Radio age (Jan 1927-Jan 1928)

36 RADIO AGE for October, 1927 of the manufacture of radio sets. He must therefore know of the power which the Radio Corporation of America will gain over the radio industry by its position as a creditor under these license agreements with its competitors. In other words, how can the Radio Corporation of America claim that it is fostering competition by placing its competitors in a frame of mind where they must be ever conscious that they have to meet a fixed cash liability of 7% per cent of their billings with $100,000 as the annual minimum ; that their engineering must be built around the R. C. A. tube characteristics and their production around R. C. A. tube deliveries; that if they desire to consider their business as a realizeable or negotiable asset they must keep themselves in good standing with the Radio Corporation of America? And at all times, every signatory of one of these licensing agreements must have before him the possibility that new inventions may destroy the commercial value of the ruined radio frequency circuit. But the $100,000 a year minimum would remain in force. Even the R. C. A. might embarass its licensees by such an invention or it might put the invention on the shelf and keep the royalty income, is another evidence of the power which a monopoly has to throttle the development of an inindustry. So we have the picture' of three of America's greatest corporations in the electrical field pooling their patents to build a radio monopoly. That is the Goliath which the independent manufacturers are called upon to meet. It has licensed such as it chooses among its competitors, and if it can carry out its program it will condemn to death by far the largest majority numerically of the manufacturers of receiving sets, as well as 75 per cent of the manufacturers of tubes, accessories and parts. And the few it permits to remain will be compelled to live in the same subservience which it now imposes by its license agreements upon those of its competitors who pay their loyalties, into its treasury. If the Radio Corporation is allowed to carry out these plans, the independent dealer will be forced to go the same way as the independent manufacturer, for it is the history monopoly that the destruction of competition makes the few dealers that remain mere hired salesmen of the trust. So far as the listening public is concerned, the consummation of this monopoly will mean higher prices for sets. Under the battle-cry of "stabilization" there will be stagnation in the development of the radio industry; under the pretense of the patent laws there will be a stifled art; in defiance of the anti-trust laws, there will be the destruction .of competition. The future of radio is still untouched. Before us there opens a broad vista of partially explored fields of radio science — television, wireless telephony, telephotography, broadcasting of power, the breaking down and building up of the electrons in food, the transmission of the life-giving ultra-violet rays, and the many ramifications that lead from these. Yet in all of these there is to be no commercial basis for independent or competitive development. It was to meet this crisis in the radio industry that the Radio Protective Association was formed by outstanding representatives among the independent manufacturers to secure the protection of the laws for this great and growing industry; to mobilize public opinion on behalf of a free art; to appeal to Congress and the other federal authorities at Washington as well as the courts against the menace which threatens them. The Federal Trade Commission is already investigating the Radio Corporation of America. Resolutions are pending in the Senate to investigate the great aggregations of capital in holding companies in the electrical industry and it will not be difficult to broaden these to cover the power which such an aggregation of capital could obtain, through monopoly of the radio industry, over the welfare, the happiness and even the politics of the American people. Sandstorms Affect Aerials That the sandstorms which occasionally annoy the residents of western Texas are remarkably good generators of electricity as well as of discomfort was announced to the recent meeting of the American Physical Society, in Reno, Nevada, by Messrs. E. F. George, W. M. Young and Harry Hill, of the Texas Technological College, at Lubbock, Texas. Persons caught in these storms have frequently experienced, the Texas physicists report, severe electric manifestations. Sharp shocks may be felt from radio antennas, fence wires or other metal objects. The electric ignition systems of automobiles sometimes refuse to work while such a storm is going on. Using the antenna wire of a large radio station, the three scientists have made actual measurements of the amounts of electricity involved. Voltages as high as 40,000 volts have been observed; amply high enough to cause death if the amount of current obtained were sufficient. Fortunately, the current discharged by the storm into such a single wire is too small, in most cases at least, to be dangerous to life, although it may reach a hundred million times the electric current normally present in the atmosphere. The source of the electricity generated by standstorms is supposed to be the friction between the flying grains of sand in the air and between these sand grains and stationary objects. The air of western Texas is usually so dry that this frictional electricity is not dissipated, as it would be in moist air. Independents Organize The battle against radio monopoly in the United States has been brought nearer to a crisis by the organization of the Radio Protective Association, with headquarters in Chicago. That conflict promises to be of decisive importance to the future of the entire radio industry — not only to manufacturers and dealers, but to the listening public as well. Representatives of about thirty manufacturers, from all parts of the country, took the initial steps in the formation of this anti-trust organization early in Au gust by obtaining a charter of incorporation from the Secretary of State of the state of Illionis. This charter declared the purpose of the association to be "to promote the progress of science and the useful arts insofar as they apply to radio and to preserve the freedom of said science and useful arts." The following were named as the original board of directors : Harvey Cory, Neutrowound Radio Manufacturing Company, Homewood, 111. Fred S. Armstrong, Vesta Battery Company, Chicago, 111. R. W. Augustine, Joy-Kelsey Corporation, Chicago, 111. Allen G. Messick, Indiana Manufacturing and Electric Company, Marion, Ind. Harry Sparks, Sparks-Withington Company, Jackson, Mich. Oswald F. Schuette of Chicago was elected executive secretary and offices have been opened at 134 South LaSalle Street, Chicago, as the headquarters for the fighting. Organized opposition to all efforts to create a radio monopoly under the pretense of an alleged patent situation will be carried on vigorously and in all quarters, say sponsers for the new organization. The battle is to be taken to Congress, to the Department of Justice, and to the Courts. The Radio Corporation of America and the testimony which it is taking promises startling revelations when it is made public. As one of the first steps in the progress of the Radio Protective Association, it has carried the fight direct to the 33,000 radio dealers of the United States. These dealers occupy a vital position in the coming battlefield for they must stand between the radio manufacturers and the purchasing public. Anything that increases the price of radio sets will be reflected in the business of these dealers, declare the independent leaders. And anything which destroys competition in the industry by eliminating independent manufacturers will destroy the business lives of the independent dealers as well, and leave those who survive at the mercy of the monopoly. British Invent Radio Game A new outdoor sport for radio fans enlivened the recent field day of the Golders Green and Hendon Radio Society, in England. Instead of hunt-the-button it was hunt the radio set. A small radio broadcasting station was set up in secret in the buildings of a farm house. At intervals this station, sent out radio signals. Members of the Society mobilized in the neighborhood and attempted to find the secret station, much as radio scouts in wartime might hunt for the secret radio transmitter of a spy. Mr. Maurice Child, using an apparatus to detect the direction from which radio waves were arriving, made three readings of this direction at different points a few miles apart combined these on a map according to the wellknown surveyor's method of "triangulation" and was thus the first to locate the hidden station winning a prize offered by the British radio magazine, the Wireless World. Four other contestants succeeded in finding the secret station within the time .limit set by the rules.