RCA Summer 1963
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Summer 1963 IM im www.americanradiohistory.com www.americanradiohistory.com IN THIS ISSUE .. THE BIRTH OF A NEW LINE 2 Clairvoyance and practical judgment are necessary in planning and designing home instru- Summer 1963 ments to meet the requirements of electronic developments and changing consumer tastes. Vol. 22 / No. 3 WEATHER WATCHERS 6 Reliable TIROS "Eyes in the Sky" add new dimension to scientific weather forecasting. INTERCONTINENTAL TYPESETTING VIA SPACE 9 A high -speed computer and a communications satellite make possible the transmission intercontinentally of justified news copy. THE SCIENTIST THEORETICIAN 12 The man paid to create theory is increasingly more important to American business. STUDENTS AND SCIENCE 16 A pictorial report on a day -long field trip concluding the first year of the David Sarnoff Industry- Science Teaching Program pilot project. REPERTORY THEATER COMES TO TV 16 A new television show is helping to revitalize a 2,500 -year -old theater tradition. THE FROG'S EYE n A significant and unusual device electronically simulates the amazing information - processing functions of a real frog's eye. INDUSTRY'S PURSUIT OF CLEANLINESS 22 The Space Age demands accuracies up to 50/1,000,000 of an inch. One speck of dust can cause failure. The "White Room" is industry's answer to this problem. MODERN "PATRONAGE ": FUSION OF ART AND INDUSTRY 26 Industry support for talented young artists is reminiscent of the patronage of bygone years. ELECTRONIC POETRY 30 A computer shows its versatility by composing verse at the rate of 150 poems a minute. ELECTRONICALLY SPEAKING 32 News of current developments briefly told. Published quarterly by Editor RADIO CORPORATION OF AMERICA JULES KOSLOW 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York 20, N.Y. Associate Editor FREDERICK W. ROLOFF DAVID SARNOFF, Chairman of the Board ELMER W. ENGSTROM, President ©1963, Radio Corporation of America -all FRANK M. FOLSOM, Chairman, Executive Committee rights reserved. Any part may be reproduced if credit is given. Printed in U.S.A. When re- JOHN Q. CANNON, Secretary questing a change of address, include the code letters and number appearing with stenciled ERNEST B. GORIN, Treasurer address. 4 Dr. Murray A. Lampert, at COVER:Typesetting by com- the David Sarnoff Research puter. Shown are three of the Center, Princeton, N. J., re- main elements -the control flects on a theoretical problem panel of the RCA 301 com- concerning the electronic prop- puter console, the punched erties of insulators. The story paper tape utilized by the of the vital role of the scientist computer, and assembled lino- theoretician in American busi- type matrices and spacebands. ness starts on page 12. The story of this important forward step in printing, as well as in transmitting copy intercontinentally via satellite, begins on page 9. www.americanradiohistory.com The Birth of a New Line by David Lachenbruch Design cycle of "Sweet 16" portable TV set: sketches, proto- types, and finished product. www.americanradiohistory.com A marriage of clairvoyance and practical judgment is necessary in the planning and design of home instruments to meet the requirements of new electronic developments and changing consumer tastes. Tubes and transistors ... resistors and circuit each proceeding under its own five -year plan. Un- boards ... style and taste ... advance planning ... der the direction of David E. Daly, Manager of and a little clairvoyance. These are some of the Advance Product Planning for RCA Sales Cor- basic components of a modern line of television, poration in Indianapolis, each year's anticipated radios, phonographs, and tape recorders. product line is sketched out in broad strokes as Consumer electronic instruments must be many early as five years ahead of time. things to many people. In addition to a high level Basic research for the product begins even be- of reliable performance and a wide selection of fore the five -year cycle, much of it at the Advanced models, the public must be offered cabinets every Development Center of RCA's David Sarnoff Re- bit as attractive as the decorator pieces designed search Center in Princeton. Occasionally, however, and built by America's leading furniture artisans. the Research Center is asked to work on specific Consider the new 1964 RCA Victor lines. There applied research products by the planning opera- are 21 basic color TV models, 27 black- and -white tion in Indianapolis. One of the most recent of sets, 28 Victrola phonographs, 26 radios, four cart- these to be translated into a consumer product was ridge tape recorders - carefully designed and co- the new FM stereo circuit used for the first time ordinated to have something to appeal to everyone. in FM -AM tuners of RCA Victor's 1964 lines. These lines didn't just happen. They're the end In planning any product, there comes a time result of a planning cycle that began as long ago to say "this is it." Events leading directly to this as 1959 in one of the most intensive product plan- point occur during the final 18 months before in- ing operations in American industry. troduction date, as individual models within the "We already have quite a good idea of what line shape up in an intensive final planning cycle. our lines will be like five years from now," says At this time, a "Product Planning Committee" Bryce S. (Buz) Durant, Vice President, Product takes over, working under a master plan, with Planning and Development, RCA Sales Corpora- deadlines for each step in the process of transform- tion. "In television, this includes probable set sizes, ing a gleam in the advance-planners' eye into actual type of product, and performance level, based on production -model hardware. both electronic advances and anticipated market When this I8 -month cycle begins, "we're not requirements. In the case of highly tooled items working from a standing start," says Durant. "We such as portables, we even know what they'll prob- have at least a walking start. We have had a com- ably look like." plete engineering study. Our Product Planning In a rapidly changing technology such as elec- Committee knows it has something that the en- tronics, planning of this type is all the more diffi- gineering department can design, the factory can cult, and the planning cycle must be flexible build, the materials people can support, and that enough to allow for late changes based on recent marketing thinks is salable. We now have a firm advances in the art. plan in detail. And we can change the plan as we As far as next year's lines are concerned - those go along." which will be introduced in May, 1964 - they have The Product Planning Committee isn't a so- been completely laid out, and prototype produc- ciety of high -dome dreamers. Just about every de- tion of some models is under way. Lines for 1965, partment of RCA Sales Corporation cooperates to 1966, 1967, and 1968 are in various planning stages, accomplish the intricate job of making the pieces ELECTRONIC AGE Summer 7963 3 www.americanradiohistory.com TIROS "WHEEL" IN POLAR ORBIT -An artist's conception of how TIROS would operate in a rotating configuration, with two cameras on opposite sides alternating in sending pictures to earth. TIROS IV -Large vortex of a typhoon TIROS VI -Ice reconnaissance, showing TIROS III -The vortex of Hurricane Anna, near New Zealand. the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec and the St. heading for Central America July 22, 1961, Lawrence River. Prince Edward Island is northwest of Venezuela. Lake Maracaibo is completely surrounded by sea ice. visible at bottom of picture, center. www.americanradiohistory.com Weather Watchers Reliable TIROS "Eyes in the Sky" add new dimension to scientific weather forecasting. Each year, from mid -June to early October, there spacecraft. The latest launching, TIROS VII, took is a period of watchful waiting along the Atlantic place from Cape Canaveral June 19, adding its and Gulf coasts. It is the hurricane season, when weather eyes to TIROS VI, which has been op- great tropical storms from the South Atlantic or erating since September 18, 1962. Caribbean spawning grounds lash the seas and All the TIROS satellites are designed and built inflict enormous damage on inhabited coastal areas. by the Astro- Electronics Division of the Radio For the past three years, however, there has Corporation of America, under contract to NASA. been unprecedented advance warning of these They are under operational control of the God- storms from an extraordinary series of "TV Weather dard Space Flight Center. Eyes" in space. They are the TIROS satellites, In 1962, every major hurricane or typhoon so- called because they combine television and infra- throughout the world was sighted and tracked by red observation from space. Whirling around the one or more TIROS satellites. However, hurricane earth at altitudes of approximately 400 miles, their watching is only a small part of TIROS weather TV cameras sight the telltale pinwheel cloud for- observation. TIROS satellites have played a major mations of new tropical storms and then track role in the U.S. space program, keeping a watchful them day -by -day as they move across the earth. eye for Project Mercury launches and recoveries Since April 1, 1960, seven TIROS satellites have as well as for support of Ranger, Mariner, and been launched by the National Aeronautics and other space probes. Space Administration. All seven have operated Many special missions have been carried out successfully -a record unparalleled in unmanned by TIROS, such as ice surveys in the Gulf of St. TIROS II -Ice swirling in the St. Lawrence TIROS IV -A foggy day in London town. TIROS VI- Northeast coast of the United River. This TIROS operated 376 days and Clouds completely outline England, Wales, States and Quebec Province.