Radiophone to Rid Siberia of Wolves

RADIO telephones placed at intervals throughout the wolf-infested regions of Siberia so that the whereabouts of these dangerous pests can be easily discovered is the latest means proposed by Soviet officials to rid the vast plains of the country of the wolf menace, long an obstacle to settlement and safe travel. These radiophones will be set up on posts and trees and will flash the howl of wolves by short wave wireless to a central station, thus indicating the presence of these animals within the radius of some station, so that a patrol of hunters can be dispatched immediately to the spot to exterminate the pack.

Howls of wolves running in packs are often audible for several miles over the silent Siberian plains, and as there are scarcely any interfering noises the radiophone system will have no difficulty in revealing the whereabouts of wolf pests.

Fishermen Now Radiophone to Families

DEEP sea fishermen spend a large portion of their lives isolated on the ocean, out of touch with land for days and days on end. A new two way radio telephone, especially designed, for installation in fishing boats has now broken down this barrier of space, permitting the sailors to speak to their friends and families ashore.

How the combined receiver and transmitter operates is illustrated in the artist’s drawing above. No trained radio man is necessary to put through a call. The fisherman simply presses a button and connects up with a land station, which hooks him up to the city telephone system. Engineers are planning on installing many of these instruments on American fishing boats cruising the East coast areas.

Midget Radio, left, is tuned in by an official guide at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London where it was one of 6,000 items in the “Britain Can Make It” Exhibition. It costs about $70.

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Roll Not The Barrel

The recreation room in your home will be enhanced by this out of the ordinary, record changer cabinet.

By Loren Collins

THIS is an unusual project requiring a minimum of material and only the simplest hand tools. When completed it will not only be an attractive addition to your den or rumpus room but a serviceable record player, rivaling many large consoles in tonal quality. Using the unbreakable 45 rpm 7-in. disks that come in a wide choice of classical and popular selections, it will play ten selections, or from 30 to 50 minutes of music with one loading.

The keg used is a 2-1/2-gallon size, measuring 12-1/2 in. long by 9 in. across. Any cooperage should be able to supply you, or they can be obtained from ship supply concerns. The changer mechanism is handled by radio stores throughout the country and is available with cords, plugs and permanent needle, ready to be hooked up to any amplifier. The amplifier described in this article uses three miniature tubes and will yield excellent performance. A wooden spigot, some small pieces of 1/4-in. plywood and a few hardware items will complete your material list.

Before proceeding with the construction, the keg must be glued together. To do this, simply remove the hoops on one end and the staves will spread enough to permit glue to be applied to all joining edges and around the head. Replace the hoops, turn the keg over and repeat the operation. Be sure to align the heads so that their grain runs in the same direction. A small nail driven in the head will help to handle them during the gluing process. If the hoops are driven on tight with . a block and mallet, no other clamps will be needed. Allow ample time for the glue to set as there is considerable stress developed in the wood. Next remove the hoops and smooth up the uneven joints with a plane, then sand the whole keg smooth.

The cradles are cut from 3/4-in. stock and are fastened to the bottom section with screws driven from the inside. Use rubber-headed tacks on the bottom for table protection.

Now fasten cleats of 3/8 x 3/4-in. stock around the inside of each section to receive the panels. The lower panel should be recessed about 1-1/4 in. and the upper 3/4 in., or just enough to clear the pickup arm when the player is closed. The panels are cut from 1/4-in. plywood. Trim a piece of cardboard until it fits and use it for a pattern. The cutout for the changer is made in the lower panel with a jig or coping saw. Be sure to allow clearance for all moving parts during the changing cycle. Drill three 1-in. holes in the keg below the turntable motor to provide ventilation.

There will be some unused space at one end of the lower section and this should be partitioned off with plywood to form a storage compartment for the power cord. Drill a 1-in. hole through the head of the keg into this space to receive the spigot. A notch filed in the edge of this hole will allow the cord to be clamped in place at any desired length. For traveling, the whole cord may be pushed in and the spigot replaced. A couple of saw cuts in the end of the spigot to hold the plug will keep it from getting lost inside. The 110-volt wires and the phone lead, lead to chassis-mount type receptacles at the rear of the panel so that the two halves may be easily separated for service. Now hinge the sections together, using one sturdy ornamental hinge in the center. Attach two lengths of small brass chain to stop the upper section, a few degrees past vertical.

In laying out the upper panel, first determine the location of the hole which provides clearance for the record post, by shutting the lid against the post. A small kitchen strainer, less handle, is fastened over this opening to provide cooling air for the amplifier tubes.

This amplifier circuit is quite conventional and should present no problems even to an . inexperienced builder. However, the components must be placed in a rather unorthodox manner to make use of the space available.

The chassis is formed of a 4×5-in. piece of aluminum about 1/16-in. thick. Lay out the location of the holes directly on the metal. You must also provide holes for the socket mounting screws unless you are using the type secured by a snap-ring.

The 5/8-in. hole for the 150-ohm, 10 watt resistor (R-9) should be omitted if you are not using the through-chassis type pictured, but since this part will get quite warm, it should be mounted on the outside of the chassis.

Clamp the chassis between the blocks of wood and make the 90° bend as shown. Now mount the potentiometers and tube sockets. . If you are doubtful about following a schematic diagram, you can mark all parts with the code numbers shown on the parts list (C-l, R-9, etc.) before starting. It will also help to mark each connection off with colored pencil on your diagram as it is completed.

First wire the filaments, merely omitting the leads to the indicator light if you are not using one, and making no connection to terminal 6 of the 35W4. Next make the short connections between sockets and install resistors, leaving the larger components for last. Most of the connections are made directly but I used one small terminal strip located centrally to avoid crowding the wiring on the sockets.

You will note there is only one ground connected directly to the chassis, the others being run to a common ground. One terminal of the switch works out nicely for this purpose. The power cord and the shielded wire from the record changer are run through holes in the wooden panel before soldering them into the circuit.

The speaker wires are led through a small grommet and connected to the larger, or primary wires of the output transformer, which is mounted on the speaker itself. The secondary wires are soldered to the speaker voice coil terminals.

Before trying the amplifier, double-check your wiring, looking especially for shorts between the lugs on the tube sockets. If a hum is noticed, try reversing the power cord plug in its socket.

The amplifier and speaker can now be located on the panel and the holes drilled for the control shafts, speaker and indicator light. Place a suitable grill cloth under the speaker before fastening it in place. For best tone, be sure all parts are solidly mounted. Lining the inside of the upper section with Fibreglas or other sound absorbing material will also help to eliminate vibrations.

A small rubber pad glued to the upper panel above the pickup arm will hold it securely on its rest while the player is being carried. The correct length for this pad can be determined by placing a lump of modeling clay or putty on the arm and closing the lid on it.

Give the wood at least three coats of spar varnish, rubbing lightly with steel wool between coats. If any open grain woods such as mahogany are used, they should be given a coat of filler before varnishing. The keg may be stained before varnishing if you wish, however, the fir will be very attractive in its natural color.

The hoops are sawed in half and fastened in place with 1/4-in. No. 3 screws. A carrying handle and suitable hasp or snap will complete the job. A couple of final suggestions: don’t shut off the player during its changing cycle. Wait for the arm to return to the record, then turn off the switch and place it on the rest. Always keep a record on the turntable to protect the needle against breakage.

Golf Widows will be able to check up on their husbands now with this new application of the portable radio receiving set. The one being used here is a forerunner of the set to be manufactured.

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CHINA’S MILLIONS Twist the DIALS

The Orient opens its heart to radio and in the footsteps of the American listening public, succumbs to the appeal of native amateur hour artists.

by Robert H. Berkov

AGE-OLD China, shaking loose from centuries of tradition, has taken the radio to its heart, and loud speaker entertainment has become one of the most important influences in a nation which is fast adopting the modernism of the west in even the most outlying sections.

From bustling Shanghai and fast-growing Nanking near the eastern coast, to Chengtu in remote Szechuan province, from the far reaches of Hopei province in the north to Yunnan in the extreme southwest, countless receivers blare forth a cacophony of western and Chinese music, announcements, speeches. Out of the ether to hundreds of middle schools come the lessons and exhortations of mass-education broadcasts. In shops and homes are heard, in rapid succession, the traditional story-tellers of old Cathay and the swing music of American jazz bands from the swank hotels and cabarets of Shanghai. And once a month, to crowds reminiscent of World Series listeners in America come the stentorian voices of announcers reciting the lucky numbers of the National Lottery.

In Shanghai, largest city in China and generally deemed the most cosmopolitan community in the world, one can and does hear radio voices in English, French, Russian, German and Japanese as well as the customary Chinese with its numerous dialects and shadings of accent.

That China should become radio-minded to the extent recorded in the past few years may fail to impress Americans or Europeans as remarkable, but when it is remembered that in this country of 450,000,000 people only a pitifully small percentage are able to afford their own receiving sets, the interest shown to date is nothing less than phenomenal. In a nation where human labor is cheaper than that of animals, where thousands of men pull other men in rickshas, where a monthly salary of $30 American currency is considered high, and where millions of people pay less than 6 cents for a restaurant meal, the extent to which radio has conditioned the lives of the masses is more than impressive and the growth of the radio-entertainment business a modern miracle.

The most recent statistics show that China imports radio material and sets to the amount of about $800,000 a year, with the United States supplying the lion’s share of the total.

The nation’s largest and most powerful transmitter, XGOA, owned and operated by the Chinese Government at Nanking, boasts the most modern equipment and facilities, and a power of 75,000 watts, putting it in the ranks of the world’s most powerful stations. But in the majority of stations equipment is crude and inefficient, broadcasting technique is in its infancy, and program arrangements and talent have nowhere reached the fine point which they have, for example, in the United States.

But refinement of equipment and power output of the transmitters are no indication of the stations’ popularity. Scores of little stations, with power ranging from 100 to 500 watts, regularly broadcast programs which boast a popularity easily comparable with that of the top-notch network performances in America.

Until now radio stations have experienced a high mortality and turn-over in China. For a time anarchy ruled the ether, and stations took to the air at their owners’ whim, grabbing any frequency and call letters that suited their fancy, and shifting from one to another regardless of international usage and half- hearted attempts at regulation. Now, however, China is a member of the International Radio Convention and in the interests of harmony all nationals, including those not subject to Chinese laws, abide by the regulations and control of the Ministry of Communications. The prefix “X” is now used by all broadcast stations and allotted wave lengths are adhered to by all. Under the strict regime of the Ministry the channels have been cleared and the number of outlaw stations is infinitesimal. Today the industry is more stable than at any time in its history.

Radio broacasting was introduced into China in 1922 through the enterprise of an American firm which established a 50-watt station. Soon after its beginning, however, it was closed down, presumably because the expected financial returns did not materialize.

A second attempt was made about a year later, also by an American firm, which was engaged in selling receiving sets and accessories and went on the air with a view to stimulating its own sales. In those days, with short-wave transmission and reception confined to commercial enterprises and “hams,” the hearing of entertainment programs from overseas was undreamed of, and in order to sell radio receiving sets, one necessarily had to provide something to receive. The effort lasted exactly six months before it collapsed. In the meantime, however, the germ of radio had affected a number of young Chinese, who entered the field from the amateur ranks, and who availed themselves of every opportunity to learn more about the fascinating subject from the Americans who seemed to know more about it than any other foreigners in China. Some of the young Chinese enthusiasts went to the United States to gain first-hand knowledge from American radio engineers. In 1924 the Kellogg company, American manufacturers of telephone and radio equipment, opened a branch office in Shanghai for the sale of its products, and at the same time inaugurated a 100-watt broadcasting station. Its equipment was subsequently sold to a series of other owners, who were on the air with a variety of stations until the equipment became obsolete and was replaced.

The year 1927 marked the first advent of the Chinese themselves into the business, as the owners of a large department store in Shanghai, sensing the advertising possibilities of radio, installed a 50-watt station. The program consisted of market reports, news summaries and Chinese music. At the same time radio first took hold in other sections of China and the Ministry of Communications set up a long-wave transmitter for the Tientsin Radiogram Bureau. In Peiping, then Peking and the capital of the nation, the telephone bureau opened a 20-watt station and subsequently increased its power to 300 watts.

By 1928 the Chinese Government definitely entered the radio business and erected a station in Chekiang to transmit government orders and important news to the various parts of the province. Starting with an output of 250 watts, the power was later increased to 2,000 watts. The same year the Central Broadcasting Station was built in Nanking, which had become the national capital as a result of the Kuomintang revolution. This station started out with 500 watts but its power was brought to its present proportions after a complete rebuilding of the station and the importation of much of its equipment from the United States.

At present there are 89 broadcasting stations in China, of which 39 are located in Shanghai. The remainder are located at strategic points throughout the country so that, although the majority are of low power, a system of re-broadcast is possible and approximates a national hook-up whenever required by the government for important announcements or programs.

The stations located in such political centers as Nanking, Kunming (Yunnanfu), Hankow, Hangchow, Chungking, Nanning, Canton, Foochow, Nanchang, Tsinan, Peiping, Chinkiang and Taiyuan are either under government control or are operated by the local provincial governments and are used chiefly for the broadcasting of official orders and instructions.

In Ningpo, Tientsin, Tsingtao, Wusih, Chiahsing, Soochow, Wuhu and Shanghai, however, all important commercial centers as well as seats of local governments, the stations are largely privately owned and are used to serve business interests. Here energetic salesmen solicit sponsors, for programs, announcers declaim the merits of toothpaste and cigarettes, and one hears talk of “sustaining” and “commercial” time schedules.

Shanghai is the country’s leading radio center, and the source of most of the purely entertainment programs. Of its 39 studios, all except four are under private ownership and have as their principal objective the dissemination of advertising and entertainment. The programs, in general, follow the technique of the west, but invariably retain a distinct and characteristic Oriental twist, aside from the almost universal use of the Chinese language by the Chinese-owned stations.

For example, in spite of the whole-hearted acceptance by the Chinese people of the modern facilities and equipment which bring them their radio programs, they extend their greatest favor to the most ancient type of program, the Chinese story-teller. This is a type of entertainment which has come down through the ages and thrived in a nation where less than ten per cent of the population is literate The story-teller puts on a one-man show, accompanying himself on a stringed instrument resembling a guitar. His subject matter consists of the age-old tales and legends of the people. Some of the stories are accounts of the exploits of emperors; others have to do with the life of the masses, while still others are simple fairy-tales. But the telling of the tales is more than a reading; the performance takes on the characteristics of high drama, and the episodes are both moving and exciting.

Radio plays are also popular with a race which probably more than any other delights in going to the theater. In western countries the legitimate stage may languish as a result of competition from the moving pictures, but in China the screen dramas in a strange language have to struggle for popularity against stage plays in the Chinese language. The radio, however, is peculiarly fitted to supplement stage performances, and brings the pleasure of theatricals to families which can seldom afford to visit the theater. And since the Chinese stage pays little attention to scenery, concentrating on action and characterization, the native drama suffers little by transfer to the ether, and is one of the greatest attractions to the Chinese dial-twisters.

News broadcasts also find a large and enthusiastic audience. Enterprising Shanghai newspapers have agreements with various radio stations to broadcast the news at regular intervals during the day, and the Chinese public, as news-hungry as any in the world, often turns to the radio receiving set as its sole source of information.

Other programs provided by the stations include modern Chinese music and Chinese jazz. The long-drawn wail of Chinese lady singers, particularly those affecting the Soochow accent, affect Chinese swains in the same manner that American crooners are supposed to affect feminine hearts. A Soochow accent might be compared to the southern accent in America, and is sedulously cultivated by the lady crooners as an item of charm.

But radio stars as such have not developed in China, and there are virtually few outstanding performers whose names and talents are nationally famous. There are two reasons for this; one is that fans tune their sets to certain stations for certain types of programs, and personalities of the performers mean little; the second is that a large portion of the radio talent is drawn from the amateur ranks, with consequent large turnover. The young men and women who take part in radio plays or who sing before a microphone at night, quite often work in stores and offices during the day-time and so are unable to devote to radio the time and effort which bring eminence and publicity to the professionals.

Use of amateur talent, on the other hand, can be tremendously popular, as radio listeners in America know, and the extent of the amateur field in China would probably warm the heart of Major Bowes. A few of the amateurs have graduated into the professional ranks, but a majority continue their regular daily work in other lines of endeavor.

Some of the most outstanding amateur programs broadcast in China today emanate from the studio of Station XHHS, representing the Radio Amateurs’ Home, a unique institution devoted to the non-professional in every aspect of radio. This organization has performed a notable public service during the years by bringing advanced radio knowledge to amateurs in China.

Not only does it sell equipment for amateur receivers and transmitters, but it engages in extensive educational work to spread public knowledge of radio. Aspiring “hams” are taught how to assemble sets and are given advice and help in ironing out all their problems. A magazine “China Radio,” is published in the interest of amateur activities, to keep radio enthusiasts in this country fully apprised of developments in China and abroad. The station XHHS, featuring youthful entertainers, among whom the Wong sisters enjoy a high degree of popularity, draws a large home audience. In the evening, after an early dinner, the largest number of Chinese settle themselves for an evening at the radio dials, and thousands tune in to XHHS.

XQHC with a power of 1,000 watts is also located in Shanghai. It is operated by the Ministry of Communications, but offers programs of pure entertainment, and is not concerned with official business. Its equipment is probably the most modern in Shanghai, but its popularity with the masses is only moderate. Programs are broadcast in English as well as in Chinese, and include news summaries as well as musical numbers. It features programs presented by students of the various middle schools.

The Municipal Government of Greater Shanghai (Chinese areas) also operates a station, XGOI, from the Civic Center located in the territory bombed by the Japanese in 1932 but now rapidly becoming one of the show-places of Shanghai with its resplendent buildings housing the local Chinese government organs. XGOI has a spasmodic schedule, however and is heard only when unusual events are being staged at the Civic Center. Principal sports competitions, in the Civic Center stadium are broadcast on a play-by-play basis from XGOI which becomes one of the most popular stations in the country for the duration of the event. Although its power is only 500 watts it is consistently heard in even the most remote sections of the country.

XMHA is the best-known foreign station, and broadcasts all programs in English. It is American owned and is run similarly to a station in the United States. Another American station was recently sold to Japanese interests, and now broadcasts programs in English, Chinese and Japanese.

On the days of the National State Lottery, the microphones of four local stations are installed at the Canidrome where the drawings take place, and as each number is drawn from the drums, the digits are announced simultaneously in Chinese, English, French and Russian.

Contrasting sharply with American practice, two religious stations are among the most active in Shanghai, and their programs are usually well received. One is the Shanghai Christian Broadcasting Station operated by Mrs. H. C. Robertson, an American woman. Its programs are almost exclusively religious, but music is interlarded with sermons. Because of the large number of missionary stations in all parts of the nation, some in the most outlying areas, and because of the comparatively large body of Chinese Christians, the programs of this station enjoy a larger audience than might be supposed. In addition the news broadcasts of this station, presented in English, are eagerly awaited by foreigners in isolated stations.

The other religious station is of a different nature. It is the Fo Yin station, and is operated by the Shanghai Buddhist Assocation. The organ of a section of Buddhists which believes in discarding the old tradition of tranquility and making an aggressive campaign for religion, this station reflects an evangelistic fervor comparable to that of many American Christian institutions. Music, impassioned orations, lessons and plays with a religious motive can be heard at almost all hours of the day or night, and the station is among the best known in China.

Mass education activities in Hopei province also make wide use of the radio. Conforming to orders of the Ministry of Education, radio sets have been installed in all middle schools of Hopei province, and programs of the mass-education movement are sent out from several government-owned stations simultaneously. In its campaign to educate adults as well as children and to make the masses literate, the Ministry of Education plans an increasing use of the ether waves.

Recently the Chinese Government ordered all stations in China to pick up a broadcast from XGOA at Nanking between 8 and 8:30 o’clock every night and to re-broadcast it. The program, it was announced, would consist of good music, talks, and news announcements in both English and Chinese. A howl immediately arose from operators of stations in Shanghai, particularly the foreign-owned stations, who resent the surrender of one of their best broadcasting periods to the Government. Although the Chinese stations objected also, they quickly complied with the Government order, but the foreign stations showed a disposition to resist. Finally, however, all except two, an American and a French station, decided to comply. The Government is still attempting to reach an amicable agreement with the two defiant stations which will result in their following the example of their colleagues.

Listeners Applaud Program

BY PRESSING an electric switch, radio listeners may express approval of a current radio program. Holding down a small switch attached to the base of a small lamp placed near the radio, the increased current drain is shown at the local power plant or substation.

Now being used in France, the idea was first tried out by an American power company working with an eastern broadcasting chain.

Headwork in the Garden

THE chic hat Paul Johnson of Jacksonville, Fla., wears while gardening may not keep off the iun, but it will bring in all local radio stations. The one-tube radio headset operates on two dry cells to enable him to keep up with his favorite programs while doing outdoor chores.

This picture is part of the clever QSL card of W7ELL/ Iwo Jima. The four-element rotary in the background is authentic and so is Lt. B. II. Thomas, W7ELL, the guy with the half-mast pants and the undersize helmet. Naturally the gang is very enthusiastic about the location, and during calls apply to it such tender appellations as “. . . the Volcano on the Rock of Despair,” and “the big ash heap of the Pacific.”

“…..THAT’S EASY! WHAT HE’S GOT THAT YOU HAVEN’T GOT IS AN ECHOPHONE EC-1″

Echophone Model EC-1
(Illustrated) a compact communications receiver with every necessary feature for good reception. Covers from 550 ka to 30 mc. on three bands. Electrical bandspread on all bands. Six tubes. Self-contained speaker. 115-125 volts AC or DC.
Echophone Radio Co., 540 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago 11, Illinois

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Is Radio Earthbound?

By D. C. WILKERSON

Can Radio Waves conquer interstellar Space and travel from planet to planet? That is the question the scientists hope to answer with Prof. Goddard’s proposed Moon Rocket, Which will contain a radio transmitter.

HOW IT LOOKED IN 1925

This article was originally published in RADIO NEWS, our sister publication, in March, 1925. It shows that even 33 years ago realistic individuals were thinking ahead on the subject of radio transmission. It is rather amazing that author Willterson predicted the future so well, as evidenced by the fact that we are receiving transmissions from space today. Note the similarity of the rocket conceived by Dr. Goddard back in 1925 (shown on page 52) to a modern rocket, the “Thor” (shown here).
—THE EDITORS

DURING the last year, more than any-other year in history, men have been given the results of scientific radio achievements which stimulate the imagination, as a spur to lagging engineering and technical development.

We have experienced the near approach of Mars, the flurry of mysterious radio impulses apparently connected with the fiery planet in some way, but the findings of this investigation *have not been thoroughly tabulated from all quarters.

Professor C. Francis Jenkins, the television and telephotographic expert, made signal graphs of the electrical disturbances for the whole time of Mars’ approach period, and there are other results yet to be centralized for study from all over the world.

From scientific research and countless years of grinding labor, the human race has been able to grasp the immensity of the eternal universe to which the earth is an insignificant part. The average “man in the street” now knows that we on earth are flying at tremendous speed through the heavens, linked to the sun and the other planets, our solar system being in turn linked in some way to the greater system of tremendous stars.

Astronomers have yearned for centuries to bridge the gap beyond our own infinitesimal plane, and determine whether or not nature has peopled other worlds with living, thinking beings like ourselves. The physical limitations of space and the force of gravity chain us to the earth, but the eye, aided by giant telescopes, has pierced the heavens and found there much food for reflection.

Even with the tremendous magnifying power of the mightiest of modern telescopes, we cannot discern on any other celestial body traces of life. The face of the moon, the nearest object in point of miles to our earth, discloses no vestige of animal or vegetable life. The greenish haze noted on the surface of Mars has not been satisfactorily observed generally.

HEAVISIDE’S RADIO WAVE THEORY The sudden growth of radio has placed in our grasp a new force of most portentous possibilities. It is practically instantaneous. Its wave moves with the speed of light. A modern English physicist, Dr. Heaviside, has propounded the theory that radio waves are earthbound, being guided by the electrical properties of the surrounding gases.

This theory enjoys great vogue among men of high authority. More adventurous minds have hoped that by means of the radio wave we might communicate with other living beings on other planets. What a masterful conception to stimulate the hopes of man! To reach out beyond our own little sphere and find other civilizations will do more to advance human thought and development than all the works of religious founders for all time.

Communication from airplanes and airships between each other and with radio ground stations has given support to the thought that possibly the radio wave is not fettered to earth, and that it might penetrate to interstellar space.

Electromagnetic disturbances caused by mighty eruptions shown in spots on the face of the sun have been noted on the earth and records made from them in radio stations. If such disturbances can project a radio wave from the sun to the earth, then is it not proved that these impulses can carry on through space?

To obtain exact proof of this perplexing question has been a problem impossible of solution, since we had no way to set up radio waves beyond the earth’s zone of influence, until Professor Goddard first brought out his projected Moon-Rocket.

THE MOON-ROCKET The Moon-Rocket has been discussed in these columns before, and a lengthy discourse about it would be out of place here. Simply, the plan is to build a giant rocket which shall move through space by the ejection-reaction principle. It will carry a series of explosive charges sufficiently powerful to drive the body of the rocket beyond the gravitational pull of the earth, the successive charges to drive the rocket to the moon. As the mighty projectile progresses through the heavens, it will be watched by thousands of astronomers who will check on its flight, speed and the place where it lands on the moon. This latter item, of course, depends upon the accuracy of calculations made for the proper time, place and direction of initial flight.

TO INCLUDE RADIO TRANSMITTER It is now proposed to include in the mechanism of the rocket a small but powerful radio transmitter which shall be set in operation at the moment the rocket is released. Coincident with the verifying of the flight of the rocket by astronomers, the vast army of radio listeners will stand by their receiving sets with watches in hand noting the strength of signals as long as they shall continue.

This will settle once and for all whether or not the radio wave, our only present-day hope for signaling other intelligent creatures on other planets, can conquer the void between our interstellar neighbors and ourselves. What a wonderful inspiration it will be to mankind to realize that there exists elsewhere than on earth other living, thinking beings.

Some plans were made for carrying a man as a passenger in the Goddard Rocket, and volunteers were even listed for the journey. Such a human sacrifice has been discouraged, for there is little doubt but that a man thus carried could not survive the trip for many reasons. It is also believed that the first tremendous impulse of the rocket in flight would be great enough to burst the blood vessels of the passenger; therefore the idea of the passenger has been abandoned.

In lieu thereof, the radio transmitter has been suggested as a passenger. It will certainly provide intelligent means for obtaining important facts about the vast spaces existing throughout the universe.

When the world of science knows for a certainty that the radio waves can carry through interstellar space, the time when further and more ambitious attempts to communicate with our planetary neighbors will be hastened.

This may answer the cynical queries of skeptics who demand to know what use all this sort of thing is to the world. Every new scientific fact produced supplies further tools with which to better our fast-growing and complicated structure of civilization. Let us hope success crowns the efforts of all men who dare to pioneer the distant fields of our universe.

Radio Equipment for Autos Brings Broadcast Programs to Motorists

RADIO, it seems, is destined to be installed in everything that flies, runs on wheels, or floats on water. The fast moving auto is the latest vehicle to be invaded by radio’s onward march.

Equipment has recently been placed on the market for installation in automobiles. As shown in the photo below, the control dials are installed on the dashboard, while the apparatus occupies a small space up under the cowl. The location of the loud speaker is optional, the space under the cowl being preferable. The antenna is ordinarily strung up in the roof, but many cars are equipped with built-in and invisible antennas, especially in the de luxe models of expensive makes.

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Radio News

Broadcasts from Ocean’s Bottom

HOW a diver feels and what he sees as, clad in his heavy armor, he “plods his weary way” along the ocean floor and explores the weird submarine world of

gloomy lights and flickering, sinister shadows, was vividly described to thousands of radio fans not long ago when C. O. Jackson, a diver from Philadelphia, successfully broadcast a talk from the bottom of the Atlantic. To those who were listening in to station WIP he told all that he saw in his trip to Davy Jones’ locker. This is the first time that such a feat has been at- tempted, and it afforded a real thrill to the listeners. The diver was equipped with a helmet in which was installed a microphone, protected by sponges and connected to the boat from which he descended.

The boat was connected by wire to an amplifier on the Atlantic City pier near which the experiment took place, and a land wire hooked up the pier apparatus with the broadcasting1 station. The first thing that the listeners heard was a swirling, swishing sound, which, it was explained, was the noise of the air currents in the diver’s helmet. The voice at first was weak, but grew stronger, and when the diver had reached bottom, fifty feet below the surface, they heard him say, “On my left I see the wreck of an old boat.

It looks like the skeleton of a huge fish. In it a school of little fish is playing. The rays of the sun, which look green at this depth, shine on their backs.” After walking around a second wreck near by and describing its appearance, and that of the ocean floor in the vicinity, the diver ascended, having been under water ten minutes. Upon his arrival at the pier the diver was presented with a silver cup, as a memento of the occasion when the ocean’s bottom was first described to those on shore direct from the man on the spot. The test was a complete success, and listeners had a variation from the usual programs.

Transformer Sealed in Vacuum

Experimenters have long realized the advantages of the air-core transformer for maximum amplification at a given wave length, but it has heretofore been found impossible to construct transformers of this type that could be depended upon to give uniform and satisfactory results under all conditions. Absorption of atmospheric moisture in untreated coils causes serious losses, and treatment of the coils with gums and resins to remove this difficulty introduces another set of losses equally serious. Now, it is claimed, these difficulties have been overcome by a transformer sealed in a vacuum tube. The coils are thoroughly dehydrated and accurately spaced on ,a glass rod, then inclosed in a tube of high-lead-content glass, evacuated to a high degree and sealed. The initial efficiency of the transformer is thus retained.

One Antenna for Several Sets

By connecting a “coupling-tube unit” devised by U. S. naval radio experts, it is possible to hook several receiving sets onto a common aerial and each set can receive signals on a different wave length without interfering with the other sets. The apparatus has been thoroughly tested and found successful on board the U. S. S. “Colorado”; the ship’s operators copied simultaneously several messages from different stations even while the battleship’s transmitter was in action, thus enabling the vessel to carry on several times the normal amount of business.

The unit includes a resistance so high that the strength of incoming signals is reduced considerably, and it is therefore necessary to use receiving sets with three or four tubes. A radio-frequency step in the form of a trap, which eliminates regeneration, is required and a receiving set using a detector tube. This unit has become part of standard battleship equipment. To the general public this device is also of considerable usefulness as it will eliminate the great number of aerials found on city apartment buildings.

Radio Spies Are Trapped by Direction Finders in Prowling Motor Cars

Spy-operated radio transmitters don’t stand much chance of remaining undetected under the new set-up of the Federal Communications Commission. Direction-finding units in automobiles, fixed listening posts at 200-mile intervals, and ten long-range direction-finding stations now keep a 24-hour watch over ether activities in the United States and its territories. The mobile units are particularly effective for tracing illegal stations after their general location has been established by the fixed stations. Two of them, for instance, prowling about an area containing an illegal station, can get a number of direction lines on the station. When these are drawn on a map of the locality, they point unerringly to the transmitter.

To handle the illegal stations which have sprung into operation with growing defense production, the F.C.C. recently increased its field force from fewer than 200 to almost 600 engineers and operators. This is a small staff for checking up on and recording code conversations on the air, foreign-language broadcasts and conversations, in addition to routine work. But last year more than 1,000 illegal stations were tracked down.

DOCTOR BY RADIO

DR. GUIDO GUIDA, 60, founder and unpaid head of Rome’s International Radio Medical Center has treated patients via radio from his own home for 17 years. Career began when childhood friend died at sea. Italian government recently assigned six Naval operators to aid him.

Stunt Artist Broadcasts Feelings During Parachute Jump

ALL the thrills of parachute jumping with none of its perils were recently experienced by spectators and radio listeners when Maximilian Skupin, stunt artist, broadcast his sensations while falling through space over the airport at Staaken, Germany.

In one hand Skupin held a short wave antenna composed of three metal blades criss-crossed to form a hexagon. Around his waist were strapped two carrying cases containing the transmitter and batteries. A small microphone similar to the mouthpiece used by switchboard operators was suspended just below his mouth. Skupin’s body served as a counterpoise, or ground, for the unique experiment.

Latest for Housewives—Radio in the Kitchen Cabinet

THE last word in modern equipment for the kitchen would make Old Mother Hubbard turn over in her grave. This modernity is nothing less than an all electric broadcast receiver built into a kitchen cabinet, as shown in the accompanying photo.

Concealed neatly just behind the table, and finished in harmony with the rest of the cabinet, the set is easily accessible, always ready to tell the housewife the latest cooking recipes and the latest song hits to keep her cheerful. The apparatus is of the latest design, reproducing the programs with the utmost fidelity.

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Pacific Radiophone Turns Time Topsy-Turvy

Yesterday becomes today and today is tomorrow when you use the transpacific radio-telephone service opened recently between San Francisco and Java and Sumatra, in the East Indies. The first spoke in this wheel of Pacific radiophone service was set up in 1931, with San Francisco as the hub and Hawaii as the other end. A year ago the 7,000-mile Philippine island spoke was added. Now you can talk to Java, 8,700 miles distant and to Sumatra, 9,450 miles away. The Manila and East Indies circuits cross the international date line, so this telephone service has two Sundays each week and two New Year’s days in each year. A Javan calling a San Franciscan on Monday morning is likely to find the American just home from Sunday church services, but the American who puts in a call for Java on Tuesday hears the news from that country which has occurred on Wednesday. At Dixon, Calif., a ninety-foot “diamond” antenna transmits the electric-voice waves to a “pine-tree” antenna near Bandung and a Bandung antenna of the pine-tree type transmits to a diamond antenna at Point Reyes, Calif. The Dixon transmission spreads like a funnel to cover both Java and Manila and also can serve Japan when service opens later. To reach Sumatra, a second radio-telephone link is connected at Bandung’ to the transpacific channel. Calls to Java have been made since 1931 over a roundabout circuit eastward, half way around the world, 14,500 miles long from San Francisco to New York to London to Amsterdam to Bandung, San Francisco and Pacific coast towns are connected with the Dixon and Point Reyes stations by long-distance telephone lines.

Wireless music for home entertainments

ENTERTAIN your friends with radio concerts, enjoy the fascination of radio as a hobby, make wireless a profitable part of your business, get news and market reports before they are published, take public speeches off the air. With a simple receiving set and a Radio MAGNAVOX you can do all this, and more, too, in your own home or office. The front cover of this magazine shows how easy it is, with a Radio MAGNAVOX.

Practically every variety of vocal and instrumental music from jazz to grand opera, news reports in plain English, and many other special features are radio broadcasted daily, free to anyone with the simple equipment to receive and reproduce them. Read the article in this issue.

The Radio MAGNAVOX will reproduce them for many people at the same time. Without the MAGNAVOX only the operator wearing a head set can hear. Simply substitute the MAGNAVOX for the head set, hook up with a Magnavox Power Amplifier, and an audience of one or one thousand may hear perfectly. This MAGNAVOX equipment enables everything received by radio to be swelled in volume to the full sound intensity required for any occasion, without losing even the most delicate tone modulations or a single bit of the original clearness and distinctness. It makes a radio set adaptable for office, store or factory use, and the use of radio music practical for home entertainment, concerts and dances. It adds to any set the final touch of up-to-the-minute completeness and multiplies its scope and usefulness many times over.

You yourself can operate the MAGNAVOX the very first day without any previous training or experience. The hook-up is easy, and there are no adjustments. The few instructions necessary furnished free with each outfit. The entire cost no more than the price of a good phonograph.

Any first class radio dealer will install-it for you, and give you any further assistance required.

The Magnavox Company are world pioneers in the development of sound amplifying apparatus. It was MAGNAVOX apparatus used by the U. S. Navy and the U. S. Signal Corps to perfect their communication during the Great War. It is MAGNAVOX apparatus now being used by the majority of prominent speakers for addressing large audiences. The facilities and experience which developed this apparatus are back of each piece of equipment bearing the MAGNAVOX trade mark, and are available to you now in making radio simpler, more useful and more enjoyable. Write us a letter or mail the coupon below to our nearest office for FREE Magnavox folder.

Radio Magnavox

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World’s Greatest Radio Listening Post

RADIO fans take pride in the number of stations they can “log” and verify, especially if these are at a great distance. Contests for the most successful listening are as popular, now that one may hear Australia or South America, as they were in the days when people sat up in the hope of hearing Pittsburgh or Schenectady. However, the prize for the world’s most systematic listening should go to Mdlle. Marianne (the personification of the French Republic, as Uncle Sam is that of the United States). She has erected the world’s most elaborate receiving station for the purpose of listening to and recording broadcasts, as illustrated here.

In the old fort of Bicetre, which formed part of the defenses of Paris years ago, a casemate, or bombproof vault, no longer required for military purposes, has been set aside, giving about 1500 square feet of floor space for the installation of radio receiving apparatus; while a series of antenna masts was mounted above. Here reception* was found naturally good, while the fort is sufficiently far from the city to minimize man-made static. Twenty long- and short-wave receivers are installed here, and kept in use for the continual reception of programs, French as well as foreign. This station is connected by 28 direct wire lines to a “radio central,” where the listeners—who are distinct from the engineers who do the tuning in—note down anything of importance in news or announcements. If in a foreign language, it is promptly translated into French, and delivered to M. Mandel, the Minister of P. T. T. (telephone and telegraph posts) who has official supervision of radio. Other features include the study of the technical features of broadcasting; such as constancy of transmitting frequency, arrangement and quality of musical programs. In addition to the stenographic staff, there are six sound-recording devices —four phonographs with very thin aluminum discs, and two steel-tape machines, which record magnetically, on the telegraphone principle; so that a permanent record can be made for reproduction whenever it is desired. There is a full force on duty, 24 hours of the day; for international transmissions, round the world, are continuous.

We are sorry for taking the joy out of the lives of so many radio fans, who have fondly imagined that they themselves had the world’s best listening equipment—but there it is.

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RADIO IDEAS

TABLE-LAMP RADIO. Built Into the bakelite base of this attractive table lamp is a five-tube radio receiver with a dynamic speaker. A knob controls the on-off switch, and tuning is accomplished by turning the revolving dial in the base with the tips of the fingers.

CABINET TOUCH-UP KIT. Six different shades of high-grade lacquer are supplied in a handy kit for touching up plastic and colored cabinets. The colors are walnut, ivory, black, red, blue, and green. Bottles holding the enamel have plastic tops with attached brushes for applying it to cabinets.

JEWEL PICK-UP NEEDLE The new crystal pick-up below has a permanent jewel stylus of fine sapphire that is said to last a lifetime. The stylus is guarded by a spring mounting (indicated by the pencil in the photograph) which prevents harm if the pick-up arm is dropped.

TINIEST RADIO TUBE is the 1-1/4-inch midget shown below in contrast with a standard-size tube. Its plate-current drain is so low that it cannot be measured on a milliammeter! These tubes are available with tinned leads, or with a five-prong base.

HEAT-RADIATING TUBE CONNECTOR. Designed to protect the glass seals of transmitting tubes from damage by overheating, connectors of a new type are fitted with vanes that give additional surface for heat radiation. The connectors are available in four different sizes.

RECORD CHANGER. Any radio becomes an automatic phonograph when used with the instrument shown below. Requiring no connection with the radio, it plays eight ten-inch or seven twelve-inch records without attention.

PICK-UP FOR DANCERS’ SHOES. Amplifying the taps in tap dancing is a new job for pick-up units of the type commonly used on musical instruments. In the photograph above, the song-and-dance team of Valley and Lynne have the units attached to their insteps.

PERSONAL RADIO. Opening the lid of this compact portable radio turns it on automatically. The built-in antenna brings in broadcasts from stations fifty or more miles away. Its small size, light weight, and economical power requirements make it ideal for outings and travel.

Radio Milks Cows, Runs Street Cars

THERE seems to be no end to the versatility of radio in these days of electrical and mechanical miracles—not even cows and street cars are immune to the influences of its radiations. As a curtain raiser at the annual radio show held recently in St. Louis, a street car was operated from a distance by a mere man with a radio transmitter in his hand, and a Holstein cow was made to dispense her milk by the medium of radio waves, whether she liked it or not.

The mechanism of the trolley car and the mechanism of the milking machine were hooked up to a specially constructed radio receiver using only a five-foot length of copper pipe as an antenna. At a distance stood the operator, holding a portable radio transmitter using a similar antenna, as shown in the accompanying photos. When the key was pressed at the transmitter, the distant receiver in both cases set the machines to operating.

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The NATION Sits in on National Conventions

Politics becomes mechanically minded in 1936, and both Republicans and Democrats are providing the machinery which will permit the nation to listen in to the proceedings.

by BOB GORDON

THE political machinery for nominating the presidential candidates of the two major parties remains as old as the parties, but in June this year the entire nation will be given ringside seats at the National Conventions at Philadelphia and Cleveland, with both parties taking advantage of every latest scientific wrinkle to bring the conventions to your home or local movie.

In stadiums, ball parks and town squares loud speaker systems will be set up for the hundreds of thousands of persons who will assemble on the evening of June 27 to hear President Roosevelt accept the Democratic nomination. Republicans, too, are planning on having their candidate broadcast his acceptance of the nomination from their convention hall.

More than six thousand persons will journey to the convention cities to select the men for whom you will vote this fall. There will be 1,200 delegates at the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia, with 1,700 alternates, while the Republicans at Cleveland will have 997 delegates and 1,116 alternates. Then there will be the 106 National Committeemen of each party, more than 1,000 reporters, and several hundred telegraph, radio, newsreel men and news photographers.

The voting delegates will be seated in the front of the hall in four gigantic banks of seats. Delegations from each state will be seated together, with huge signs designating the seats. The alternates will have chairs on the auditorium floor directly behind the delegates. Aisles between the banks of seats will be especially wide.

The speakers’ stand will be an elevated platform erected on the front center of the stage. On this platform will be the Chairman of the Convention and the principal speakers for the day. On this platform also will be the operator who will control the radio and newsreel microphones and the public address system through a maze of 53 switches.

From a technical point of view, this switchboard operator will be the most important man in the convention hall, for he will have complete control of all sound effects. It will be he who will, under the direction of the Convention Chairman, sort out the correct speeches from the bedlam created by a thousand men all anxious to talk at once, and to see that the voice of only the speaker recognized by the chair is amplified on the public address system, is broadcast to the nation over the three networks, and is recorded by the newsreel camermen.

On the rostrum of the speakers’ platform will be the three microphones of the broadcasting companies. The voice of the regular speakers will be carried directly to the soundproof studios erected over the back of the stage, and from there, over telephone lines, will be carried to the hundreds of broadcasting stations on the networks. The five news-reel companies will also have microphones here connected directly with recording apparatus, while another microphone will amplify the speech so it may be heard in the farthest corner of the hall. So far there is nothing unusual about the procedure.

But there are a thousand delegates seated on the floor of the hall, each of whom has the right to speak when he has been recognized by the chairman. Actually, each state delegation has a spokesman, who is authorized to speak for all.

Pages Will Carry Microphones Owing to the size of the meeting, it would unnecessarily delay the business of the Convention if every delegate desiring to be heard had to mount the speaker’s platform. To obviate this there will be ten microphones suspended from the ceiling, each mike in charge of a page boy. When the chairman recognizes a speaker on the floor, the nearest boy will bring him a microphone, into which he may speak, while the switchboard operator plugs in that mike to the loud speakers, radio and newsreels. It will be futile for anyone to attempt to shout down a speaker, once he has the exclusive use of all sound facilities.

Howard Leland Smith, the architect for the Democratic Convention, has designed a way of taking care of newspapermen that will do away with the complaint that the most favored pressmen had the worst seats. Press boxes at such affairs have usually resembled two huge sections of grandstand, sloping downward toward the center, so that the representatives of the big press associations and largest papers have been directly under the speaker’s stand, unable to see, and often to hear, what is going on. Smith has reversed this arrangement, elevating the center of the press box, and sloping it downward toward the ends, thus enabling all to see and hear. This press box has been placed over the orchestra pit, with press rooms directly beneath.

Newsreels Will Be Active Three platforms have been erected for use of the newsreel cameramen. One, a double deck affair, will be at the edge of the stage, so the camera may catch a profile view of the speaker, or may be turned outward to take in the Auditorium floor. Two other platforms will be erected 120 feet from the speaker’s platform, at either side of the hall. The cameramen here will use telescopic lenses. Accredited newspaper photographers taking stills will be permitted the run of the auditorium, mainly because those in charge realize the futility of trying to confine their activities to one spot.

Related posts

• TV Goes to the CONVENTIONS (Jul, 1936)
• TELEVISION AND THE ELECTION (Jul, 1936)
• Postage Stamps as Propaganda (Jul, 1936)
• Political Spellbinding by Radio (Jul, 1936)
• Mechanical Ballot to Elect Next President (Jul, 1936)

Radio Calls Movie Star to Work

HERBERT MUNDIN, movie star, recently had to work in four different pictures at the same time. Finding it rather difficult to keep track of his working day schedule, and to know just where he was wanted next, he had to use a portable radio set.

With radio communication the directors had but to step up to the microphone to call their “much-in-demand” actor.

The tiny radio set and batteries are supported by a slingstrap. Headphones are used for reception, with a tiny loop aerial attached to them. No ground wire is needed since transmitter is close.

Latest equipment for the English bobby is a miniature radio receiving set with which he picks up instructions from police headquarters while on duty. The set is so small that the policeman carries the complete outfit in his pocket.

New Device Converts Flame Into Electricity to Run Radio

A DEVICE which converts the heat of gasoline or kerosene directly into electric current has been invented by Dr. Otto Herman, of St. Louis, Mo., who claims that it is the first practical application of the phenomena of thermo-electricity to the commercial field of radio.
The “Thermotron,” as the inventor calls it, is built at present to operate any standard radio receiving set, using the new two-volt variety of tubes, for a period of 160 hours on a gallon of fuel.

Heated Metal Generates Electricity

In operation of the “Thermotron,” a gasoline or kerosene lamp heats a secret metal alloy at points of contact, producing an electric current. The metal employed is claimed to be as good a conductor of electricity as it is a poor conductor of heat, thus solving a problem which has long baffled scientists endeavoring to discover metals capable of working successfully on the principles of thermo-electricity.
Dr. Herman expects to extend his new discovery to the development of higher powered apparatus for the transformation of ordinary fuel into electricity.

People do have video crib monitors, solar panels are available, but are not quite efficient enough to power a house, as he predicted. Video phones are only now really practical because of the bandwidth limitations spelled out in the article. We don’t have ultrasonic washing machines in our houses, but ultrasonics are used in a number of areas for cleaning. We do (did) rent movies for our color VCRs, and there are megahertz range computers managing very complicated factory production with very little human intervention. Not to mention touch tone phones and microwave ovens. Plus, if you showed that picture of a flat screen tv on the first page to someone without any context they’d probably guess that someone had hacked an LCD monitor to look all “retro”. By the way, if you’re interested in flat screen TVs, you should check out this one from 1958.

I’ve actually been wanting to post this article for a few years. When I was posting this piece about a pocket transistor radio, I noticed that the author used the word “stereatronics”, which I’d never heard. I googled it and found the complete text of this article, with no pictures, here. After reading it I learned that stereatronics was a word created for this article, which they hoped would catch on. It didn’t. I thought it would be perfect to post to the site, so I tracked down a copy. Then when I got it I realized that Colliers magazine was 11×14″ and I couldn’t fit it on my scanner. However, I recently bought an 11×17″ scanner for the site, and so here it is.

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Stereatronics – A New Science that Will Change Your Way of Life

Tiny solids are turning the electronics industry upside down. Some vibrate, others change light to energy or energy to light, or direct current to alternating. Together, they spell revolution

A NEW science, stereatronics, has been creeping up on us in the last few years and has started to make major changes in the way we live. Few of us have noticed any difference; the changes have come so quietly that even many of the people who are closest to the new science are surprised at what it has been doing. Yet the evidences have been all about us.

—Television sets are a great deal less expensive now than they were a relatively few months ago.

—More and more tape recorders are being sold. Five years back, they were too costly for most people. Ten years ago, they weren’t to be had at any price.

—New phonographs sound better than models just a few years old. There are many reasons, but one important contribution is made by a new-style pickup.

—A recent innovation in automobiles is a headlight that dims automatically as another car approaches.

—Are you reading this magazine by fluorescent light? Its glowing tube was one of the first harbingers of the new science. The photoelectric cell that opens doors automatically was another.

The exciting fact is not only that these changes are occurring (they’re insignificant compared to what’s coming), but that they are caused by little bits and pieces of solid matter—tiny, brightly colored rings, wafers and blocks, many of them no larger than the letter “o” on this page.

Some of these devices are taking the place of complicated wire and metal electronic gadgets; others are performing jobs that are entirely new, even revolutionary.

These little objects, or stereatrons, are tipping the electronics industry upside down. New ways to use them are being discovered literally faster than they can be developed. Some of the solids give off power when light is applied. Others give off light when power is applied. Some vibrate with tremendous speed, a characteristic with great promise. Some change alternating to direct current, or amplify an electronic signal, or delay a signal for an instant—or remember it indefinitely.

In the latest television sets, certain stereatrons are replacing old-style rectifiers and transformers, at a considerable saving in cost (in addition, of course, the cost of TV sets has been cut sharply because of improved production techniques). The coating on the TV screen is composed of thousands of tiny stereatrons, and other stereatrons are beginning to take over the functions of the small tubes in all sorts of electronic equipment. The magnetic surface of the tape recorder, which “remembers” sounds fed to it, also consists of many tiny solids. Other solid devices are being used to help translate the vibrations of a phonograph needle into enjoyable sound.

Those are all present uses of the stereatron, and there are many more. The future uses—those expected in just a few years—are countless.

A dentist’s drill being developed consists principally of a piece of nickel, one of the vibrating stereatrons; by vibrating 29,000 times a second, it sets up sound waves which drill quietly and less painfully. In the next few years, another vibrating solid may be used to operate a washing machine in which it is the only important moving part; its vibrations will literally shake the dirt out of clothes. Through the use of tiny stereatrons, refrigerators and air conditioners with no moving parts whatever also may be developed. Another device under consideration is a television screen so thin that it can be hung on the wall like a picture. A new clinical thermometer being made available to doctors makes use of a stereatron that reacts to heat; powered by a tiny battery, it shows a patient’s temperature within seconds. Someday, not too many years from now, your house will light up automatically as the sun goes down—and the artificial illumination will come from the entire surface of your ceilings (or walls, or windows, if you wish), instead of from isolated bulbs.

Hundreds of other stereatronic devices are being planned which promise cheaper, more efficient, longer-lasting appliances, better communications, improved transportation, new kinds of entertainment—even a general rise in the standard of living, through stereatronically operated factories. One of the most exciting projects envisions a tiny portable radar set which may provide the blind with a “picture” of the obstacles that lie in their path.

Progress in the field has been so fast that the scientists working in stereatronics—electronics engineers, physicists, chemists, metallurgists, ceramicists and mathematicians, among others—haven’t even had time to compare notes. As a result, stereatronics hasn’t developed a language of its own, as sciences usually do. In fact, until recently the science itself didn’t have a name; physicists said they were working on “solid state physics,” chemists referred to “materials research,” and others used such names as “electronic solids,” “solid state electronics,” or simply “solid state.”

How the New Science Acquired Its Name.

While this report was being compiled, the word stereatronics (ster’e·a·tron’ics) was suggested by Collier’s to fill a need felt by all of these scientists. It was derived, after consultation with both electronics experts and etymologists, from the Greek word for solids, stereos, and the word electronics. Defined as, “the science of the controllable electronic performance of solids,” it is already in use among scientists in the field.

The lack of a name, according to some researchers, was a major handicap. It prevented co-operation among scientists working on various aspects of stereatronics, because they were unaware of the work being done by others. It added just one more complication to a science already beset by complexities.

“It takes nearly a full year of close teamwork on these solid devices,” Dr. Lloyd T. DeVore, chief of General Electric’s electronics laboratory, told me, “before our scientists and engineers can even begin to understand one another.”

Stereatronics is a difficult science largely because it deals with the electrical and mechanical properties of matter—properties which defied comprehension for years and which even now experts find astonishing. In its 40 years of existence, the electronics industry has produced a variety of complex tubes, coils, transformers and so on, which have made possible the marvel of modern radios, television sets, lighting and the like. Now scientists are finding that the stereatrons do many jobs just as well, and some a great deal better.

The ironical fact is that radio engineers stumbled on the first practical stereatron long before there was any such object as an electronic tube, but failed to realize its significance.

Do you remember the galena crystal in the “cat’s whisker” radio of the 1920s? Nobody knew why it worked, but it did unscramble radio waves as they came in on an antenna, and at the same time transmitted enough energy to vibrate the diaphragms in a pair of earphones, so the radio waves became audible sound. The galena crystal had major shortcomings as a radio receiver. It wouldn’t amplify the sound it received, and it was exasperatingly inefficient at pulling the right signal out of the ether; you might spend hours poking at it before getting the station you wanted. It ultimately was abandoned in favor of the more effective vacuum tubes.

“For all the years since,” said Dr. DeVore, “we’ve been inventing wonderful gadgets in glass, wire and metal to make all our electronic equipment work efficiently—while all the time, if we’d only known it, nature, with a little help from us, could have done the same jobs at a fraction of the power and cost.”

Today nature is getting a second chance. One of the most important results will be the miniaturization of all sorts of electronic apparatus, from bulky computers to portable radios.

Some of the computers now in use are so big they occupy whole buildings. The same machines, using stereatrons, will be packed into a space not much larger than a couple of filing cabinets. Furthermore, they’ll be more efficient, more economical and longer-lasting than any computer which can be made today.

Other examples are even more striking.

“Most modern electric-powered locomotives,” Dr. Paul Jordan of GE told me, “operate on alternating current because direct current is impractical to transmit for long distances. Alternating current is less effective than DC, though; the locomotive would be much more efficient if it could change the AC to DC before using it. But the rectifier required for the job would have to be ridiculously large—about the size of the locomotive itself. At least, it would have had to be that large once.” He reached for a box and sifted a dozen silver-colored wafers into his hand. “These will do the trick soon,” he said.

Dick Tracy’s Wrist Radio Was Prophetic.

Some years ago, cartoonist Chester Gould imaginatively presented his comic-strip character, Dick Tracy, with a portable radio which could be worn on the wrist. Today the electronics industry is catching up with Gould’s imagination; there’s scarcely a concern in the highly competitive industry that doesn’t have plans for a vest-pocket-sized radio receiver that will dispense with present-day tubes, wires, sockets, transformers and chassis.

“The innards of tomorrow’s little portable receiver,” Dr. Irving Wolff of RCA told me, “will be nothing more than a small loud-speaker and a plastic plate with some lines and bumps in it. The lines will be a printed electrical circuit—metal strips etched into the plastic—and the bumps will be the little solids that will do all the work. A tiny battery will run the whole works for a year.”

It will be some years before you can buy one of the little portables. They’re expensive—and military needs come first. Nearly every type of stereatronic device now being manufactured is going to the armed services. Solids are replacing various components in radio transmitters and receivers, radar sets, antiaircraft target calculators, weapons-control systems, submarine acoustical apparatus, aircraft computers, guided missiles and the like.

But once the requirements of the services have been filled you can expect a gradual flow of stereatronic equipment which, over the years, will touch on nearly every aspect of your life.

The greatest impact will occur in your home.

For years, there has been talk of a dream house that would be equipped with telephone-TV, ranges that cook meals in seconds, electronic temperature controls, automatic room lighting, and a long list of other highly desirable features.

“All of those advances have been technically possible for a long time,” Dr. Wolff said, “but they were impractical, physically and economically.” Hundreds of vacuum tubes, numerous metal components, miles of wire and great quantities of power would have been needed to make the equipment work—all at great cost.

Today the dream house has been made practical by stereatrons. Stereatron-studded wiring, strung inside your walls, will provide plugless and shock-less induction power; a stereatron touching the outside of the wall will pick up current without requiring an outlet. Electric power will be less expensive, too: stereatrons used by the power company will help cut the cost of producing electricity, and the stereatronic appliance in your home will need less power.

Some of the most important changes impending will be caused by the phosphor particle, a stereatron that gives off light when power is applied to it. A coating of phosphors is what makes the inside of a fluorescent light tube glow; and the same kind of coating, made bright in some places, dark in others, causes the picture to appear on your television screen.

A wall or ceiling panel coated with phosphors would become a source of light if an electric current were passed through it. Hook up a series of such panels to another of the stereatrons, one that reacts to the slightest change in outside light—and you have a setup that will turn on your house lights automatically as twilight falls, and keep increasing the intensity of the artificial light as the outside darkness increases.

Prospects for Picture-on-the-Wall TV.

A new method of carrying electronic impulses to the phosphors on your TV screen will ultimately make possible picture-on-the-wall television. Instead of the bulky picture tube which now comprises nearly half your TV set, you’ll have a flat screen that will be connected to your receiver by a few wires, and can be hung anywhere. The reason for today’s long tube is the need for a so-called electron gun at the small end; it bombards the phosphor-coated screen with impulses that cause the tiny stereatrons to glow. The new screens will have a network of hair-thin wires which intersect behind each phosphor dot; as a signal hits the point where the wires cross, the phosphor speck will light up to any degree of brightness that’s ordered. The pictures can be in full color, of course.

Stereatronic advances will bring down the cost of television sets so that it will be practical to have a number of receivers and screens in your house. They will provide not only entertainment, but closed-circuit communication within the home, when used in conjunction with small, portable TV cameras (RCA calls them TV Eyes). The new cameras, about half the size of a telephone directory and weighing only a few pounds, will let you keep an eye on Junior in the playroom at the flick of a switch, or check to see who’s calling when the front doorbell rings. The effectiveness of these midget cameras lies in a stereatronic coating on the face of a tube known as the Vidicon. This substance, a compound of antimony and sulphur, is sensitive to light. It also has certain properties which enable it to transmit as a TV signal the light variations (or pictures) it picks up—skipping a whole series of complicated amplifying operations required by large studio cameras.

The RCA Vidicon tube (other companies have cameras of their own, some employing the Vidicon) costs about $100 at present. The tube which does the same job in a studio camera is considerably more sensitive—but it’s also 15 times as expensive, partly because it’s so hard to manufacture that every second tube made has to be discarded because of imperfections. Of course, the Vidicon tube is only part of the camera; the complete Vidicon camera costs about $900, far too much for general household use. However, the addition of other stereatronic devices is expected to lower the price substantially—perhaps down to $150 or $200.

And that will be a bargain indeed—because besides watching the baby, the Vidicon camera can be adapted to take home movies on magnetic tape. No processing will be required and you won’t need a special projector. You’ll simply play the video tape back through the recording apparatus and see on your TV screen, in full color and with sound, the pictures you shot a few minutes before.

New Fields for Tape Recordings.

You’ll also be able to use your recording apparatus to tape your favorite television shows. Moreover, you’ll be able to buy video tape recordings of musical stage shows, just as you now purchase your phonograph records or 16-millimeter home movies.

Color video tape recording has already been developed experimentally, but for studio use only. The method is somewhat similar to standard sound-recording techniques on magnetic tape, but much more complicated.

The tape is covered with magnetic oxide particles. As it passes through the recorder, the tape picks up and stores away five signals, which comprise a sort of electronic shorthand. There’s one signal each for the three primary colors, another for the sound track and a fifth which synchronizes sight and sound (the tape “remembers” the five signals because the electronic impressions rearrange the form of the magnetic coating). When the video tape is played back, this compact code, like a punched music roll on an old-time player piano, reproduces all the signals simultaneously as sound-and-color TV. Right now the process requires a complicated battery of equipment which fills one whole wall, but in time, RCA Chairman David Sarnoff says, “low-cost video tape equipment of simpler and more compact design than the studio-type apparatus we now have can be made available.”

Television also will be adapted, eventually, for use in conjunction with the telephone. But that advance will take a while, perhaps 20 years or more. Sending a TV picture from one room to another is a fairly simple procedure. Sending it to the house down the block is somewhat more difficult, because no simple equipment now known will transmit a picture over any substantial distance without amplification. City-to-city transmissions require the use of coaxial cables; the latest cables are capable of carrying 3,600 voice signals (that is, 1,800 conversations) —but of the cable’s 3,600 channels, no less than 1,200 are needed to carry a television picture! To be sure, TV pictures can be transmitted through the air without the use of wires, but there simply aren’t enough frequencies in the spectrum to carry the number of pictures that would result from widespread use of TV-phones.

It’s a difficult problem, but not insoluble. As more and cheaper circuits come into existence and new transmission methods are developed, the videophone will become available. You’ll just have to wait a little longer than for some of the other stereatronic advances.

But you won’t have much of a wait for another telephonic development. By making use of the transistor (the most famous of the stereatrons, consisting of a tiny solid within a plastic or metal case), Bell Telephone engineers have already made direct long-distance dialing available in some communities, and they hope to have 20 exchanges converted to it by the end of this year.

The transistor will improve telephonic communication in other respects, too. Jack A. Morton, in charge of transistor development at Bell Laboratories, explained how.

“In a modern telephone switching office, to handle 10,000 subscribers at top speed we need 40,000 to 50,000 relays or switching units,” Morton told me. “We’d like to replace these metal units with vacuum tubes, which work 1,000 times as fast. But the average tube has a life expectancy of only a few thousand hours; with 40,000 tubes, we could expect one to fail every six minutes. And think of the heat the tubes would generate; obviously, tubes would be impractical.

“Transistors may solve the problem. They’ll do the same job as vacuum tubes, using only a fraction of the power. Unlike tubes, they need no warmup. And above all, they’re rugged: you can drop them or shoot them out of a gun—there’s nothing to break. Properly made, they should last years.”

Transistors for Smaller Hearing Aids.

Some transistors are already on the market, but they cost from $3.75 to $50. Ultimately they should be available for less than a dollar. Meanwhile, they are being built into at least one consumer product. Zenith, Sonotone and Maico have used the little solids to replace tubes in hearing aids; as a result, the appliances have been reduced to about the size of a cigarette lighter—small enough to be hidden in a woman’s hair.

Within the next few years, more and more transistors will be channeled into civilian production. That doesn’t mean you’ll be able to yank the tubes out of your radio and substitute the little stereatrons. New circuits will be needed; you’ll have to buy another radio. But—eventually, at least— transistorized radios and TV sets will be cheaper than present sets, and much longer-lasting.

Industry is already gearing up for the transistor bonanza. A number of electronic manufacturers— including such major firms as Raytheon, RCA, GE, Philco, Westinghouse, Sylvania and Western Electric—are producing transistors. Others, like Zenith, Capehart, Admiral, Arvin, Emerson, Crosley, Hallicrafter and Stromberg-Carlson, have teams of researchers at work developing experimental transistorized equipment.

“It’s like an Oklahoma land rush,” said Professor Frederick Seitz of the University of Illinois, one of the pioneer solid-state physicists. “Nobody can afford to lag behind.”

Bell Laboratories, which invented the transistor, recently announced another new device that’s even more spectacular (although of limited usefulness so far): the world’s first efficient solar power system.

The sun showers the earth with more than one quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000) kilowatt-hours of energy daily—comparable to all the energy in the world’s reserves of coal, oil, natural gas and uranium—and almost every bit of it goes to waste. The greatest efficiency achieved up to now in converting sunlight directly into power has been about one per cent—for example, in the photoelectric cells in photographers’ light meters. Bell’s experimental solar power set (which, incidentally, is not much larger than a light meter) is six times more efficient.

The pocket-sized Bell solar energy converter is simply made. It consists of 10 razor-blade-thin wafers of specially treated silicon, each 2-1/4 inches long and half an inch wide. These sensitive strips are linked together with thin wires which run to two terminals. From the terminals the converter is connected to the power-consuming appliance.

When the sun’s rays hit the sensitive silicon, sufficient power is produced to run low-current equipment; in demonstration, the device ran a cigarette-pack-sized transistorized radio and a toy Ferris wheel. Although Bell scientists estimate that in its present experimental stage it would take about 25 square feet of silicon wafer to keep a 100-watt lamp burning, the efficiency of the device is expected to increase considerably. Even now, telephone engineers are considering using units to run low-power mobile equipment or as battery chargers for amplifiers in rural telephone systems.

To power a small home from the sun’s rays right now you’d need a silicon-surfaced roof covering a quarter acre or more—plus a battery so big it would fill two rooms, to store power for use at night. But scientists believe the solar-powered home may become practical someday, at least in parts of the world where conventional electrical power is now nonexistent or extremely expensive.

Although it’s doubtful that solar power will be cheap enough in our lifetime to power great factories, other stereatronic advances may revolutionize the operation of industry. Chief among these are the projected computers—small in size, efficient beyond anything now known, and cool in operation. Even the relatively clumsy computers of today are taking over many industrial chores, particularly in accounting, inventory-taking, and certain self-service operations. The streamlined “electronic brains” of the near future may take over the whole factory.

“Suppose,” said Dr. Samuel B. Batdorf of Westinghouse, “that a factory requires 100 machines to manufacture its product, all doing different jobs and running at differing speeds. Today, 100 operators are needed to watch the dials and regulate the speeds. In principle, one computing machine could do the job better, ‘reading’ one dial in a few millionths of a second, and instantly sending instructions to motors controlling the speeds. Then the same computer could turn its attention to the next machine, and so on. It would take about one second to control all 100 machines. One reason it hasn’t been tried so far is the limitations of the vacuum tubes. But solid devices make it possible.”

Devices That Will Benefit the Blind.

The new science of the solids seems certain to change the world in highly dramatic fashion. But what may be the most dramatic change of all will affect only a tiny minority of the world’s population: the blind.

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology a team of scientists under the direction of Dr. Clifford M. Witcher—himself blind—is developing an electronic-stereatronic bag of tricks which eventually may make it possible for a blind man to “see” where he’s going through a series of impulses communicated to his hand. The scientists have most of the facts they need right now, but—as MIT’s Professor J. Earl Thomas puts it—”the blind man would need a trailerful of tubes, radar equipment and other components.” Stereatrons, by sharply reducing the size of the equipment required, will go a long way toward solving that problem.

At present Dr. Witcher is working on a preliminary device which indicates to a blind person the whereabouts of stairs, curbs and similar “step-down” obstacles. The blind man holds a boxlike apparatus with a light which scans his path; when it strikes something, the reflection causes the handle of the box to vibrate. “At the moment,” said Professor J. B. Wiesner, director of MIT’s electronics research laboratories, “the device is only experimental and years of development are needed before it can be made practical . . .”

“But eventually,” Professor Thomas told me, “by using all types of stereatronic devices, we’ll be able to produce a radar-type instrument which will paint a map in Braille for a blind person. My guess is that this apparatus will be about the size of a woman’s handbag. The blind person will place one hand on the outside of the bag and feel the whereabouts of everything in front of him.”

No one is more impressed by the tremendous new avenues of progress opened up by the stereatrons than are the scientists themselves. “You might sum up the significance of the new science this way,” said Dr. Henry O’Bryan, manager of Sylvania Electric’s physics department. “First came electricity, then electronics. Now we’re beyond electronics into something just as far-reaching.”

Or, as RCA’s General Sarnoff put it: “Science and electronics are moving so fast that in ten years everything we’re now seeing will be so obsolete that we won’t recognize them . . .”

Huge Wireless Station Receives Messages of Zeppelin on World Tour

All the latest devices of radio-land are in service in this huge wireless station at Nauen, Germany. Radio messages sent from the Graf Zeppelin on its epochal flight around the world passed through the receiving apparatus shown in the photo above. The Nauen station acted as clearing-house for the correspondents aboard the dirigible.

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Radio Grill Displays Picture

THE grill, or speaker opening, of many radio sets provides a unique and artistic frame in which to display some nice photograph. Portraits are especially suitable for this purpose, and all that is required to adapt them for this purpose is to trim them down sufficiently to fit snugly in the grill opening. The edges may be slipped slightly behind the supporting strips.

The paper has no effect on the sound of the radio, but care should be taken to see that the paper will not vibrate against the wood when the radio is playing, or it may rattle. The picture provides the effect of a television set.

Efficient Antenna for Auto Radio

A MANUFACTURER of radio equipment has designed a novel antenna for auto radios. As shown below, the antenna is attached to the underside of the running board where it is out of the way.