Equipping Cars with Radio

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 39, 11 April 1930, Page 7

Equipping Cars with Radio

A Standardised Feature

SINCE radio as a means of entertainment first gained popularity in the United States, some seven or eight years ago, there have been isolated cases where automobiles have been radio-equipped. These early examples, however, were more of a novelty than anything else, and their use was restricted more or less to purposes of advertising. There were too many technical difficulties to be overcome, and the cost of intensive experimental work was not recognised as commensurate with the likelihood of immediate publice demand. In recent years radio has developed from a novelty and luxury to something closely approaching the indispensable. The phenomenal expansion of the radio industry is something unmatched except by the amazing development of the automobile industry. The product of each has become an item of paramount importance to nearly every family, and the possibility of combining the advantages of radio and the automobile has long since been considered by far-visioned car manufacturers; and now radio equipment for motor-cars and omnibuses is a standardised feature of the products of many leading American automobile manufacturers.

Radio as a Life-saver

STRIKING example of the value of the wireless direction-finder in saving life at sea is reported in a wireless message from New York which states that when the liner Fort Victoria was sunk in a collision tugs were °brought alongside in thick fog by following bearings given by the di-rection-finder installed in the Fort Victoria. The 280 passengers and the whole ef the crew were transferred without confusion or panic to other craft in thick fog. This in itself is a striking justification of the policy which is being rapidly developed by British shipowners of fitting all their ships with the wireless direction-finder,