Radio Broadcast (May-Oct 1922)

RADIO BROADCAST 5$ manufacturing companies are, therefore, confronted with carrying on their experimental work, devising new types and at the same time producing the best they can in such quantity as they can, and they must do all this while building up their organizations, working out their policies, and keeping an eye on the activities of the Government so that they can keep in accord with its regulations. Up to the present. Secretary Hoover estimates that there are 600,000 receiving outfits in the United States, including both those bought complete or nearly so and those constructed by the owners. Even if all the manufacturers' figures were available, it would be difficult to give an exact figure because so many people have bought parts and constructed their , own sets. In 1922, there seems indisputable evidence that the sale will equal or exceed 1921. The first quarter of the year has seen an avalanche of ordering. Everything that could be produced has been sold. The radio manufacturing field differs from the automobile and phonograph industries in their beginnings. The early manufacturers of automobiles and phonographs did not include great establishments already engaged irt kindred work, but were chiefly concerns that began in a comparatively small way as automobile makers or phonograph manufacturers. And the automobile and phonograph businesses grew slowly compared with the radio business. The early automobile and phonograph companies would have been even worse swamped with such a demand as now confronts the radio manufacturers than these concerns are. The reason for this is that in the radio field, besides the manufacturers chiefly engaged on radio apparatus, the big electrical companies, facilities are also available. Among those companies depending chiefly on the radio business are such manufacturers as the American Radio & Research Corporation, of Medford Hillside, Mass; The AdamsMorgan Co., Upper Montclair, N. J.; Acme Apparatus Co., Cambridge, Mass.; Atlantic t Radio Co., Inc., • Boston, Mass.; ClappEastman Co., Cambridge, Mass.; F. A. D. Andrea, New York; A. H. Grebe & Co. Inc., New York; Colin B. Kennedy Co., San Francisco, Cal.; Remler Radio Mfg. Co., Chicago, 111. These concerns manufacture receiving sets. They are concerns chiefly built upon the radio business. Then there are such concerns as the Ameri can Telephone & Telegraph Co., with its subsidiary the Western Electric Co.; the General Electric Co.; the Western Electric Company; and the Westinghouse Company — the great electrical companies of the country. As four of the largest broadcasting stations are now operated by the Westinghouse Company, and as a great many of the patents on radio receiving sets are owned by these big companies, it is well for the radio user to understand their position and influence in the field. Ever since radio communication appeared upon the horizon, the American Telegraph and Telephone Co. has continuously spent money experimenting in this field. The General Electric Company likewise spent a great deal of money to perfect apparatus which it hoped to sell to the various transoceanic radio companies. It had -very valuable patents, especially on sending apparatus, prior to our entry into the war. During the war the Westinghouse Company did a good deal of work for the Signal Corps, and it likewise acquired valuable patents, the Armstrong and heterodyne patents among others. Practically all of this activity was based upon the transoceanic commercial radio business and the marine business. At this time the Marconi Company was the chief international radio company. In 191 9 the General Electric Co. was about to sell its great Alexanderson transmitters to the Marconi Co. when Admiral W. H. G. Bullard and •'Commander Hooper, U. S. N. suddenly projected themselves into the situation. The Admiral made a vigorous plea to Mr. Owen Young of the General Electric not to sell to the Marconi Company, for both the British and the American Marconi companies were British controlled. The Admiral argued hard for American control. Mr. Young pointed out that the General Electric Company had no market for these machines but the Marconi Co. That did not disturb the Admiral. His answer was to suggest an American company with Government backing, and he tried to get the Government to back a company to keep the American flag in the ether. In this he failed, but he did finally persuade the General Electric Company to see if an American company could not be started without Government help, to keep the United States from having all its overseas radio in foreign hands. How this was finally worked out is another story — and a very dramatic one to be told later. The result was the formation of the Radio