RKO Radio Pictures

“ Graham Bell perfected his telephone here, Professor Tainter the wax cylinder phonograph, and Mr. Berliner the talking machine.
Both the typecasting machines, the linotype and monotype, were invented in the District; and here a stenographer in the Life Saving Service invented the first motion picture machine, the prototype of the projector used in every picture theatre the world over to this very day.
From the hills of Virginia, across the river, the first wireless message ever transmitted was sent into Washington; and from Washington to Philadelphia the first photographs by radio were sent. ”

“ The radio decoder grinned, the lines of strain vanishing from his face for a moment. "Maybe we're intercepting everybody's telephone calls, and the whole Galaxy is swarming with races that spend all day yacking at each other over the radio. Maybe the human type is standard model."
"It would take something like that," the Times agreed. They smiled at each other.
The News asked, "How did you happen to pick up television instead of voices?"
"Not by accident," Nathen explained patiently. "I'd recognized a scanning pattern, and I wanted pictures. Pictures are understandable in any language." ”

“ Each lens draws a line while the relatively slow rotation of the prismatic plates distributes the lines over the whole picture surface, just exactly as the plates do in the Radio Photo Camera.
The Radio Vision receiving set and the Radio Movies set are identical, and one may, therefore, see in one’s home what is happening in a distant place, an inaugural parade, football, baseball, or polo game (and we call it Radio Vision) ; or one may see the motion picture taken from the screen of a distant theatre (and we call it Radio Movies) . ”

“ Already radio vision is a laboratory demonstration, and while it is not yet finished and ready for general public introduction, it soon will be, for it should be borne in mind that animated pictures differ from still pictures only in the speed of presentation, and the sending of “still” pictures by radio is now an accomplished fact, radio photographs of no mean quality, examples of which appear as illustrations in this volume. ”

“ To get music by radio, a microphone converts sound into electrical modulation, which, carried by radio to distant places, is then changed back into sound and we hear the music.
To get pictures by radio, a sensitive cell converts light into electrical current, and at radio distances changes these currents back into light values, and one may see the distant scene; for light is the thing of which pictures are made, as music is made of sound. ”

“ The above is an example of one of the rather odd methods of “sending pictures by radio.” The picture to be sent is divided into many small squares with varying values of dark in the squares. Seventeen different grades of light in these squares are translated into seventeen letters printed on a tape.
This coded picture is transmitted to a distant place and there decoded into dots of sizes corresponding to the seventeen values, and each dot placed in its corresponding square on a white paper. The collection of large dots builds up the dark areas ”

“ Witness, the motion picture theatre screen upon which a picture is taken off and put back again forty-eight times per second without discovery by the eye; while the slightest error in a note in the orchestra is detected at once and grates harshly on the ear.
Just as the motion picture depends for success on the fact that the eye is easily deceived, so in Radio Vision the eye is fooled into the belief that it sees the radio picture as a whole, though in fact the eye sees at any one moment only the tiny spot of light by which, with almost lightning like speed, the picture is made up. ”

“ I sat down, seething, and mentally prepared some blistering hot coals to rake Grant over.
Having the radios installed turned out to be a pretty good idea, though. Our customers seemed to be pleased with the convenience of them, in spite of the fact that reception is poor in Banning because of the surrounding mountains.
The radios were attractive, with a walnut finish that blended with the maple furniture in the cabins. Each radio had a slot in the top where the noise-hungry customer could put his quarter for one hour of music, drama, comedy, quiz program, news or soap opera. ”

“ The public much prefer to have passable pictorial illustrations of current events than wait several days for a more perfect picture—the original, and the advantage of any newspaper being able to publish photographs several days before its rivals is obvious. There can also be no doubt but that a system of radio-photography, if fairly reliable and capable of working over a distance of say thirty miles, would be of great military use for transmitting maps and written matter with a great saving of time and even life. ”

“ The transmission of a photograph electrically, a portrait, for example, is not so much a matter of mechanism, once the tools are perfected and their operation understood; it is more a matter of blending of line and tone, just exactly as it is with the artist. The great portrait photographer uses the same tools the amateur uses, but an acquired technique of high order enables him to produce a superior portrait, 6free of chalky contrasts, and soft in tone and blending. Just so in radio photography, it is a matter of simple mechanism, and an acquired skill in its use. ”

“ If one puts a nickel under a piece of paper and draws straight lines across it with a dull pencil, a picture of the Indian appears. And that is exactly the way photographs by radio are received, except that a photographic plate is used instead of a piece of white paper, and a pencil of light instead of the pencil of lead, the light pencil changing the exposure in various parts of the successive adjacent parallel lines by reason of the variation of the incoming radio signals. ”

“ Perhaps the next time the radio set begins to howl as if a dozen cat fights were mewling inside of the loud speaker, it is not static that is interfering with the reception from the broadcasting station, but a newspaper photograph which is being sent through the air. ”

“ Suddenly, the blare of a radio going full blast told them that the music department was just beyond. They went on there. A radio was pealing out “The Stars and Stripes Forever” to a rapt audience of two. ”

“ But continuing the description of the still picture processes a little further, before taking up Radio Vision and Radio Movies, it might be added that while photographs by radio is the more interesting and impressive process, there is little doubt but that radio photo letters will be of much greater immediate service in business.
Commerce, like an army, can go forward no faster than its means of communication. The history of industrial advance in all ages shows that with every addition to communication facilities the volume of business has increased. ”

“ The new machine will come to the fireside as a fascinating teacher and entertainer, without language, literacy, or age limitation; a visitor to the old homestead with photoplays, the opera, and a direct vision of world activities, without the hindrance of muddy roads or snow blockades, making farm life still more attractive to the clever country-bred boys and girls.
Already audible radio is rapidly changing our social order; those who may now listen to a great man or woman are numbered in the millions. ”

“ The sending is from pencil lines on paper, the reception on electrolytic paper.
The machine is also made with a glass cylinder to send from a picture transparency, and to receive on photographic paper. It must, therefore, be used in a dark or subdued lighted room to receive.
Each machine is capable of the very highest quality of work of its particular kind, and is simple and easy to operate.
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109 Radio Vision The machines here shown are the laboratory models used in the development of Radio Vision and Radio Movies for the reception in the home of broadcast studio performances, i. ”

“ But the dictators and the businessmen both had the right idea—movies and the radio are for all men; they can be used to entertain, to arouse, to soothe, to persuade; but they must not ever be used without thinking of all the people. This universality lies in the nature of the instruments, in the endless duplication of the films, the unlimited reception of the broadcasts; and only Hitler and Stalin and the sponsors have been happy to understand this. ”

“ Larry tied himself into a mystifying tangle of knots, and his whistling was so sweet and melodious that it roused his audience to the heights of enthusiasm. And Tim’s graceful dancing was a revelation of the possibilities of the Terpsichorean art.
Then the radio boys took their turn and gave their visitors a radio concert that was wonderful in its variety and beauty. The night happened to be unusually free of the annoying static that is the bugbear of the wireless, and every note of the music was as clear and sweet as though the performers were only a few yards away. ”

“ But more than any other single factor, the improper use of the bedside radio can make patients hate music. The most passionate lovers of music will admit that it is possible to have too much music of the same kind for peaceful consumption. In hospitals with large wards, two or more radios may be found tuned in to different programs, and the desire to share the program with others means excessive volume. ”

“ A slice out of a "show" can do no one any harm, for, after all, the majority of listeners who don't respond to the bait wouldn't do so anyway, while many others have their appetites whetted for more.
But, plays or no plays, radio is a fascinating pastime, the more so, I sometimes think, by reason of its imperfections. ”

“ Showing how Jessie Norwood and her chums became interested in radiophoning, how they gave a concert for a worthy local charity, and how they received a sudden and unexpected call for help out of the air. A girl who was wanted as a witness in a celebrated law case had disappeared, and how the radio girls went to the rescue is told in an absorbing manner.
2. THE RADIO GIRLS ON THE PROGRAM
or Singing and Reciting at the Sending Station
When listening in on a thrilling recitation or a superb concert number who of us has not longed to “look behind the scenes” to see how it was done? ”

“ With modern machines in that ice hangar, this little band of explorers could tap the air of the civilized latitudes and bring its music across thousands of miles of snow barrens. A turn of the dial in the ship’s radio-room, and the long arm of radio reached forth and plucked music out of the air, the latest news from America’s metropolitan cities, tunes from Broadway and personal messages from well-wishers. ”

“ Ricky and I haven't owned a radio for years—except one that sneaked into the house in a record-player and we didn't even notice we had that, for eight months. A man in this world encounters more than he can bear of the sort of thing that radio purveys; it is Heaven's own mercy if he can avoid a part of it. The printed ads and the billboards get you willy-nilly; and second-class mail is always fooling you. You are eternally exposed to entertainment by chumps in the flesh. ”

“ The wax was piled almost against this, and the heat and smoke forced me down.
I looked at the junk pile and decided that I could get through it on foot. I had been keeping up a running narration into my radio, and I commented on all this salvageable metal lying in here forgotten, with our perennial metal shortages. Then I started picking my way through it, my portable audiovisual camera slung over my shoulder and a flashlight in my hand. My left hand, of course; it's never smart to carry a light in your right, unless you're left-handed. ”

“ And see the good it did for Larry and the experience we had in sending out from the broadcasting station in Newark!”
“I tell you, fellows, there’s nothing like radio in the universe!” agreed Jimmy.
“I’d like to take it up as a regular profession,” said Joe. “Think of what it must be for fellows like Armstrong and Edison and De Forest and Marconi. I’ll bet they don’t think it’s work. They’re eager to get at it in the morning and sorry to knock off at night. There’s no drudgery in a profession like that.” ”

“ Make your talk so interesting and informative that they can’t laugh.”
Thus encouraged, Jessie spent all the forenoon [107] of the Fourth shut up in her own room making ready for the afternoon and evening. She had already made a careful schedule of the broadcasting done by all the stations within reach of her fine radio set, and found that it was possible, by tuning her instrument to the wave lengths of different stations, to get something interesting into every hour from two o’clock on until eleven. ”

“ What for?” cried Bob.
And, “Yes, what for?” echoed others. Mr. Hampton and Rafaela, who already had been admitted to the secret, alone remained silent.
“There’s a man down there who also has been experimenting on radio,” Jack said, “but along different lines. He is trying to find out the laws controlling radio waves for the transmission of vision. Well, maybe, I didn’t put that just right. But this is what he’s after: He’s trying to evolve a radio device for the broadcasting of scenes. ”

“ Lester Drake’s detective camera first created the idea of photography in my mind. Before that, I hadn’t the slightest inclination toward the art whatever, but when Lester purchased his neat little leather-covered box, and went around merely pressing a button, and getting dozens of pictures by no other means, I immediately decided that I, too, must have a camera. ”