TELEVISION IN ITS INFANCY

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 84, 20 November 1928, Page 3

TELEVISION IN ITS INFANCY

POSSIBILITY RATHE!?. THAN ACHIEVEMENT. THE GLASGOW EXPERIMENTS. LONDON. Sent. 16. The word *'"television" conjures up, to most of us, the mental image of a large screen on which is projected, with all .the intense illumination and vividness of the "movies.'' scenes that are actually happening at the moment fifty, a hundred, or a thousand miles away. Such a screen, in association with our wireless loud speaker, would add enormously to our enjoyment of broadcast nhvys and talk's, and even music. Tho imagination is more easily stirred and satisfied by the eyes than by the cars. Television, with tho perfection of the present cinematograph film, will doubtless be possible some time or another. At present Ave are verv far from anything of a useful kind. The Laird Televisor was demonstrated in Glasgow during the meeting of the British Association. What was shown represents the very best that can he done in tho present state of the art. Tho screen is a very small one—three inches 'by three inches, or p?.vhaps a little smaller. The image of a human head which is projecteed is lacking in all but the most prominent features. One sees hair, eyes that open and close, a mouth that opens and closes, a tongre that is protruded. and smoke puffed from the mouth and risinc from the end of a cigarette. Sometimes it is possible to recognise that the teeth are divided, and are not a solid mass of white bor"\ Tt would be possible to recognise the image as representing the features of someone verv well-known. The image is blurred and verv fliekerv.

NATURAL COLOURS. There was also demonstrated at Glasgow an apparatus which will make possible the projection of an image in natural colours. A doll with a vivid head-covering and tunic was used as the subject, and the colours were shown on the receiving screen with detail to give any particular clue as to the meaning of the colours, except as colours. They might have been" blobs of paint on a card. These things do represent a 'very definite achievement in an art beset with many difficulties, and Mr. Baird, in this country, and the many others who are experimenting on the Continent and in America, are to be congratulated on the progress that has been made. The bare facts of the case are, however, that at nrescnt television is not in a state in which it is of the-slightest public or practical vise, and any attempts to give a public television service immediately will only result in the disappointment of those who buy the necessary receiving apparatus, unless they are experimenters interested in the development of what must, ultimately, become of very considerable im- i porta nee. j

THE 8.8.C.'S EXPERIMENT. • From the United States wo hear that the research engineers of the Bell Laboratories have succeeded in projecting, by television, images of men playing tennis, using only natural daylight. We have also the news that a radio drama has been projected by the engineers of the General Electric Company. The first item indicates another definite advance ; the second is of little importance. There is no particular difficulty about transmitting speech as well as pictures. Tlie projection of still pictures, a service of which, of an experimental nature, the 8.8. C. is about to institute, must not bo confounded with television. The difficulties in this direction have been overcome, and if there is any real public demand for the wireless transmission of diagrams and pictures of current events, it can Be given and continued.