Television digest with electronics reports (Jan-Dec 1953)

11 Trade Personals: Walter H. Hawk, ex-director of elec tronic production engineering and ex-chief engineer of rectifier & intelin div., appointed mgr. of TV operations of Federal Telecommunication Labs (IT&T) in charge of production and development of vhf-uhf telecasting & studio equipment . . . John F. Gilligan, Philco, reappointed chairman of RETMA public relations & adv. committee by Robt. S. Alexander, set div. chairman; Ellis L. Redden, Motorola, reappointed vice chairman, advertising; Stanley H. Manson, Stromberg-Carlson, vice chairman, public relations . . . A. M. Fisher, ex-Chicago district mgr., named Westinghouse mid-America regional mgr., succeeding late Fred T. Whiting . . . Henry B. Vidal, Buffalo branch mgr., appointed mgr. of new N. Y. State sales district set up by Westinghouse, with headquarters in Buffalo and branch in Syracuse . . . Charles McKinney, ex-adv. mgr., named to new position of distribution & merchandising mgr., Raytheon . . . Donald L. Clark promoted to mgr. of marketing research, GE TV-radio dept, under E. F. Peterson, marketing mgr. . . . W. O. Spink promoted to asst, equipment sales mgr., Sylvania electronics product sales dept., New York . . . Gilbert Sherman, ex-Hughes Aircraft electronics engineer, named Pacific Coast electronic sales rep, Westinghouse, succeeding Robert F. Roberts, now mgr. of tube equipment sales, Elmira, N. Y. . . . Albert E. Hylas, exDuMont, joins Industrial Television Inc. as chief development engineer; Walter V. Tyminski, also ex-DuMont, joins ITI as commercial product design engineer . . . Irwin Perton, ex-Fuller & Smith & Ross, named Emerson Radio art director . . . Manny Silver, ex-Horn & Cox Distributors, named national sales mgr., Pacific Mercury . . . J. C. Van Arsdell named asst. gen. mgr., electronics div., Erie Resistor Corp.; Philip B. Ehrman named supt., Horace S. Herrick named mgr. of quality control . . . Fred T. Schick, ex-DuMont & Emerson, named chief mechanical engineer of CBS-Columbia . . . Clifford J. Wood. ex-Hallicrafters, named mgr. of Capehart-Farnsworth research dept., succeeding J. H. Riddel, recently promoted to asst. v.p. of commercial products div. Distributor Notes: Hoffman Radio appoints Mytelka & Rose Inc., Newark, for all New Jersey . . . DuMont promotes sales mgr. Philip P. Geth to mgr. of N. Y. factory distributorship, succeeding Sam Brechner, resigned . . . Emerson appoints Public Distributing Co., Denver (Melvin M. Zelinger, owner) . . . Graybar appoints J. M. Ferguson mgr. of Davenport, la. branch, succeeding E. L. Johnson, retiring . . . Satterlee & Blue Columbian Electrical Co., Kansas City (Zenith) appoints Harold L. Kittinger sales mgr. . . . Philco Distributors Inc., Chicago, names George Hickman TV-radio sales mgr. . . . Capehart-Farnsworth appoints Baltimore Wholesalers Co., Baltimore . . . CBSColumbia names Cannon Distributing Co., Charleston, S. C. (Norman L. Cannon, pres.). “Sales counselors to their dealers instead of mere salesmen” — that’s role of sales management today, in opinion of Motorola sales v.p. Edward R. Taylor, addressing Atlanta Sales Executive Club Sept. 10. Motorola’s recent workshop conferences, reaching 600 distributor sales personnel in series of 3-day workshops in 12 key cities, were cited as example of salesmen’s eagerness to learn selling techniques. “As the fat is skimmed from the national economy and a more durable kind of stability is built into marketing practices through sales training and education,” he said, “salesmen are willing to sacrifice much of the razzle-dazzle such as elephants, magicians and showgirls in sales meetings in exchange for more tips on how to sell, comparisons with competitive products and maiket data. Western Merchandise Mart’s next winter market in San Francisco has been set for Feb. 8-12. Electronics Reports: “After many false starts, excursions and alarums, the transistor has reached the threshold of maturity.” Laying facts on the line and summing up disappointments in development of the transistor, Philco TV-radio-appliance research dir. Donald G. Fink told recent Western Electronics Conference in San Francisco that after 5 years of development, only 2 of the transistors’ anticipated commercial applications are realities today — its use in telephone exchanges and in hearing aids. Many of the transistor’s “great expectations” have failed to materialize so far, he pointed out. Principal among these has been the expectation of unlimited life. “Sufficient time has now passed to show that long life is not a natural attribute of transistors as we now know how to build them.” Breakdowns in transistors are caused by moisture, mechanical breakage in wires due to no explainable cause, spontaneous appearance of defects in the germanium. These limitations to useful life “occupy the attention of nearly every research worker in the field,” he said. “But the expectation of long, possibly unlimited, life is still with us, with more justification. We know much more about the causes of early failure in transistors than we did 2 years ago. [In] another 5 years we should have this problem behind us.” Of the other “great expectations” of 5 years ago, only one has been realized: The transistor is far more efficient than the electron tube as an amplifier of weak signals. But “in every other department, the vacuum tube is still in full control of the situation.” Commercial transistors today can’t compete with tubes in sensitivity, frequency range, power, operation at high temperatures. Disappointing as first commercial transistors have been, developments in the laboratory now clearly indicate many of the obstacles will be surmounted. Fink cites marked improvements in power and frequency range — one unit has output power of 2 watts at 30 me — reported by Penn State. Lower power units have oscillated as high as 425 me, and “great strides have been made in the matter of noise.” But really high-power, high-temperature operation “awaits the development of a non-germanium transistor, probably one made of silicon,” now in sight after many disappointments. And one of biggest problems is devising automatic machinery to mass-produce reliable transistors at moderate price. As to the future: “We must remember that there are in the homes of America today 25,000,000 TV receivers, virtually all of which contain RF & IF amplifier tubes which were known to be completely impossible to build in 1940. With this record behind us, we can confidently predict that the transistor, 1958 version, will be no glamor boy. It will, very probably, be a workhorse full worthy of the stable so long and nobly occupied by the electron tube.” TV receiver boom in Tokyo is anticipated as result of debut of first commercial station JO AX-TV, which began programming Aug. 28. It’s owned by Japan’s 3 most powerful newspapers and 60 Japanese businessmen. RCAequipped, it’s Tokyo’s second station, first being JOAKTV, non-commercial outlets owned by semi-governmental Broadcasting Corp. of Japan (NHK), which also has outlets in Osaka and Nagoya. New station has 10-kw transmitter, as opposed to JOAK-TV’s 500 watts. Federal’s foreign TV chief, Jimmy Valentine, now in Tokyo, writes: “There is a wide selection of TV sets in stores, from 7 to 27-in. Sets are mainly U. S. make [modified for 100-volts 50 or 60-cycle house current], although local production is increasing rapidly. Realistic sets-in-use figures are: Tokyo 5000, Osaka 1500, Nagoya 400.” Hayakawa Electric Co., one of Japan’s leading TV manufacturers has line ranging from 14-in. at $400 to 21-in. at $750. Prices have decreased rapidly with improved production methods.