NEWS IN THE HOME

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 88, 13 April 1935, Page 14

NEWS IN THE HOME

MDIO FACSIMILE

AMERICAN FORECAST

Radio facsimile by which it will be possible ultimately, to flash actual pages of hand or typewritten messages instead of by the code method will be inaugurated during 1935 by the. Radio Corporation of America, the company revealed in its annual financial and progress report; recently released; states the "Christian: Science Monitor." The first facsimile circuit will be placed in service between New York'arid Philadelphia.'; •

• ' This, develbpinentl promises several new types of,communication services and visualises - reception in the home of news, pictures, and other printed matter. David Sarnoff, president ,pf the R.C.A., emphasised, however, that he was talking , about ultimate prospects. ; Immediate plans call for achievement of increasing speed in transmission and the propbsed New York-Philadelphia > circuit. MICRO-WAVES TO BE USED. . On regular short waves facsimile has already^proved its worth- in the trans- : mission of news ; photographs and ■ printed matter across the oceans. The ( > pictures, of,',news events in Europe, . for 'instance, which appear in Ameri- / can newspapers,'■ a few "hours afterwards are duel to .the everyday wonder , of- present: short-wave facsimile trans- ;. mission...- v. ■.': ■-.-;'•.. ;.v. :' : - For the New York-Philadelphia cir- ; cuit and'later, circuits of the same ; type,: micro-waves will be 'employed. : So:small that-'they are' measured in ' inches ttie§e micro-waves are static-' i free and quasi-optical, i.e., they travel i like -beams of light X -Thus their useful:'range is limited to' the •horizon, i Relay stations,."however,! will extend '. the natural ■'horizori to overcome the limitation of distance. • From the top of the Empire State i Building, used in the experiments arid chosen for its height, the micro-waves i will be transmitted to be received, i 'amplified,' and relayed successively at New Brunswick and Trenton, N.J., and , Philadelphia, where the receiving ap- ■ paratus is located, 1 MANY POSSIBILITIES. Transmission of simple personal mes- ; sages, advertising copy, fingerprints, , and»photographs necessary in police ■ work, signatures for banking purposes are among the innumerable possibilities outlined tfor the system by R.C.A. : engineers. ~'-■■ ; Regarding .television, whose' prob- ' lemss'are" closely associated with facsimile'transmission,' the Radio Cor- ■ poritioii states ; that nation-wide tele- • vision" service is not practicable at ■ the present 'stage: of the art. The. results obtained by the R.C.A. ■in laboratory television experiments 1 are equal or better than those abroad, : Major General James H. Harbored 1 chairman of the board of R.C^A., 1 stated. ■■■■-■■■. ■: .'- The problems1; of transmission are vastly greater in the United States than in England, for instance,' whose i size is not much larger than New | York State. The' present wire systems of the United States are not suitable ' for relaying television frequencies. Either a new wire transmission or ; radio .relay system must be developed '. before television is possible on a nationwide scale. When television 'comes i| ;w}}l augment sound radiocasting Jiiii exactly 1 the .same, fashion '.as sound,) cpmple- \ mented the silent pictures, the report stated. ■■■■-.■■ . ; As to the effect that the advent of ■ television may have upon the .movies, Mr. Sarnoff believed that television would offer no threat. "Granting -that the day may come when we can de- ' velop millions of 'home theatres' 1 through television,". Mr. Sarnoff said, 1 "public theatres, will!continue to oper- ; ate because people will go, to them in ; response to the instinct for group'emotions and, to see. artists ,in'the flesh. '; These are. the human demands-which ' television in the home cannot satisfy.