Characters of the Information and Communication Industry
by
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Chapter 11
AT&T in the Early Radio Business
According to Harry Newton's dictionary, radio is the "science of communicating over a distance by converting sounds or signals to electromagnetic waves and radiating them through the air or through space." Does that process seem familiar? A basic definition of telephone transmission could be the same except that telephone signals were originally sent over wire. The difference that the signals are audible tones (dots and dashes or intelligible voices) and the media (air or wire) through which the signals pass have determined the history of radio, its governmental regulations, and the companies involved with it in this country. The purpose of this part of the book is to provide some of that history from around the year 1900 to about 1930.
This history could be examined from several viewpoints. Certainly one could look at the progress of the industry from a standpoint of scientific invention and the development of technical devices from the Hertzian waves through the Pupin coil to the Audion tube. Another view could be from a personality standpoint, from Marconi through de
How did AT&T get into the radio business in the first place? In the early 1900s long-distance voice transmission was not very long, was not very reliable and was very capital intensive. In order to produce understandable clarity, wires had to be up to 1/8 inch in diameter. One-fourth of all capital invested in the telephone system in those years was spent on wire. With the use of the Pupin loading coil, the diameter of the wire could be cut in half with no loss of quality. Even with this advance long-distance service was limited to about 1500 miles. The de
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About the Book
I teach a graduate course called the History and Culture of the Information and Communications Industry. This book is a result of that course. It shows how the world has moved from primitive means of communication to the integrated multi-media situation we are in today. Its concentration is on the fields of journalism, telecommunications, broadcasting, and computing. Emphasis is placed on the leaders of the areas of interest and the political and cultural surroundings that encouraged or discouraged growth of the industry. One of the leaders mentioned is that lucky fellow Johann Gutenberg.
Gutenberg certainly built a press that used movable type, but he became famous because of an early confluence of technology. At the time of his work good cheap paper became available from
This book mentions several lucky incidents or “what ifs” in the computer industry. For example, where would Microsoft be if Gary Kildall of Digital Research Corp. hadn’t taken off to fly his airplane when the IBMers came to invite him to build the operating system for their new PC? Or before that, what if Charles Ramlett Flint had reconsidered hiring a convicted felon to run the Computing-Tabulating Recording Company when he brought on Thomas Watson Sr. who turned it into
Politics, especially represented by the US Government, have had many strange or unplanned effects on the IC industry throughout the years. The fact that the US Congress wouldn’t fund the telegraph system that Samuel Morse wanted to build set the precedent for a private telecommunication industry in the
About the Author
Professor Bellaver has forty years experience in telecommunications and Information Technology. He has been at
Immediately prior to
While with the Michigan Bell Company his responsibilities were in Billing, advanced communications studies, and planning for the IT function at the Corporate level. He was a rate case witness and spent some time in Business Research. Professor Bellaver spent six years at the Bell Telephone Laboratories as Department Head for Directory Assistance Computer, Bell System Coordinator for the BISCOM project, and Member of the Technical Staff responsible for various technical and human factors usability studies.
Mr. Bellaver is a graduate of