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New York World's Fair 39-09-22 Dr Lee De Forest Address
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New York World's Fair 39-09-22 Dr Lee De Forest Address
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- [00:05]
A
We are speaking to you this evening from the Saul Grave Club in Merrie, England, at the New York World's Fair, where a jubilee dinner is being held in honor of Dr. Lee DeForest, distinguished scientist and engineer who is known as the father of broadcasting. Many distinguished personages are present at the dinner tonight. Personages in the field of science, engineering and broadcasting. On this broadcast, we shall have the pleasure of hearing an address by Dr. De Forest on the past, present and future of radio broadcasting and its influence on world culture. Dr. De Forest has made a special trip from his home in Los Angeles in order that he might tonight receive a scroll of honor signed by the presidents of American engineering and scientific societies, among which are the Institute of Radio Engineers and the Veteran Wireless Operators association, sponsors of the affair. Dr. DeForest will receive the Award of Honor from Mr. William J. McGonagall, Chairman of the DeForest Day Committee here at the New York World's Fair and president of the Veteran Wireless Operators association. We now present Mr. McGonigal.
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Today is Lee DeForest Day at the New York World's Fair. A complete program honoring one of the world's most prolific inventors was arranged. And tonight the presentation of the scroll of honor signed by many engineering societies is the culmination of a day of events honoring Lee DeForest, the inventor of the 3 element vacuum tube which makes possible this broadcast. It is with the greatest deal of pleasure that I present this scroll of honor to Dr. Lee De Forest. I will read the text of the scroll. Scroll of honor awarded to Lee de Forest, Doctor of philosophy, doctor of science, doctor of engineering, inventor of the audience, father of the modern radio art, Pioneer in wireless telegraphy, pioneer in sound on film, pioneer in radio telephony, inventor of the radio knife in surgery, Father of radio broadcasting, early worker in shortwave therapy, primeval friend of the radio amateur. Every transmitting station of any class, every receiving station, every listener and viewer of television in the home, Transoceanic radiotelephony, transcontinental telephony, every public address system and other uses of the principle of amplification all owe their existence to him given by his contraries. On this 22nd day of September, 1939, at the celebration of Lee de Forest Day at the New York World's Fair. The scroll is signed by William J. McGonagall, president of the Veteran Wireless Operators Association. Raymond A. Heising, president of the Institute of Radio Engineers. Robert T. Pollack, president of the American Institute. E.A. williford, president of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers. Keith Henney, president of the Radio Club of America. F. Malcolm Farmer, president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. EMT Ryder, president of the Yale Engineering Association. Rock Sleister, president of the American Medical Association. E.C. woodruff, president of the American Radio Relay League. Neville W. Miller, president of the national association of Broadcasters and his alma mater. James Roland Angell, president emeritus of Yale University. I now take pleasure in presenting this scroll to Dr. DeForest, who will express his views of the past, present and future of radio. Dr. Lee DeForest, the father of this broadcasting Dr. DeForest.
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Gathering. I suggest that since we're in merrie England, that we. No, wait. Wait. Time short. On account of the brevity of time on this broadcast, I must postpone a few moments. What I want to say to you. When a man of my apparent age addresses an audience, his hearers may naturally expect to listen to a recounting of history. And in ancient days, at least, the elder men were supposed to be endowed with the gift of prophecy. Today I propose to inflict upon you a little of both. For some of my earlier prophecies are now history. It is not often the happy lot of a prophet to witness within a few years or even in his lifetime, the fulfillment of his prophecies. Originally made before a world of indifference, a world of skeptics. Yet such a situation has come to pass in the radio world like a tidal wave. The attitude of press and public, of government officials and business directors towards radio broadcasting, towards the radio telephone itself, has mounted from the indifference of 30 years ago to a magnitude of interest which I had dimly foreseen in 1907 and 8 and which I had then fondly hoped to witness within my lifetime, hope to have an active part in bringing to pass. Really, it does not seem so long ago. I remember, as if it were yesterday, that summer afternoon in 1907 when music was first sent out by radiophone. This was from the little laboratory in which I was at work in the old Parker building in New York City. In that same laboratory many months earlier, I conceived and tested the first three electrode vacuum tubes. First with a control electrode, a simple band of tin foil wrapped around the outside of the tube. Then with two plates, one on each side of the filament, one the anode, the other the control electrode. And finally, with the third electrode in the form of a grid or a perforated plate located between the filament and anode. In that same little laboratory, I had found that this grid tube, which we had recently christened the audience, would amplify Telephone currents. It is true, this all important little glass baby was born in rather inauspicious surroundings. And when a year later, fire completely gutted the Parker building, I was the chief mourner. Radio did not have a great audience then. But I have never become completely reconciled to my loss in that fire. And I'm sure that today the notebooks describing the earliest alien tubes which were then destroyed Would have made a mighty interesting exhibit at this world's fair. Naturally, there was considerable history antedating my work in that old New York laboratory. That may have an especial interest today. It was in Chicago in 1900 that an accidental discovery, the strange behavior of a gas lamp led me to the train of thought which eventually resulted in the audience. I dare say that history is fairly familiar to many of my audience. Neither will I sketch here, say very briefly the radio development since 1907. Because it is a story with which many of you are fairly familiar. Moreover, it is more profitable to look chiefly into the future. We are apt to forget, in contemplating the marvelous development of radio which the broadcasting idea has brought upon us, how difficult it was to nurture its development. Without the discerning vision of certain of our more progressive newspapers. In early days, the rapid popularity of broadcasting never could have been achieved. Contemplating it, I think back to 1919. When my loyal friend Clara S. Thompson, who is here tonight, and I began a little quiet campaign of persuasion with certain editors seeking to show that unlimited possibilities for education and amusement the radio broadcast could possess. One would have thought that we would be we would find willing ears on the part of the newspapers. The reverse was a fact. It was extremely difficult to bring editors at that time to realize the possibilities for genuine good to the public which widespread radio broadcasting would accomplish. There was one notable exception, however. The management of the Detroit News grasped the idea as soon as presented. They saw the possibilities of radio and quickly agreed to help the good work along. A small transmitter was installed on the roof of their building. And to this newspaper belongs the honor of establishing the first radio broadcasting service. Consisting of interesting and up to date news bulletins, musical and other entertainment features gradually added until today that pioneer station WWJ ranks with the foremost broadcasting stations in the world. In 1907, when the idea of radio broadcasting first occurred. And again in 1910 when the voices of metropolitan opera singers career, Russo and Martin were for the first time launched upon the ether. And again in 16, when for the first time regular radio concerts were maintained. From my old station at High Bridge in the Bronx to small but intensely interested Audiences growing in numbers nightly, there continued to dawn a widening vision of the astonishing potentialities of the radio broadcast. Which vision the last 19 years have been bringing more and more into reality. But I confess that in those pioneer days. My eager imagination fell far short of picturing the astonishing hold. With which this idea so suddenly gripped our entire nation. And not alone the American people. For wherever the fame of American broadcast penetrated, it has kindled to an astonishing degree the imagination of classes which one might doubt would have responded so quickly. Nothing since the earlier days of the discoverers has so appealed to the imagination. No other medium in man's history has demonstrated its unique power. For uniting far separated sections of a great country, of a great empire, for causing to become acquainted dwellers in far distant districts of the earth. More than the newspaper, more than the postal service, this mighty service of hearing the spoken word, in greeting the public address, the sermon, the musical and entertainment program. Has actively united the citizens of every nation in a bond of common fellowship, common acquaintanceship, as no other conceivable instrumentality could accomplish. To the national association of Broadcasters, more than to any other agency, Must be awarded the enviable credit. For today's universal acceptance of the message of radio by the American nation. To them is due the unchallenged preeminence of American broadcasting today. I am pleased to know that the new Radio Listening year begins with a program of increased interest stimulated among among the broadcasters of the nation by their coordinating agency, the national association of Broadcasters, to provide an even greater degree of service and entertainment to the listening public. I predict that as an educational medium, the radio broadcast of sound and sight will in time prove second in importance only to the public school. Already we see a closer interlinking between the people of Canada and ourselves Due to this broadcasting idea. And eventually, after the dictators are all dead and forgotten. And their censorship, like their tyrannies, is forever ended. These benefits will extend even to Europe. Between the peoples of the old world. Always heretofore strangers enemies, because strangers and personally unacquainted. When in the future this horror which now engulfs them is ended. And the citizens of foreign lands will hear night after night, friendly words, music and the song from across strange frontiers. Then gradually will today's feelings of enmity and suspicion, based chiefly upon distance and ignorance of each other, change to understanding and goodwill. Thus I maintain that the radio broadcast, with its irresistible educational influence, is destined eventually to prove one of the most potent powers for the abolition of war. But while on this subject let us pause for a complete Comparison what radio means today in the World in War in the World War Number One, radio had proved of immeasurable value at sea. In saving survivors of torpedoed ships, in warning of U boat peril, in direction of naval battles, over distances where antique signaling methods were totally useless, between field headquarters and divisional units and entrenched warfare. But to the millions of homes in beleaguered capitals and throughout nations blockaded and cut off from the world, the widespread networks of radio information did not then exist. Not in 14 or 18 could millions of listeners hear us today. From their own government or others across the sea. The hourly news bulletins, the emphatic words of warning or encouragement from their national chiefs, nor the helpful or hostile propaganda for the upbuilding or destruction of their morale from friend and foe alike, which today brings directly to every thinking person an intimate realization of this unthinkable, unthinkable and monstrous thing which is engulfing our civilization. Due to the mighty social power of the radio broadcast. This war has already brought to the sense of every listener a realization of what war is and means and may mean to him personally and to his family in a manner absolutely new in the history of mankind. And I venture to prophesy that radio is destined to play an even mightier role in the war that is now raging for today. Sufficient millions of radio receivers are scattered throughout the hamlets and rural districts of Europe to frustrate the tyrannical aims of their censors. The masses of the warring peoples at home are now acquiring daily knowledge of the trend of events, of how the battle is going. And therefore, I say, radio conditions exist today, making for an earlier termination of the awful slaughter by the suffering masses themselves, the ones who always pay with their blood and suffering conditions of intimate contact which unfortunately did not exist 25 years ago. For this we must most assuredly thank the magic might of radio broadcasting. And once again now, as historian as I try to comprehend the incomprehensible magnitude of the radio industry in long distance communication over land and sea, in aviation for signaling and for safety in flight and landing, in 100 novel applications, in industry constantly multiplying. And in broadcasting count the many tens of thousands to whom it has given new employment directly and indirectly. Consider the thousands of millions of dollars which the varied radio and radio tube industries have earned in the past 20 years. My memory harks back to the time when I strove vainly to interest a few wealthy college classmates in financing development of that industry's first beginning and loving music. As I did, I was impelled and compelled in my early work in radio. To devote my efforts ceaselessly to the widest dissemination of music. That motive, more than any other, Inspired my efforts from 1907 onward. To develop the radio broadcast, a task which fascinated me for 15 years. The results today achieved in bringing to untold millions all the rich tropes of music, a voice and instrument, are to me a reward more meaningful, more satisfying, more intimately my own than all wealth. Someone has said that music is a thing on earth that is nearest heaven. If that be so, then radio has brought a nearness to heavenly happiness. To many millions who are doomed otherwise to live shut off from the loveliness that has made some lives so rich. Throughout the United States today. Broadcasting stations have been so planted as to unfold our entire land in the mantle of music, breathing into every ear which cares to listen. Voices of comfort, of nightly companionship with the world's doings and the world's best minds. Just a song at twilight, but its lovely echoes are being heard. In the miner's cabin, in the rancher's hut, in the living room of the old farmhouse, over the mountain range beyond the desert, across the silent prairie, over the wastes of sea. And who can say what minds are not awakened, what souls that were deadened, what hearts long embittered by loneliness. Will not be stirred to a new life, a new outlook by that sound? When one seriously considers the human side of this broadcasting idea and its possibilities, he must admit that it possesses potentialities for universal education. Which can be compared only to that brought through the past five centuries by the art of printing Only. This new revolution will grow to maturity in another decade instead of 500 years. A graphic commentary on the acceleration of man's present progress. And radio is having a marvelous influence. On the youth of this country. An editor of a technical publication. Who answers thousands of replies yearly. Told me recently that the intelligence shown in the inquiries from young men today. Had demonstrated an almost unbelievable advance. When compared with that of letters sent to him a few years ago. The circulation of scientific magazines is growing at an enormous rate. And general interest in science is developing tremendously in this country. The chief reason for this astonishing awakening. Can be quite definitely credited to radio. It is a favorite prediction of mine. That radio will make an electrical nation out of the United States. And it is bound to exercise a profound influence. In keeping us the leading nation of the world. The benefits of radio will spread into countless fields of human endeavor. They will radiate to a degree which our imagination can scarcely glimpse. Therefore, every man who has anything to do with radio, whether he has to do with the technical or its business side, may feel that he is contributing greatly to the public welfare. There is a community of interest between the organizations which manufacture radio apparatus, those who distribute them, the retailers who sell them to the public, and the public which buys them, which should mean a great deal more than mere profit satisfaction. Every man who has anything to do in the making and marketing of any article utilized in radio broadcasting should, I claim, feel that he is much more than a manufacturer or a merchant. He is an instrument in the development of one of the greatest and most useful sciences in the world today. Not since my earliest work in radio have I had such a thrill of realization of how deep and soul gripping is its magic spell. As came to me one silent evening three weeks ago. I was camped upon the shore of a lonely lake far in the northern wilds of California. A sunset of flaming glory was spread across the western sky. Suddenly, like the accents of an angel, spirit came from my car's radio. A sweet voice singing red sails in the sunset. And through my spirit then flashed an intimate sense of appreciation of the infinite mystery of those forces, physical and spiritual, which are interwoven in that strange instrumentality which man has named the radio. And soon, all in good time, mingled with the present sounds of sweet music in their voices. We shall see, emerging from the void of night, from the empty air, or perhaps from the end of a small copper tube, the beautiful faces of those who distant sing, smiling down upon us from large white screens within our homes and interesting world events, scenes multiplied a million times. So that populations in distant cities may behold as they transpire. All such promises shall be realized. And beyond all these, what other marvels yet undreamed? Who can say what the future of this science of the radio and the electron shall not unfold?
- [21:29]
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On this program we heard an address by Dr. Lee De Forest, distinguished scientist and engineer. We also heard the presentation of a scroll of honor to Dr. De Forest. A scroll which has been signed by the presidents of American engineering and scientific societies. The presentation was made by Mr. William J. McGonagall, President of the Veteran Wireless Operators association and Chairman of the DeForest Day Committee at the fair. This is the Mutual Broadcasting System.