Evening star., 1935-11-01

A TEST Of the Federal Com
~ munications Commissions
~ power over experimental ac-
4 = tivities in the communications
field. and further unfolding Of the
possible uses of the coaxial cable, lat
est wonder invention of telephony, as
a medium to broadcast television on
network basis throughout the
United States, are expected to evolve
from a petition filed this week by the
American Telephone & Telegraph Co..
asking rehearing on the F. c. C.'s
order authorizing the testing installa-
ton of the cable between New York
and Philadelphia. The F. C. C. ordered
the rehearing to take place in Wash
ington November rs
The A. T. & T. In its petition asked
the commission to reconsider the
drastic provisions Of its order, issued
in the latter part of July. The petit
ton noted that the commission may
lack jurisdiction to regulate expert
mental operations in the communi-
cations field and also stressed that
the restrictions of this order tended
to impair property rights and patent
usage Of the coaxial cable for tele-
vision purposes.
At the same time the petition dis
PEELED previous reports that the A. T.
& T. was going to shelve the coaxial
cable for television use with a dec
laration that no objection was made
to full experimental utilization for
television transmission and reception
by other companies using their. own
equipment for such tests. This was
interpreted to mean that the A. T.
6 T. was not going to embark on an
attempt to use the coaxial cable to
monopoliZe television, but would be
willing to allow all reputable tele-
vision research concerns, such as
Radio Corporation of America, Philco.
Farnsworth, De Forest and similar
well-known experimenters and inter-
ests. full access for testing of their
apparatus in visual broadcasting on
the new cable. r. c. A.. it is known, in
connection with its S1,000,000 pro-
gram for field television broadcasting
is planning to use the cable in its
experiments between New York and
Philadelphia.
In the petition the A. T. g. r
asserted 1t felt that the orders
language should be clarified and
modified in six sections which it
claimed gave the F. c. C. an excess Of
authority which "usurped manage
ment" by it Of its own property and
business. One major point was that
the order did not define whether the
A. T. & T. could use the cable to
devise its own inventions in tele-
vision; another was in opposition to a
clause which gave the F. c. c. power to
halt the entire project upon 10 days
notice and hearing without regard
to the expense or commitments in
CURED by the company. and a third
was the fact that the commissions
ruling imposed upon the company the
acceptance in advance of future
orders of unknown conditions.
The coaxial cable will take any type
of televiSion transmission that has yet
been proposed, according to Dr.. Frank
B. Jewett, president of the Bell Tele-
phone laboratories, and contains a
1000 0000-killocycle frequency band
which would be adequate during the
trial period between New York and
Philadelphia for visual broadcasting.
Out Of the tests over the l00-mile
distance between New York and Phila-
delphia, it is expected that the tele-
vision use Of the cable for 1000 or
more miles can be evolved. In the
opinion of many scientists it is believed
the coaxial cable may be the solution
for the transmission of television
throughout the Nation in much the
same manner as telephone wires are
now used for linking broadcasting
stations into networks.
X X X
WMAL will begin a series OF broad
casts from the Club Volga Boat
men tonight at l0:30. Traditional
Russian and Gypsy music will be fea-
tured. Special microphone set-ups will
be used to handle the unique and
varied presentations.
A S AN Ar1nistice day feature, CO.
- lumbia has arranged. in co-opera-