Radio-Electronics Monthly Review
May 1947 Radio-Craft

May 1947 Radio-Craft [Table of Contents] Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Radio-Craft, published 1929 - 1953. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged.

A column titled "Radio-Electronics Monthly Review" appeared in each issue of Radio-Craft magazine. As now, things were moving quickly at the time. With World War II recently ended, a lot of the new technology developed to help beat back Nazism and Communism was being transferred into peacetime uses. The May 1947 issue contained, amongst other items, info regarding how radio servicemen were organizing efforts to get its ranks educated on frequency modulation (FM) sets as amplitude modulation (AM) was being replaced and/or supplemented with the new miracle noise-free broadcast systems. It also reported that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) decided not to go forward with earlier plans to tax television shows being displayed in public places. Attempts to tax the air that you breathe are to this day still being worked on, though. The U.S. Bureau of Standards (now NIST) announced adoption of international standards of measure for certain electrical units. A standard color TV broadcast format was still being decided upon, with a requirement that the new waveforms had to be compatible with existing black and white (B&W) TV sets.

Radio-Electronics Monthly Review

Radio Technicians of San Francisco last month embarked on a plan of study designed to prepare them for the new world of frequency modulation. Seventy members of Radio Division No. 1245 of the Brotherhood of Electrical Workers registered for night school courses at Radio KALW in the Samuel Gompers Trade School, San Francisco. (see Samuel Gompers)

The courses are being handled under a three-cornered cooperative arrangement between the Board of Education, the union and the manufacturers of FM equipment. Courses are being taught under the direction of Kenneth Nielsen, chief engineer of KALW. Various manufacturers have pledged their assistance in making the studies effective, and the General Electric Co. has supplied each student their FM instruction booklet, as well as service notes applying to current G-E FM receivers.

Vladimir K. Zworykin, leading American television engineer, received two signal honors during the past two months. The first, award of the Potts medal of the Franklin Institute, occurred March 3. On March 7, RCA's president David Sarnoff announced that Zworykin had been elected Vice President and technical consultant of the RCA Laboratories, where he has done much of his important work.

Besides his achievements in the field of television and the electron micro-scope, Dr. Zworykin has been interested in other branches of the electronic art, and during the war directed research in the development of aircraft fire control, infrared tubes for the sniperscope and snooperscope, television guided missiles and improvement of radar systems. He is now directing work on an electronic calculator which he believes may make possible accurate meteorological predictions and ultimate control of weather.

Taxation on Television in public places will not be levied, the Bureau of Internal Revenue announced last month, putting an end to earlier rumors. Under the law, the tax applies to all establishments which provide entertainment "other than instrumental or mechanical music." An answer of the Bureau to an inquiry by a New Jersey collection official made it appear that television was therefore considered taxable, but the Bureau later formally , stated that television is not "live" entertainment and therefore not subject to tax.

Electrical Unit Changes will be introduced January 1, 1948, the Bureau of Standards announces. The electrical units of the "international" system will be superseded by those of the "absolute" system derived from the fundamental mechanical units of length, mass and time. The changes will not be great enough to be noticeable in most practical measurements, but will affect those of high precision. The new values as compared with those now recognized by the United States are:

1 international ohm = 1.000495 absolute ohms

1 international volt = 1.00033 absolute volts

1 international ampere = 0.999835 absolute ampere

1 international coulomb = 0.999835 absolute coulomb

1 international henry = 1.000495 absolute henries

1 international farad = 0.999505 absolute farad

1 international watt = 1.000165 absolute watts

1 International joule = 1.000165 absolute joules

New units for the measurement of light will be introduced at the same time, according to the Bureau of Standards.

Color Television is not yet ready for commercial exploitation, the Federal Communications Commission decided last month. The FCC decision came after several hearings in - which Columbia Broadcasting System led the proponents of immediate color television and RCA spoke for those who believe color is not yet ready for the public. Both sides backed their arguments with showings of color television. "The commission cannot escape the conclusion," the FCC said in a fourteen-page decision, "that many of the fundamentals of a color-television system have not been adequately field-tested, and that need exists for further experimentation," Television broadcasters and manufacturers interpreted the ruling as giving a green light to black-and-white television and some predicted that greatly expanded production would result almost immediately.

Posted April 13, 2020