WILL TELEVISION COME SOON?

Evening Star, Issue 21624, 20 January 1934, Page 4

WILL TELEVISION COME SOON?

’ lii discussing the possible time radio will add eyes, to its ears, the ‘ Listener In ’ states:—lt is highly improbable; but nevertheless it is possible that .television will be in vogue during the 1930 test cricket played .in England. ■ when it Will'be possible for all Australians not only to follow a ball-for ball description, but at the same time actually see the game while comfortably seated in their homes. Maybe even the coming year will see, a greai development in this wonderful new science. ,

Imagine the convenience and pleasure which will bo derived from television when it is possible tor all outstanding theatrical and sporting events of tho year to be .actually brought to one’s armchair. Economic reversals of the past have had some new and wide developing industry to help them out of the difficulty. The motor «oar gained considerable credit tor doing the trick in 19U7 or thereabouts.'; The ■ wireless and its ensuring growth stepped in to contribute its share in livening things up after the -world, war slump. But what about the present situation and the. prospects' for the future K Is' there something definitely ip, the offing that/bids lair to give a hand to returning ! prosperity ?' The person-seated comfortably. in an armchair, listening in to the greatest speakers and entertainers,; finds it hard to realise that the world saw the birth of wireless industry only a few years ago. Therefore it is fitting-that television may furnish the i vital impulse. Bui the cynic -comments: “ We’ve heard 'about that for five years or more ifow, and nothing has happened. Why can’t the. wheels start to grind if television offers so much?” i

Probably here s the answer. It took years to bring the motor car and wireless To their present stage, remembering always that Rome was not built in a day, nor any other city, lor that matter •

Television is an.entirely new form of communication—the transmission of visual action ’ over distances great or small—in a sense the taking of a slice of light from one place and reproducing it in another by electrical means;'So, while engineers have been struggling for some time now to win success in their laboratories, where they have hden able to accomplish what might be termed- 1 w/emders in sending and receiving radio pictures, they prefer to let things take their, natural way rather than attempt to force on the market apparatus which they are not certain will function in strange hands, as it does "in tfieirs. It is not altogether the hesitancy ol the engineer to put his laboratory devices into the hands'of the public before he does more work on them that has kept television somewhat in the background. Other things enter into the problem Even the general business condition itself has retarded,-to a certain extent, the introduction of wireless sight. Lowering of sales of associated apparatus, such as radio sets, which have contributed funds toward television development, has been an important handicap. The number of laboratories tackling television probably is 50 per cent, less than- two years ago. Then', too, what television will do to the present set in the entertainment world is another question. The movies, nodoubt, will be affected. Broadcasting also will have to change radically when it add. 4 eyes to its ears. , A few years ago it was realised that, if prosaic figures at elections could be made interesting to the public, why not allow tlie public to listen to them in their -own homes? The astounding fact that families could be seated in their own homes and listen in at their ease to the greatest people of the clay seemed beyond belief. But, nevertheless, it was true, and the news was spread like wildfire over the earth, and at once the call for radio sets began. Now, through the aid of this new instrument, which is slowly being perfected and made adaptable for the ordinary layman, a still further step is being taken in providing a new means of education and entertainment. Reports are that the day of television is close, but, so far, there has been no authoritative statement from any source to indicate when that day is to come.

One of the main difficulties which is holding this new wonder of the age from the public is financial backing. One authority says: “The big problem is to develop and finance the installation of good, high-powered transmitters and to find some way to finance the development and putting on the air of interesting programmes,” Within the last year active experimentation has been concentrated in New York, Philadelphia and Camden, N.J., with a little work being done in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston, However, most of the progress has come at the first three cities, largely through the efforts of Dr Vladimir Zworkkin end Phil T. b’nrmvortb. Neither will talk about the wink beyond saying that “progress is being made.”