Television digest with electronics reports (Jan-Dec 1954)

I I i Topics & Tronds of TV Trsdo: Firmer price structure for major appliances is foreseen this fall by Aug. 31 Journal of Commerce, which reports after survey of manufacturers and distributors that unit sales for all of 1954 are expected to equal 1953, despite comparatively slow first half this year. It quotes Hotpoint spokesman as sayingfall firmness is already under way in prices of washers, dryers and ranges. Price cutting resulting from excessively high inventories and overproduction plagued major appliance industry in first 6 months of 1954 — a condition somewhat comparable to TV. Result, story says, is that big Macy’s dept, store in N. Y. marked down such items as GE refrigerator from $290 to $185, a Bandix washer from $300 to $240. But as typical of industry’s outlook for fall, it quotes spokesman for distributor Bruno-New York Inc. (Youngstown kitchens. Whirlpool washers. International Harvester refrigerators) : “There’ll be price shading indeed by retailers this fall. But on the basis of the increased tempo we’ve observed, there won’t be consumer discounts as great as those which marked appliance sales through the bulk of this year.” in id ^ ip Admiral consolidates its electronic engineering and research staffs at main factory and general offices at 3800 W. Cortland St., Chicago, providing 20% more floor space and creating enough room for 2 additional laboratories — ; one for color, second for printed circuits. Ten labs are now concentrated in main plant — 4 for black-&-white, 2 ■ color TV, 2 advanced development, one radio & high-fidelf ity, one printed circuit. In addition, company continues to 1 maintain color lab at Palo Alto, Cal., and an appliance engineering & research center at Galesburg, 111. Olympic Radio’s 14-in. table model, using vertical ) chassis and listing at $99.95, began going out to distribu' tors this week. It’s in leatherette, and called “Compan' ion.” Sales v.p. Herbert Kabat said distributor-dealer interest is “beyond expectations” but declined to say how many would be produced. Item will be backed with heavyadvertising in next few weeks, mainly in magazines and Sunday supplements. EleCironicS Reports: NBC will be experimenting by end of this year on everyday use of RCA’s magnetic tape recorder demonstrated in Hollywood la.st winter (Vol. 9:45), chairman Sarnoff told NBC-TV affiliates at Chicago convention this year — but, even more startling, he also reported so much laboratory progress on an electronic airconditioner and on a true amplifier of light that he feels confident the answers will be in sight within 2 more years. These are the 3 major developments that in 1951 (Vol. 7:39) he asked his Princeton lab to present him on his 50th anniversary' with radio, which will be in 1956. This week he spoke up about a new gimmick he called “Electro-Luminescence” — the tubeless TV set, not even with picture tube, which he foresaw perhaps 5 years from now. “We shall have,” he said, “a screen on the wall of whatever size you wish to make it — small or large — and that screen will be connected directly by a small cable with a little TV box about the size of an average cigar box that can be placed anywhere in the room. No cabinet -will be required and, if desired, screens can be placed in every room in the house. “The TV box will contain the tuning and volume controls and the station selector. It will also have a remote control knob enabling one to make the picture of any desired size, either in black-&-white or in color, and to make it brighter or dimmer, adjustable by the viewer to suit his individual taste. “Transistors will replace the present small tubes, and an electro-luminescent screen will take the place of the present cathode ray tube . . . Transistors one day -will replace tubes, all but the picture tube in TV, and all tubes in radio sets. The only delay [is in] learning how to produce these transistors in large quantities at a price that will make them competitive with tubes. Progress is being steadily made. I shouldn’t be surprised if within the next year or 2 you would see a considerable amount of transistors in radio sets.” Raymond L. Sanford retired Aug. 31 as asst, chief of electronics & electricity div. of National Bureau of Standards, after 44 years with bureau. Carroll Stansbury is now chief of electronics section. Trade Personals: Douglas Y. Smith, gen. marketing mgr., elected v.p. & gen. mgr. of RCA tube dept, succeeding Richard T. Orth, who joined Westinghouse Sept. 1 as v.p. in charge of electronic tube div. . . . Irwin B. Koenigsberg promoted to Emerson Radio purchasing director, replacing Robert J. Bahr, resigned . . . Glenn W. Thompson, pres, of Arvin Industries, also elected chairman, succeeding late Q. G. Noblitt; Harlan B. Foulke, v.p., named gen. chairman of newly-created growth & development committee . . . George Beier resigns as sales mgr. of Scott Radio Labs (Meek TV) . . . J. L. (Jud) Albers, Capehait-Farnswoi-th mid-southwestern regional sales mgr., named mgr. of distribution for parent company . . . Walter B. Varnum, from Kansas City office, named mgr. of broadcast equipment ! .sales, RCA engineering products div., Camden, coordinating all departmental sales activities and planning under gen. sales mgr. E. C. Tracy; J. Edgar Hill, from Boston office, appointed mgr. of northern broadcast field sales, I working out of Camden; John Almen takes over Kansas City office, Joseph P. Ulasewicz succeeds Hill at Boston . . . \Vm. E. Nelson and Forest Knoper resign as Motorola sales promotion mgr. and art director, respectively, to form Advertising Promotions Inc., 184 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, specializing in direct mail and point-of-sale programs . . . Victor B. Stepka named Crosley Dallas zone mgr., succeeding A. P. Cain, now west coast regional mgr. , . . . D. .M. Day, secy, of Federal Telecommunication Labs, takes on additional duties of treas. . . . Robert Finlay, Ilallicrafters communications equipment factory rep in several eastern states, adds metropolitan N. Y. to territory, taking over from eastern sales mgr. Hector Castellucci . . . Frank Bonner named Philco eastern district rep for appliances, Cleveland, replacing John G. Wolfe, resigned . . . .Mike Goldman, ex-Peaslee-Gualbert Corp., Emerson’s Georgia distributor, named Emerson southern regional sales mgr. . . . Dr. Frederick E. Terman, dean of Stanford U school of engineering, named a director of Ampex Corp. (recording equipment); Robert Sackman named mgr. of new instrumentation div. . . . C. D. Vannoy named contioller of International Resistance Co. and member of its operating committee, succeeding Clarence Harding Jr., now gen. mgr. of Ireal Industries, IRC’s Los Angeles subsidiary . . . James Vrungos, ex-Hughes Aircraft, named mgr. of govt, contracts for Electronic Control Systems Inc., Stromberg-Carlson’s Los Angeles affiliate . . . Stanley Cohen, ex-Pacific Mercury, named Olympic Radio western sales mgr., replacing Walter Chase, resigned . . . Newton Cook promoted to jobber sales mgr., Chicago Standard Transformer Corp. . . . Robert J. Caldwell, ex-High Voltage Engineering Corp., Cambridge, Mass., named new products mgr.. National Co. . . . Leon B. Ungar, Ungar Electric Tools Inc., Venice, Cal., elected pres, of Radio Parts & Electronic Equipment Shows Inc., sponsors of 1955 electronic parts show in Chicago, May 16-19 . . .Austin Rising, ex-v.p. of A. O. Sutton Corp., Wichita (air conditioners), joins RCA in undisclosed assignment under Robert A. Seidel, exec. v.p. for consumer products . . . Ned S. Underhill promoted to Capehart-Farnsworth purchasing agent.