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Show THE BULLETIN U. S. Television Bruckart's Washington Digest President Hits Top in Precedent Hits New High In Development Breaking in Thanksgiving Change ADVENTURERS' CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELFI Broadcasts Now on Regu lar Schedule From New York. Stirs Up More Comment Than Any Statement Ever Emanating From a Chief Executive; Element of Uncertainty Injected Makes It Harmful. "Two Kinds of Death" Frtnnred by National Graf raphie Society, wnu service. waaningian, u. c HELLO EVERYBODY: is the storv of a man who had a choice to make a choice between two kinds of death. One of those deaths was certain and unpleasant. If he Television broadcasts in the United States are now on regular schedule and manu have begun the facturers Roose-vein WASHINGTON. President repetition here. The remark re chose the other, he'd at least have a chance. wholesale stirred to called rethat production ox reability King George, on his keep things But he chose the death that was. unpleasant and cer up has been demonstrated numer- cent visit to North America, reset ceiving sets as the American BEAUTY MAKEUP. The ous times since his accession to the his birthday so that it could be celpublic begins to realize the young lady clad in tear paint is tain! White House. He seems to have a ebrated while he was in Canada of this new form of not preparing for a part in m value Anthony A. .Hensler is his name, and he lives in New highly developed penchant for doing that being a prerogative of king the unexpected. He calls it "prece- and emperor. The question was then education and entertainment. horror thriller but is merely York City. Tony is an aviator, and one day in the latter 'making-u- p for regular tele part of July, 1927, he had a call from Andy Andrews, who dent breaking." The results have propounded whether our President The inaugural telecast in this coun on April 30, 1930, vision broadcast. was try produced been varied, although it strikes me contemplated flexible holiday Special skill in was then senior pilot at Curtis field out in Mineola. that more of the "breaks" have beert schedule that would permit celebra- when President Roosevelt opened the use of rouge and paint is Andy wanted to get hold of somebody who could take a against him in recent months than tion of events whenever the White the New York World's fair. to give good picture required blimp up in the air and put it through test flights. There Since then television has launched when he first began to break prece- House thought national morale was in telecasts. reproduction were few men available in the East, at that tune, who knew into the air an low. dents as President in 1933. There is more to that remark than Impression of the king and queen outer space and are lost They usu- enough to test fly a blimp, and Tony Hensler was one of It appears, however, that Mr. By WILLIAM BRUCKART WNU Service, National Preis Bldf ., Washington, D. C. reached a new peak in precedent breaking when he changed the date of our annual Thanksgiving day. Probably no statement ever forthcoming from a Chief Executive stirred up as much comment unless perhaps it was the famous statement by Calvin Coolidge that "I do not choose to run." True. Mr. Roosevelt moved the date only one week, making this year's Thanksgiving day, Thursday, November 23, Instead of November 30. The effect waa the same, however, whether the change was one week or one month. Next year, he proposes that the date should be moved forward another week so that thereafter the date upon which we pay homage to God, as a nation, will be the second Thursday in November instead of the last Thursday of the month. In announcing his plan, the President said he was desirous of rearranging the November holiday so that "holidays will be more evenly spaced." There la Labor day on the first Monday in September; there re no national holidays in October; Thanksgiving day in November and Christmas day near the end of December. So, Mr. Roosevelt said It seemed better to move Thanksgiving day a bit forward. His action, he explained, was taken after many business men had urged it as a means of giving more time for Christmas shopping. It is well known that shoppers do not really get going on their Christmas buying until after Thanksgiving day, and Mr. Roosevelt said the change might spread out the usual rush. Roosevelt Thanksgiving Day Change Stirs Up Unusual Comment Whatever the reason for the change, the announcement broke out II of the hissing steam that was pent up. Business Interests here and there tried vainly to show a united front But that was impossible because retailers disagreed as to its possible benefits. There was no disclosure by the President of the identity of those business interests he had consulted. Some lines of trade felt that terrific damage had been done them and their shouts were angry. Religious groups have remained silent, as organizations, but their individual members have had unpleasant things to say about the change. Altogether, the picture seems to show a bad reaction throughout the nation. Let us look at the thing, however, from a practical standpoint: Mr. Roosevelt made his announcement without consulting the state department If he had sought advice there, he would have learned that a presidential proclamation can be enforced only in the District of Columbia and the territories of the United States. No state needs pay any attention to White House proclamation unless it desires to do so. Hence, the declaration that Thanksgiving day shall be November 23, 1939, is binding only upon us folks here in Washington, and those in Alaska, Puerto Rico and Hawaii. There are 11 states that have laws fixing Thanksgiving day for the last Thursday in November of each year. Their legislatures are not in session. They will not be called into session again before the forthcoming Thanksgiving day. Which day will they celebrate and praise God for the blessings He has given them? There is no national statute fixing the date. It is a traditional ceremonial day, a day which, to Americans, means actually the connection between our economic life and the Almighty Power that guided our nation from its inception, the link between material things and religion. For the reasons of its establishment it strikes me that there ought not be a national law on the subject. It is a sacred thing.- But my guess is there will be a law and that law will say that the last Thursday in November shall be set aside as a national holiday for expression of our gratitude. I think such a law will be passed at the next ses- Just a laugh. Behind the thought is an indication of a fear that all of our people are being regimented, told when to shout or when to weep, when to work and when to play, what to eat and what to wear and not to think, but to obey. Of course, it Is an exaggerated viewpoint; it is not so exaggerated, however, that it is not possible of attainment It is to be remembered that the people of Russia, and then of Italy and then of Germany have gone through that very stage.. It was a step which they took, and disregarded as unimportant It led directly to the conditions under which those people now live and have their being, regimented all, controlled, beaten down, living life of fear. be misunderstood, I Now, lest hasten to say that I believe there was no such thoughts at those in Mr. Roosevelt's mind. I believe bis action was taken because of hii urge to make changes. There are many persons who hold that it was another move by the President designed to keep people from thinking of their troubles, to help them forget the terrible struggles through which we have been, and are, passing. X ever-prese- nt Take a Look at Practical Side of the Situation Again, as to the practical side and the results flowing from the breaking of another precedent: Let us consider first the lithographing and printing Industry of the country. There are thousands upon thousands of other businesses that use the product of the lithographer and the printer. Consider the1 calendar that hangs on your wait It will show November 30 as the Day of Thanksgiving. The annual bill for calendars, paid for by Industry and by each of us who buys a calendar, exceeds $100,000,-00The calendars are not useless, of course, but the fact that the "calendar is wrong" has some Indescribable effect upon me. Take the transportation Industry. Officials begin planning many months ahead for tours, special rates, excursions. Public events and ceremonies have been scheduled. Each ties in with some other sched uled for Thanksgiving day when Thanksgiving day was to be Novem ber 30. The printing industry has done its Job for most of those things ahead even of today. What mess that is going to be! Many editorials have been written, many interviews given out, concerning the effect of the new Thanksgiving date on the college football "industry." for college foot ball receipts run into millions of dol lars every year. Through all of the years, traditional games the big games the peak of the season has been the Thanksgiving day game for hundreds of colleges. But if Thursday, November 30, is just another Thursday, what about the "gate" of those games? 0. Element of Uncertainty Makes Change Harmful And that brings us to the crux of this situation. It is the element of uncertainty that Mr. Roosevelt injected into our national life by the change in one holiday date that is harmful. Instead of promoting a feeling of security, my hunch is that the President has spread un certainty and has caused confidence to crash in many a spot of which he never dreamed. Instead of creating a net increase in business by making a longer Christmas shopping period, I believe a cold analysis will show that the change will cost the country, as a whole, many millions of dollars in net losses. Our nation has grown up, not in one piece, but in many pieces, each one fitted to another as smooth working as the gears of your auto mobile. When the engine turns over, it exerts pressure on the clutch, then on the drive shaft, then on the gears and then on the wheels, and the car moves. When any one unit of industry in Americaany one sion of congress. phase of life is changed suddenly. Arouses Fear That All Our the clutch and the drive shaft and the gears and the wheels of othnrs People Are Being Regimented are affected. More than any other Mr. Roosevelt surely could nut one thing that nas happened in ic- have guessed the repercussions, the cent years, I believe, the President's backfire, that has greeted his an- announcement proves how closely nouncement and that has continued knitted our lives arc. It shows, too, in unabated fury. The politicians that government can wreck national seized upon it for some of the dirti- life as well as preserve and protect est wisecracks I ever have heard. it. I heard one that really warrants (Released by Wrctern Xewiprper Union l ally cannot be captured by television sets much beyond the horizon. Draw a straight line, representing the path of television waves, from any point on the earth's surface, and you will recognize that they soon part company with the curving earth. To be sure of "viewing in" on a television program, therefore, a receiving set should be close enough to the transmitter to be within the television horizon. From the lofty antenna on the Empire State building, sets within a radius of 53 miles regularly receive the program, as well as some sets from 125 to 150 miles away. Resembles Ordinary Radio. Outwardly the television receiving set most generally in use resembles a large radio console with an extra row of buttons and a propped up lid. The television image a vision indeed appears beneath the lid, where the televised scene in perfect miniature comes to life on a glass plate 8 by 10 Inches. Presiding genius of the television funnel- receiving set Is the vacuum tube, standing up shaped right like a lily. As a loud speaker translates silent radio waves into sound, this tube translates Invisible waves into a visible picture. Its narrow stem contains an electron am gun primed with cathode-ra-y munition. Its broad top is capped with a glass plate curved to shield the vacuum within from the atmospheric pressure above. The under surface of the glass is coated with a chemical mixture, zinc sulfide. which is capable of fluorescing (emitting light) when struck by electrons. An electrical impulse from the transmitter modulates the beam, or ray, fired from the electron gun; when the electrons hit the fluorescent surface the glass shows tiny point of light which is bright or dull according to the intensity of the modulated beam of electrons. Two Miles a Second. The electron stream is shot in With machine-gu- n MASS PRODUCTION. sequence across the television sets now on sale at face of the plate from left to right a speed of two miles a second; regular retail prices, manufac at turers have begun assembly line then it zips back to the left at double quick time and repeats the bom' production of receiving units. bardment With about 500 "shots" This picture shoves standard in- In a row, it makes 441 trips from struments in the process of being left to right to fill In the picture assembled. completely from top to bottom. This is controlled by electro-ma- g tubes. One of them Is the giant action force. netic (Whether each tiny cathode-ra- y vacuum tube 27 Inches of the electron bombardment "shot" long that creates the television picture on the top of its flattened bulb by means of a tiny "pencil" of streaming electrons. It has sound controls for volume and high and low pitch adjustments. It has sight controls for focus, speed, size, and centering adjustments of the pic ture. Television has also put Into circulation a new vocabulary telecast to correspond to broadcast; video fre quencies, as differentiated from the sound wave frequencies of radio; "ike," Instead of "mike," for the Iconoscope, which corresponds to radio's microphone. Ultra-Sho- rt Waves Used. From the giant antenna on the Empire State building a quarter of a mile above the earth, the radio waves that carry the sound part of the program are launched into the air exactly as in ordinary shortwave radio transmitting. The ultrashort waves that carry the visual part are of such high frequencies that Instead of kilocycles (thousand cycles) they are listed In mega cycles (million cycles). Sound, even that of a symphony orchestra, usualAID IN CRIME WAR. Here ly is transmitted in a group of fre is a test telecast being made to quencies not more than 8,000 cycles value the determine of television wide. But a good television Image criminal in identification by re from frequencies Jumping requires 30 to 4,000,000 cycles within a secproducing fingerprints. Officials ond's time. In addition, two series claim that in cases where speed of waves synchronizing impulses-m- ust is important, fingerprints could be broadcast to keep receiver be broadcast to operatives away and transmitter in perfect step. A elimifrom police headquarters, than of less of a lag the caused delay by mailsecond in the receiving set would nating make inperfect television pictures. ing the prints to a central bureau. From the outset it is apparent that registers as light or shadow is de television is at least three times as termined by wnat the television complicated as radio. camera has revealed of the object An added difficulty is the fact that being televised.) The 441 scanning the very high frequency television lines for each picture are completed waves do not bounce between the too quickly for the human eye to earth and a reflecting layer in the detect the electron nencil in action. sky as do the longer waves used and the resultant Illusion is comin sound broadcasting. Such repeat- parable to the illusion obtained from ed reflection permits radio waves to the movies, which project 24 still reach far over the horizon in fact pictures per second to create the imto follow the curvature of the earth pression of movement The televi completely around the globe. Tele- sion image is created by a rapid vision waves shoot straight off succession of 30 complete pictures through the reflecting layer into per second. of England visiting the fair, of a canary circus, of a baseball game, a boxing bout a ballet swimming contest a marionette show, a six-da-y bicycle race, the docking of the new liner Mauretania, track meet and a fashion parade. Experts point out that important differences between radio and its seesister science of ing place difficulties in the way of a nation-wid- e television network to Yet the parallel radio hookups. American people who promptly invite each new scientific marvel into the living room, are showing a live ly Interest in television, although the majority of them are still beyond the reach of current programs. Twenty Tabes to Set Television has put into American homes the most complicated instrument yet devised for popular use a radio set plus. It has about 20 long-distan- -- Andy asked him if be would do the Job. Tony said it waa ail right with him, and Andy took him to meet a fellow named Bamia whe owned the blimp. The arrangements were made and Tony went to work. Be did a little tinkering with the machinery and finally had the big gaa bag whipped into shape for first hop. The department of commerce lays down certain rules by which va rious types of aircraft are tested, and the rule in regard to blimps waa that the first hop had to be a fixed flight That means that the blimp la sent aloft with a line attached to the ground, so that if anything goes wrong it can't get away, float over the city ana sou someooay or aamago property in coming down. them. Tony Decides on a Second Fixed Flight. Tony made that fixed flight He adjusted the controls and centered the stabilization. But Just to make sure everything was in good shape he decided to make a second fixed flight a few days later while be checked those controls over again. And three days later, on the third of August he did make that fixed flight And it nearly fixed Tony for good, Tony climbed into the blimp all set for what he thoaght waa going te be Jnst another routine test In a captive ball eon firmly anchored ta the ground by a land line. Bnt the troabla wasn't long In starting. Ne sooner was the blimp in the air than the land line snapped and the big gaa bag started shooting apward. "She went up to 8,000 feet before X got the motor started," Tony high-spee- d says, "but the motor, a motorcycle engine, finally began to turn over, and for a while everything went swell. But not for long. X was Just over Manhattan, with my spirits as high as my ship. two-cylind- 27-tn- th They were creating a wind of their own that was slowly turning the blimp's nose around. when things began to happen. And what I mean, everything happened at once. My controls began to go sour. The big bag began to hog badly. And to make matters worse, a large hole appeared in the nose of the ship. "I shut off the motor for fear of an explosion. I had carried 15,000 cubic feet of hydrogen when X left the airport, and if a motor spark ever got into any of that leaking gas it would blow me and the blimp to bits." The ship waa losing altitude fast The city seemed a long way down, bnt it was getting closer with alarming speed. And then Tony took a desperate chance did the only thing he cenld to save himself and avoid crashing oa a tail building or fat a 'crowded New York street He climbed out en the narrow catwalk and pulled en the foremost suspension cards, doubling the cloth ever the hole in the bag's nose to prevent any more hydrogen leaking out of the balloon. The Blimp Wallowed Helplessly in Mid-ai- r. "After securing those ropes," he says, "I' felt a little better, for 1 then knew that the ship wouldn't crash in the crowded city. But I still didn't dare start the motor, and the blimp was wallowing helplessly In mid air. And what was worse still, the wind was carrying me out to sea." And right there was where Tony had to make his choice his choice between two kinds of death. There was a slim chance that he might bring that big bag down safely in crowded New York. On the other side of the picture was the prospect of blowing far out to sea and drowning in the Atlantic. Drowning wasn't a pleasant thought It would be much better to try and make a landing in New York for Tony. But what about those other people down there those scurrying humans that looked like ants 'as they crawled along the crowded streets? If Tony landed among them there was a pretty good chance that a lot of them would be killed. So Tony made his choice, and he chose the sure, unpleasant death rather than taking a fighting chance and perhaps killing someone else. He sat still and did nothing while the wind carried him out to sea! Tony Recognizes a Woman Pilot. Out across New York harbor he floated out toward Sandy Hook and the ocean and his dooml And then, from over toward the Jersey shore Tony saw two planes coming in his direction. As they neared him, he recognized one. It was the plane of Thea Raich the famous Germaa woman pilot The two planes came closer and closer. They couldn't take In fact. It didn't look as though Tony off that blimp In mid-ai- r. there waa much they cenld de bnt stand by, or return to the airport from which they had come, and send help. Bnt Tony wasn't counting ea the Ingenuity ef Thea Baach. She headed straight for the blimp until Tony thought she waa going to crash Into it antil he could feel the wind of the plane as It dived under him. The ether plane followed suit They were creating a wind of their own that waa slowly tuning the blimp's nose arooad pointing tt back to About that time, too, the wind that waa blowing him out to sea shifted to another quarter. Aided by that end by the two planes, Tony finally landed at College Point I L, and there he was met by a crowd that would pack the Yankee stadium, including the College Point police reserves. "Nope, I wasn't locked up," says Tony. "But If It hadn't been for the backwash of those two planes I'd have blown out to sea and never found again." (Itelcaaed by Waiters Newspaper Union.) Earth's Motion Interferes With the Law of Gravity If you make a deep hole in the earth you can't drop anything to the bottom, because the earth moves on and the side of the hole stops the falling object This has been proved by experiments in the deep shafts of the American copper mines. Tools dropped from the mouth of a shaft were not found at the bottom but wedged against the side of the shaft, and this led the Michigan college of mines to make experiments. The object being to discover how far the earth's motion interfered with the usual effect of the laws of gravity. The tests employed included suspending marbles by threads just below the mouth of the shaft the threads were then burnt by the flame of a candle and the marbles allowed to falL Investigations showed that after dropping some 800 feet the marbles in all cases came to rest on the east wall of the mine. |