GROWTH OF TELEVISION

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume 65, Issue 98, 14 December 1943, Page 4

GROWTH OF TELEVISION

BIG POST-WAR INDUSTRY

MARVELLOUS INSTRUMENTS

USED

The demands of ,wai* have so speeded the development of electronics that television promises to be the first big new postwar industry, and is counted upon to cushion the change from war to peace, jobs, wrote H. W. Blakeslee in the Christian Science Monitor, who added that television in colour was one of the poshibilities which, have been developing quietly behind the curtain of war. Another possibility is synchronisation, whereby two scenes at points distant from each other may be viewed at the same time. War's aid is indirect, but tremendous. There are in mass production tubes which recently were only dreams to television experimenters. War ihas cut the cost of some tubes from nearly 100 dollars each to less than 10 dollars. True, these are not television tubes, but their principles can be adapted. -

War has trained large forces of workmen, thousands of engineers, and built numerous industrial establishments qualified to switch to television manufacture. < Television engineers talk of 50----idollar sets, limited to small-size images, but think the public will want something better. Two Sets in One Many persons are asking: "Shall I have to scrap my present racjib set for television?" The answer Is no. But radio will sell two sets in one, sound and rsievlsion, and perhaps three in one, with frequency modulation. The fact that television reception is limited to .about 45 miles from a station is a problem. The only present way iof overcoming that is by networks, and the speed will depend on the quality of television. Recent technical improvements alone are. estimated at 75 to 100 per cent over-pre-war standards.

Electronic Eye Some -of the instruments are. startling. One brings a sevenfold increase in pickup sensitivity-— that is, in seeking a scene. It is a fact that on a rainy ,aftei> noon iof late November, the last quarter of ,a footbail game could be televised with no illumination other than the twilight. The person looking at the game on a television screen ooulid see its details better than the spectator in the* stands. The advantage of the new electrbfllc eye is about equal to giving the spectator a pair of fielS glasses.

The tube which gives this sevenfold greater sensitivity is Radio Corporation of America's orthicon. This instrument is the electronic eye. THe mechanical retina stores voltages, one in each bit of silver, each voltage proportional to the light or shade of the image focused at that particular point on the plate. A pinpoint beam of elections brushes across the plate^ pushing out the tiny voltages from the bits of silver sending them in succession into a transmitting circuit. The electron beam, moves across the plate, counting to and fro, 30,----000 times ,a second, a line at a time, to accomplish one clearing of the bits of silver. In doing this, *it releases about 6,000,000 little voltages, each one a bit of the scene on tße sensitive plate. At the receiving end, these voltages are given again to a pinpoint stream of elections, which draws them across the screen, one line at a time, 525 lines in all, to reproduce the original scene. The; "screen is fluorescent and- on it the electron beam appears as a point of light. The beam goes so fast that the point is never seen, only the complete picture which is traced in full 30 times each second. Larger Screens Needed Good television requires larger screens, 18 by 24 inches for homes and 15 to 20 feet in diameter for the theatre. That means for theatre use projecting tlje small, "fluorescent picture through a lens. The fluorescent light is weak but f,or this. Overcoming the handicap of not enough light for the best projection, brought another seemingly impos-t sible feat and another new instrument for postwar television. To get this, television turned to astronomy for aid. A new type of telescope, set up in advance ion Mt. Palomar, California, as an aid to the 200-inch telescope, was taken ,as a base. It uses a special mirror to photograph stars. It is like using the whole interior of a teacup as ".a mirror. The result of the work of the radio experts was a queer lens which takes the rays reflected from the tea cup, straightens them out and focuses them.

a long period of paying for highpriced goods which this time would not meet the fierce competition of falling prices, since the Government now possessed the machinery to stifle any competitive imports.

Praise makes go,od men better ana bad men worse.—Proverb,