Evening star., 1935-02-10
BRITAIN IS READY
WITH TE[EWS|ON
Plan to Serve Public Comes
as Surprise to U. S.
Engineers.
BY MARTIN CODEL.
A T JUST about the time GER

A T JUST about the time GER
~ tain leaders of American
~ radio are letting 1t be known
u that still picture or facsimile
reproductions via radio, rather
than the moving images of television,
will be the next great advance in the
radio art, Great Britain comes for
ward with the formal announcement
that It will introduce television to the
British public this year.
The news from London, the mild
ness Of their published expressions Of
surprise to the contrary notwithstand-
ing, fell like bombshell on the ears
of American radio engineers, execu-
tives and observers presumed to know
all about such things.
U. S. Hand May Be Forced.
Will the British force Americas
hand in the matter of television as
the Germans seem to be forcing
Britain's? We ought to know by the
end Of this year-for it goes without
saying that the British endeavor will
be watched with eagle eyes over here
Britain's announced plans are the
aftermath of the recent visit of
former Postmaster General Lord
Selsdon and his expert television in
vestigating commission to the United
States only few months ago. An
other British television committee
simultaneously went to Germany to
look into the system which Hitler is
reported to have ordered hastened
into everyday use. Both commissions
were received cordially and frankly,
nothing being withheld from their
scrutiny, for the matter of present
and future patent exchanges among
the major radio industries of the
United States, England and Germany
has long been settled by agreement.
Either the Britons are masters of
the art Of dissimulation, or they are
satisfied that they have something
really good, for Lord Selsdon and his
staff did not indicate during their
American tour that they thought Eng
land was ahead Of this country in
televiSion development. On the con-
trary, those who met them socially
and in the laboratories aver they were
effusive in their praises of compare
tive American advances.
Question Of Finance.
Why. then, did they conclude that
television was ready for the public,
while the Americans still hold it
back? One answer might be that it
really Is ready-but on that score
many competent American observers
disagree. Another answer might be
that the government operated British
radio monopoly is willing to expert
ment on its public, and the privately
operated American radio systems are
not. But the most reasonable an
swer seems to lie in the realm of
finance.
American radio leaders have re-
peatedly asserted that the chief re-
tarding factor in television's emer-
gence from the laboratories is funds.
It would take hundreds Of millions
Of dollars to introduce television on a
Nationwide scale, they have said, and
the money simply isn't available from
private sources. It would mean the
virtual scrapping of Americas exist
ing audible broadcasting plant, they
add, and that already represents an
investment variously estimated up to
$l00,o0o,000. More than that, it
would throw into complete discard
the three to four billion dollars worth
Of receiving apparatus now in use in
some 20,000,0 900 American homes.