Television: An [1933] Interview

February 27, 2013 photog blogs

Below is an article published in the July 1933 edition of International Photographer of an interview with a television engineer and his thoughts of the nascent industry and what it’s future means for the motion picture industry (especially the newsreels).

Twenty years later, most newsreel cameramen would be filming for television news in some manner, whether it via jumping ship directly to a TV employer or their newsreel employer providing a newsfilm service to television.

As for W6XA0, it eventually became KCBS.

Television: An Interview,  Answers by Harry R. Lubcke

1. What were the beginnings of television and when?

Ans. The beginning of television can be most nearly identified with the invention of Nipkow of Germany of his “Electrical Telescope” on which he received German Patent No. 30105 in January of 1884. This invention gave the world the scanning disk to which television has been wedded in some form or another almost to the present day, as well as the fundamental idea in picture transmission of cutting the scene into narrow strips and sending one after the other successively, to be re-assembled into the original picture at the receiving station. Eckstrom in his Swedish patent No. 32220, February, 1912, disclosed the flying spot method of television which has enjoyed considerable use. The Bell Telephone Laboratories and groups in Germany and elsewhere gave the first demonstrations of what might be termed present day television in 1927. Nipkow and Eckstrom lacked many necessary devices for the carrying out of their ideas, among which were the modern photo-electric cell, the modern radio vacuum tube, and the modern television lamp.

2. Who owns and controls the basic patents on television if there be any patents?

Ans. The patents on the basic processes of television have expired and the art at present is founded on patent-free fundamental principles, although there are many patents concerned with the refinements and apparatus necessary to producing workable television. These are held by the Radio Corporation of America group which includes General Electric, Western Electric, and Westinghouse ; by Farnsworth, of Philco, by our own group, and by others throughout the country.

3. What were the beginnings of television development on the West Coast?

Ans. Television Laboratory work was started in San Francisco in 1927 under the direction of Philo Farnsworth who, since 1931, has been associated with Philco in Philadelphia. This work was of purely a research nature and was not broadcast. The Don Lee Broadcasting System started television research in late 1930 and by late 1931 W6XAO, the ultra high frequency transmitter was broadcasting television images on a regular schedule.

4. What has been your part in television evolution here in California?

Ans. The work of W6XAO continued, and by May, 1932, the first television image ever received in an airplane was transmitted from this station and received in a Western Air Express tri-motored Fokker plane, flying over the city of Los Angeles. A new cathode-ray type television receiver, developed by the Don Lee organization, was used, and made the reception possible, in that it would operate and remain synchronized when away from power mains common to the transmitter.

On the first anniversary of W6XAO’s initial broadcast, the 1000 watt television transmitter W6XS was put into operation. This transmitter being of greater power was heard generally throughout the coast and Nation and by January, 1933, its images had been received across the continent in the state of Maine. Television pictures of the damage done in the recent earthquake were broadcast by W6XS and W6XAO as soon as films taken in the stricken area could be rushed to the television equipment, presaging handling of news events in the future when television becomes more common. W6XAO and W6XS have continued to transmit television images on a regular daily schedule since their initial broadcasts, sending out close-ups of movie stars, news reels, shorts, and other material. This continued service has aroused public interest in the reality of television which at the present time is being manifest in a demand for receiving equipment and the construction of same by those qualified.

5. Please give me a brief sketch of your work in television.

Ans. My work in television started before I had graduated from the University of California in the summer of 1929. I was asked by Philo Farnsworth to undertake a special problem in connection with his work in San Francisco, and later became associated with his organization as Assistant Director of Research. When financial stringencies caused a complete shutdown of the laboratory, 1 came south and started television activities for the Don Lee Broadcasting System.

6. How far around the corner is commercial television?

Ans. This is, perhaps, one of the most embarrassing questions that can be asked to one closely connected with television. Many experts have already become false prophets and those that are left are wise enough not to give an answer. I believe, that television is not coming around a corner, but by a long gradual curve, and that some day it will be upon us without our having realized that it has arrived. I expect that the development will be gradual, and that although there will be landmarks and days on which the public talks more about television than others, its acceptance will be a gradual process. The Federal Radio Commission has, of course, ruled television experimental and until that ruling is changed, the transmission of sponsored programs is impossible. Just as radio broadcasting was changed from an experimental basis to a commercial basis and all the stations lost their number prefixes and took on Ks and Ws, as KHJ and WABC, so some day W6XS and W6XAO will become K this and K that.

7. How long before a system of television can be evolved that will equal in a general way the present status of radio broadcasting?

Ans. About twice as long as it will take to come around the corner. After television receivers are available on the market, public acceptance and familiarity with them must be built up until they are willing to make the necessary expenditure to put one in their home.

8. Will the time ever come when television receiving apparatus will become as cheap and efficient as radio receiving sets are now?

Ans. Yes. Television receivers are now higher priced than radio receivers because many of the components thereof have not been reduced to quantity production. When this has been accomplished, there is no reason why they cannot be as reasonably priced as the good radio receivers of today.

9. What will be the effects of commercial television upon the stage—the motion picture theatre and industry in general?

Ans. I believe television will find its sphere of activity as a home entertainment and as such will not directly compete with the stage or motion picture theatre. It will, undoubtedly, change the type of presentation that we will go to the legitimate and the motion picture theatre to see. Many people believed that the telephone would destroy the usefulness of the telegraph, but we all know that this was not the case. The telephone restricted the field of the telegraph because it handled certain situations in a better way, but they both enjoy a proper field of activity at the present time.

The attraction of a crowd will still cause the American public to go to the theatre and the attraction of the living presentation will cause the stage to survive for all time. Football stadiums are still filled by folks who want to be there, although they could probably find out more about what was happening by staying home and listening to the radio.

There is no doubt that television will help industry in general by creating, as it will, a new industry. When television has reached its full stature it is entirely possible that, with radio, it will leave its present studios and emerge, full fledged, upon the stage. The radio-television performance of that day will be so nearly a vaudeville performance or play, that it will draw a paying house in its own right. Many will come to see their favorite stars perform in person.

At even a later date I look for a Renaissance to the legitimate stage, when, having reached the ultimate in mechanistic entertainment, we will return to an appreciation of the pure art of the stage. I believe that the stage has the strongest future position of any of our present day theatrical enterprises. Television and radio by that time will have become necessities of life as we will care to live it.

10. Will television reception in the home ever equal the motion picture in smoothness of detail and beauty?

Ans. Yes. Motion pictures now give more detail than can be appreciated by the eye. When the psychological limit of appreciation of the eye is reached by television, it will be on a par with the motion picture. Just where this limit stands is open to some doubt, but a picture of 200 or 300 lines will probably come close enough to a perfect presentation to be taken as such.

11. In television reception, are sound and vision simultaneous as in sound pictures in the theatres?

Ans. Yes, if facilities are provided for both. If a human subject is being televised, a microphone and its accompanying channel of communication, as well as television camera and its channel of communication, must be provided from the location of the scene to the viewer’s home. This is generally provided by two special channels of communication, such as a broadcasting station carrying the sound and a television station carrying the sight, with separate sound and sight receivers in the viewer’s home, or these two receivers combined in a single cabinet. For talking motion pictures, a sound head is provided on the projector in much the same way that it is used in the theatre.

12. How will television affect the production department of motion pictures, such as directors, cameramen, etc.—if at all?

Ans. Television will affect each and every department of motion picture industry. If they choose to produce movies for television consumption they will be addressing a different audience than they now approach in the theatre. Their presentation must be more on the order of the present radio program than of the present motion picture. Also, television has limitations which must be catered to at the start. The sets must be simple and certain factors in photography taken into consideration. If they continue to produce motion pictures, they must produce masterpieces that transcend their present efforts and the presentations that will be offered over television.

13. Will television increase or decrease the importance of the cameraman?

Ans. In making television film, the cameraman must become acquainted with the new technique spoken of above. At present this technique resides mainly in the experience of television workers and in that of their coworkers. We have made considerable progress along this line in co-operation with the Mack Sennett organization. Some of the requirements are revolutionary but will merely require time to become regular procedures of the art.

14. Will television make more work for the cameraman?

Ans. For making film for television—no.

15. How will television affect the newsreels?

Ans. Television will be one of their natural outlets in the future. Whether this will take them out of the theatre or not is open to question. The field will undoubtedly be split between actual television camera presentation of an event as it occurs, the transmission of special television news reels over the television, and more carefully edited and presented news items to be shown in the theatres.

16. Can the newsreel cameraman of today use the television camera of tomorrow without any great study?

Ans. As regards its operation—yes. It will be much like doing all of his shooting through a view-finder, because he will have the picture that he is taking constantly before him. As regards understanding it—no. It will be a device of photo-electric cell and vacuum tubes of the greatest precision; it will be the heart of the television transmitting equipment. The first television cameramen will undoubtedly be television engineers.

The most advanced part of the television art resides in the functioning of the photo-electric cell and its accompanying amplifier. Although the photo-electric cell has been improved many thousandfold since its original conception, it still gives a very feeble electrical output for the light intensities common in photography. The amplifier that is associated directly with it must handle these minute electrical pulses with fidelity (which may be only one-billionth of the amount of electricity flowing through the usual electric light) and give an interference free output. For this reason then, this piece of equipment must be under the supervision of an advance television engineer. The present skill of the cameraman in photography will not enter, and, therefore, his ken will correctly remain that of taking motion pictures for theatrical and television purposes.

17. Will news television record the action and sound on film as well as direct broadcast to homes so that performance can be repeated in theatres for those who miss direct reception?

Ans. It can. At first, however, it will undoubtedly be best to have regular motion picture cameramen at the scene as well as television cameramen. The television cameraman will scurry hither and yon picking up the best scenes that he can while the event is taking place; while several movie cameras will more adequately cover the occasion and produce a more complete and organized record for film showing over television at a later time, or for theatre presentation.

In conclusion of this interview it is a pleasure to introduce the personnel of Mr. Lubcke’s efficient staff of co-workers whose energy, intelligence and devotion to duty, in real pioneer spirit, is heartily acknowledged by their chief. These young gentlemen are J. Glenn Turner, Frank M. Kennedy, Theo. Denton, and Wilbur E. Thorp.