THROUGH THE AIR

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 598, 26 February 1929, Page 12

THROUGH THE AIR

PICTURES BY RADIO TELEVISION POSSIBILITIES AVill we be giving television receivers to our triends next Christmas? American writers suggest we will. Some are already purchasing their television apparatus, but are being warned at the same time not to expect very satisfactory results as yet. Just as the cinema, the gramophone and radio took years of experiment to bring to their present state, so perfect television will only arrive by degrees. How near or how far off this perfection of television may be is a matter of considex-able debate, according to the “Literary Digest” of New York, which Quotes a number of representative opinions on the subject, published in “Popular Mechanics.” The Inventor of the radio tube. Dr. Lee de Forest, who was asked when radio television and radio moving pictures would be available for home receptions, says "10 years or more.” Another radio inventor, Dr. C. F. Jenkins, remarked: “Radio-vision receivers will be available for Christmas presents this year.” Mr. D. Sarnoff, vice-president and general manger of the Radio Corporation of America, considers that four or five years more are needed for perfection; and anotjier competent authority, Mr. H. P. Davis, of Westinghouse Electric, declares that “anything so far demonstrated would be premature if offered to the public as service.” According to the manufacturers of television kits, television has already arrived. “Popular Mechanics” comments as follows: — “Here are five different views, ranging from right now up to 10 years—and probably every one of them is absolutely correct —a paradox that arises not through disagreement, but through different interpretations. “Mesrs. Sarnoff, de Forest and Davis see television as something that should not be offered to the public until it is as complete, as simple, as perfect, and as fool-proof as radio broadcasting Is to-day—after years of experimental development. “Dr. Jenkins and the various manufacturers of television kits and parts believe there is a host of radio fans who got a lot of joy out of tinkering with crystal sets, coherers, fancy home-wound coils, and all the accessories on which radio was raised from a pup, and who will get equally great pleasure through a vicarious television. “Anybody with an average acquaintance with the insides of radio set, with fair mecahnical ability, and 45 dollars to invest, can buy one manufacturer’s kit, including an electric motor, scanning disc, neon lamp, and other parts, fit a television receiver together, hook on some batteries, and his existing radio receiver, insert a few tubes and start receiving pictures. “They may be, in the words of Dr. de Forest, ‘small, poorly Illuminated, coarse-grained, unclear silhouette and half-tone effects.’ “But they ■will be pictures, either mirrored images direct from life or radio movies. “They will come through the air to you, and if you got a thrill a few years ago out of a jumble of squeals, there Is a bigger thrill in seeing an image in the frame of a home-made television receiver. "The first photographs transmitted by wire and radio were not perfect, either.”