Evening star., 1928-10-28
sion Approaches Time When It Will Serve Every Home

photoelectric cell at the other end oi
the system.
Another way of enlarying the image
for an audience-or "optience," the
new word for a group of spectators-i-
by using q grid receiver. Instead or
small neon tube, tiny portions of which
are viewed at successive times. there is
a very long tube, folded and refolded In
the shape of a gridiron. Instead of one
pair of electrodes. there are $500 pairs
50 lines of 80 each.
Instead Of a scanning disc, there Is
a rotating brush kept in synchonlza-
ton with the sending disc. As the
photoelectric cell is exposed to one part
of the subject. this brush makes ct'n-
tact with the electrodes in the CORE
spending part of the long neon tube.
Twenty times a second each of the
twenty-five hundred pairs of electrodes
flashes forth with a brilliancy the same
as a corresponding part Of the subject.
Due to persistence of vision, the whole
grid, seen through a ground glass
screen, seems lighted at once into a
complete picture.
The image can also be somewhat
enlarged by new protector, which is
simply scanning disc with magnify
ing lenses instead of the usual holes.
4 \
THE problems in the way of practical
television are still large and many
In the first place the receiving sta
ton, unlike a radio set is quite as COM
plicated and expensive as the sending
station. 1t requires an expert to han
die the controls. The operator at the
receiving end would have to continually
regulate his disls to prevent the pic
ture from becoming distorted. Au-
tomato synchronization by radio Is
prohibitively expensive.
Again, to bring television to the tele-
phone subscriber. four or five lines
would have to be used simultaneously
Similarly, ct least three broadcast
channels of the present width would
be needed to transmit images by radio
and another one to transmit sound.
Due to overcrowding of the air by the
numerous radio stations this would not
be feasible with waves of the length
now used If the process we're speeded
up in order to create a larger image,
as has been done by Karolus, in Ger
many. just double the number Of tele-
phone lines or broadcast channels
would be needed
But television is stepping along Per-
new principles, doing away with heavy
rotating parts. just as the tricky
crystal was eliminated from the radio
set. 1t is not yet out of its short
trousers. But spanning continents and
oceans with eye and ear at the same
time is no longer wild flight of fancy.
just short time ago the perfection
OF larger. more powerful photoelec-
trio cell-the electrical eye of the ep-
paratus-brought television from the
darkened studio into the sunlight Until
then natural illumination was too
weak, powerful spotlights or thin,
binding light rays moving rapidly over
the scene had to be used. In a recent
demonstration of the new cell, de-
veloped by the Bell laboratories in New
York. man waving tennis racket on
the roof of a building was clearly Wis
ible in receiver on a floor below
With the supersensitive photoelectric
cell the televisor camera is no longer
limited to transmitting the image of a
small scene placed directly before II.
Some day you may be able to watch
the cataract of Niagara from your
easy chair, or see and hear a distant
drama or sporting event within the
very SeCOnu OF lCS occurrence.
Another newly invented electrical eve.
the work of Prof Karolus, in Germany,
is capable of transmitting 10000 elec-
trical impulses a second, or double the
7peed now used in television apparatus
With this cell very rapid motion could
be broadcast without distortion of the
images. and at the receiving end the
image would be 31a inches square in
stead of only 2.
Again, by process similar to tele-
vision. DIR. Frank Conrad of the West
lnghouse Electric Co. recently succeed
ed In broadcssting a complete motion
picture, and incidentally succeeded in
forming very bright image. It
shouldn't be long now before some
enterpriSing tourist will have a movie
OF himself taken in Siam and sent bv
wireless to the home folk In Grand
Rapids.
With such steady strides toward fits
realization constantly taking place.
there can be little doubt that some day
IN some form television will be prac-
flcal enough for any home. But that
day. 1t must be admitted, seems a long
way of in the future.