by Jack Bennest » Fri Sep 05, 2008 9:21 pm
My apologies for the length of the next post but it does show that in 1929
a fair number of licenses were issued for the transmission of tv signals
I am not convinced that all of them "were sending out regular Television programs" but they may have based on the standards of the day.
The following is excerpted from The Radio Manual (for Radio Engineers, Inspectors, Students, Operators and Radio Fans), Second Edition, September, 1929, by George E. Sterling (Radio Inspector, Radio Division, U. S. Department of Commerce), published by D. Van Nostrand Company, New York.
Early Developments -- In June, 1925, Mr. C. Francis Jenkins gave the first public demonstration or the transmission of images of living subjects, and also of film records of persons and scenes. Mr. Jenkins effected his transmission by radio and in the latter case called his images of living subjects "radio vision," and his transmission of films "radio movies." In April, 1927, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company transmitted images of living persons from Washington to New York over telephone circuits. The same sort of images were also transmitted by radio from the A. T. & T. experimental station at Whippany, N. J. to the laboratories in New York City. In the considerable publicity given to the A. T. & T. transmissions the term "television" was used, and has largely been adopted by the general public as applying to any form of visual broadcasting. One cannot well quarrel with established usage, even though incorrect, but a discrimination should be made between the radio transmission of living subjects and transmission of film records of such subjects. Therefore in this chapter we will call the first system "television" (meaning radio vision, although the term does not say so) and the second one "radio movies."
Now observe that in the A. T. & T. demonstrations wire and radio channels were used interchangeably. Thus the art of seeing at a distance is not necessarily a radio art and the reason for introducing it into a radio book lies in the expectation that some form of it will see wide distribution as an auxiliary to the present (acoustic) radio broadcasting. Independent wire development for public entertainment can be expected.
Radiomovies -- Radiomovies are made possible by first photographing the subject with an ordinary motion picture camera. The problem then becomes that of transforming the lights and shadows of this film into electrical impulses which can be transmitted and at the receiving end reconverted into lights and shadows properly distributed on the receiving screen. Since in the ordinary moving picture theatre a flickerless picture necessitates running the film through the projector at the rate of about 16 pictures per second, we must carry out our process of conversion at this same rate, which is to say, we must in 1/16 of 1 second completely transform one "frame" or picture into electrical impulses and move it on so that the next "frame" may be similarly analysed in the next 1/16 of 1 second. The process of doing this is basically the same one of "scanning line-for-line" as is used in transmitting directly the image of a living person. However, the small size of the film permits some surprising simplifications and economies of the apparatus and without doubt the greatest accomplishments have been made along the line of transmitting and receiving silhouette and half-tone radiomovies. As transmitted from the Jenkins station W3XK, these have been well received over a considerable portion of the United States.
The first radiomovies transmitted from the Jenkins Laboratories were only silhouettes in order to confine the frequency...
Rules and Regulations of the Federal Radio Commission governing the Operation of Visual Broadcasting -- That visual broadcasting be designated to include both television broadcasting and picture broadcasting, or moving picture broadcasting and still picture broadcasting, and that all licenses issued be of an experimental for a period of six months only, the licensees to report to the Commission the results of their experiments; the transmitters to be located outside of the city limits and sufficiently distant from local programming centers to avoid interference.
For joint use to visual broadcasting licensees, the Commission authorized the following bands of frequencies for experimental use only: 2000 to 2200 and 2750 to 2950 kilocycles, on the condition that they do not interfere in any way whatever with the services of any other nation on the North American Continent or in the West Indies, and that licenses be subject to revocation in case there are any complaints from any other nation of any such interference. The Commission may continue to issue experimental television or visual licenses in the broadcast band for operation between 1 and 6 a. m. only, in accordance with Central Order 50.
The Commission adopted the following rules of priority in the granting of applications:
1. Those engaged in experimentation to improve the technique of visual broadcasting.
2. Those who employ methods with give the maximum definition with the minimum radio frequency bandwidths.
LIST OF VISUAL BROADCASTING (TELEVISION) STATIONS CALL LOCATION LICENSEE FREQUENCY POWER
W1XAE 624 Page Blvd., E. Springfield, MA Westinghouse Elect. & Mfg. 2.0 - 2.1 20.0
W1XAY Adams Street, Lexington, MA J. Smith Dodge 4.8 - 4.9 0.5
W1XB 63 Gorham Street, Somerville, MA General Industries 2.1 - 2.2,
2.75- 2.85 0.5
W2XBA Newark, NJ WAAM, Inc. 2.75 - 2.85 0.05
W2XBS 70 van Cortland Pk. S., New York, NY (portable) Radio Corporation of America 2.0 - 2.1 5.0
W2XBU Beacon, NY Harold E. Smith 4.8 - 4.9 0.1
W2XBV New York, NY (portable) Radio Corporation of America 2.0 - 2.1 5.0
W2XBW Initial location: 70 River Road, Bound Brook, NJ (portable) Radio Corporation of America 2.0 - 2.1 5.0
W2XCL 323 Berry Street, Brooklyn, NY Pilot Electric Mfg. Co. 2.0 - 2.1,
2.75 - 2.85 0.25
W2XCO New York, NY (near) Radio Corporation of America 2.1 - 2.2 5.0
W2XCR 346-70 Claremont St., Jersey City, NJ Jenkins Television Corp. 2.1 - 2.2 5.0
W2XCW 1 River Road, Schenectady, NY General Electric Company 2.1 - 2.2 20.0
W2XR 140 Nassau Street, New York, NY John V. L. Hogan 2.0 - 2.1,
2.1 - 2.2 0.5
W2XX Overton Road, Ossining, NY Robert F. Gowen 2.0 - 2.1 0.1
W3XK 1519 Connecticut Ave., Washington, DC Jenkins Laboratories 2.0 - 2.1,
2.85 - 2.95 5.0
W3XL River Road, Bound Brook, NJ RCA Communications 2.85 - 2.95 30.0
W4XE Winter Park, FL William J. Lee 2.0 - 2.1 2.0
W6XAM Washington & Oak Sts., Los Angeles, CA Ben S. McGlashan 2.0 - 2.1 0.5
W6XC 5155 S. Grammercy Place, Los Angeles, CA Robert B. Parrish 4.5 - 4.6 15.0
W7XAO Portland, OR Wilbur Jerman 2.75 - 2.85 0.1
W8XAV E. Pittsburgh, PA Westinghouse Elect. & Mfg. 2.0 - 2.1,
2.1 - 2.2,
2.75 - 2.85 20.0
W9XAA Foot of Grand Avenue, Chicago, IL Chicago Federation of Labor 2.0 - 2.1 1.0
W9XAG 1768 Wilson Avenue, Chicago, IL Aero Products, Inc. 2.0 - 2.1 1.0
W9XAO 6312 Broadway, Chicago, IL Nelson Bros. Bond & Mortgage 2.0 - 2.1 0.5
W9XAZ Iowa City, IA University of Iowa 2.0 - 2.1 0.5
WRNY Hudson Terrace, Coytesville, NJ (1 to 6 am only) Aviation Radio Station, Inc. 1010 kc. 0.25