TV Guide (May 14, 1954)

Operator uses TV to check fiery steel strip in U.S. Steel's Gary, IndL sheet mill. chairman of RCA, describes this newest phase of TV thusly: “By in¬ dustrial television, I mean the use of TV in plants so that you can see what is going on along the production line and keep an eye on other activities. There are places where man cannot go with safety, and there a TV cam¬ era can be installed; for example: in factories where deadly fumes would endanger life, near furnaces and in mines. And where it is too dark for the human eye to see, a TV camera can take a look. It can serve also in stores and other places where the public comes en masse.” Mother Is Watching Applications of industrial TV to the schoolroom and the home sound even more like science fiction. With an in¬ dustrial TV system, a school can bring programs to the entire student body or to selected classes. Although the cost of the basic in¬ dustrial TV unit is prohibitive for most home-owners (the suggested re¬ tail price for RCA equipment is about $995), the uses of such a system are readily apparent. By merely snapping a switch, the housewife will be able to watch her children asleep in the nursery or at play in the yard. Or, without leaving her easy chair, she can focus on the kitchen to see how her cooking is progressing. All this is made possible by a new private wire TV system. This system comprises a midget camera weighing less than five pounds and a control unit weighing only 18 pounds, with simplified controls for easy operation. One camera contains only four elec¬ tron tubes, including the Vidicon pickup tube, which is about the size of a cigar. Any home-type TV re¬ ceiver can be used for viewing pur¬ poses, with the system connecting through the set’s antenna terminals. The potential uses of industrial TV have* hardly been tapped. The New York Police Department has already experimented with televising its daily “line-up” of suspects from cen¬ tral headquarters in Manhattan to headquarters in Brooklyn. Eventual¬ ly, the department plans to install re¬ ceivers in each precinct station. Other law enforcement uses of in¬ dustrial TV strike closer to author Orwell’s ideas. In the Houston, Tex., city jail, for example, eight indus¬ trial TV units are at work. The cam¬ eras are posted in the cell corridors and in work and recreation areas. Police officials can keep a steady eye on prisoners on their office receivers. At the Nat Burr Packing Co. in Memphis foremen watch a mammoth bacon-slicing machine without near¬ ing the dangerous blades. At the Mer¬ chandise Mart in Chicago, where ele¬ vators start from both the first and second floors, starters can see on their TV sets when cars are filled. Foremen Keep Cool The U.S. Steel Corp. has TV units at several blast furnaces to permit foremen to observe operations while standing away from the tremendous heat. Newer units at its Gary, Ind., Sheet and Tin Mill give operators an unobstructed view of the 80-inch fiery steel sheet as it speeds from the finishing stand to the coilers. TV, of course, has played an im¬ portant part in the Government’s atomic research work. It is known that scientists working with danger¬ ous radium and uranium rays can watch their experiments at close range through TV without fear. In addition to RCA which devised the Vidicon tube, industrial equip¬ ment is manufactured by Dage Elec¬ tronics Corp., Diamond Power Spe¬ ciality Corp., Capehart - Farnsworth Corp. and the Allen B. Du Mont Lab¬ oratories, and a score of other compa¬ nies across the Nation. 23