TELEVISION AT PRESENT.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18203, 2 March 1929, Page 16

TELEVISION AT PRESENT.

ONLY IN EXPERIMENTAL STAGE. In an address delivered before the general session at the meeting of the -National Electrical Manufacturers’ Association of America, Louis B. F. Ray croft vice-president of the radio division, declared that “it is injustice to tho public at large to encourage it to expect television in the immediate future.” Emphasising the importance of a correct understanding of television and its importance to the radio industry and the public, Mr Raycroft said, “a new factor is entering the situation threatening new complications. The public is expecting another kind of broadcasting service popularly known as television. J he Federal Radio Commission is even now considering the formation of regulations to govern this new field of radio endeavour. “The great public interest in television iy founded upon exaggerated newspaper reports of brilliant laboratory demonstrations rather than upon the actual practical status of this virgin field, which is as yet entirely unprepared for commercial development. A diligent study of the subject leads to the inevitable conclusion that- the premature stimulation ot public enthusiasm in television is misleading and dangerous to tlio progress of radio because there is no means of satisfying the demand for reliable home television equipment. “Television remains a laboratory experiment- with a number of major and vital problems still unsolved. There are certain specific technical obstacles to practical television which cannot be overcome unless a fundamental and original invention or inventions are mac!*, and no technically qualified observer will predict whether they will be made within twenty-five, ten or five years, or even less.”"