Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-11-01

several important radio an
niverSarieS. Tomorrow Is
"A the eleventh anniversary
Of KDKA, which, though
preceded by several desultory but
fairly successful attempts to
broadcast speech, was the first
broadcasting station in the world
to go into scheduled daily opera
ton. Properly enough, KDKA
! calls itself the worlds pioneer
broadcaster," for it was the first
permanent station ever eStab-
liShed anywhere.
On December IL next Guglielmo
Marconi celebrates the thirtieth
anniversary of his successful eff
fort to span the ocean with wire
less signals. It was on that date
in 1901, that, after various more
or less successful experiments
with his crude wireless apparatus
in Ship-to-shore and short over
land tranSmissionS, he succeeded
in tuning in the letter IS" from
a tranSmitter at Poldu, in the
British Isles. He himself was at
the listening end at a pickup
station he had established at st.
Johns, on the Newfoundland
banks.
1t was the late Thomas Alva
Edison, himself the discoverer of
the Edison effect" in evacuated
lamps, the electronic stream that
was later to be harnessed by DR..
Lee De Forest in the vacuum tube
to give life to speech and music
on the radio, who declared to
newspaper men, when informed
Of the Marconi achievement: II
! don't believe it."
Believe 1t or not, the wireless
communication of intelligence
by dots and daSheS-iS hardly
older than the turn Of the CEN
fury. And broadcaSting as we
know it today is only IL years old
tomorrow.
HERES the modern counterpart
of Paul Bunyan, mythical
hero of the American lumberjack,
whose orders to his men, so the
legend goes, were usually spoken
into the cold Winter air to await
"unfreezing" during the Spring
freShets, when the Jacks would be
directed by their boss own words
how to handle their timber drives.
It is a German invention called
the "Blattnerphone," which con-
sists of a steel tape, only one
quarter inch wide. and upon
which broadcast program can
be recorded when 1t is passed
through a magnetiZer. To repro
duce the program the tape Is
passed through a pickup at
tached to an ordinary amplifier.
The tape can be wiped off" and
used again for other purposes.
Such o device is now standard
equipment in the studios of the
British Broadcasting Corporation.
1t is used for additions and re-
hearsals as well as to preserve
momentous programs. Speeches
of notables and running COM
mentarieS" of important events
have already been reproduced
and rebroadcast by means of the
device.
What a splendid idea for some
American sponsor 10 1urulSn 3
regular program consisting Of old
broadcast favoriteS!
ENTER, the "setless" and the
"sightless" radios. The first
consists simply of a loud speaker
of special design that would be
fed a choice of several programs
via telephone or electric power
lines from a central receiving sta
ton. Proposed by Capt. P. p.
Eckersley, former chief engineer
of the British Broadcasting Cor
poration, this system does away
with the need of sets or tubes IN
the home and is somewhat like
the wired radio" system fire.
quently discussed In this country.
The 'tsightlesS" radio is an
actual accomplishment Of an
American manufacturer and IL
now on the market. Receiver or
combination radio phonograph
unit with or without furniture
housing may be hidden away out
Of sight or built into q wall. A
walnut finish control box, 10
inches long and Weighing only !
pound, has q series Of push but