Television on a Beam of Light

Radio Record, Volume VI, Issue 2, 22 July 1932, Page 13

Television on a Beam of Light

Wide Possibilities Predicted UTILISING a wavelength of only a few billionths of a metre, television transmitted on a beam of light has been demonstrated successfully at the laboratories of the General Wlectrie. Company. More distinct television pictures are confidently predicted, and while the work done so far is experimental, those engaged in it foresee the time when television will be broadeast from a puwerful are light mounted on top of some tower in each city. The pick-up device is of the usual type, but instead of the impulses being fed into a radio transmitter, they are modulated into high frequencies on a light beam. The beam is, projected the length of the laboratory and picked up by a photoelectric cell which transposes the light waves back into electric waves. The impulses then reproduce the image by means of the ordinary television’ receiver. ' _ In. its commercial application, it is expected the light waves will be. picked up in each home by means of individual electric eyes instead of the present type of wire aerial, Since the light beam can be broadcast only for relatively short distances, each community would have its own light-broadcasting system.