Radio Broadcast (May-Oct 1922)

What Everyone Should Know About Radio History By Prof. J. H. MORECROFT PART I /T A recent dinner attended by the > writer, the principal speakers of the k evening both took as their theme \ the complacence with which we Americans take for granted the many conveniences and comforts surrounding us, which the application of modern science has made possible. They were both foreign born, both had come to America when young, and both had achieved remarkable success scientifically and financially after adopting the United States as their new home. Both of them are endowed with keen intellects and sound judgment of men and events, which attributes no doubt contributed largely to their success, but both of them expressed the opinion later that they really saw and appreciated the advantages and opportunities of America so much more than the average American that, in the race for achievement, the native born was actually much handicapped because he took so much for granted, without inquiring how wonderful the things about him really were and how they came to be developed. WHAT AN IMMIGRANT BOY SAW Professor Pupin, one of our best known and most successful scientists, is fond of relating his early impressions of America; the first walk he took after landing at Castle Garden was through the lower part of New York where the streets were lined with poles carrying hundreds of telephone and telegraph wires. Having been told that signals and speech were being conveyed over these wires from city to city, scores of miles, he was filled with awe and amazement; what an opportunity there must be, he thought, in a land where such things were a part of the every day life of the people! To the native New Yorker these wire-laden poles meant nothing; he had seen them gradually installed around him, and they incited in him neither awe nor inspiration. But to young Pupin, fresh from a land of no scientific develop ment, they spelled all kinds of possibility and opportunity; he didn't merely take them for granted, but inquired as to how and when and where and why these speech-carrying wires came about, how they operated, and later how their operation might be improved. The inspiration he received started him on that career which brought him fame and reward and made him finally the best known scientist in the field of telephone communication. AFTER A CENTURY OF EFFORT An art or science is of importance to mankind in direct proportion to the benefits men derive therefrom; the appreciation of radio, and to a certain extent the pleasure arising from it, will be greatly increased by a knowledge of its principles and development. The accomplishments of the early workers, marking out the trail which was to lead to the present state of the art, make interesting reading and serve well to lay the background for discussing the work of the later scientists and inventors whose contributions are directly incorporated in the radio receiving and transmitting equipments of to-day. Every one is now becoming more or less familiar with radio communication, and it will soon be taken for granted as much as is the telephone; to the average person the radio entertainment every evening will soon cause no more wonder or interest than do the phonograph or movies. Actually, the simple receiving'set of to-day, picking up music or speech from a transmitting station many miles distant, represents the result of nearly a century of effort and development by scores of scientists and inventors; before we become too complacent in the matter, and take the radio telephone in the same matter of fact way we do the rest of our applied science miracles, it is worth while to review their labors and progress, as a knowledge of their work will make the evening's radio concert the more pleasurable