EARLY TELEVISION By Jerry D. Burling The following is a reprint from a magazine called RADIO and TELEVISION, the forerunner of the popular consumer electronics magazine, of the 1950's and 60's, RADIO AND TELEVISION NEWS, published by the renowned audio-radio engineer, Hugo Gernsback. This article was printed in the January 1939 issue, four months before David Sarnoff, and RCA, introduced their 525 line black and white television system to the general public at the World's Fair at Flushing Meadow, New York. Since RADIO and TELEVISION was largely devoted to short wave listening, the article, describing early television efforts, is aimed at this group. Hence, the references to using short wave receivers to tune in the audio portion of a television broadcast signal. The audio signal, of early experimental television stations, was AM, not FM, as it is today. Remember, when this article was published in 1939, the technology, of the 525 line, 60 Hertz, United States NTSC black and white television system, was already fully developed but had not been successfully introduced to the general public, even though RCA had been transmitting experimental television programs, for a number of years, from their transmitter site atop the 110 story Empire State Building in New York City. Television was considered, by many, to be too expensive and a passing fad that would soon disappear, since television was still in the experimental stage. They believed that network radio was king and would continue to be. Although the big network radio programs of that era are now gone, as we know now, there would be no television without radio, for television evolved from the technology of radio, which came first. As a side line to this story, papers have surfaced that prove Dinah Shore was a performer on early RCA-NBC experimental television programs as early as 1936. "TELEVISION IN THE SPRING By H.W. Secor" Reprinted from the January, 1939 issue of RADIO and TELEVISION Magazine (Illustrations omitted) "David Sarnoff, President of the Radio Corporation of America, has made the statement that television will be ready when the New York World's Fair opens in the spring. Other sign posts, along the avenue of television which point to a great activity shortly in this newest radio art, are that several of the leading radio set manufacturers are starting to build television receivers of the HOME type. Further, RCA has announced that they are ready to supply television transmitters, a 1 kilowatt unit, at a cost of about sixty thousand dollars (1939 monetary rate). A number of new licenses, for the erection of experimental television stations, have been granted by the F.C.C. So, all in all, it looks as if television will surely make its debut early this year, and several well-known radio authorities have voiced this opinion. Television -- First Transmitters The larger cities will, undoubtedly, be first to enjoy television programs, and New York City will have two stations operating shortly after the first of the year, the NBC transmitter, atop the 1300 foot Empire State Building, and the CBS transmitter in the Chrysler Tower. Another station is to be erected by the Du Mont Laboratories at Passic, New Jersey, about 16 miles from New York. Several Experimental television station permits have been sought by the General Electric Company. Chicago and Kansas City will soon have television broadcasts, according to reports, and on the West Coast, the Don Lee station, in Los Angeles, has been active for many years. The local broadcasting companies, in the larger cities, will, undoubtedly, have to finance the erection, and the operation, of television stations at first, until the F.C.C. grants regular commercial licenses for these stations, so that sponsored programs can be broadcast, and thus provide revenue to make the television stations self supporting. What To Expect In A Television Set The RCA home television receiver has the picture tube pointed upwards, reflecting off of a mirror mounted on a top hinged door that is left at a 45 degree angle for normal viewing. By reflecting the image off of a mirror, the horizontal scan rate must be reversed. Of course, many experimenters, and radio fans, will build kit receivers for the images, and several of these kits have been on sale in the New York area for some time. To receive an image about 3 inches by 4 inches, a receiving kit, complete with a cathode ray tube, is available at a little under $100.00. For half of this sum or less, the experimenter may build a set to pick up the image of a smaller C-R tube, and the small picture may be enlarged with a magnifying lens. The cheapest start, in home viewing, is a model utilizing an image receiver only, with no sound pickup. A combined image and sound receiver is available for a slightly higher price. On the small table type sets, the image will average about 3 by 4 inches and these sets will probably cost about $125.00 to $175.00. Many people ask whether their present broadcast, or all wave, receivers can be used for television. No receiver, of this type, can be used to pick up the image. A brand new, specially built television receiver, capable of passing 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 megacycles, must be employed for seeing the image. All wave receivers, which tune down to 5 meters, can be used to pick up the sound channel, which will be somewhere in the neighborhood of six meters (50-60 Megahertz). Converters for "Sound" Pickup Another arrangement, for both seeing and hearing television images, will be to purchase a receiver for images only, and a 5 to 7 meter short wave converter may be built, or purchased, for the sound channel. This converter may be connected to your present day all wave receiver. For a price, varying between possibly $250.00 and $350.00, a combined television image and sound receiver, built into a console cabinet, will be available. The size of the image, in this class of receivers, will be 7 by 9 inches. Many of our readers have raised the question as to whether a television IMAGE (picture) converter will be available for use in connection with their broadcast receivers. The answer is "NO," except for sound reception, as has already been explained. In the price class of $350.00 and up, there should be a console receiver providing reception of the regular programs in the 200 to 550 meter band (standard AM band), as well as the usual short wave broadcast bands. Two tuning dials will probably be built into these receivers to facilitate the tuning of such a great variety of stations, and one loud speaker will probably be used, as only one type of station would be tuned in at any given time. For those, who can afford them, a still more advanced model will incorporate an electric phonograph along with the reception on the television, broadcast, and short wave bands. Possibly, also, these DeLuxe models will incorporate home talking pictures, using either 8 or 16 millimeter film. On television receivers, costing from #350.00 up to $500.00, a larger cathode ray tube will be used, having a diameter of 14 to 16 inches and producing an image about a foot square. Images, measuring up to 18 by 20 inches, will become available in more advanced models by projecting the image onto a ground glass screen. Several models, of this type, have been available on the European market for some time, but the large image is not so bright on present models and some means, of intensifying the brilliancy of the image, must be found. Undoubtedly, some arrangement will be offered in the near future, when a small high intensity C-R tube will be used together with a projection lens and the image thrown onto a screen. The present high cost of the large size C-R tubes will, in the future, be reduced to a nominal sum. A New York television company has already developed a further idea whereby a number of television image receivers can be connected to a MASTER receiver for home or public hall use. These secondary receivers are small units of nominal cost and these are wired to the master receiver by means of co-axial cable. Several years ago, Hugo Gernsback, the editor, devised a television receiver in the form of a pair of spectacles. Recently, a similar idea has taken the form of a miniature television receiver, somewhat resembling a French type telephone, the image being seen at one end and the sound issuing from the other."