Radio Broadcast (May 1928-Apr 1929)

Who Are the Fellows of the Institute? BY CARL DREHER A FEW years ago, before industry deprived me altogether of leisure, 1 was returning by train from a walking trip in the country which had lasted several days and left me with a coat of tan and a considerable growth of beard. The train boy, happening to speak to me when I purchased some of his wares, began a sentence with the words, "All right, sir," but, glancing up at me as his lips formed the sibilant of the respectful title, and beholding my sweater and beard, he changed it hurriedly to " Feller." He was a class-conscious train boy. I reflected that the word Fellow has numerous meanings, and I could not tell whether he intended the one numbered in Webster 2. A companion; comrade; associate; contemporary or 3, An equal in power, rank, character, etc.; or perhaps even 6, A man of low breeding or of little worth; but I bought the lemon drops anyway. Little did that snobbish youth know that the term which he used disparagingly also has learned associations, and, in scientific circles, entitles one to all the honors of a bishop among the men of God. Nevertheless, it is so, as he would see were he to consult the 1928 Year Book of the Institute of Radio Engineers. Of a total of 4200 members on December 1, 1927 (it is probably thirty or fifty per cent, greater by this time), 3543 were resident in the continental United States, the Canal Zone, Philippine Islands, and Alaska, and of all these radio engineers and aspirants under the flag of the United States only 74, I ascertained by a statistical investigation, are Fellows. It is easy, if one is of normally good character, to become an Associate Member. Full Members, although not born, may be made. But a Fellow! He is one of the 2 per cent., and a rare zoological specimen even at a meeting of the Institute. Contrary to the advertisements celebrating the prevalence of a certain affliction, four out of five cannot even hope to get it, and most of the remainder are turned down by the Committee on Admissions, of which Dr. Frank Conrad was Chairman in 1927, while Mr. R. A. Heising holds the helm this year. In 1927 10 Members had the temerity to seek admission to the Fellow grade; six were admitted, while four applications were denied. One Fellow was elected directly. The Constitution of the Institute provides that a Fellow shall not be less than thirty years of age. He may be elected under one of several provisions. If he is a radio engineer by profession, "he shall be qualified to design and take responsible charge of important radio work; he shall have been in the active practice of his profession for at least seven years, and shall have had responsible charge of important radio work for at least three years." Asa professorof physical science or of electrical engineering he is subject to equally severe requirements, if he seeks the honor in that section. By "notable original work in radio science," inventions, or contributions to literature giving an applicant "a recognized standing at least equivalent" to the above he may also hope to become a Fellow. Under these provisions noted radio executives, like Mr. Sarnoff and Mr. Young, are admitted to the august company of their own chief engineers, and,1, like them, pay annual dues of $15, but they don't have to read the Proceedings unless they want to. Moved by a perhaps unseemly curiosity, I re cently read through the list of members of all grades published in the 1928 Year Book to see what the"74 indigenous Fellows did during their business hours. Thirteen, I found, are engineers employed by Radio Corporation, General Electric, and Westinghouse, and two are non-engi CHIEF OF THE INSTITUTE Dr. Alfred N. Goldsmith, president, the Institute of Radio Engineers neering employees of this group of companies. Ten are engineers for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Seven are engineers for miscellaneous radio concerns. Six are consulting engineers. Eleven are executives. One is in the sound-movie business. Two are definitely outside of radio in their business connections. Professors of engineering or allied subjects at universities number 6. There are 3 army or navy officers, and 5 in civilian government positions. In 6 cases no vocational information is given. My object in printing this is to render some of the impassioned opponents of the big corporations privy to the hitherto unrevealed fact that over a third of the leading radio engineers of the country are already in the hands of these octopi, and all of them may be swallowed unless Congress does something about it. Other interesting facts may be gleaned from the Year Book. As they are published for all to see, I may be permitted to comment on them without scandal. Note, that Major E. H. Armstrong, indubitably one of the genuinely great men of radio, did not become a Fellow until 1927. He could have been one any time after he wrote his classical paper on the vacuum tube, in 19 15, or as soon thereafter as he became 30 years old. Why didn't he bid for the honor sooner? Maybe he just didn't give a damn; that would be like Armstrong. W. R. G. Baker, Managing Engineer of the Radio Department of General Electric, is still down as an Associate; he has since come up for the grade of Fellow, however. More than one of the luminaries skip the Member grade, apparently. Stuart Ballantine became a Fellow in 1928, also, rising from Associate; he must be one of the youngest among the Fellows, but his recondite and brilliant researches deserve the honor. Harold H. Beverage remains a Member in the 1928 Year Book. Mr. H. O. Boehme is also down as a Member ('15). If you don't remember him, you don't remember the Atlantic Communication Company either, and if you don't remember the A. C. C. you are no radio man. But where is the name of George H. Clark? He doesn't seem to be a member of the Institute at all, these days. John M. Clayton, the Secretary of the Institute, is a Member. Powell Crosley, Jr. is a Member. H. P. Davis, the Vice-President of the Westinghouse Company, who is probably responsible in greater measure for the existence of broadcasting than any other man and who is an engineer to boot, is not listed. Dr. J. H. Dellinger was elected a Fellow in 1923 and became President of the Institute in 1925. Carl R. Englund of the Bell Telephone Laboratories, one of the most brilliant controversialists in the Institute, was only an Associate in 1927; he has since been elevated to the Fellow grade. C. L. Farrand seemingly has no desire to rise above the Member degree. A. H. Grebe, although a Manager for three years, remains an Associate. Similarly David Grimes. And ditto Charles A. Hoxie. So does Edward J. Nally, the first President of the Radio Corporation of America, modestly remain an Associate. Hudson R. Searing, an electrical engineer who was one of the pioneers among the New York amateurs, and Harry W. Secor, who was writing radio articles during the years of radio antiquity, are both associates, Mr. Secor since 1912, when the Institute was founded. Hendrik J. Van Der.Bijl, the author of the well-known text on vacuum tubes, is a Member in South Africa. Irving Vermilya is a Member also; ten years before there were broadcast listeners to be annoyed, he was a master of spark sets from one end of Long Island Sound to the other. On the same page of the Year Book one's eye strikes the name of Manfred' von Ardenne, the German baron who, as a radio engineer and mathematician, was able to hold his own with some of the Fellows of the Institute during his visit a year ago, but who is so young that he can only qualify as a Junior. Finally, among the Z's, just before the name of Prof. Jonathan Zenneck, the Fellow who came from Germany this year to receive the Institute's Medal of Honor, there is Harold R. Zeamans, who ranks among the Associates, for he is a lawyer and not an engineer, but for all that he is one of the oldest members of the organization and has been presenting it with legal counsel since 1912. Thus there are great and prominent men on the lower ranks of the hierarchy, as well as among the Fellows. Prominent or not, they can vote, speak their minds at the meetings, and preserve the Proceedings in their libraries. There are, however, privileges which they do not enjoy. Only the Fellows have the right to wear badges with blue lettering on a gold background, only Fellows may aspire to election to the offices of President and Vice-President, and only Fellows are ipso facto famous. 51