Radio Gets Robot Sound Technician

A ROBOT sound effects technician for broadcasting studios has been perfected to eliminate more than 800 gadgets now required in the presentation of various programs.

The new device consists of two turntables for records and three automatic pick-up arms. Each record is divided into numerous channels, and each channel contains a special bit of sound, such as street noises, gurgling water, railroad trains, and the like.

In the event the program called for a street parade in a large city, one pick-up arm would be placed on a street noise channel, another on the marching feet channel, and the third would pick up martial music.

For some reason You Cylinder never caught on.

PHONOGRAPH RECORDS RADIO PROGRAM

You can make a phonographic record of your own voice or record your favorite radio program through an attachment on a new combination radio and phonograph. The attachment does not interfere with the ordinary use of the instrument for playing a record or program.

For record making, a microphone picks up voices and transmits them to a blank record through an electric “pick-up” similar to the reproducing arm of a standard electrified phonograph.

The guy who invented this would have been rich if it hadn’t been for those pesky speaker pushers.

HEADSET STAND FOR RADIO
An ornamental wooden headset stand, for use as a distribution center when a number of receivers are used simultaneously, and as a rack for holding the headphones when these are idle, has been introduced. This appliance eliminates any crowding near the equipment. The’ stand may be moved around a room at will, and when the concert is finished, it may be conveniently placed in a corner or closet, out of the way. The outfit has a switch to disconnect any receivers not in use.

The old issues of Popular Mechanics are organized rather badly. In this case there was a section called “Radio News” with two or three pages of articles and then this pictorial with no preface or explaination. The pictures are pretty great though so I hope you enjoy them.

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Top, Girls in a High School Have Set Out to Prove That Building Radio Sets Is Not an Art for Boys Alone, and They Show Surprising Aptitude at the Job; Center, a Prisoner on Governor’s Island, New York, Building a Radio Set in the Shops Where Earnest Endeavor Is Made to Turn Wayward Energies into Useful Channels; Below, Even the Smallest and Most Remote Country School Can Now Have Its Own Drill Orchestra

A New Type of Loud Speaker Entertains New York Fans Gathered on the Street Below. The Inventor Is Paul De Kilduchevsky

A Candidate in the French Elections “Stumps” His District by Radio Auto
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SPORTS RADIO is Combination Cane and Seat

By FRANK TOBIN

CONSISTING of a compact yet powerful battery receiver mounted on a conventional cane-seat which can be purchased for a dollar or two, the radio illustrated forms a handy set for hikers, sports spectators, and campers. The circuit, designed around three of the new American-made midget tubes, consists of a pentode regenerative detector, resistance coupled to a pentode amplifier which in turn is resistance coupled to a second audio-amplifier stage. Regeneration is controlled by a 25,000-ohm potentiometer. Since the commercial type of antenna coil shown in the diagram has no tickler winding it will be necessary to provide one by winding approximately thirty-five turns of No. 38 double-silk-covered wire around the lower end of the long, flat grid coil.
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Wireless Box Runs Radio by Remote Control

A radio receiver in the living room may be operated from the kitchen, a bedroom or any other part of the home with the aid of a small remote-control cabinet which has no wires leading to the receiver or any other physical connection with it. Since it is unnecessary to “plug in” the portable control unit or to attach it to the receiver, it is as easy to play the radio while sitting on the front porch as when in the living room beside it. With the aid of the wireless box, a Philco receiver designed for this form of remote control can be operated from a distance or tuned with controls built in the cabinet, whichever is handier. With the remote-control unit, any one of several stations can be selected, a change can be made from one station to another, volume can be adjusted or the set can be turned off, simply by operating a dial in the top of the wireless box. The makers claim each unit will operate only the set for which it is designed. Read the rest of this entry »

WALKER CAN TUNE IN WITH RADIO IN CANE

So that a pedestrian may enjoy broadcast programs wherever he goes, a German, inventor, Alfred Mintus, has devised what he calls a “radio walking stick.” Outwardly it resembles an ordinary cane, but the interior contains a miniature receiver and batteries. The user has merely to plant the stick in the ground, adjust a pair of pocket ‘phones to his ears, and listen in, as illustrated in the photograph. It only remains now for the inventor to perfect the apparatus so the pedestrian need not interrupt his walk while listening in, a possibility foreseen by the inventor of the cane.

Wow that looks simple…

AUTOMATIC RADIO CLOCK TUNES IN STATIONS
A radio set that operates itself has recently been perfected in New York. The control board is fitted with a clock that can be set to start or stop the instrument automatically at any hour of the day or night. The same device may be set to bring in any chosen stations by means of metal tabs inserted in the proper slots.

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Radio Pen writes letters of fire on far-away screen

By George H. Waltz, Jr.
CATHODE-RAY tube, having a phosphorescent screen, makes it possible to broadcast to a distance messages that can be read as fast as written

SWEEPING across a mysterious screen like an invisible pencil, a beam of electrons recently penned the message of welcome that opened the National Electrical and Radio Exposition in New York City.

Seated before a small black box, Clarence L. Law, president of the New York Electrical Association, wrote his official greeting with a pencil-shaped stylus. Simultaneously, in a far corner of the exposition hall, the words of his message flashed across a screen in glowing script. As though guided by some unseen hand, a weird green spot traced out the luminous letters of fire just as they were written. This was the first public demonstration of the latest wonder of science—the cathode-ray pen.
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The Birth of a Station

THE hush of early morning is broken only by the staccato beat of an isolated gasoline engine in a tent in an alfalfa field just beyond the city limits. A sleepy radio operator reads the meters of a portable transmitter arid makes an entry in his log. “One more hour,” he yawns, “and the job is finished.”

On the other side of town a mysterious looking car pulls up at a corner. The driver reads the street names, marks the spot on a map, then snaps on a complicated looking receiving set hung from the roof behind his seat. No sound comes forth. Instead, the needles of two meters swing across the scales. Rotating the loop aerial protruding through the roof, the driver secures maximum reading, makes a note of it, then goes on down the street.
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Radio Beam Guides Girls in Blindfold Race

Five blindfolded co-eds at the University of Cincinnati recently competed in an odd foot race, guided only by the beams from a radio beacon set up on the campus. Each girl taking part in this unusual contest carried a small receiving set and wore earphones through which the guiding signals were heard. The signals transmitted were of two kinds like those used to guide planes on commercial airways, one indicating to the contestant that she was following the true course and the other telling her that she was wandering astray. The girls had little difficulty finding their way to the spot where the transmitting antenna had been temporarily set up.

Invading Sailors in Gas Masks Carry Radio Transmitter
Playing at “war” on the English coast, a landing party of sailors representing the invading enemy donned gas masks and went ashore at Studland Beach near Swanage, to be met by a small defending party of British soldiers. The sailors carried a portable radio transmitter with a self-contained receiver to maintain communications with their supporting navy.