Evening star., 1934-11-11
TelevisiOn Waits to Be Born


magnet. The bottle Is tipped at an
angle. The mica plate faces the lens
squarely; the cathode gun points d.
rectly at the plate from below. The
whole arrangement is inside the cam
era box, and there is an electric cable
connected to it as source of power.
This cable is about the only thing
that makes the apparatus less easily
usable anywhere than a camera.
Well, the image is focused on the
plate by the lens simultaneously the
gun in the neck of the bottle shoots
its ray In the form of stream of
electrons at the plate. The current
through the electromagnetic around the
bottle neck makes this ray move back
and forth, back and forth, across the
plate, like a searchlight. 1t goes clean
across in one line, then moves down a
tiny fraction of an inch and goes
clean across again: and all together it
goes across 240 times in an inch.
When it gets to the bottom of the
plate 1t moves up and starts all over
again; and it scans the whole plate in
this way "a times every second, ex-
actly as a motion picture camera
takes "a picture or frames" second
to create the illusion of continuous
motion.
What happens when the cathode
ray hits the little light sensitive ST.
on the mica plate is a complex phe-
nomenon of physics. Suffice it to say
that electric charges are set up that
exactly correspond to the light waves
making the Photographic image. These
charges accumulate for a brief inter-
val Of time in the metal backing of
the plate, and from there they are
sent out as radio waves after being
suitably amplified.
Difficulties Eliminated.
The difficulties connected with the
scanning disk and light beam are
eliminated. The full light coming
through the lens strikes all the little
dots on the plate all the time, to
maintain an image with full intensity.
And the cathode ray can do a much
finer and a much faster job of scam
ming, since it is not limited by the ne
cessity for more light and still more
light. The net result is finer. less
SONAo ~ o. oAACO, HULL VI lISllIST picture.
On the other, the kinescope end,
there is a radio receiving apparatus
with tubes. One of the tubes is a
cathode-ray bottle. like the one in
the iconoScope, with which it is
synchronized by tuning. Thus at the
same moment that the cathode ray
IN the camera sweeps back and forth
across the image on the plate. the
cathode ray in your kinescope at
nome sweeps back and forth. But in
this case the stream of electrons hits
a little screen-also incloSed. with the
gun, in bottle-a screen covered
with fiourescent material. Now a
fiuorescent material under the impact
OF electrons from cathode will give
out light. In other words. the process
IN the lconoScope is exactly reversed: F.:
radio waves are here converted into
light waves. and the picture made by
these light waves is the picture being
taken by the iconoscope 1t is re-
fected from the fluorescent screen to
a mirror: or it could be enlarged con-
siderably through lens and thrown
upon a screen.
Genie in Two Bottles.
Actually, as well as metaphorically,
the whole thing is genie in a bot
tle-or genie in two bottles.
Then why not release it? Certainly
people are ready and waiting for tele-
vision. 1t is understood that Ger
many will set up an official television
station in Berlin within the next
year. using the cathode ray system.
though it is not technically as far
advanced there as it is here.
But what can be done by govern
ment subsidy under government con-
troll abroad cannot be done as a COM
mercial venture in the United States.
There are some very great difficulties
in the way.
Televlslon must go out over short
wave, the shorter the better At pres
ent it cannot be transmitted well for
a distance much more than 20 miles
or only a fraction of the range of
ordinary broadcasting. To spread it
over large area from few big cities
would require an enormous number
OF expensive booster stations. although
PASo iCOCoL Will
cable promise to provide another
means for linking network of tele-
vision stations. Baker and his asso-
ciates know just how the country
could be covered by television, step
by step. They also know, by accurate
estimate. the enormous cost of each
step. How would those who put W
the money get it back again?
Problem in Personnel.
There is a large problem in per-
sonnel, too. The equipment is con-
slderably more complex than ordinary
radio, and men would have to be
trained to handle and service it.
Again, Hollywood's whole output of
motion pictures would last no time
at all if it were put out as televi-
sion, even during limited hours.
And what form would it take?
What kind of programs could be
given within the limits of television?
What kind of programs would people
want? The type of material that
could be used would probably be very
different from that of the movies, -
SO that the two arts would exist side
by side. as do movies" and radio.
But what would be the effect on radio
itself? Short-wave television, short
wave sound broadcasting, and regular
sound broadcasting might eventually
be received on a single set in peoples
homes. But how about the prelimi-
nary period? What would be the
effect on the sale of regular broad
casting equipment?
First Sets Costly.
Moreover, the first television sets
will probably be fairly costly; yet i'm
provements will continue to be made.
How be sure that these improvements
will not completely outmode the earlier
SetS2