Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

This method L-cmpi'ised KriiuliiiK. polishing and optical testing oper- ation repeated a great many times and at great expense in time and money. While the RCA men suc- ceeded in reducing the number of operations, especially those of op- tical testing, they were still using the general methods and machines developed by astronomers. Their shortcuts were chiefly due to the fact that they did not need and did not strive for true astronomical accuracies. The gain in light over the con- ventional projection lens was very attractive, but the cost of individ- ually produced lenses was prohibi- tive. The apparent solution to the cost problem was molded aspherical lenses. A development was under- taken, and soon was concentrated on clear transparent plastics known under the complicated name of methyl methacrylate with simpler terms of Plexiglass and Lucite as their trade names. A new set of difficult problems presented themselves. The manu- facturers of plastics lent a willing and helping hand, but they did not know how to mold precision optical elements. The problems of making metal molding surfaces in shapes of negative replicas of aspherical surfaces promised to be formidable. The intensive efforts directed to this problem, however, proved suc- cessful, and experimental models of pro.iection television receivers with plastic aspherical lenses were oper- ating in RCA laboratories as early as 1940. The molding process is essen- tiall.v that of applying very large jiressure to heated plastic material confined in the mold and cooling it under pressure until it reaches room temperature. The mold is then opened, the lens extracted and the hole for the neck of the protruding cathode-ray tube is bored out. The lens is then ready for use, with no polishing or finishing of any sort needed. As a rule, plastic lenses have been found to be of better quality than their glass counter- parts, since it is permissible to spend a great deal more time and money on a mold good for, say, 1,000 pieces than on one piece by itself. [RADIO AGE 27 i RCA MEN ROVE WAR FRONTS Seruice Eiuvneen. "Liiisiint? Heroes," Insfull and Maintain Rodio-electronic Equipment for Armed Forces at Far-flumj BtUlleStiniotis-Teach "Knoio-hoiu." By W. L Jones 'i'ice President and General Manager, RCA Service Co., Inc. Camden, N. J. HE was on duty at Pearl Harbor the infamous morning of De- ceml)er 7, 1941, when the Japs staged their sneak attack; he's been an island-hopper in the Southwest Pacific; he demonstrated radio "know-how" to our allies in darkest Africa; he moved with Allied forces as they pushed the Germans out of North Africa, out of Sicily and northward into the mountains of Italy. He doesn't receive military deco- rations, win medals, march in pa- rades or have his exciting odyssey glamorized by Hollywood, but you will find him in the Aleutians, on Guadalcanal or with Uncle Sam's li.uhliiig men on other far-flung war fi'onts. His only reward—and the only vt'ward he desii'es — is the sheer satisfaction of knowing he's doing his part in the battle against the Axis. He is the unsung, unassuming civilian field engineer assigned to the Navy by the RCA Service Com- pany to install and service RCA electronic equipment for the armed forces, and to give instruction on ojieration and maintenance. After months of high-geared ac- tivity at far-off battle stations, the RCA engineer is called home long enough to brush up on new develop- ments in radio and electronics. Then he stands b.v in readiness for his next assignment. Frank Hartwick, recently back from Guadalcanal and nearby is- lands, has won the sobriquet of "cir- cuit rider of the Southwest Pacific." Called by the Navy from Pearl Har- bor on what apparently was a short emergency assignment, he was given a roving commission to go from one island to another, wher- ever he thought he was most needed and could do the most good. Riding herd on the complicated e(iuipment which is the voice, the eves and the ears of the armed BATTLEFRONT ENGINEERS MERRILL CHAPIN (LEFT) BACK FROM THE ALEUTIANS, AND FRANK HARTWICK, "CIRCUIT RIDER OF THE SOUTHWEST PACIFIC." INSPECT A RADIO TRANSMITTER AT THE RCA CAMDEN PLANT.