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Show THE 'DESERET NEWS SALT LAKE CITY SATURDAY DECEMBER 21 1929 FAMOUS NATHANIEL BALDWIN PRODUCTS OUTGROWTH OF MORMON TABERNACLE SERVICE; UNCLE SAMS NAVY SPREADS FAME OF UTAH INVENTORS REVOLUTIONARY DEVICE - L L Mm i CT SECTION Of One Sunday afternoon 25 yean ago Nathaniel Baldwin was ear- ned through the portals of tbe great Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City wiUt a surging throng, bert on attending services of the - semi-annu- general al conference Saints. ' Once in the famed auditorium. Baldwin found himself seated in s aectlon of the building to which the voices of the speakers pene- -; trated hut faintly or not at 11. Which started this Nathaniel Baldwin, an obscure Ulab'inven-to- r. thinking about edroe thing. Bis thoughts, set inmotion that efday, have had a fect on what we now know as the science of radio. of tbe Tatter-da- y Nathaniel Baldwin Briefly, wondered if come means might not he devised for amplifying and -projecting the human voice so that, under practically all conditions. ordinary speaking tones could be made to reach the outer fringe of listeners in large congregations In large areas. He argued to himself that if, in a structure like tbe Mormon Tabernacle, famous throughout he world as almost prefect to acoustics, there was need for amplification of the speaking voice, how greatly must it be needed in other Jarge audi- - . tormina of admittedly poorer acoustic properties. j I was working on a steam engine device at that time,' says and until that dav Baldwin, nothing was farther from my mind than the problem of amplifying sound. But, after that day, the thought0 eould not be It pushed into the background. persisted to the point where I was unable to concentrate on the steam engine, go, just to get it off my mind I resolved to experiment wi!h the thing for a couple of weeks and then return to the engine. That two weeki managed to draw itself out into 23 years. To be exact, eight years of work saw the first stage of Nathaniel Baldwins effort completed. This was m the Nathaniel Baldwin head-s- et of receivers, intended for the reception of sound either by wire or through the air. The wireless application of the device came as a result of the Marconi discoveries of 1902. Tbe voice amplifier for public speaking, however, is still a product for the future to be announced by Nathaniel Baldwin. evtra-cemilj- ve As tbe subtitle writers have it: Came the V.arr f f AST MILL CREEK Likewise Came (he Nathaniel Baldwin Head Phone" to pul the American navy far ahead of other navies in this particular item of equipraenL The navy, in 1913, bad been induced by Mr, Baldwin to accept for experifopt of bis head-se- ts ment. Tbe navy responded with an order for 100 sets at once." Nathaniel Baldwin, working alone shop, in a little without capital, couldn't fill the order! The navy bad to do without the Baldwin instruments and Baldwin bad to do without the much-needmoney. Later, however, the Nathaniel Baldwin factory had grown large enough to handle a big order so the navy took over the entire output and, on Uncle Sam's two-by-fo- ur ed fijhlirgcraftinlliesevenseas. the name and fame of Nathaniel Baldwin was made world-wid- e. And so began tbe period of growth and expansion following tbe war and coincident with the rise of development of radio science from tbe more commonplace wireless telegraphy." Ihe origins an beginnings of the Nathaniel Baldwin enterprise were humble, like that of many other enterprises that since have become gigantic in opera- tion and influence. But about the Baldwin beginning was a humbleness seldom equalled for limitation of capital, equipment and outlet. It all began in 1903 and Nathaniel Baldwin himself, his ideas, viii.m and unflagging labor wa- the nucleus of the en- terprise. Nathaniel Baldwin was born to a youth of hard labor and privation The jlnrv of lrs struggle for an education and advancement has been duplicated by ttiat of other American geniuses but someway, it seerned a little more bitter than usual since he in a far western, thinly settled region where opportunities were not plentiful: in fact, m bis field, they were almost But he did manage to get a college trainug and later heearue a professor of physics and his learrmg in that science started him On his career of research and invention. i Shortly after becoming engrossed in his amplifying device and subsequently in the improved receiver. Nathaniel Baldwin envisioned the tremendous part that transmission of sound by ether waves would plav in the economic and social lifted the future. He set to work, labored . , under heartbreaking handicaps and without a proper laboratory or equipment; experimented, built, demolished and started gtl over again hundreds of times before he finally evolved tbe Baldunit win balanced armature perwhich, as every radio-wi- se son knows, yas tbe basis of the modern loud speaker. The first device was applied to type hut speakers of tbe bead-s- et devised especially for great amplification of sound waves. These .... receivers, in. c. much cruder form .... than those of today, were fitted to the familiar applied to both ears, and tbe immediate object of that day was the offering of a superior receiving apparatus for wireless opera- bead-harne- ss, tors. Since, in those early days just Marconi after the epoch-makidiscoveries, wireless waa confined almost exclusively to military, naval and official use, Nathaniel Baldwin naturally sought an outlet in one of (hose channels. The acceptance of the phones by the navy was the outcome, as mentioned above. With (bat start. Baldwin delved deeper into the mysteries of that marvelous thing we know today under the generic term of radio. He knew it was on its way to us, traveling fast, it was his determination that the Baldwin reputation gained through war service should beroiaintamed to the broader field of peace-tim-e radio reception particularly as it affected the popular and widespread enjoyment and education of all the people! As he anticipated, tbe world was ready and waiting for the Nathaniel Baldwin products sure of their, qualify; glad to accept the guarantee of tbe came of Nathaniel ng Baldwin v 1 The present exlenshe homo "plant of Nathaniel Baldwin, In eorporaled, grew from one little wooden shack, built to East Mill Creek, near SaltLake City, Utah. Thu little structure still stands, preserved as a relio and as a monument amid the surrounding modern buildings. It was in this . IiUle building that most of the imjportapt asio principles and tfdnceived and Jcvtces Uere by Nathaniel Baldwin with his own hands. For instance, - from- - this modest shop eame a head-s- et submitted to ihe navy in 1913, which, just a few weeks ago, was returned for minor repairs after 16 years of continuous service! Here was built the first Nathaniel Baldwin radio tuning device, forerunner of the present amazingly delicate equipment on the Nathaniel Baldwin radio receiving sets. Nineteen thirty will be the Twenfy-fift- h Anniversary Year at the Nathaniel Baldwin plants celebrating the Silver Wedding of an unusual inventive genius to one of the most' amazing sciences of modern tunes. Naturally, 25 years of hard work on the part of one man and more than a dozen years of steady progress by an organized, going concern was bound to result In And so expansion. U has been w ith Nathaniel Bald-wi- n, worth-whi- le Incorporated. Perhaps Uie Salt Lake City plant could have taken care of 'specialty production such as the Nathaniel Baldwin Radio Phones. Speakers, Film Fones, Phono-- graph Pickups" and the like for a long lime to come. But with the recent acvenl of the Nathaniel Baldwin Screen Grid Radio Receiving Set and its immediate leap into popularity and nationwide demand, something had to FACTORY AND ASSEMBLING MODERN be done about serving a far- So, the present flung market. year has seen the establishment of an assembling plant at Los Angeles to serve tbe Paciflo Coast add northwest; another assembling plant near Chicago to serve the middle-we- st and southcentral states, and a third to the New York district to serve the east. New England and states. The growth of the business has been accompanied by an increased number and di ersity of products, the Baldwin engineers, headed by Nathaniel Baldwin himself, 'tirelessly seeking to per- -' feci new and better radio receiving equipment in both tbe principal and auxiliary products of tbe company. In ail stages of radio development. Nathaniel Baldwin has kept abreast or ahead of tbe times, and as the demand for radio receiving equipment grew to undreamedof proportions, something revolutionary was expected of him. One of the latest announcements of Nathaniel Baldwin, Incorporated, is of a brand new South-At-lan- PLANT, BLOOMSBURG, PA. NEW FACTORY. universal portable radio receiving set, a remarkable little eight- screen-gri- d instrument, tube, weighing only eleven C extreme modesty in discussing his inventions, accomplishments and plana, the name Nathaniel Baldwin was until recently better known to the scientific world than to the people at large. In fact, he was so shy on one oeea-ai- on that be refused to admit connection with one of hia most remarkable inventions. This was a fairly well perfected model of a big amplifier. Baldwin was giving the device a try-oto Mill Creek Canyon long and deep gorge in the ealeb mountains near bis home. Many times he boomed bis voice pounds, that without adjustment or change of circuit, uses either alternating or direct current from an ordinary light socket connection. Tbe set needs no aerial; v simply a ground connection which, of course, can be found anywhere; , Baldwin is now working on many other .inventions, among them a deviCerwhich, it is promised, will Reduce the number of tubes necessary to receiving set, which; in turn, will naturally re- duce the cost of the instrument to say nothing of eliminating tio annoying noises. Nathaniel Baldwin products are to common use today in all sections of the United States; in Canada, Great Britain, all coun-iriof Continental Europe, Russia, South Africa, Australia. New Zealand. Hawaii. China, Japan, Alaska, the Scandinavian countries and throughout Central and South America. Not many people know Nathan iel Baldwin personally, due to his rather unusually shy and retiring disposition and due also to his ut t t es . . ,.j , . through the spesker. which awoke the echoes to the moun-tainn- us crags, but be had no idea of it carrying power until some people who had been away up the canyon came upon him while away from Ihe speaker" and asked him if he'd heard the big voice," or knew what it was. Baldwin, blushing and sidestepfib," ping behind a convenient denied he bad even heard any- thing unusual! Such is Nathaniel Baldwin, but Nathaniel Baldwin also is typical of the usual modest, super-sh- y individual in that he ia a hardman-b- ent working. 'deep-thinkiunon the perfection of the product .hearing his name and unon a continually improving radio reception. . ng iurj 3- - is I ir :4 1 ' |
