THE STORY OF RADIO BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR., B.S. RADIO EDITOR, THE NEW YORK TIMES. SENIOR MARCONI OPERATOR; U. S. NAVY OPERATOR; MEMBER, INSTITUTE OF RADIO ENGINEERS; AUTHOR, "DUNLAP'S RADIO MANUAL." THE DIAL PRESS NEW YORK MCMXXXV COPYRIGHT, 1927, 1935, BY THE DIAL PRESS, INC. MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY THE VAIL -BALLOU PRESS, INC., BINGHAMTON, N. Y. THE STORY OF RADIO BOOKS BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. DUNLAP'S RADIO MANUAL THE STORY OF RADIO ADVERTISING BY RADIO RADIO IN ADVERTISING THE OUTLOOK FOR TELEVISION Yerkes Observatory. THE PLAYGROUND OF RADIO Where do the radio waves come to an end, or do they go on into the infinite to register in other worlds? Despite the speed of the waves, i86,000 miles a second, it would take a program from the earth i,000,000 years to reach this spiral nebula in Andromeda. There are from 200,000 to 700,000 of these island universes beyond the solar sys- tem, and some are io,000,000 light years away. TO LOUISE LEGGETT DUNLAP TO THE READER One of the radio -photographs flashed on the screen by Dr. E. F. W. Alexanderson, early in 1927, during a demonstration of his television projector, was that of the electrical wizard Charles Proteus Steinmetz, who had passed on to the Great Beyond several years before. What a miracle it would have been if Stein- metz, listening -in or looking -in, from his lab- oratory in another world much further ad- vanced in radio than the earth, had picked up his own picture, wafted into space from WGY, near his familiar haunts in the Mo- hawk Valley! But the picture might not have reached him that night. It may still be flying toward him, off through the great emptiness of space at the speed of sunlight, i86,000 miles a second. But that is slow compared to celestial move- ment in the mysterious sea of space that sepa- rates Mother Earth from the sun, moon, stars VI' viii TO THE READER and other planets. In fact, if the noted Stein- metz were on the North Star he could not receive the picture for fifty years, yet the same photograph could travel around the tiny earthly sphere seven and one -half times in a second. Do radio waves ever stop? Or do they go on and on into unfathomable distances shooting through other worlds, across the craters of the moon into whirling nebula, dashing along with meteors and through the tails of comets to Jupiter, Mars, Neptune and on into the Infinite? Will the millions and billions of musical scores and countless numbers of spoken words ever return from the Infinite? Will the waves all roll back some day, all intermingled, the music of centuries, the works of all composers a hopeless jumble, a babel of voices, all so powerful electrically that the onslaught of in- visible waves will burn up the ether and radio will be no more? Scientists say that this is not likely to hap- pen, at least not until the seas dry up and re- TO THE READER ix veal their dead. Then the earthly show will be over. The Day of Judgment will be at hand. There will be no need for broadcasting and a mystic stratum of air far up in the clouds may lift as a vapor to let the combined radio power of centuries pour back upon the earth to de- stroy the ether as the world itself shrivels and with a little puff, vanishes off into the Infinite -where radio went long, long ago. O. E. D., JR. New York, 1935. , CONTENTS oaaPTas PAas I. IT SPEAKS FOR ITSELF- Scope and service rendered -Discovery of ether waves -A glimpse by Edison-Work of Clerk Maxwell and Heinrich Hertz -Early experiments -The entry of Marconi -Wire- less triumphs -The first message across the English Channel -New possibilities unfold. II. TRANSATLANTIC TRIUMPHS . 2I A gale destroys Poldhu- Marconi sails for Canada -Experiments begin in Newfound- land -Kites carry the antenna aloft The letter "S" broadcast from Poldhu- Marconi receives the first transatlantic signal-Simple instruments did the trick-The public is skep- tical- Scientists laud Marconi's achievement -Message is sent 1,551 miles-Glace Bay talks with England-Sir Oliver Lodge praises Marconi -A great future is predicted for wireless. III. DRAMATIC MOMENTS . 42 Improvements made in apparatus -Flem- ing invents the valve -New transmitting sta- tions built -Poulsen introduces the arc trans - mitter-De Forest invents the audion -Ships boast of radio connections with land-War closes amateur stations-Paris and Hawaii hear voices radiated from Arlington, Va.- Alexanderson improves the high frequency xi xii CONTENTS PAGE alternator-The super- heterodyne is discov- ered. NC- planes use radio -KDKA broad- casts the first program-Popularity of broad- casting sweeps the nation -The dean of American wireless -How time signals are broadcast -The nation's master clock-The evolution of SOS -The S.S. Titanic sinks and wireless tells the story. IV. ENROLLED FOR WAR 64 War sweeps Europe and radio warns ships at sea-Saving $11,000,000 from the enemy -The world turns eavesdropper- Decipher- ing the enemy's code -Hunting for battle fleets -Direction finders comb the sky for German planes and airships- Submarines use short waves -A wartime SOS -Saving troops and transports -Uncle Sam's official listening post -With President Wilson at sea -Link- ing the White House with the battlefields - First news of the Armistice- American Ex- peditionary Force keeps the ether busy -In- visible waves tell that the Peace Treaty is signed at Versailles. V. WITH PIONEER BIRDMEN 87 Harry Hawker hops off for Europe - Ships report storms at sea -No word from airmen and they are given up for lost - Tramp steamer carries them to Scotland - Alcock and Brown fly across the ocean and land near Clifden wireless towers -Radio helps the dirigible R -34- Finding a seaplane -Messages from the sky -The ZR -3 talks with home as she sails toward America- Progress reported by radio -The Zeppelin's operator tells of the value of radio above the clouds-Byrd uses radio to report his advance CONTENTS xiii PAGE toward the North Pole-Historic dots and dashes from the Arctic wastes -A code word tells the story of success-The first message sent direct from the North Pole -Calling to the lost Norge -Radio tells of safe arrival in Alaska -Radio on transoceanic flights in 1927. VI. SECRETS OF MARCONI'S MAGIC . I15 How the ether is set in motion -Duty of microphone -A wave length explained -Ef- fect of the aurora borealis on radio -Influence of the earth's rotation on the ether -The ideal medium-Skyscrapers and trees absorb energy -A radio roof in the sky What hap- pens up in the clouds -Two wave routes - The effect of dawn, sunlight and sunset -In the light of the moon-Healing the gaps in the wave front-The effect of 16,000,000 storms-Static and where it originates- When the snow flies -Does radio affect weather ?-Sunspots are blamed-The radio compass and how it works -The courts sup- port Marconi as the master of the ether. VII. TURNING POINTS 159 Amateur experimenters lead the way into a new field -Short wave transmissions startle the world -World -wide chats with low power -The spirit of adventure in space-An important destiny and unlimited possibilities -A word from Marconi -Waves that jump like a kangaroo -Mysteries solved -How radio can entertain the deaf -The ear is ex- ercised by listening -in- Results of Dr. Flem- ing's observations-A harp of 10,000 strings -Hello, London, New York is calling- Transatlantic "talk- bridge" is opened to the xiv CONTENTS PAGE public -Single -side band method of trans- mission -Tiny crystal wafer acts as ethereal traffic cop-Mortality of words reduced- How the international telephone "line" oper- ates- Marconi triumphs with his invisible beam -A cluster of seven lights gyrate across a silver screen as the vanguard of radio vision. VIII. LOOKING THROUGH SPACE! . 188 Television looms up on the radio horizon -Inventor tells how a world's series base- ball game will be broadcast as a motion pic- ture- Little dabs of light paint the picture - Sending pictures across the sea -Captain Ranger improves his photo -radio machine - Tiny stream of hot air draws the illustration or facsimile -A cure for ethereal "freckles" -Firecrackers give an idea- Alexanderson reveals his television projector- 300,00o "brush" strokes a second- Mirrors revolve at high speed -An electric eye-A Scotchman's whirling disk sends images across London - Seeing in total darkness -The Bell system -Historic vaudeville -The picture gets wings-Waves of color-Radio ghosts -See- ing in total darkness -The Bell system- Historic vaudeville -The picture gets wings -Waves of color-Radio ghosts-Zwory- kin's contributions to television- Significance of the iconoscope and kinescope -New era foreseen for films. IX. MINIATURE WAVES OR "DARK LIGHT" . 222 Intriguing possibilities of tiny waves -How short waves battle daylight and darkness - The mystery of "echo" signals- Advantages of ultra -short waves-The meaning of micro- waves -Why lofty peaks are excellent aerial sites-Marconi's ultra -short wave observa- tions- Experiments in Boston and New York -Tests in an airplane -Exploding old theo- CONTENTS xv ries -How "baby" waves are propagated - The sky wave vanishes -Horizon is the jump- ing off place -Radio "mirror" is ineffectual- Radio's relation to light- Tesla's admonition -Possibilities of interplanetary communica- tion -Why the waves are termed `optical" - The new science of radio -thermy- Radio's aid to medicine-How "radio" fevers are kindled.