Evening star., 1933-10-01

~ OINCIDENT with its observance
of Radio Progress week as part
of prosperity rebuilding drive,
~ the American radio fraternity
will play host to two foreign
visitors highly distinguished in their
respective fields of radio endeavor. One
IS Marchese Guglielmo Marconi, the in
ventor of wireless, and the ether is
S. P. B. Mais, the outstanding talks"
specialists of the British governmental
broadcasting system.
Their missions are quite different, the
one coming to receive honorS incident
to "Marconi day" tomorrow at the Gen.
tury of Progress Exposition in Chicago,
and the other coming to do some broad
casting back to Great Britain via the
transoceanic wave lengths whose poten-
tialitieS Marconi was first to discover.
Both arrived in New York the latter
part of last week, though on different
ships.
Visit First Since 1927.
Marconis visit is his first since he
attended the International Radio Con-
ference in Washington in 1927. In the
interim he has been doing some mo-
mentous experimenting with the ultra
short wave lengths that are measured
in fractions of one meter-eXperiment
hlllCIl, llC lido SOl4AANNA4liy, "AAA
soon open up vast new vistaS of wave
lengths that not only will relieve the
present congestion in the ether but will
harness manifold new waves for tele-
vision, brOadcaSting, domestic and in
ternational code, voice and facsimile
Transmission and untold other uses.
While Americans interested in radio
ply the great inventor with questions
about the astounding claims the foreign
dispatches have quoted him as making
for his ultra-short wave developments,
Mr.. Mais will be engaged in plying
Americans with questions about their
own country and relaying his observa-
tions back to the British Isles.
He is coming to the States, as the
British Broadcasting Corporation puts
it, as a modern Columbus" whose
mission is Ito discover with his own
very observant eyes the real America"
His will be a rowing assignment taking
him anywhere his fancy chooses. His
broadcaSts will be heard every Saturday
night in England and some, if not all.
of them will be carried simultaneously
over the networks here, which will en-
able the American audience to hear
them on Saturday afternoons.
America to Be Ready.
American radio naturally will put its
best foot forward, and the visitors are
choosing a happy time for their Ameri-
can sojourn. The American radio in
dustry this week will embark on q
tremendous campaign, stimulated by
the National Recovery Administra-
tion's aims, to persuade the 100000
homes calculated to be still without
radios, and the 6750000 having obsc-
lete sets, to buy new sets or recondi-
tion old ones now. One of the means
to be employed is series Of gala Ma
tion-wide broadcasts which the public
will be persuaded it cannot afford to
miss hearing
The radio manufacturing industry Of
this country has been bowed down with
hard times, its sales curve dropping
from nearly s1,000,0Oo,O0o in 1929 to
less than one-fourth that amount last
year. With the turning business tide
1t expects to regain some of its lost
prosperity. The broadcasting industry,
suffering its first slump during the
first eight months Of this year, but now
staging strong comeback. is eager
to cooperate with the radio makers
because every new radio sold or old
radio reconditioned means so much
more audience added to the 100000
homes now having radios.
There are wide variances between
American and British broadcasting
methods, and it may be that the visi-
tors will make comments that will fur
nlSh material to the thousands of high
school and college students who this
Autumn and Winter are debating the
subject of the American system of pri-
vate enterprise versus the British sys-
tenn Of government monopoly.