Evening star., 1927-04-12
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

Television has arrived, and now
the interesting query is, OF what
good is television beyond the novelty
OF seeing the man talking at the
other end of the telephone line or
radio transmitter? The way one
answers that question is a fair meas
ure OF his mental horizon.
One class announce with glee that
now they may see the next prize
fight without leaving home. Another
class-scientists with imagination
and some knowledge of the in
finite universe-believe it Will
supplement the telescope and carry
knowledge beyond the farthest rays or
light. Science was doing that, to
certain extent, before television was
perfected. BY means of invisible infra-
red rays of the spectroscope DIR.
Wood of Johns Hopkins University
discovered the greatest deposit OF
sulphur known to man. He would
have hastened to stake out mining
claim, except that. as is well known.
pure science cares little for hithy
lucre. Besides, DR.. Woods sulphur
mine is located In the moon, although
no telescope could ever have seen evil
dences of it. So mere eyesight; now
ever aided by lenses. has its llmlta-
Cling 10 penetrate.
Then there is DIR. Coblentz of the
United States Bureau of Standards
who, with his tiny thermocouple.
measures the heat Of stars absolutely
invisible to all eyes. He can measure
the heat of a candle lighted 500 miles
away. and tell the emperature OF a
star hidden in dark skies-not only
the average heat Of the whole STAR
ne now tells how hot it is upon par
ticular area of that star no larger
than Pennsylvania, and so ne knows
the cold of the starry Arctic and the
heat of it's equator.
The things that are seen are tenn
poral: the things that are not seen
are eternal"
Nav. the things that are seen are
trivial in comparison with the infinite
expanses newly opened by inventions
of science.
The greatest discoveries of science
have all been made by amateurs, ana
have all been treated as inconsequen-
tial when first announced.
a Welsh coal miner invented the
steam locomotive; an American por'
trait painter invented the telegraph;
q Washington teacher of the deaf Gre
ated the telephone; bookkeeper IN
vented the electric motor; an American II
telegraph operator named Edison said
to electricity, Let there be light, and
there was electric. light; stenographer
in the United States Treasury, named
c. Francis jenkins. invented motion
pictures, and a Washington clothing
salesman, Emile Berliner, invented the
disk talking machine; an American
dirt farmer" invented the typewriter,
and a man who kept grocery on the
corner Of Eleventh and o streets,
Washington, invented the Lanston
monotype.
Which of these inventions was hailed
as epoch-making?
Now men have become able, with the
X-ray and with television, to see
through space beyond light of sun or
stars, and through darkness that is
deeper than that of dungeon, and
even through the solid earth, discover
ing things Invisible.
Some observers rejoice that televi-
sion will let them see prize fight from
home: When an apple hit Sir Isaac
Newton, while he mapped in the
orchard. he did not stop with measur-
ing the market price of apples, but ne
connected that little fruit with the law
OF gravitation. which held the planets
in their orbits and kept the earth
from chaos.
When the spectators OF television
marvel at what may result, their
highest vision now, according to the
press, is that a man and a woman,
thousands of miles apart, may be
married telephonically and televlsloly,
and the ceremony will be legal-pro-
vided static does not bother. AS If
bridal kiss broadcast through miles
of ether would not be as Vapld
beau geste as a painted ship upon
painted ocean, Think of broadcastlng
such an osculatory message ana nav
ing it picked up in China and Tim
buctoo'
So It is not an unusual manifesto
ton that the television invention Is
conceived as a mere trifling attacn-
ment to q radio--a curious plaything.
When persons speaking into radio
microphone in Washington are seen,
as we'll as heard. by onlookers located
in New York. the press reports the
event in about a quarter as much
space as a debate on constitutional
amendment, occurring at the same
time Yet that invention changes the
outlook of the world and remodels
civilization while the debate did not
even change an opinion.
Behind that one achievement of
sending television over wire from
one point TO one point. there IL lurk-
ing another television which will flood
the ether OF the universe with radio
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