THE RADIO TELEPHONE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18131, 1 July 1922, Page 11

THE RADIO TELEPHONE.

AMERICA'S LATEST 1 CRAZE.

BOOM IN INDUSTRY,,

THE BROADCASTING SYSTEM. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] • TORONTO, May 8. Radio, the short name for wireless telephony, has for several months been the chief topic of conversation in large areas of the United States. It is sweeping across the continent like an epidemic. Until recent weeks Canada has been immune, but that has been because no manufacturing establishment in the Dominion has been able to supply equipment. Now this situation is being changed, and the new disease, if disease it may be called, is upon ua. Every night the atmosphere is filled with programmeis and entertainments sent out fsom broadcasting stations in the United States. No tariff barrier can be erected against the electrical disturbances of the wireless telephone travelling through space at the velocity of light.

War-time Activities in Factories. From a business point of view, the manufacture and sale of receiving equipmerit has produced a boom in a new department of business, perhaps never equalled. Even the motor-car took much longer to introduce. All the electrical firms, and even other organisations not closely associated with electrical apparatus, are experiencing an extraordinary inflation of trade. Factories are running under pressure, with three shifts every 24 hours, under conditions similar to those prevailing in munition works in the urgent days of the war. The Westinghonse Company of the United States is said to have made 5,000,000 dollars profit out of radio equipment in the last year, The Westinghouse was among the pioneers of the industry on the popular' side of manufacture. vMTien business became dull a year and a half ago, it saw possibilities in, the new field, and tu'.-ned its organisation in that direction. It is now reaping the profit of a pioneer. A small number of very powerful transmitting or broadcasting stations have been established by large companies and these are the basis of the industry, for they daily broadcast services which, rr&ke the possession of receiving instruments interesting and entertaining. Perhaps the best known broadcasting station is that at Pittsburgh, established in connection with the head offioe of the Weatanghouse Company. The same company also has important broadcasting stations at Newark, Chicago and other points. The General Electric Company of the United States has established a large broadcasting plant at Schenectady, N.Y., and many newspapers, notably the Detroit News, have recently installed similar plants. Some Canadian newspapers are following suit.

Entertainment by Wireless. The entertaiinments sent out by these broadcasting plants are exceedingly diversified. Music is, of course, the basis of all, and music in all forms from bands, orchestras and choirs to solos by voice or instrument, are successfully transmitted. Speakers also are generously, used. Sunday services, mrmons, and sacred concerts are re,~ularly reproduced. Health talks, science talks, garden talks, engineering talks, fasffion talks, lectures on foreign politics, are put on from time to time. University staffs are being asked to carry on their extension work through the wireless broad-casting stations. In fact the whole range of intellectual activity is being utilised to furnish variety and novelty to tho programmes'. Some news is also being broadcasted, although the extent to which news is being utilised is perhaps surprisingly limited. Some stock quotations, some farmers' market quotations, weather forecasts, and few general news bulletins comprise about everything in the way of news that is used. .tlie Associated Press of America, however, seems to be ip some alarm lest a n w rival is springing up, and has been taking precautions to prevent the use of its material in tho broad-casting services. The effective range of the leading "broad* casting stations is ordinarily about 400 or 500 miles, though often it may be much greater. If conditions are right and the instrument is good the reproductions often have remarkable distinctness. When in such circumstances a voice comes over, lacking even the slightest accompanying mechanical noise or vibration, it is as if a listener was in communication with an absolutely disembodied voice. It is an experience that has its elements of weirdness, and the sensation produced is not easily forgotten. This fact, no doubt, explains the extraordinary hold* the new invention is taking on tho popular mind. Home-made Receiving Sets. Receiving sets tare often exceedingly simple. Tens of thousands of them are home-made, often costing the boy who makes them, if be has ingenuity, not more than two or three dollars-. Already a city like Detroit has its sky-line everywhere decorated with the aerial 1 wires of receiving apparatus in private homes. • One estimate is that 30,000 sets have already been installed there.

The keenest interest is being manifested in the new inventipn by farmers and those who live in the more isolated communities of the north and west. It gives them the prospect of an intimate touch with centres of population, lack of which has heretofore been the chief bane of their lives. The organised farmers of Canada are already planning to broadcast daily market quotations to all their branch organisations, and numerous other commercial organisations are. keenly interested in the possible uses of the invention.

Obviously the information and entertainment that is- being broadcasted through the air is free to anyone who ie able to pick it up by adjusting to the wave length of any partioular station. The only source of revenue,to the firms operating the broadcasting stations is from the sale of receiving equipment, or from publicity and general goodwill. The broadcasting stations are therefore confined to those institutions which are in a position to benefit in one or other of these ways. The commonest method of listening in is by means of a receiver resembling the ordinary telephone headpiece, but magnifiers similar to that in use on talking machines are being introduced for the purpose of magnifying the sound so that it will fill a room or a hall. Thus radio dances are being held, where the musio is provided by wireless. Radio concerts are being given, and in private homes a popular form of entertainment is to invite one's friends to listen to a programme picked up by wireless and amplified by a loud speaker or magnavox.