Radio Broadcast (May 1929-Apr 1930)

THE TUBE 1 BUSINESS FINANCIAL NOTES Sonatron tube earned $3.29 per share in year ending March 31 compared to 71 cents a year ago. Pilot net sales for the first six months of 1929 amounted to $706,399 compared with $552,110 for the same period of 1928, a gain of approximately 27 per cent. A stock issue of 38,000 shares of no par value common stock of the Hy-Vac Radio Tube Co., Newark, has been decided upon. The outstanding capitalization upon completion of this financing will consist solely of 125,000 shares. PRODUCTION NOTES Production of Speed (Cable Radio Tube) tubes has been speeded up to 25,000 daily, 15,000 a.c. and 10,000 d.c. tubes. A plant has been acquired to produce tools and parts needed for the manufacture of tubes. Altogether 47,000 square feet of floor space are devoted to Speed production. An entire unit of the new Arcturus plant (we have seen it and it is a beauty) is being devoted to the manufacture of 180-type rectifier tubes. Marvin is operating six tube plants in an effort to satisfy the demands of Marvin jobbers. No tubes are being sold to set manufacturers — all go through normal distribution channels. CeCo is confining the activities of its old plant to the production of screen-grid tubes only. The daily output is 10,000. The new plant (four acres) will have a capacity of 35,000 daily by mid-August and 45,000 by mid-October. It produces all types except screen-grid tubes. A new Sonatron plant is coming into full production of screen-grid tubes. It will have a total capacity of some 40,000 tubes of this type . a day. REGARDING QUICKER HEATING We quote the following letter from Allen B. DuMont, Chief Engineer of DeForest: "Quick heating in a.c. tubes is no longer a deep mystery. There are several ways of achieving this desired end. However, to make a tube heat quickly, operate quietly, and live a long time, is quite another story. Many methods resorted to in obtaining quick heating are not sound. The desired end is obtained at the sacrifice of mechanical and electrical strength, as well as the span of useful fife. The elimination of the insulating tube in the heater cathode, for instance, makes for quick heating. But it also makes for a weaker mechanical construction, and paves the way for short-circuited tubes even with normal handling. The practice of overloading the heater wire makes for quicker heating, but also for shortened life. The use of less insulating material without compensating such reduction by using a stronger material makes for quicker heating but also for a weaker tube. No one can deny the need for quicker heating. However, I hope that the industry will not. run a race on heating time at the expense of the more important factors involved. Also, let us not forget that in many of our quick-heating tubes we are rapidl y approaching the heating time of the -45 power tube and the -80 rectifier, so that nothing can be gained by faster heaters." EIGHT TUBE MAKERS BROADCAST People worried a lot in the early days of broadcasting about who was to pay the bills. The following table of tube manufacturers who take time on the air shows how the tube business contributes toward broadcasting maintenance : Tube Manufacturer Day Hour Network Sonatron DeForest CeCo Ken-Rad Eveready Sylvania Triad Marvin Sunday Sunday Monday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Friday Saturday 30 p. 00 30 00 00 30 00 30 m. Columbia " Columbia " Columbia " WJZ chain " weaf chain " wjz chain " wjz chain " wjz chain A NEW FILAMENT METAL A saving of $250,000 a month in the manufacture of radio tubes has been effected by the development by Westinghouse engineers of Konel, a new metal useful for filaments. This metal is a substitute for platinum and costs but a few The Sylvania Foresters in Action dollars a pound compared to $180 an ounce for the rare white metal. The life of filaments using this new metal is approximately ten times as long as that of other filaments; they produce the same emission but at a temperature 175 degrees colder. The new metal is harder to forge than steel and is very tough at high temperatures where most metals lose their strength. SELLING S. G. SETS A wholesaler in Newark, N. J. sends us the following instance of how screengrid sets are sold — sometimes. He actually witnessed this sale. Customer to dealer: "Well, has this set a screen grid?" Dealer to customer: "Oh, yes, Madam, here is the screen," pointing to the covering over loud speaker, "and the grid is inside." NEWS FROM SYLVANIA From our friend Monte Sohn of Pickard Sohn (who writes the good-looking Sylvania copy) comes the news that a halfmillion Sylvania listeners prefer the classics and old-time songs to jazz. This note is prefaced by the remark that " I think this vastly better than the conventional literary contribution as to who is the biggest manufacturer of radio tubes, who has the most millions of acres of floor space, and whose officials think the radio industry is enjoying prosperity." We agree heartily with Mr. Sohn. We have been compiling, recently, a table of "discounts." It started when we went through two radio factories. In one the chief engineer said he was turning out 200 sets a day, and in another plant the number of dealers was slated to be 1500. On returning to the office, we discovered press releases stating that the first manufacturer had a daily output in excess of 1000 sets, and the second had 3000 dealers. Evidently the discount figure on daily set production is about 5 to 1 and on dealers is about 2 to 1. We are attempting to find out by what amount to discount the extraordinary tales of daily tube production with which we are flooded. Incidentally, the hard-looking gang at the bottom of the page is the Sylvania Foresters who may be — and are — heard from wjz's chain on Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. New York time. Come again, Mr. Sohn. • OCTOBER 1929 • • 337