The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-02-20
Aerial Broadcast
 For Washington
Memorial Program to Be Transmitted From U. s. Navy
 Dirigible J=4 in Flight Monday

New York City (SpeciaD-Nation- wide interest in the celebration of Washington's birthday is being cen- tered upon the memorial broadcast which will be transmitted from the United States navy dirigible J-4 over New York city from 2:30 to 3:30 p. m. on next Monday as a striking tribute to the memory of the first American president and his interest in the development of aero nautics.
 The program, according to ad- vises received at Lakehurt from the United States department at Wash ington, will be made available to every broadcasting station through out the United States desiring to present the event to their radio audi ences. WOR of New York will act as the key station, broadcasting on a short wave of 49.35 meters from the dirigible J-4. The program will then be re-broadcast on WOR's reg ular wave length of APP meters.
 Scores of patriotic societies and educational interests were preparing to-day to make the Washington memorial broadcast the outstanding event in radio history as a forerun- ner to the bicentennial celebration in 1892.
 Alice Hunt Bartlett, chairman of the national arts committee for the celebration of Washington'S 200th anniversady, announced here (New York) to-day that the broadcast would contain much hitherto unre- vealed material concerning the life of Washington. Among the high lights of the program, Mrs. Bartlett stated, would be the presentation of newly discovered documents dealing with Washington's attendance at the first balloon flight in 1793 at Phila- delphia when J. P. Blanchard, a French aeronaut, made the first suc- cessful ascension on the Western Hemisphere in an aerial craft. On that occasion, George Washington presented the aeronaut with the first passport ever given to an airman in American history, and spoke few words to the assembled multitude who witnessed the balloon rise from the Prison Court at Philadelphia.
 For the first time, also, there will be broadcast Washingtons own ac- count of the crossing of the Dela- war and the defeat of the Hessians on December 26th, 1776.
 AS the navy dirigible passes through the air over New Jersey, the places of interest where Wash ington conducted his famous cam paign in that state during the early part of the revolution will be de- scribed. Proceeding over New York city, the staff of engineers and an- nouncers on the J-4 will likewise describe many of the locales in the metropolitan area inseparably linked with the name of Washington.
 Another feature of the memorial nrnprHm will deal vii tba laft Washington wrote from Mt Vernon to the French Major General Cheve- Her Duportail, in 17S3 in which the first American president actually pre- dicted the conquest of the Atlantic by the air craft.
 New documentary evidence of Washington's air-mindedness has been placed at the disposal of the broadcast committee by Henry Woodhouse, president Of the Aerial League of America, one of the or ganizations cooperating with the United States navys aerial observ- ance of Washington's birthday.
 Captain Harry E. Shoemaker, commanding officer of the United States naval air station at Lake hurst, made known to-day the re- ceipt of orders from Rear Admiral Halligan, acting chief of naval op- erations, authorizing the broadcast.
 Mrs Bartlett announced co-inci- dent with the publication of the navy orders that the broadcast would be made possible through the long research efforts of Dr Harold Davis Emerson and George H. Nor ris of the educational division of Columbia Pictures corporation of New York. and the assistance given them in the preparation of the ma terial by the museum of the city of New York, the Daughters of the American Revolution. the New York Historical society. the Historical Foundations and the Henry Wood- house collection of Washington lore.
 While research for the broadcast was being conducted, it was dis covered that Blanchard took aloft with him in the crude balloon in