Radio broadcast .. (1922-30)

Books About Radio By John V. L. Hogan Consulting Engineer, New York; Past President, Institute of Radio Engineers O^IE of the constantly recurring and seldom answered questions of the day is "What is a good book on radio?" There are several reasons why it is not easy to reply to this query; chief among them is that radio signaling is already so huge a topic that no one book can cover it accurately and completely. Again, the written treatment which one person requires will be utterly unsuited to the needs of other readers; there must be provided both the detailed technical descriptions of single branches of the art to suit the demands of engineer-students, and the simplified (sometimes obviously sugar-coated) expositions intended for beginners. Between these extremes one finds a host of radio publications, some good and many unutterably bad, each attempting to cater to some group of persons interested in radio either as an art, a science, a service, or an amusement. There lie before me as I write (to quote Captain Fitzurse) more than eighty books on radio. Some of these are old standbys; some are worthy newcomers into the field of radio literature; and some are apparently written solely because their authors or their publishers thought that there was a good market for any book with "radio" or "wireless" in its title. It will not be possible for me to review all of these in the space of this article, nor even to describe all the good ones. However, I can perhaps select a number which can be depended upon in the main and which will appeal to each of the groups which wants to read about radio. Let us take up first those intended for the beginner, who has possibly been attracted by the broadcast services and who desires to learn something about radio in general. Readable and clear presentations of radio principles and their earlier applications will be found in Professor Kennelly's "Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony"1 and Professor Fleming's "The Wonders of Wireless Telegraphy"2; although both were printed a decade ago, their interest and accuracy make them valuable to day. Another well prepared book of the same period is "Wireless Telegraphy"3 by Professor C. L. Fortescue. A more recently revised book is "Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony"4 by Alfred P. Morgan; this volume is neither so closely confined to radio principles nor so exhaustive in its explanations of them as those above mentioned, and it takes space to describe many obsolete instruments, but it aids in giving a newcomer something of a general view of the radio field. Recent books which treat the uses of radio in a broad way, outlining for the reader a picture of the applications beyond radiophone broadcasting, are "Radio for Everybody"5 by A. C. Lescarboura and "The Complete Radio Book"6 by R. F. Yates and L. G. Pacent. For readers who desire to learn about the transmission of speech and music by wireless, several books can be recommended. An interesting historical treatment of the earlier years is given in "Wireless Telephony"7 by Ernst Ruhmer. This is brought down to 1918 in a volume which is more logically arranged and in which the author discusses the mode of operation of many types of apparatus, "Radio Telephony"8 by Dr. A. N. Goldsmith. A simplified discussion of the present-day radiophone, with emphasis on the vacuum tube but little historical matter, is contained in "Elements of Radio Telephony"9, by W. C. Ballard, Jr. One of the newest books, which gives an exceedingly clear presentation of radiotelephonic principles and authoritative descriptions of the operation of modern sending and receiving apparatus, is " Radio Phone Receiving,"10 edited by Dr. Erich Hausmann and written jointly by a number of well-known radio engineers. Another extensive group of radio readers includes those who want information on how to make their own instruments. There have been many articles, pamphlets, and books printed for amateur apparatus builders, but it is a sad fact that the great majority of the designs presented are either impractical or inefficient, if not both. Many radio writers