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

THIS FINE PHOTOGRAPH OF "TUBES AT WORK" SHOWS THROUGH THEIR VERY NUMBER THE VITAL PART THEY PLAY IN MODERN ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT. ■ponents—condensers, coils, speak- ers, batteries, and other parts—-all of which made possible greater flex- ibility in the application of elec- tronic devices to the home, to avia- tion, to shipping, to industry, to the armed services, and wherever space and weight are important considerations. RCA's famous metal tubes, too, are still another example of prog- ress through tube leadership. Some years ago, RCA pioneered in the manufacture of metal encased elec- tron tubes to supplant many glass types because of technical, physi- cal and manufacturing advantages. The whole future of radio, sound and electronics is dependent on elec- tron tubes. It is an open secret that many of the electronic ad- vances, like Radar, now playing im- portant wartime roles, can be ex- jn'ctt'd to play important peacetime lok's. Electronic power generation, made possible by high-fre(|uency |)(>wer tubes, to heat plastic pre- forms, solder, harden, anneal, glue, dry, and otherwise treat a variety of materials, is finding ever-widen- ing fields of use in industry. Elec- tronic test and measuring equip- ment, safety controls, precision selection and automatic control ecjuipment foreshadow the greater "eiectronization" of industry. Developments in the field of "electron optics" have not only ad- vanced television, but have pro- duced the famed RCA electron mi- croscope. Exploration not only of the Ultra- lligh Frequencies, but also of the Super-High Frequencies, gives pidniise of providing an almost iimitlfss number of channels for additional services. More exten- sive use of public address and sound amplifying equipment is be- ing found in every field of human activity. Through the years, RCA men and women working in laboratories, of- fices and factories, have acquired a utiicpie "know-how" about electron tubes. This "know-how" has re- sulted in a remarkable record of successively lowered costs and im- l)roved performance which has ad- vanced immeasurably the science of electronics. It has, in effect, placed the United States in a position of world leadership in the design, de- velopment and production of radio, sound and electronic equipment. Our country and the United Na- tions have therefore called upon RCA and other tube manufacturers to produce enormous quantities of electron tubes. That is why there has been such a shortage of tubes for civilian radios. The many electronic devices that one hears about from day to day, and those that are being planned for tomorrow, all have one thing in common — they all use electron tubes. As the "control element" in every piece of electronic equipment, tubes are the nucleus about which the machine or device is created. That is why tubes pace the prog- ress of the electronic era —■ and that, too, is why tubes are truly the keys to progress in the radio in- dast nj. War Programs Increase NBC sustaining programs de- voted 419 hours, 42 minutes to the war effort during the first six months of 1944, a gain of approxi- mately 30 percent over 1943, a sur- vey by Program Analysis reveals. In the same period WEAF, the net- work's New York outlet, carried war effort programs and announce- ments on a sustaining basis totaling 145 hours, 4 minutes, 1,725 an- nouncements and 1,114 programs— almost sixteen a day—accounted for the network time. RADIO AGE 35]