Television Shows Full Size Images
MOVING television images on a screen 10 feet square, produced beautifully clear, perfectly defined, and possessing the illusion of depth, is the latest and most amazing step in the advance of television art. This new development, accomplished by Mr. U. A. Sanabria, a Chicago television expert, enables a large crowd of spectators to view a radio performance, and heralds the day of “television theatres.” Full size images are made possible chiefly by development of a new neon arc tube and a special scanning disk.

It Would Make A Swell Fan, Too

IT LOOKS like a new-fangled kind of windmill, or at least a trick water turbine—but don’t let appearances fool you. It’s an unusual aerial designed for W6XAO, the only television transmitting station in Los Angeles. The aerial is 60 feet high, and the paddle-like elements are intended to produce television pictures with better definition than former aerials have given. Made of duraluminum, it is being inspected by Harry Lubcke, its designer, and Thomas Lee, who owns the station.

TV camera gets power from battery pack

Using a new portable TV camera and battery pack, a telecaster no longer has to drag power cables behind him. All he needs for audio and video transmission to a booster unit a mile away is the five-pound camera in his hands and the 25-pound power pack on his back.

The Newschief system was modified, with the help of American Broadcasting Co. engineers, from Sylvania’s closed-circuit transistor apparatus. The back pack contains transmitter, broadcasting equipment, and a nickel-cadmium battery good for an hour. While it is being recharged, a new battery can be clipped on without loss of signal. Read the rest of this entry »

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TELEVISION Advances ON MANY FRONTS

THOUGH the outdoor Olympic Games experiment was a “flop” and patent litigation has slowed development, television continues to advance on many fronts.

The Don Lee Broadcasting System has started daily experimental broadcasting from station W6XAO in Los Angeles under direction of Harry R. Lubcke. He offers plans for a home receiver to experimenters who send a stamped envelope. The W6XAO schedule is from 3 to 5 and 6:30 to 8:30 p. m., P. S. T.
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TV’s Magic Lantern

TV’s latest miracle is the Scenescope, designed by Frank Caldwell, scene maker in Hollywood for 17 years.

The problem of costly sets is a perennial one in the movie capital and Caldwell had been trying to solve it. When TV came along he saw that the problem was even more acute in this field—and maybe a bit easier to solve. His magic lantern, shown here, the only model in existence, has cost $100,000 so far. It has three 4×5 slide holders, a 35mm slide projector, a 16mm movie projector and a live lens. The movies are projected before or behind live action. The slides project backgrounds and still material to be combined with live action.

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Colorvision’s Colorful Genius

Dr. Peter Goldmark, CBS’s engineering wizard, is always dreaming up a revolutionary invention—whether it’s color TV or 3 “mad” Russians.

By Leonard Reed

THE Columbia Broadcasting Company has on its payroll an amazing genius who could figure out a practical system of interplanetary travel—if he didn’t divert so much of his talent to plotting new practical jokes.

His colleagues give Dr. Peter C. Gold-mark, Columbia’s director of Engineering, Research and Development, sole credit for developing color television. A long-range problem, you think? Dr. Goldmark first began to think seriously about “colorvision” while he was watching the movie, Gone With the Wind. Before Rhett Butler finally had given Scarlett O’Hara the heave-ho, Goldmark had worked out the solution to color TV. Read the rest of this entry »

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TV HOUSE OF MAGIC

The TV camera often lies.

Magicians work props and special gadgets to fool their audience.

By H. W. Kellick

MISTER Peepers, a role played by bespectacled Wally Cox, was nonchalantly pecking away at his typewriter in his science schoolroom on NBC when suddenly there was an explosive noise and parts of the machine went flying all over the room. The “accident” drew hearty laughs from viewers and people wondered if this was one of Wally’s own tricks which he cooked up in his spare time. ‘ As a matter of fact, this gag was a gimmick concocted by a special-effects man who redesigned a standard typewriter and inserted a spring in the carriage which sent machine parts flying in the air on cue. Read the rest of this entry »

First Signing by television of a legally binding contract was consummated above when executives of the Dumont Television Laboratories in New York and officials of the Chevrolet Motor Company, two hundred miles away in Washington, D. C, put their John Henry’s on the dotted line while watching each other in the television screen. This picture was snapped at the New York end. The screen shows what was going on in Washington.

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Tracks That Violence Leaves

Are Americans becoming addicted to violence? And if so, does the violence that can be seen daily on television, for instance, contribute to the addiction? Dr. Victor Bailey Cline, a University of Utah clinical psychologist, has started a series of experiments which seem to him to point to a definite affirmative conclusion. In a one-seat theater in his Salt Lake City laboratory, Dr. Cline, left, and an associate, Dr. John Atzet, show motion pictures of kinds and degrees of violence to subjects hung with sensors that produce a physiograph (left) of their responses to what is appearing on the screen. Read the rest of this entry »

Yay for early DRM. How long do you think it would have been before some Norwegian kid built themselves a Descrambling Card Simulation System (DeCSS) and gave the plans to all of their friends so they could view scrambled broadcasts on their non compatible European TVs?

Subscription TV
WOULD you like to see the opera, ballet, latest sports events, movies and Broadway plays on TV, sans commercials? If the FCC okays Skiatron, by merely inserting special program cards in a decoder unit attached to your set, you’ll view special programs at nominal fees.

Wow, RCA seems to have tried out every technology that could possibly compete with VCRs, slapped the SelectaVision name on it and saw if it would sell. Did these ever get released?

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Laser Holographic Color TV Tape Cartridges

A low-cost color TV tape player built around lasers and holography has been unveiled by RCA. Called SelectaVision, it will play full-color programs recorded on tapes made of the same clear, cheap plastic used to wrap meats and vegetables in supermarkets. This material costs about one-tenth as much as conventional films. The scratch- and dust-proof tapes will be able to run in slow motion or stopped to study individual frames, if desired, and can be replayed countless times. Read the rest of this entry »

I wonder if the people from Antiques Roadshow thought they came up with this idea first.

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Trash or Treasure

Take your heirloom to Rothschild. He’ll know if it’s worth dollars—or peanuts.

By Lester David

SOMETIMES, Sigmund Rothschild is a good man to know. Sometimes, he’s as welcome as a bill collector. It’s because the stolid Mr. Rothschild who has uncovered more hidden treasure than Black-beard, Jean Lafitte and the rest of the pirate mob combined, can make you a lot richer than you think you were. Or a lot poorer.
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