Radio age (Jan 1927-Jan 1928)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

RADIO AGE for October, 1927 Current Radio Wisdom in Tabloids Extract from a speech by O. H. Caldwell, member Federal Radio Commission, at meeting of manufacturers in Chicago. THERE, as I see it, is the far bigger job that faces you, the radio manufacturers, jobbers and dealers of the country, — the job of putting adequate radio service into every one of America's 22,000,000 homes ! For what will it avail the American public to have good broadcast programs and clear undisturbed reception if only a small fraction of our citizens actually have radio sets in their homes, as at present? So far, only a bare start has been made on this huge task of equipping the Great American Family with radio, for to date we have fitted up only 6,000,000 homes with radios, out of the 22,000,000 homes on the Continent — a saturation of barely 25 per cent. Yet the people of the United States have 18,000,000 automobiles, 16,000,000 wired homes, 16,000,000 telephones, and 11,000,000 phonographs, and only 6,000,000 radios. * * * From an address by Admiral W. H. G. Bullard, of the National Radio Commission, read to the National Electrical Manufacturers Association. THE craze for radio broadcasting has swept Japan and in an hour's ride from Yokohama to Tokio on the trolley, an attempt to count the antennae would make one dizzy. Broadcasting in that country is under the supervision and regulation of the government though the broadcasting companies are privately owned. The government says what stations shall broadcast and what shall not. Every purchaser of a radio receiving set is required to pay the government a tax which cannot even be considered moderate. It is a yen (50 cents in gold) a month, and the government, after retaining its share based on the cost of administration and clerical work necessary to collect it, returns to owners of the broadcast stations the remainder and prorates the amount among the different stations which it has licensed. This provides a considerable amount for each station and allows the administration of each station to acquire the best talent possible for educational and entertainment purposes. Moreover, all the transmitting stations are opened freely to any government bureau or office that wishes to broadcast events which the government desires to inform the public. * * * Extract from a speech by U. S. Senator C. C. Dill, author of the Senate radio bill, at the Northwest convention of the American Radio Relay League, in Spokane, Wash. WHETHER or not the law will eventually permit us to forbid ownership of frequencies is still in question. Once started along that line it would not be long before all available frequencies would be taken up and the free development of radio rendered impossible. Of course the framers of the Constitution could have in mind no such problem, but the attempt is being made to cover it with the clause permitting regulation of interstate commerce. * * * From an interview with David Sarnoff, Vice-President and General Manager, Radio Corporation of America. THE Radio Corporation of America was formed to play its own part in the development of the radio art and the radio industry. Essentially, we are an operating and sales organization, vitally concerned also with research and manufacture. We are not merely a patent holding or a licensing company. We are licensing competitors under patents necessary for the type and character of set upon which they have built their business. While it is true that our own line this year will cover every type of modern radio set, fact remains that we have specialized in the development and manufacture of super-heterodyne sets. It is the one element in our line that most distinguishes it from competitive radio equipment. To divide the use of our super-heterodyne patents would be almost to offer our trademark for competitive exploitation. In the second place, the super-heterodyne is a circuit of such finely-balanced electrical precision that to give these patents to other manufacturers would be to "sell" rather than to "deliver." The high character of the several types of radio equipment now on the market is not the result of patent development alone — manufacturing experience, equipment and organization are also important factors. The fact is significant that while a number of manufacturers have succeeded with other types of sets covered by our patents, there is no successful imitation of the super-heterodyne circuit. * * * From an interview with Mrs. Lotta Harrauff, who was crowned Queen of American Radio at the Radio World's Fair last year: OUR Radio Commission has had a hard task thrust upon it and we cannot be certain of the result until colder weather comes, when distant reception is to be had, and until that time comes I do not believe anyone is qualified to say that the assignment of wave lengths is, or is not a failure. Personally I do think that the best results will be gained by the changing of wave lengths. Living in the center of the United States, I have tuned in stations from every direction consistently, and my belief is that the broadcasting stations must be put into zones and the hours divided. We will not be too harsh with our Radio Commission for their's is a tremendous task, but we would ask that they come to this part of the country and make tests. What would be perfection in New York would be chaos here. * * * From an article by E. E. Free, Ph. D. special contributor to Radio Age on Scientific subjects: RADIO echoes that probably travel entirely around the earth before they are heard have been noticed by British radio amateurs who listen to the powerful transmitting station PCJJ at Eindhoven, Holland. This station has been relaying English broadcast programs and listeners have heard two distinct sounds for each note; one a fraction of a second later than the other, as though some kind of echo were present in the transmitting studio. A similar effect is heard sometimes in music halls the acoustic properties of which are bad, one sound coming directly from the singer or player and the echo of this sound arriving an instant later from the walls or ceiling of the room. In the case of the PCJJ radio program, such echoes originating in the broadcasting studio have been proved not to occur and it is believed that the second sound heard by the listeners is due to a radio wave which travels around the earth. It is thus delayed a fraction of a second, so that it arrives slightly after the wave which crosses the Channel directly from Holland to England. The speed of radio waves is believed to be so great that such a wave would pass entirely around the earth in about one-seventh of a second. This would make the radio-echo that much later than the direct wave ; a difference corresponding to a real echo cast by a wall about seventy-five feet away. * * * Transmission of tables of figures by wire in a manner to avoid errors is described in a telephone company magazine: THE -Bell Laboratories Record, an internal publication of the scientific laboratories of the Bell Telephone System, describes a recent instance in which a collection of important numerical data had to be sent hurriedly from Los Angeles to New York City. The figures were typewritten on sheets of paper and carefully checked. These sheets were then transmitted by wire, just as a photograph would be transmitted. The entire process being automatic, no mistakes in the figures were possible. The copies received in New York were unquestionably true copies of the original documents in Los Angeles. Some experts predict that methods of transmitting written or printed documents will be perfected so that all telegrams will be sent in this way instead of by the present translation into code and back again into words.