Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-07
the radio industry
has not escaped the effects
1 of the current business de-

NHOUGH the radio industry
has not escaped the effects
Of the current business de-
preston, there Is no ca
lamity bowling among the manu-
facturers and a decided feeling of
optimism prevails. The condition
of the industry, now fairly well
stabilized through conservative
operation, is much more secure
than the times and the decreased
purchasing power of the populace
would seem to indicate.
These are the conclusions of
Kenneth A. Hathaway, technical
radio adviser of the Chicago Daily
News, upon the completion of his
annual survey tour of the district
lying between Chicago and the
East Coast, where by far the
greater portion of American
manufacture and research in
radio apparatus is located. Not
only commercial factories and
laboratories, but governmental
and experimental centers of radio
research, SO of them in all, were
visited.
The radio industry is not flour
ishing as it did until the indus
trial depression began, declared
Mr.. Hathaway. But it is going
forward with such high hopes
that even the complications of
such new developments of the
general adoption of superhetero-
dyne circuits, the introduction of
new tubes and the advances in
television are stimulating rather
than dimming the initiative of
the men who are making radio.
Laboratories and factories alike
have not let up in the least in
their pursuit of the new, the more
efficient and the more economical
to offer to the radio public. That
fact alone, said Mr.. Hathaway, is
best indicative of the spirit that
pervadeS radio. This is not SIM
ply "Pollyanna stuff" Mr.. Hath
away adds; the industry has good
reason to be hopeful of a revived
market, for the Census Bureau
figures released thus far indicate
that not many more than 80 per
cent of the homes Of the country
at large are radio equipped.
Radio manufacturers" Mr..
Hathaway said, have been sub
jected to a consistent uphill pull
during the last 18 months. After
a period of abnormal buying on
the part of the public, the pro-
ducers were suddenly confronted
with. an era of financial depres-
sion that has continued with I'M
told frenzy. Nevertheless, men,
bers of the radio industry have
strengthened their position by
overcoming obstacles that have
arisen and the Spring of 1881
finds them individually and COL
lectively better fitted to maintain
radio as one of the worlds largest
and most important Industries"
RY It's failure to sustain the
~ validity of the Langmuir high
vacuum tube patent. one of
the key devices in the radio and
allied arts, the Genreal Electric
Co. lost one of its most important
contributions to the patent pool
of the Radio Corporation Of
America. The Supreme Court de-
cision, written by Associate JUS
tice Stone, a former professor OF
physics, also means that the hold
Of r. C. A. on tube patents has
been considerably weakened.
Inside the radio industry the
Supreme Court decision is being
construed as definite blow at
the r. C. A. patent-licensing ar
rangement, whereby Is or more
companies have been licensed to
manufacture radio tubes upon
payment of 71a per cent royalty
The Langmuir patent hitherto