Evening star., 1934-06-03
|HOOPERPA|D HIGH
| HONOR By, RADIO
Engineers Medal PreSenta.
ton Feature of Institute
Banquet.
BY MARTIN CODELL

Ice even though he was eligible
for retirement three years ago,
this week went the highest
honor that his branch OF the engi-
neering profession bestows. Coinci-
IDENTIFY, his name was being mentioned
prominently as one of the prospective
members of the proposed new Federal
communications commission.
He Is Capt. Stanford Caldwell
Hooper, who is now rounding out his
second tour of duty as director of
naval communications. Capt Hooper
went to Philadelphia Tuesday to re-
ceive the Medal Of Honor of the Insti-
tute of Radio Engineers at its annual
convention banquet. 1t was awarded
to him as pioneer in the radio field,
and particularly for his contributions
to the development Of the United
States Nays communications and to
the international regulation of radio.
The same gathering of the Nations
radio engineering fraternity awarded
an eX-RuSSian Army officer. Vladimir
K. ZWorykin, now research engineer
OF the RCA-VictOr Co, its Morris N.
Liebmann prize of $500 for the great
est radio engineering achievement of
the preceding year DR.. Zworykin. who
emigrated to this country after the
war, won the cash award for devising
the iconoscope. which is regarded as
truly an electric eye for viewing a
scene for teleViSion transmission.
'Television Camera"
The Zworykin inconoscope. when
telev1sion emerges as a practically,
will make available "televiSion cam
era" whose sensitivity is approximate
ly equal to that of Photographic film
operating at the speed of a motion
picture camera
Capt. Hooper'S honor was a recog-
milton for cumulative ACCOMPLISH
mentS rather than for a single deed
or contribution. A friend of President
Roosevelt. to whom he reported regu-
larly during the war days when Mr..
Roosevelt was Assistant Secretary of
the Navy, and with whom he has
maintained pleasant relations through
the years. Capt. Hooper is understood
ins reliable quarters to be a likely
choice for the new communications
commission Ii the Senate's action in
authorizing the creation of such a
commission is followed by the House.
The House bill is pending at this writ
ing, with good prospects that it will
pass before Congress adjourns.
The Senate bill proposes five-man
commission and the House bill calls
for seven. All members of the present
Radio Commission. which would be
displaced. are candidates for the new
commission. Capt. Hooper, a native of
California, from which State he was
appointed to Annapolis in 1901, may
possibly replace one of the present
radio commissioners. II he goes on the
new commission. it will be as an eX-
pert in wire as well as wireless COM
munications
To several Of the big communica-
tionS companies the naval officer is
probably persona non grata for his
apparently hardheaded insistance up
on certain principles of co-ordinating
private operation with the national
defense. Several Senators don't like
him either, for he has not always been
in accord with them at committee
hearings. at which he has been a fire.
quent witness. But it is generally
conceded that he will have the place
If the President wants him. Capt.
Hooper was in charge Of the radio
division Of the Bureau of Engineering
of the Navy for IL years. going from
there to the dictatorship of all naval
communications.
Record Of Achievement.
The first Fleet radio officer of Uncle
Sans Navy. which was first TO take
up Marconi's new-fangled wireless
when the Italian engineer brought it
over for demonstrations shortly after
the turn of the century. Capt Hooper
has been identified with almost every
great naval radio development He
designed battle radio installations for
the Fleet, perfected Fleet radio sig
mailing, adapted new inventions to ma
val radio, such as the direction finder;
built many of the Nays transoceanic
possessions; advised with private COM
panies on the commercial develop
ment Of radio, and sat on many of
the boards and delegations having to
do with domestic and international
radio regulation.
Perhaps his greatest, but least
known, contribution was a simple sug-
gestion he made after the war to his
then chief. the late Admiral Bullard
director Of radio communications and
later the first chairman of the Federal
Radio Commission. Capt. Hooper saw
with some alarm that the British
were about to secure control of the
American inventor AlexanderSon's al
ternator. which made long distance
wireless communications possible. Dur
ing the war Capt. Hooper had had cne
of the alternators built and installed
at the New Brunswick Naval Radio
Station. He knew that control of
transoceanic radio would go to the
country that got that device.
He went to Admiral Bullard and
told him his fears. Admiral Bullard
initiated an official move that induced
the General Electric Co., which had
orders for the alternator from the
British Marconi, to go into the radio
communications business as private
American enterprise after Secretary
Daniels efforts to make it Govern
ment-operated system went for naught.
General Electric, at first reluctantly
and then to its profit, joined with
Westinghouse to create what became
the Radio Corporation of America,
now operating a worldwide radio
system.
In the early days of the Radio Com
mission Capt. Hooper was detailed to
service for six months as its technical
adviser. He has been director of ma
val communications since 1928. Though
due to be shifted next July l, his
qualifications as a radio expert, and
the lack of ranking officers to succeed
him, may keep him in that Office. un-
less he resigns to go with the COM
munications commission.
Europeans to Be Heard.
The Comedian Harmonists. Fllrope's