Radio Broadcast (May 1927-Apr 1928)

RADIO FOLK YOU SHOULD KNOW I. RALPH H. LANQLEY Drawing by Fran}{lyn F. Stratford DALPH H. LANGLEY, Assistant to the President of the Crosley Radio Corporation, and, in that capacity, manager of most of the operations carried on by the Crosley interests, was born in New York City on January 5, 1889. As this article goes into print he is, therefore, still two years short of the forty mark. By training, and probably by primary inclination, he is an engineer, but his vision has never been limited to screw-heads and tuning knobs; of late years he has become increasingly an executive figure. An administrator of thirtyeight would be considered very young in most lines of business, but in the radio industry there are a number of them. The fact is that no one can have more than thirty years or so of radio experience, and only a handful of men can point to anything like that. The twenty-year candidates, even, are few. In the case of all such veterans, the early years of experience have a value which is mostly sentimental, for the modern structure of the industry, with its complexities of mass production and public relations sprang up suddenly after the war. Mr. Langley's years of contact with the radio art amount to about nineteen, or half his age, which is quite enough in a field where the race is to the swift rather than the old. Mr. Langley was born in New York City and lived there until 1916. His boyhood residence was near Morningside Park, under the hill on which the buildings of Columbia University were being erected. Young Langley, gazing at the newly created campus, formed an ambition to drink of knowledge at that fountain, but, as yet, he did not see how the project was to be financed. After finishing his elementary school course, however, he went to De Witt Clinton High School, 1904-1908, and towards the end of his secondary school course succeeded in winning a scholarship which enabled him to enter Columbia. During the following winter, Mr. Langley's father died, and the son gave up college to take a position with the New York and Queens Electric Light and Power Company. But at Columbia, in the college "Wireless Club," the radio virus had already got into him, and in May, 1910, at the invitation of Emil J. Simon, he turned from electric power to work in Dr. Lee DeForest's laboratory at Park Avenue and 41st Street, where many strange wonders were being performed. Here he met Frederick A. Kolster and other men now prominent in the radio industry of to-day, which had its feeble and often abortive beginnings in just such laboratories. In those early days the courage of the workers made up for the scarcity of good milliammeters. A half year in DeForest's laboratory probably did Langley good, but a school teacher friend, James F. Berry, who had advised him before, now convinced the young man that he would be heavily handicapped in his later career if he did not complete his university course while there was still time. Mr. Langley took the advice and went back to college in the fall of 1910, repeating the sophomore year. But he did not give up radio. The summer of 191 1 he spent working with E. J. Simon once more, this time for the International Wireless Telegraph Company (wasn't it the National Electric Signaling Com pany then?) at Bush Terminal in Brooklyn. Here he met S. M. Kintner,' now in charge of the research activities of the Westinghouse Company. The summer of 1912 found him with the Wireless Improvement Company. Mr. Langley graduated from Columbia University as an Electrical Engineer in 1913. Edwin H. Armstrong was one of his classmates, and RALPH H. LANGLEY Michael I. Pupin one of his professors. Professor Arendt, another of Langley's preceptors, had a poor opinion of the wireless game, and advised the young engineer to stay out of it, but Langley promptly joined the Wireless Improvement Company once more. During the three years Mr. Langley put in with the Wireless Improvement Company, then under the guidance of Colonel John Firth, most of his work was with various types of 500-cycle quenched spark transmitters. The § kw. submarine transmitter was one of his early design jobs. Mr. Langley's interests were not, however, confined to commercial matters. He had joined the Institute of Radio Engineers as an Associate in 19 1 2, and in 19 14 served as Assistant Secretary. In 19 16 he was advanced to the grade of Member of the Institute. In that same year, at the invitation of David Sarnoff, he joined the engineering staff of the Marconi Company, and went to work at the Aldene factory, of which Adam Stein, Jr., was Works Manager. Roy A. Weagant was Chief Engineer of the Marconi Company during the period of Mr. Langley's connection with the firm. The Marconi Company was handling war-time orders, principally for the armed forces of the United States. In 1917 the plant was greatly enlarged, and, running on three shifts twenty-four hours a day, must have employed in the neighborhood of one thousand men. New types of quenched spark transmitters were designed for submarine and aircraft use. In the meantime the manufacture of the standard Marconi marine transmitters and receivers, with auxiliary apparatus, such as Leyden jar condensers, had to be continued, and in the shops one would see standing side by side models of Naval receivers of the SE Types, with their heavily-varnished bank-wound coils, the older Type 106 tuners in their black cases, and cheap little cargo receivers which looked as if they had just come out of the five-and-ten cent store. But Mr. Langley's concern at this time was with the transmitters, so much so that, in 19 1 8, one of them almost ended his career. This distinction would have gone to the 250watt aircraft transmitter, equipped with the General Electric pliotrons of the same rating. During one of the tests of the transmitter, Langley, having shut off the filaments of the tubes, reached in and grasped a plate terminal, forgetting that the 1500-volt supply was still on. "That particular set never worked again," states Mr. Langley laconically, "and it was some time before I did." There was evidently nothing wrong with his heart. After the completion of the development work on the sets, he made test flights with them from the air base at Norfolk, Virginia. " But none of these sets was ever used in France," the designer adds, somewhat sadly. The answer to that is that few of the airplanes ever got to France either. In 1920, the Radio Corporation of America having been formed, the radio engineering and manufacturing activities of the Aldene factory were transferred to the General Electric Company's plant at Schenectady. Adam Stein Jr. became Managing Engineer of the Radio Department there, and Langley was assigned to the Receiver Section, later to become the Engineer-in-Charge thereof. Practically all the broadcast receivers turned out by the General Electric Company have contained one or several of Langley's inventions and design features. Working with Messrs. Carpenter and Carlson, Mr. Langley was responsible for the production of the first Radiola super-heterodyne models, incorporating the sealed "catacomb" construction and the divided cabinet. He spent seven years at Schenectady, leaving for his present executive position with the Crosley Company on February 1, 1927. During the last three years, Mr. Langley has been much interested in the work of the radio manufacturers' associations. He was vice-chairman of the Radio Section of the Associated Manufacturers of Electrical Supplies, and later, when that body was merged with the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, became Chairman of the Committee on Section Activities in the Radio Division. He also served, in 1926, on the Standardization Committee of the Institute of Radio Engineers. With his years of experience in radio manufacturing and organization, and his wide acquaintance among radio men, Mr. Langley believes that the next two years will witness remarkable progress in the industry. He points out that many lines of progress have been almost completely blocked until the present season. With patent difficulties largely resolved, notable progress in standardization, adequate Federal control of broadcasting, and the development of exact methods of measurement and quantity production, the economic stability of the industry should approach that of more settled branches of business. Mr. Langley has contributed more than his share in the progress of radio toward that goal. 225