Evening star., 1924-01-02

Within only two years, the whole
world Of human touch has been re-
created. When New. Year day OF
1921 dawned. only scientists and ad-
vanced experimenters comprehended
wireless telephony and telegraphy
They were testing apparatus which
to the layman was uncanny and
"highbrow" and curious.
A few days before last Christmas
mother: Mother, you won't scold If
tell you something we did last
night. when VIII was here, will
about the same age.) The two boys
had been left alone in the home
where stood a wireless receiving set
which was waiting to be given to
the grandmother, almost bedridden
on Virginia farm. VIII had at
and run another from the instru-
ment to the attic, and the two Wash
ington boys listened in" to a con-
cert in New York and another in
Chicago. Later the instrument was
Installed on the Virginia farm. where
the shut-in now attends concerts In
Cuba and California.
All this is so commonplace that
the reader Is wondering why it is
mentioned. Two years ago 1t was a
miracle. The miracle of today Is the
brevtty of the span of time, within
which the whole horizon of man has
been stretched from the pebbles
ripple to the circumference of mum
dane distance, and the human voice,
which had hitherto called perhaps
1000 feet through the air, or 5000
miles clinging to wire, now reaches
to earth's antipodes in one-fifteenth
part of second. or girdles the earth
before the speaker has had time to
close his lips
* X
More than 100000 American
dio receiving sets. costing from $40
to $500, and there are some 450 radio
broadcasting stations, of which about
Fifty may be classed as superbroad-
casters. There is no limit upon this
little earth which is now "long dis
tance" for radio communication.
Frozen in the Polar night lies the
ship of Explorer MacMiIlan-just q
few hundred miles from the north
POLE. On Christmas eve, Capt.
MacMillan's sister talked with him.
from Chicago, and the whole crew
SpcHl Il uclls HlIul evening
to familiar songs sung in Chicago,
and carried across the Canadian
plains. mountains and the icy sea.
not by an elaborate equipment of the
most advanced make, but by an anna
teur outfit provided by the American
Amateur Radio Association, of which
Hiram Maxim is president.
x 4 x X
On last November 10 at a meeting
of the Electric Supply Jobbers' Asso-
citation in Buffalo, an address was
made by Mr.. David Sarnoff. vice pres
ident of the Radio Corporation of
America, who referred to the fact that
the popularization of the radio had
all come about within the last two
years:
To-day you have the background
Of two years experience. Yet
1 feel that the real part played by
of that industry, are yet to be made
and yet to be told. although the
left milestones in the road.
ured in the consumers list price, the
American public spent in 1922 be-
tween $4,000, 900 and s1O0.000,O00 on
radio. That was last year. In Civ
ing that figure, / have in mind not
radio sets alone, or of any one manu-
facturer, but of the entire industry,
which includes sets, tubes, parts and
accessories - headphones, batteries
and the like.
ION the same basis it is estimated
that the American public will spend
during the present year at least
s150,000.0 600 on radio, although / am
told that this figure is conservative.
Those in business are more inclined
to say between $3.50, 900, 900 and s175,-