The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-06-17
By DAVID SARNOFF,
General manager of the Radio
Corporation of American
BrOadcaSting.

(GGneral manager Oh the ISdulO
Corporation of America
BrOadcaSting.
The greatest feat of radio broad
castingl was the opening message
sent from the radio central station
on Long Island, the super-power
plant erected by the Radio Corpora
ton of America. The station, the
largest plant of its kind in the
world, occupies about ten square
miles of land, and when completed
will cost about S10,000,00O. 1t was
built to send messages to a great
many countries simultaneously. on
/ November 5th last, il was officially
opened to service by President
| Harding, who by pushing button
/ in Washington started the apparatus
on Long Island and automatically
sent out to the whole world a mes
sage of greeting from our nation
/ chief executive. That message was
received simultaneously in % diff
| ferent countries. 1t was received
directly as far as New Zealand and
| Australia, Japan and in South
| America. 1t was a feat of broad
I casting that meant practically an
/ instantaneous encircling OF the
globe with a single message. 1t
was one of the browning achieve
ments of modern radio.
! Turning to the discussion OF the
partially developed radio telephone,
the basic principles are exactly the
same as in radio telegraphy. With
| the radio telephone the voice con-
/ troll of the electromagnetic wave
! is substituted for the telegraphlc
signal control; vacuum tubes re-
place the old time coil and coheT-
err; but everything else remains the
same in principle, except that IN
! telephony, as stated, the wave IS
modulated or changed in accord
ance with the vibrations of the hu-
/ man voice, exactly as is the case
with ordinary currents for wire tel
/ ephonlng.
! Transmission of speech or music
has been made possible almost en-
! tirely by development of that mar
Vicious device, the vacuum tube. IN
physical appearance it resembles
an ordinary electric light, but in
side the glass bulb are three me-
! tallic elements, a plate, fllament'
and a grid. A single one of these
vacuum tubes, of fair size, can gen
/ crate as much power as would run
/ an ordinary fan motor, or ABOUT
] one-sixteenth horse power. There
are tubes now being made which
generate a power of 20 kilowatts,
or nearly 80 horsepower.
| What are the possibilities OF ra-
dio telephony when the art viii
have developed to the approximate
perfection of wireless telegraphy
II is difficult TO keep ones feet on
the ground in contemplating the
subject. 1t staggers the immagln-
alton.
Think of radio telephony as
means of better understanding be-
tween man and man, creed and
creed and even nation and nation
@As Human Beings"
On a recent Sunday, while at
| home I listened to a sermon Dy
radio by DR.. Foster of Newark; II
/ was a sermon on religion.
| His opening remarks ran some
what as follows: Il cannot address
4 Won as citizens of Newark, because
NV voice is being heard beyond the
limits of the city. | cannot address
Won as fellow Americans, because
NV voice is being heard perhaps in
Cuba. in Canada, and in Central
America. l cannot address you as
brethren of my faith, because only
very insignificant part OF the
|, great number who are listening &c
me are of my faith. And, therefore
I must address you as fellow nu-
man beings.
He struck a chord which, l an
sure was answered by every intel
| Eoent man or woman within tbs
hea ring of his voice, regardless o.
religious affiliaton, regardless Of
nationality.
Consider that the great dlffer'
once between man and ANIMALS j:
me fact that man can express him
self ard that human beings have
the ability to make others of thell
kind understand what they thlni
and what they would like them q
know With the coming OF the tel
eeraph. man learned to transtei
that power of expression to teie
graph operator. and thence TO tn'
wire. With the wire telephone, M
found that he could himself sene
his message to a given point ANT
now with radio broadcasting he cal
radiate not only his message ou
his very personality; and tnat Pc"
or ia a very wonderful one.
AS an internationalizing agency
radio broadcasting is an lnsTu