From Bell Labs: a ‘telephone with eyes'

© Mark Ollig

The 1920s saw a surge of research and development in television technology.

Two different approaches emerged: mechanical and electronic.

The mechanical television system used a Nipkow disk, a spinning platter with holes that scanned the moving images line by line and transmitted them as electrical signals over wire or radio waves.

German engineer Paul G. Nipkow (1860 to 1940) envisioned an “electric telescope” and invented the Nipkow disk in 1884.

Its principle of sequential scanning remains fundamental to modern television technology.

In the early 1920s, American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) engineers worked on the mechanical television system at the Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York.

Under the leadership of Herbert E. Ives (1882 to 1953) and Frank Gray (1887 to 1969), the team at Bell Labs, consisting of engineers, scientists, and technicians, made significant contributions to the long-distance transmission of television.

Their work involved a mechanical scanning system that featured a Nipkow disk with a spiral pattern of holes, which was essential in the sequential scanning of images for transmission as electrical signals.

It featured several small holes, which allowed light to pass through and illuminate the subject.

The light intensity varied according to the scene’s characteristics, such as its brightness level.

These variations were captured by a photocell, which then converted the light patterns into electrical signals modulated for transmission via wires or radio waves to a corresponding receiver.

At the receiver’s end, another synchronized Nipkow disk, paired with a neon lamp, decoded the signals.

In conjunction with the rotating disk, the lamp’s varying brightness recreated the original scene as a visual image on a screen.

The resulting image boasted a resolution of 185 lines and a frame rate of 16 frames per second, which, while low by modern standards, marked a significant achievement for the time, rendering moving images recognizable.

Vladimir Zworykin’s (1888 to 1982) invention of the iconoscope in 1923 represented a leap forward in television technology.

This device, nearly six inches long and 3.75 inches across, featured an array of 50,000 photoelectric cells laid out in a spiral pattern.

These cells captured the image and transformed it into an electrical signal, functioning as an “electric eye.”

The iconoscope was a device that generated a video signal, which was then displayed on a cathode ray tube.

Despite its limited resolution of 24 lines and a refresh rate of 12 frames per second, the iconoscope was a significant breakthrough in developing electronic television systems.

It is widely regarded as the predecessor to the modern video camera tube, analogous to early television cameras, and represented a significant advancement from earlier mechanical designs.

In 1927, the technology for television was still in its early stages.

The quality of the TV image depended on the number of scanning lines and frame rate – the more scanning lines and frames per second, the more precise and detailed the picture.

A rectangular iconoscope screen measuring two inches by 2.5 inches was used to see the person on the other end.

At 2 p.m. EST, April 7, 1927, AT&T began publicly demonstrating its television system at the AT&T auditorium on 463 West Street in New York City, where reporters, journalists, researchers, and scientists had assembled.

Their television system transmitted its signals over 220 miles of copper telephone lines from Washington, DC, to New York.

In 1927, the telephone lines could not handle high-frequency television signals, as they were engineered to handle voice communications, which operate within a much lower frequency range than video signals.

AT&T installed special equipment and components to send TV signals via phone lines between Washington, DC, and New York City.

The equipment included amplifiers, load coils, equalizers, and components to counteract distortion and maintain signal quality.

During AT&T’s portion of the wireless demonstration, a radio frequency of 2.5 MHz was used due to its long-distance transmission capabilities.

This frequency carried the television video signal and was broadcast from AT&T’s experimental radio station 3XN in Whippany, NJ, which had a 50-foot antenna tower and a 500-watt transmitter.

Attendees at the AT&T auditorium could speak with, hear, and see US Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover (1874 to 1964) in real-time from Washington, DC, on the telephone, loudspeaker, and large screen set up on the stage.

Herbert Hoover was the first to appear on live television in the US; he would become the 31st president in 1929.

A woman singing was televised live over the 2.5 MHz radio frequency during the demonstration.

AT&T’s President Walter S. Gifford (1885 to 1966) then spoke with and saw Hoover in a real-time televised broadcast.

The Minneapolis Daily Star newspaper reported April 8, 1927, that Gifford sat before “the television apparatus and began conversing with Mr. Hoover. As the telephone company president talked, he looked through a rectangular aperture about two inches by two and one-half inches and could see and hear Secretary Hoover.”

The California Visalia Daily Times newspaper called it a “Telephone with Eyes.” April 30, 1927.

I learned AT&T used its television technology to improve the transmission capacity of its long-distance telephone network.

The April 7, 1927, television demonstration was filmed, and a one-minute segment can be seen at http://tinyurl.com/TVHoover.

A diagram showing the schematic of the April 7, 1927,
 television demonstration over radio and telephone circuits.

‘Zero-G and I feel fine’

© Mark Ollig

Project Mercury, announced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Dec. 17, 1958, aimed to put the first Americans in space.

The Soviet Union’s growing technological prowess following their launch of the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth, Sputnik 1, Oct. 4, 1957, was among the reasons for Project Mercury.

The US participation in the “space race” was also inspired by national pride and fear of falling behind.

On April 12, 1961, the space race heated up when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, completing one orbit around the Earth aboard the Vostok 3KA space vehicle.

The US responded May 5, 1961, when Alan Shepard, navigating the Mercury Freedom 7 spacecraft, became the first American in space.

His 15-minute suborbital flight reached an altitude of 116 miles and ended with a safe splash down in the Atlantic Ocean.

NASA’s Mercury spacecraft, measuring six feet, 10 inches long, and six feet, 2.5 inches in diameter, was mainly constructed using titanium and cost $5.5 million, approximately $56.6 million today.

Its heat shield originated from existing ballistic-missile warhead technology and measured six feet and eight inches in diameter, with a radius curvature of 10 feet. It comprised a fiberglass/phenolic resin composite, with an inner structural laminate providing stability.

On Feb. 20, 1962, as 40-year-old John Glenn was settled into his Mercury spacecraft Friendship 7 seat, his friend and backup pilot, Scott Carpenter, radioed these memorable words: “Godspeed, John Glenn.”

John Glenn became the first American to orbit our planet aboard Friendship 7, launched by the Mercury-Atlas LV-3B booster rocket.

The Atlas booster stage detached about two minutes after launch, with the smaller engine thrusting Glenn’s spacecraft into orbit.

During his first orbit of Earth, astronaut John Glenn radioed Mercury Control Center in Cape Canaveral, FL, declaring, “Zero-G and I feel fine.”

He would later report seeing “very bright little particles” drifting by the spacecraft’s observation window as “small, glowing fireflies” that worried the folks in the Mercury Control Center.

“They do have a different motion from me because they swirl around the capsule and then depart back the way I am looking,” Glenn reported.

During Friendship 7’s second orbit, the Mercury Control Center received a signal indicating the spacecraft’s heat shield was loose and was concerned the illuminated “fireflies” Glenn saw were related.

If the heat shield detaches during re-entry, the spacecraft will burn up due to the extreme temperatures.

As a safety measure, Glenn was instructed not to detach the retropack (a metal structure holding the three retrorockets attached to the heat shield) after initiating the retrofire during the spacecraft’s re-entry.

It was hoped that the retropack, typically detached before re-entry, would keep the heat shield in place if it was loosened.

A clogged side-to-side movement steering thruster interrupted the automatic control system at the end of the first orbit.

John Glenn quickly switched to the manual fly-by-wire system. He maintained the spacecraft’s attitude, ensuring it stayed on course while working with systems regulating the thrusters and retrorockets.

After three orbits, the Mercury spacecraft gradually slowed for the fiery re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.

During the four minutes and 56 seconds of re-entry, Friendship 7’s heat shield ablated (charred and evaporated) the extreme fiery heat by dissipating it through erosion and vaporization away from the spacecraft, thus protecting Glenn from temperatures reaching 5,432 degrees Fahrenheit.

Friendship 7’s drogue parachute deployed, followed by the main chute, ending with a safe splash down in the Atlantic Ocean.

After a five-hour mission, John Glenn was recovered by the US Navy ship USS Noa (DD-841) and then transferred by helicopter to the USS Randolph (CV-15), the primary recovery ship.

Upon inspecting the spacecraft, officials discovered a faulty operating switch in the heat shield circuit, indicating that the shield’s clamp had been prematurely released.

The fireflies Glenn saw were ice crystals formed from condensation on Friendship 7’s exterior and shaken loose by various movements while in orbit; the sun illuminated them, and the weightlessness of space allowed them to drift around the spacecraft.

In 1964, John Glenn left NASA, becoming a US Senator for his home state of Ohio ten years later.

Six Mercury spaceflights, launched between 1961 and 1963, were the foundation for the following Gemini and Apollo space programs.

At 77 years and 103 days old, John Glenn proved he still had the right stuff by becoming the oldest person to orbit the Earth (134 orbits) during a nine-day mission aboard the space shuttle Discovery from Oct. 29 to Nov. 7, 1998.

As a payload specialist, Glenn performed experiments and underwent tests to study aging during spaceflight.

After leaving the US Senate in 1999, he founded the John Glenn Institute for Public Service and Public Policy.

“Star Trek” actor William Shatner became the oldest to travel into space Oct. 13, 2021, at 90 years and 205 days, during his 11-minute, 66-mile-high suborbital flight.

However, he did not orbit the Earth as Glenn had aboard Discovery.

John Herschel Glenn Jr. was born in Cambridge, OH, July 18, 1921, and died Dec. 8, 2016, at 95 in Columbus, OH.

The front page of the Feb. 21, 1962, edition of the Minneapolis Morning Tribune.
This edition featured John Glenn, the first American to orbit the planet.
It includes photos of him and his wife, Annie Glenn.
(photo of this newspaper from my collection)

Untethered: embracing the wireless life

© Mark Ollig

After working in the telephone industry for decades, I believed physical communication mediums like wires were the most reliable.

I was skeptical about wireless technology; however, recent events have changed my beliefs.

After installing and thoroughly testing a home router for wireless internet, I cut the cord with my internet service provider.

My Verizon Internet Gateway LTE 5G home router links to 4G LTE and 5G networks, automatically switching to 4G LTE when the 5G signal is weak or unavailable, ensuring consistent internet access.

The router uses 5G NR (New Radio) non-standalone technology, the LTE network for control functions like signaling and mobility management, and the 5G NR network for high-speed data transfer (downloads and uploads).

I programmed the device’s Wi-Fi 6 router to extend the internet signal on my home devices: Google Nest Hub, iPad Pro, and Galaxy S21Ultra 5G smartphone.

Verizon’s Internet Gateway LTE 5G is only available in some areas; your local service providers may have similar offerings.

I also replaced my USB-C charging cable with a Samsung wireless charging phone stand that uses the Qi (pronounced “chee”) wireless standard developed by the Wireless Power Consortium.

Qi is a Chinese word meaning “vital energy.”

The charging stand uses dual coils for wireless power transfer, with an LED indicator and built-in fan. Qi allows for encrypted data exchange during pairing and charging.

A new wireless charging standard, Qi2, will be released this year and compatible with smartphones, tablets, laptops, wearables, and IoT smart devices.

The first public wireless power transfer using an AC (alternating current) generator and wire coil to light incandescent lamps was achieved by Nikola Tesla during a lecture in 1891 at Columbia College, NY.

Nikola Tesla, born in Croatia in 1856, was a visionary inventor with over 300 worldwide patents, mostly related to AC power systems.

In 1891, Tesla invented the Tesla coil, which produces high-voltage, low-current, high-frequency AC electricity and can be used for wireless energy transfer.

In 1888, George Westinghouse purchased Tesla’s patents for the AC induction motor, AC transformer, and Polyphase AC power distribution system to establish an AC electrical grid system.

The 1893 World’s Fair, which took place in Chicago, was an exhibition that presented the latest advancements in science, art, and culture.

Westinghouse and Tesla provided the AC electricity that powered some 92,000 light bulbs across its expansive 700-acre site.

The fair took place from May to October of that year and showcased around 60,000 exhibits, including those of Nikola Tesla.

Tesla amazed audiences with spectacular experiments such as creating artificial lightning, sending sparks through his body, and lighting a gas-filled tube with his hand.

In 1898, at the Electrical Exposition in New York City’s Madison Square Garden, Tesla demonstrated the world’s first radio-controlled vessel, a toy boat, using a small radio signal apparatus.

In 1899, Nikola Tesla established a well-equipped laboratory in Colorado Springs to investigate the potential of wireless transmission.

He constructed a powerful “magnifying transmitter,” essentially a giant Tesla coil, and explored wireless and communication signals, primarily focusing on wireless power transmission.

On May 18, 1899, the Colorado Gazette newspaper reported Tesla wanted to build a wireless communication system to send messages and images across the globe.

He proposed his idea of a wireless transmission around the globe to a financier and one of the world’s foremost financial figures, Wall Street banker John Pierpont Morgan.

In 1901, Morgan financed Tesla with $150,000 ($5.5 million today) to construct a transatlantic wireless communication system.

A 94 by 94-ft red brick structure in Shoreham, Long Island, housed Tesla’s laboratory and electrical equipment, where he oversaw the construction of the 187-foot-tall Wardenclyffe Tower.

The tower had a copper hemispherical dome at the top, which housed a large Tesla coil linked to a 55-ton iron core connected via a six-gauge AWG insulated wire to a primary coil inside his laboratory.

The primary coil was coupled to a secondary coil inside the tower, creating a resonant transformer circuit that could transmit wireless power over long distances.

Tesla wanted to use the Wardenclyffe Tower to achieve wireless energy transmission using his “Tesla coil” transformers.

He requested additional funding from Morgan in 1902 for wireless power transmission, but Morgan was only

interested in Tesla’s wireless telegraphy work.

On Dec. 12, 1901, Guglielmo Marconi transmitted the letter “S” in Morse code from Poldhu, Cornwall, UK, to Signal Hill, Newfoundland, marking the first radio signal to cross the Atlantic Ocean, a distance of 3,000 miles.

Tesla’s slow development of wireless telephony using the Wardenclyffe Tower had exceeded Morgan’s resources and patience, causing him to withdraw his support.

Tesla failed to secure new investors, faced competition, and experienced technical difficulties, ultimately abandoning his wireless project in 1906.

Morgan died in 1913 while living in Italy.

In 1917, Tesla’s unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower was demolished and sold for scrap to pay off his debts.

Nikola Tesla died Jan. 7, 1943, at 86, in Manhattan, NY.

Although not fully realized in his lifetime, Nikola Tesla’s vision of wireless communication and power transmission profoundly inspired the development of the wireless technologies we use today.

The non-profit organization Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe owns Tesla’s laboratory site in Shoreham, Long Island, NY, which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Their website is teslasciencecenter.org.

The 187-foot-tall Wardenclyffe Tower
behind Nikola Tesla's brick laboratory/plant

Early motion picture technology

© Mark Ollig

In the late 1800s, groundbreaking technological changes unfolded in visual storytelling.

Motion picture cameras and projectors brought stories to life on illuminated screens.

Between 1890 and 1892, Thomas Alva Edison and William Kennedy Dickson developed the Kinetograph, an early motion picture camera.

The Kinetograph is the first true motion-picture camera using a flexible celluloid film strip to capture a sequence of motion photographs of people or objects.

It captured motion at about 40 frames per second, contributing to the illusion of movement when seen through the Kinetoscope, an early device used to view processed film from the Kinetograph.

The Kinetoscope, a precursor to the modern-day motion-picture film projector, created the illusion of movement by running a strip of perforated film containing sequential images over a light source fitted with a high-speed spinning wheel shutter.

A person looked into the Kinetoscope through its peephole, a small window aperture to watch the film’s moving images.

The Kinetoscope used a Geneva drive or Maltese Cross mechanism to move the film strip forward in small, consistent steps, ensuring that a new picture film frame was always in front of the viewing lens, creating the illusion of continuous motion for the viewer.

Our brain interprets rapid, successive still frames as continuous movement, a phenomenon known as the visual phi effect.

Although the Kinetoscope was not a projector machine for movies shown on a screen, it did introduce the primary approach for cinematic viewing.

In April 1894, the Holland Brothers opened the first commercial motion picture theater in New York City with ten Kinetoscope machines.

They charged five cents per Edison “moving picture,” including the “Annabelle Serpentine Dance” featuring Annabelle Moore, who, in 1907, was cast as the Gibson Girl in the Ziegfeld Follies.

The Eidoloscope, an early motion picture projector, was completed in New York City by Woodville Latham and his sons, Otway and Gray, along with Eugene Lauste, between 1894 and 1895.

The Eidoloscope used the Latham loop, which stabilized the filmstrip between the continuous sprocket and intermittent mechanism movement, reducing film wear.

Using a 51mm wide film, the Eidoloscope was the first to use a widescreen format projecting motion film onto a large screen with an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1.

“It reproduces all moving objects and their every motion life-size and with absolutely lifelike accuracy and fidelity,” said The Minneapolis Star newspaper article titled “Marvels of the Eidoloscope,” published August 12, 1895.

In the early days of motion pictures, the films were seen in old shops and restaurants converted into makeshift theaters. The projection screen could be a painted wall, a tightly stretched white linen sheet, or a canvas hung on a wall.

Movies back then were called “flickers” because the illuminated film frames changed rapidly, causing the images to flicker on the screen.

In the early 1890s, Charles Jenkins was busy developing the Phantoscope film projection machine.

He later met Thomas Armat, who provided financial backing and worked on the film projection apparatus modifications.

They disagreed on who deserved recognition for the modifications made to the projector, leading to a legal conflict over the ownership of the Phantoscope patent.

The judgment ruled Charles F. Jenkins would be issued a patent for the original design of the Phantoscope.

Thomas J. Armat, who had been working on his modified version of the Phantoscope with Edison Manufacturing Company, was granted a US Patent (No. 580,749) on April 13, 1897, for his electrically-powered film projector titled “Vitascope.”

Armat transferred his patent to the Edison Manufacturing Company, and they renamed it “The Edison Vitascope.”

The company then began mass-producing Vitascopes to showcase Kinetoscope movies to larger audiences.

In 1892, a French inventor, Léon Bouly, coined the term “Cinématographe” (meaning ‘motion picture writer’) and a device called “Cynématographe Léon Bouly.”

However, due to his inability to pay the patent fees, the rights to the name “cinématographe” became available in 1894.

In 1895, Auguste and Louis Jean Lumière acquired the rights and designation, adopting Cinématographe as the name of their invention.

The Cinématographe, which functioned as a camera and projector, was lightweight for its time, weighing around 16 pounds.

The Cinématographe, using a hand crank, was recorded at 16 frames per second. While seemingly low, this rate was sufficient to create a lifelike illusion of fluid motion when projected.

The Cinématographe was publicly demonstrated for the first time on Dec. 28, 1895, at the Grand Café on Boulevard des Capucines in Paris, France.

“The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station” is an 1895 short film created by the Lumière Brothers.

When it was first shown, the audience was so overcome with the realism of the life-sized train moving toward them on the screen that they screamed and ran to the back of the room.

See their films at tinyurl.com/LBFilms (the train appears at 4:29).

Early pioneers of motion picture technology laid the foundation for today’s film industry.