American Agricultural Editors' Association at the Hotel Harrington, Washington, D. C, on February 26 in which he said: "Because of the isolation of the farm, the development of communication facilities is highly important, not only in transmitting weather reports but also in broadcasting data on markets and in dispensing music and recreational programs to the living room of the farmer. The prominent part played by the Signal Corps of the Army in building up our system of wired communication is being carried on fully as effectively in the promotion of radio. The Signal Corps is responsible for the use of the vacuum tube in this country, and also largely for the development of the small radio set now used so generally by the amateur. "General Squier's recent invention will serve to bring the radio even more generally into the home of the farmer, with the resulting enrichment of agricultural life. In certain sections, such as the early frontiers and present day Alaska, the farmer has had no communication with the outside world other than that afforded by the Army signal system. The radio web of the Army is today a reserve system that would enable our country to continue its general contacts even in the face of a complete breakdown of the civil lines. The modern farmer will appreciate what this means.