Radio doings (Dec 1930-Jun1932)

January, 1931 RADIO DOINGS Page Twenty-three ANf NT TELEVISION Commercial television is either several years in the future or else just around the corner, and the odds are on the former. Just when the foremost industrial engineers in the held and Dr. C. B. Jolliffe, chief engineer of the Federal Radio Commission, had decided that visual broadcasting is still in the experimental stage and is likely so to remain for some time, a 24-year-old radio engineer, backed by his attorney, threw a mild bombshell into a conference on television by announcing that he had developed a tube that will make commercial television possible at once. The youth, whom his attorney called "one of the ten mathematical wizards of the age," is Philo T. Farnsworth, technical head of the Television Laboratories, San Francisco, Calif. Together with his attorney, Donald K. Lippincott, he was in Washington to attend the conference of television engineers called by Dr. Jolliffe although as yet he has obtained no license to operate even an experimental visual broadcasting station. This young man was not greeted with wild acclaim either by the industrial or the commission engineers. Instead, his announcement was met with apparent skepticism. The suggestion of his counsel that the commission not provide such a wide band for television experiments as now thought necessary, on the ground that Farnsworth's invention enables a television station to transmit images on a band no wider than the radio broadcast, was immediately quashed. Following the conference. Commissioner Harold A. Lafount said that the commission would accept the youthful inventor's offer to demonstrate his tube, probably within the next fortnight. If this demonstration convinces the Radio Commissioners, Farnsworth will likely be granted the application he plans to file for the erection of a station in New York City. If not, his experiments will doubtless be confined to his laboratory for some time. There was a great deal of mystery about "the revolutionary tube development," and that probably explained much of the antagonism that rebuffed it. A great many assertions about it were made and several written testimonials were offered, but no actual proof of its worth was presented. After the conference, C. W. Horn, chief engineer of the National Broadcasting Company, expressed the belief that television would not be ready to provide public entertainment for several years. "Only when it can compete with the talking motion picture can we hope to attain any success with television," he said. "And that is still far off. While we have made great strides in the art during the last two years, we are still far short of the perfection of the motion picture film." Farnsworth contends that he is able to transmit a television image of 300 lines with far more details than those of 40, 50 and 60 lines now broadcast experimentally by other engineers. By narrowing the wave bands to 10 kilocycles, whereas television now requires 100 kilocycles, he has increased the sensitivity of his transmitter to a point that direct television pick-up is possible, he said. This would adapt the system for use in visual broadcasting of football games and other sport events. At the outset of the conference, Dr. Jolliffe announced that the engineers were called only to work out methods of reducing interference between experimental television stations, to determine the progress of the art, to study means of combining visual and voice transmission, and to ascertain what channels are best adapted for television. Leading radio and television scientists of the nation participated in the parley. Virtually all agreed that they were not ready for commercial visual broadcasting. * * * Television Stations Reallocated The Federal Radio Commission this week adopted the recommendation of the recent television engineering conference regarding the reallocation of the assignments of the 19 experimental stations so as to afford greater geographical reparations and eliminate interference on the short wave channels. Other proposals of the conference are now being considered by the Engineering Division of the commission and will probably be likewise recommended for approval within the next week or so. This realignment of visual broadcasting stations is expected to aid in the experiments and to hasten the day when the art will be ready for public entertainment on a commercial scale. The new reallocation went into effect on December 15th. The assignments are as follows: 2,000-2,100 Kc. W3XK 5,000 Wheaton, Md. W2XCR 5,000 Jersey City, N. J. W2XAP 250 Portable W2XCD 5,000 Passaic, N. J. W9XAO 500 Chicago, 111. W2XBU 100 Near Beacon, N. Y. 2,100-2,200 Kc. W3XAK 5,000 Bound Brook, N. J. W3XAD 500 Camden, N. J. W2XBS 5,000 New York, N. Y. W2XCW 20,000 South Schenectady, N. Y. W8XAV 20,000 East Pittsburgh, Pa. W9XAP 1,000 Chicago, 111. W2XR 500 Long Island City, N. Y. 2. -50-2-850 Kc. W2XBO 500 Lona Island City, N. Y. W9XAA 1,000 Chicago. 111. W9XG 1,500 West Lafayette, Ind. 2,850-2,950 Kc. W1XAV 500 Boston, Mass. W2XR 500 Long Island City, N. Y. W9XR 5,000 Downers Grove, 111. The Farnsworth system employs a cathode ray tube m which the electron stream is deflected by means of a moving magnetic field. The scanning disc and the accompanying mechanical devices are thus eliminated. Very successful demonstrations have been made in San Francisco for some months past. Dr. Vladmir Zwory\m of the RCA Victor Company has been worthing along the same lines with equal success. Without doubt the Farnsworth system is the most practical and at the same time the most successful method yet developed. In conjunction with a receiver such as the Stenode Radiostat of Dr. Robinson's, the Farnsworth system overcomes the two serious obstacles which have confronted radio television. T^amely the motor and scanning disc arrangement which is not acceptable to the public, and the necessity of employing a very ivide band of frequencies for transmission. Robinson's receiver f described elseu-here in this issue) permits of the reception of a wide range of modulation frequencies in a very narrow receiver channel. — Tech. Ed.