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

BRIG. GENERAL DAVID SARNOFF RECEIVES THE PETER COOPER MEDAL FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE FROM DR. EDWIN S. BURDELL, DIRECTOR OF COOPER UNION. AT RIGHT, THE OBVERSE AND REVERSE OF THE MEDAL, DESIGNED IN 1909 AND AWARDED ONLY ONCE BEFORE, TO J. P. MORGAN IN 1942, IN RECOGNITION OF HIS 30 'i'EARS OF SERVICE AS A TRUSTEE OF THE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION. SARNOFF HONORED RCA Board Chairman Receives Peter Cooper Medal for Advance- ment of Science, and a Citation from UN for "His Con- tribution in Field of Human Rights". IN recognition of his contribu- tions to the advancement of sci- ence and to the field of human rights, Brig. General David Sarnoff, Chairman of the Board, Radio Cor- poration of America, has received the Peter Cooper Medal, awarded by Cooper Union, and a citation by the United Nations. In accepting the award from Cooper Union at ceremonies com- memorating the institution's 90th anniversary on November 2, Gen- eral Sarnoff said: "Tonight, I feel very much at home in these familiar surround- ings—for it was in thi.s very neigh- borhood that I had my beginnings. I lived in this vicinity, went to pub- lic school and worked in this neigh- borhood. In fact, just across the street, a stone's throw from the very spot I now occupy, I served as the wireless operator atop the enter- prising Wanamaker store. That was 37 years ago—a time when there was born the first public recogni- tion of the importance of wireless. For it was in April, 1912, while I was working at my wireless key on the roof of the building across the street, that I was able to pluck from the air the feeble dots and dashes that brought to an an.xious world the list of survivors of the ill-fated Titanic, which went down with so many precious lives. That disaster proved the true value of wireless at sea and gave great impetus to the further development of that new method of communication. "It is natural, perhaps, that standing at the crossroads of the scientific age and despite the vision of the more abundant life which it brings, men should be awed by ter- ror of the remorseless physical forces unleashed by Science. True, Science has placed in men's hands the matches that could ignite a world-wide conflagration; but they could also light the furnaces of a technological ago of undreamed benefit to humanity. The great (lue.stion of our time is what men and nations will do with the new- forces at their command. "I am thrilled, not saddened by the thought that wo live in the Atomic Age. It was my good fate to be born on the threshold of the 20th Century, when Marconi in- vented the wireless, Thomson dis- covered the electron and Crookes the cathode rays. All of them are vital in present-day communica- tions, industry and in many other fields that serve the needs of modern society. "The discovery of the electron alone has wrought such changes in the everyday lives of all of us that it can justifiably be compared to the historic achievements of Galileo and Faraday. It has extended man's range of speech, hearing and sight and through the electron microscope has opened a complete new world of the infinitesimal, hitherto un- seen by the human eye or by any mechanical microscope. This alone jiromises much in the advance of biology and medicine. "The tiniest thing in the uni- verse, it is at work in many indus- tries. To mention only a few— radio, television, motion pictures. [8 RADIO AGEl