Evening star., 1939-04-09
Merit Of 1eIevision
Devices 10 Be Studied
ByU. ). Commission
Report on New York Trip
May Decide Question
Of Equipment Sale
By WILLIAM ]. WHEATLEY.

Development of television now has
reached point where the Federal
Communications Commission has
decided to take hand to deter
mine whether it is time for the
general public to begin investments
in expensive receiving apparatus.
A committee of the commission,
composed of Commissioner T. A. M.
Craven, chairman, and Commis-
sioners Norman S. Case and Thad
H. Brown will leave tomorrow night
to visit several experimental labora-
tories in Philadelphia, New York
and vicinity to examine the ap-
paratus and confer with technicians
and experts AS to the results they
have obtained.
The report of this committee,
which now has before it several ap-
plications for television stations
proposing public programs, is eX-
pected to have far-reaching effect
on the question of general presenta-
ton of television for public use All
television stations now are on an
experimental license.
The pushing ahead of television
with public demonstrations this
year has led the commission to act,
in order to prevent being caught
between two fires. On the one hand
are the manufacturers who have
spent millions Of dollars in expert
ments and are seizing an oppor-
tunity to capitalize on this eXpendi-
ture. while on the other hand is
the general public, which might be
led into large expenditures for sets,
only to have them junked within a
few months because of the rapid
changes which are now apparent.
Bar to Monopoly.
According to experts. there are
many problems yet to be solved be-
fore television can be considered a
public reality One of the more
serious is the absolute prevention of
any one of the several systems at
tanning a monopoly
What is said to be little under
stood by the general public is that
a television set. at the present stage
Of development. cannot be tuned
from one station to another to get
a change of programs. as is done
with the present sound sets. That
is one of the matters which the
committee is determined to look into
this week.
1t proposes to find out if any of
the laboratories are working on
receiving device which can receive
the pictures from all stations. re-
gardless of the method Of scanning
the pictures.
Another problem before the COM
mittee is location of stations. Under
the present stage of development,
they must be 300 miles apart. Some
method must be found for limiting
their interference so the very small
number of frequencies available can
be distributed to as many as pos
sible. There are only Is channels
now available, each channel being
5000 kilocycles apart.
Projection May Improve.
The picture projection now, ac-
cording to commission experts.
compares favorably only with home
movies of about 1926. but it is be-
lieved this will be subject to rapid
improvement. That is the chief
reason the commission is anxious
to determine whether it is time now
to permit the public to invest in
the receivers without having full
knowledge of what they are facing
in losses.
On the other hand, experiment.
ers who have spent much money
in development of television to its
present stage are anxious to get
it before the public to stimulate
investments.
The commissions action, of
course. will rest on the recommen-
dations to be made by the Tele-
vision Committee, and it was indi-
Gated it may be necessary to go
into public hearings to air all
phases of the problem, possibly on
requirement that the experiment.
ers be ordered to show definite rea-
sons why television should be put
on the regular license schedule in
the near future.