Radio broadcast .. (1922-30)

The Urgent Need for Radio Legislation 21 I battery) and not of the input energy. Fleming's theory was that of rectification. It was the contention of the defendant De Forest that the radio impulses in the input circuit, causing potential variations on the grid, varied the resistance of the output circuit so as to cause a pulsating current in the latter due to the B battery. This is one way of looking at it. It was shown by the plaintiff, however, that the use of a battery, such as B, had been used before Fleming and De Forest with detectors of different types to make them more sensitive. The court, relying on the testimony of Waterman and Armstrong and others, took the view that the grid and plate and the two circuits of the audion were the equivalent of the single plate and single circuit of Fleming and that the audion operated on the principle of rectification, the battery B assisting this action. The Court therefore decided that the threeelectrode audion of De Forest, when used as a detector, as an amplifier in radio, and as an oscillator infringed the Fleming Patent. Although the two-electrode device of Fleming is seldom used in practice, yet the court felt that any real contribution which De Forest made was based on what Fleming did, crude as it was. Fleming made the first step and De Forest completed it. The decision of the lower court just described insofar as it relates to a detector was affirmed later by the Circuit Court of Appeals, Second Circuit (243 Federal Reporter 560). A pioneer invention does not deserve the name which does not blaze the way for future development, and as to De Forest's contribution to the art, the court said: " De Forest in his three-electrode audion has undoubtedly made a contribution of great value to the art, and by the confession of judgment in respect thereof, defendant company may enjoy the just results of this contribution." The Urgent Need for Radio Legislation By HERBERT C. HOOVER U. S. Secretary of Commerce HE present radio telephone situation in the United States is simply intolerable to those who have at heart the full value of radio broadcasting. Yet there is absolutely no adequate solution of the problem open to the Department of Commerce until pending legislation makes available to the public the use of the wave-band, 1600 to 600 meters, which is reserved for governmental purposes. The reservation of this band was made by law in 1912, eight years before the radio telephone came into its amazing popularity. In February, the Radio Conference, which was made up of representatives of manufacturers and all other groups concerned, urged the necessity of making this band of waves available to the public, since it comprehends the logical range of any extension of available waves practicable, in the present stage of development of the art, for public use. Accordingly, bills were formulated and introduced into both the Senate and House looking to the amending of the law and the enlargement of the authority of the Secretary of Commerce to meet current emergencies without the delays more or less inevitable in legislative action. In the meantime the Radio Division of the Bureau of Navigation has utilized its ingenuity and resourcefulness to the full to make the most of the allocation of such wavelengths outside, but by no means including all outside, the governmental band. Thus, to make the most of the 4OO-meter wavelength, with an eye to the enjoyment of the greatest number, a new classification of broadcasting stations, Class B, was set up, with special requirements designed to make each broadcasting station using the 4OO-meter wavelength of the largest possible service to those having receiving sets. The passing of the bills now before Congress will not of course constitute a panacea that will entirely do away with the necessity, for instance, of improving the selective power of receiving sets in general use. But until the existing law is amended certainly no considerable improvement in the situation can be looked for. Then a re-allocation of wavelengths can be made such as will, at least, make the most of existing potentialities.