New Britain herald., 1927-08-20

New York, Aug. 19 R,-Forty thousand electric impulses sec ond, riding wireless waves which travel 1S6,00o miles second - that is radio television today, and still it is not fast enough to be practical.
 Now that transatlantic beam ladio transmission and television have been accomplished, laymen may regard it as short step to the time when scenes and speeches from a Geneva peace conference can be carried into their homes.
 But the scientists and engineers who are entrusted with the task of bringing about something of that sort are doubtful. They point out a multitude of obstacles. and say that general use of telcyision, es- pecially for big scenes, may never be practical Yet while they doubt they are industriously attempting to remove the obstacles of teleyi- sion for such practical organzi tons as the Radio Corporation of America and the American Bell Telephone company.
 Beam transmission for messages and photographs is not only prac tical: it is in actual use for mes sages from London 10 Cape Town, Canada and Australia. This au- tumn the Radio Corporation will put a beam line into operation be- tween London and New York. in addition to it's "undirected' broad casting lines.
 But the beam, which takes only about one-fourth as much power as generally radiated broadcasting, is not the slim pencil of energy Nisu alized by amateur prophets. 1t is rather a cone, which spreads so much in travelling 5000 miles across the Atlantic that nobody really knows how broad it is at the base.
 The power picked up at tho end of the line is too weak to overcome interference sufficiently for, flaw less work in the delicate task of transmitting scenes of persons and things in motion-oUt that is prob ably one of the minor obstacles which will be dissolved with time. Increased speed of transmission of the problem.
 The Radio Corporation has ma chimes which can send and receive 250 words per minute. about eight times as many as human operators can send and receive, over ether waves that travel with the speed of light. This speed of transmits sion gives secrecy to messages.
 But television requires a speed that makes 25o words a minute seem nothing at all. Using trans hitter that would fill q fair sized room-ani size of equipment is one of the minor obstacles 10 com mercial television at present-thc Lest available apparatus of the I"ll Telephone lahoratories manages to transmit over wires or ether waves picture about three inches square. Engineers consider this far too small a space to portray Il kings coronation or football game.
 The threc-inch picture consists of o,5oO dots of light and darkness, flashed on tho screen separately. but so fast that the eye seems to sec them all at once. To get mo- ton into the picture. al least 1G slightly different scenes must he flashed on the screen each second. making a total of 10000 dots. each reproduced from the sourso by a separate electrical impulse T1)e dots have been enlarged 10 2 maxi mum that gives $ blurred picture two feet square, but the picture loses clarity with each amnlifica- tioN
 To transmit these "dot impulses, energy for synchronization of ma chimes and for q conversation, re- duircs facilities that would carry four 10 six telephone conversations. Endorsements would bc possible by dividing scene, for instance, into quarter sections. transmitting each section as Il separate picture and then r"comhining them as q single view. But this would require four transmittcrs, with transmission facilities for lG 10 2o telephone con- versations. or, if sent hy air 1t would occupy the ether wave bands of 1G radio stations. and it would transmit scenes one way only.
 Greater speed in transmission, q speed so nearly incomprcnhcnsiblo lhnt il may never he attainahle, is ,an1.lh ,n. tl.- s.-n,--A .--l----i.-io..