By Gus Boger
Radio telegraphy is over 20 years old, but radio telephony is a perfection of a very recent date. Four years ago radio telephony was impracticable from a standpoint of successful and economic operation. It was then necessary to use the high power Poulsen arc, but now the vacuum tube had taken its place. Today, one who has had a little experience, may fill a large room or auditorium with music, addresses of great people, and sermons of the best ministers who are thousands of miles away.
The public in general has created a demand for radio-phone apparatus which has not been able to be met in the last six months. Because of this demand, the public buying any kind of advertised apparatus, has obtained many obsolete sets, as well as those with too many controls, which it is unable to operate. These people will underestimate the value of the radio-phone. There are those, too, who will over-estimate the possibilities of the radio-phone. Both estimates are due to lack of technical knowledge on the subject.
Will the radio-phone take the place of the telegraph and telephone? It will not. Each has its advantage over the other. The telegraph and telephone will be used for local work, radio for distant work. The radio transmitter may be compared to a railway system. The train carries produce and passengers only from a central station, not from every individual home. All goods to be shipped on the train are brought to the station by various devices. Of course it would be possible for a train to come to every one’s door, but think, if every family in America had its own private railway, what a complicated transportation system we would have. Would it not be more efficient to have the train come to the central station and have the material to be shipped brought here by baggage wagons or other devices? Just so with the radio-phone transmitter. Let every locality have a powerful transmitter at the central station which is connected to individual homes by telephones. Radio will reach, however, places which cannot be reached by the telephone or telegraph; for instance, the airship, moving trains, ships, and out of the way districts. A most interesting account was recently told by a government postkeeper in the ice fields of Alaska, who the radio-phone had made a new life for him. Only a few years ago he was alone in the vast wilderness of ice with no companion but his dog. He lived a lonely and desolate life in the solemn stillness and cold of the north. Now by means of the radio-phone he hears concerts, sermons, news dispatches and other interesting things; even the dog will lie down beside the stove, blink his eyes and wag his tail when the concerts begin. When one crosses the ocean his friends will no longer have the sad feeling that they will never hear his voice again for months. Soon, by radio-phone, one may talk daily to his friend on the ship, or in a foreign country. When every family in America has a radio-phone receiver, the president of the United States may address the citizens of the country from a powerful central transmitter., The Governor may also speak to every citizen in the state on the issues of the day. Every citizen in the United States may hear the debates and discussions in Congress.
The value of the radio-phone to the farmer cannot be estimated. Today the farmer, if he has a radio-phone receiver, knows the price of his produce before he carries it to town, whether or not his hay, wheat, rye, or oats will get wet if he cuts them tomorrow. The government, as well as many radio corporations, broadcast for the benefit of farmers; weather forecasts two days in advance; market reports respecting stocks, fruits, vegetables, grain, cotton, livestock, dairy, produce and poultry. Even the price of a dozen heads of lettuce, a bunch of radishes, or onions, is quoted.
Will the radio-phone take the place of churches, theatres, or the phonograph? It will not. It will, however, place the best before everyone. The inferior will go—the superior will remain. The phonograph has one advantage that the radio-phone has not, namely, the voice of a dead artist, Caruso, for instance, can be reserved in a record, but not on the radio-phone.
The radio news service will take the place of many newspapers. Today, the news of any state, national or international interest may be received 10 hours before it appears in our earliest issues of the daily.
The business man while on his way to and from his office may receive, from scheduled stations, items of interest to him. As for apparatus to receive radio-phone, one may use a well-designed pocket set, laboratory set, or any other type. The radio-phone receiver is as a watch in respect to size, the smaller the watch, the more accurate it must be to function well, also the more expensive it will be.
Only a few possibilities have been mentioned in this article, those which will e of the most interest to the general public. Let every home have a radio-phone receiver that all the world may be at its finger tips, that all may hear the best. Let the inferior go and the superior supplant it.
From The Midget, by the students of Albemarle High School, May, 1922
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