Evening Star Newspaper, January 18, 1931, Page 77

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., JANUARY 18, 1931. RADIO i the Next Decade Looking Ahead With DR. C. B. JOLLIFFE OF THE FEDERAL RADIO COMMISSION Maurice Poirier, California inventor, standing beside controls which he designed 2o supply power and guide a special plane which he proposes to operate by radio from the ground. BY NELL RAY CLARKE. EALITY moves so fast on the heels of dreams in radio that the imagina- tion is left with few worlds to con- quer. Television in color is already a reality in the laboratories, but it is not ready for everyday use, and the seller of television stock should be regarded with ~uspicion. When that comes we will have the theater, grand opera, the talkies, the world’s greatest sporting events in the home for the turning of a dial. Scientists have long directed airplanes over their course by radio; now they are learning to send a plane off the ground and land it again by radio without the aid of a human pilot. Talking over the telephone by radio to Europe, Bouth America and ships at sea from the in- strument in your home is now an everyday occurrence. Tomorrow we will be talking to Asia. Just recently radio engineers learned to broadcast from a whole chain of stations on a single wave length without distortion. That means more broadcasting chains in the future and better facilities, especially for people in out-of-the-way places, Radio is adding, too, to the terrors of war. Guns can be fired by radio; tanks directed and driven by radio; giant bombers sent to their destination and delivered of their load by radio. Our criminals are being caught by radio and their fingerprint records transmitted by radio. Our household work could be directed by radio if simpler mechanisms had not already been made to do these tasks. Today most of the problems of radio seem %0 be the practical ones of simplification and reduction of costs. Its vast possibilities seem Just around the corner, “ONE of the most portentous of recent dis- coveries in radio has to do with the syn- chronization of broadcasting,” declares Dr. C. B. Jolliffe, chief engineer of the Federal Radio Commission, a scientist known around the world for his technical knowledge of radio. “In the past many of the troubles of radio broadcasters have been in procuring some suite able wave length on which they might operate. Recently, as a result of the experimental work of five or six of the leading radio and allied organizations, three powerful stations, at New York City, Schenectady and Pittsburgh, were operated on the same wave length—660 Kkilo- cycles—for periods of two hours each over four or five weeks, “When many of the essential details and problems are worked out, this means a larger number of s'ations throughout the country, a & larger number of broadcasting chains and, most important of all, better service for every- Milton Aylesworth told the Federal Radio Commission that “synchronization is a system rather than any particular apparatus. This fact, together with the conditions under which the experimental wotk was conducted, makes ft impossible for any particular group to as- sume control or to reap benefits of a selfish nature. I am particularly impressed with the importance of synchronization in connection with network broadcasting. I desire to be con- servative, but I firmly believe we have reached the stage where synchronization of radio sta= tions is possible and that from now on we will be able to concentrate on refinements and improvements. When completed, I am con- fident the principles of synchronization can be satisfactorily applied to radio activities other than broadcasting, such as radio communi- cation and television.” Just how important such a development is can hardly be realized by individuals living on the densely populated Atlantic seaboard, where various radio programs are available for the mere turning of a dial. But, generally speaking, the States of the Union increase in size and decrease in per square mile popu- lation as one travels westward; and since the distribution of desirable wave lengths for broadcasting must be dependent to some ex- tent upon the number of the population the station can serve, there has been a decreasing State allowance of radio facilities and an in- creasing grouch on the part of listeners to- ward the Middle West. In discussing this matter Gen. Saltzman, chief of the Federal Radio Commission, said: “I know of a small Eastern State, for example, under the present law entitled to about six times as much in the way of radio facilities as a large Middle Western farming State, which is about six times as large as the first State. The villager in the small Eastern State can easily reach the movies in his car, but the farmer out on the Dakota prairies has only the radio, and exceedingly little of that.” “This synchronization of stations is now be- ing accomplished by means of an alternating current which is carried by wire connection between the stations and then amplified,” Dr. Dr. C. B. Jolliffe considers the synchros nization of broadcasting an important advance in radio. “Tum'flg—]n " Tomorrow 1. Grand opeta, drama and talking pictures will be seen and heard in the home. 2.- Round-the-world programs will be on daily broad- cast schedules. 3. Instruments of war, such as bombing planes. and tanks, will be directed by radio. 4. Power eventually may be transmitted through the air, although this phase of radio presents many difficulties. 5. It will be possible to talk to steamships' and trains everywhere by telephone and radio. 6. Criminals will be thwarted in attempted flight and fingerprints of suspects will be sent through the ether. 7. Certain types of aircraft may be entirely controlled from a microphone. Jolliffe explained. “But eventually the wire may be eliminated and transmission will be by radio, since everything which can be done by wire can ultimately be done without it.” It is reasonable to believe that in the near future a program on a single frequency can easlly be carried around the world, the gap over the oceans being bridged by the powerful wireless stations along the coasts. Chain radio programs around the world seem very near. Soon listeners in Washington, China, Berin and Bagdad may hope to have the choice of tuning-in on one or more great international broadcasting chains. The whole world may soon be listening to the voice of a single per- son speaking or singing frogm a tiny cubicle in any part of the world. We may have a talk from Mr. Hoover one night, from King* George the next, from Mussolini the next, from the Begum of Bhopal the next and from Ras Tafarl of Abyssinia the next., TH! automobile and radio broadcasting have brought the extremes of the United States Infinitely closer together within the last 10 years. It is reasonable to believe that the synchronization of radio broadcasting can do a great deal to bring the ends of the earth together, in spite of the lack of a common language. Talkies of the air may eventually be avail- able to the tired business man from his easy chair beside his own radio set. “Television is still in the experimental stage and in the laboratory. A revolutionary dis- Foreign service section of @ New York City switchboard which alse handles radio telephone calls to ships at sea. covery may make it entirely practical at any time, but before present methods are generally useful much further experimental work must be done,” Dr. Jolliffe said. “In the field of television, wire communication is already pointing the way which radio will eventually travel. At the Bell laboratories in New York City a wire line television circuit has been set up by means of which two men in different parts of the city may talk to each other without the annoyance of a mouthpiece, each seeing before him every movement of the other in life-size form and color across a table. The room is darkened and the likeness of the man at the other end of the wire induces something of the fantastic feeling of a spiritual mani- festation. “The apparatus is very elaborate, the various instruments requiring a large room, and there=- fore it is not practicable for everyday use, But it is being simplified, and what has been done by wire will eventually be done by radio. “One of the chief limitations at the present time in the way of transmission of scenes by television is that we can’t get enough light to give sufficient intensity for transmission. This is due to a lack of sensitivity in the instru- ments for picking it up. Photo-electric cells are being improved greatly from time to time, and will undoubtedly be brought to a point where they will be practicable for television transmission.” i Already five channels in the radio band ranging from 1,500 to 6,000 kilocycles have been set aside for television experimenters, with 19 stations actually licensed for operation and four others under construction. Each of these channels is 100 kilocycles wide, o} 10 times the width of the ordinary broadcasting channel. “The radio beacon to guide airplanes in flight into airdromes is already a practical device in use over many of the regular sched- uled airways of the country. A closecly allied development under way at the Bureau of Standards is that of bringing an airplane to the ground by radio control after it has been brought directly above the flying field. This is now being accomplished in a practical way by two-way radio telephone communication be= tween the pilot and the ground station. “Some time ago newspapers and magazines were filled with stories about the gyro-pilot, a mechanical device capable of flying a plane over a given route by radio control. ‘The human pilot was necessary, however, for taking off and landing the plane. It is easy to imagine in the future radio control not only of the plane during flight but for taking off and landing operations as well. No big trans- Atlantic liner is today without a gyro-pilot to keep the ship on its course in case of emer~ gency or accident to the regular pilot of the liner. But, of course, no liner sails without its human pilot. No passenger-carrying airplane will probably ever be allowed to 80 up without its human pilot, but human pilots will un- doubtedly have auxiliary gyro-pilots. “In times of war, however, it is conceivable that planes will he flown solely by radio. Bombers will be sent over enemy lines to definite destinations, they will dischavge their Continued on Twelfth Page 3