JF Ptak Science Books Post 2388
I found a news item in the April 6, 1929 issue of Nature that gives a real sense of the coming of the future, of the future-at-hand--and they seemed to have a sense of what was coming, though probably not as big as that future would be. In this case, it was the beginning of the passive visual assumption of the collective culture--the very quick and potentially immediate assimilation of pop culture, this by the invention of television and popular broadcasting.
The unidentified author was reporting on the recent activities of the Baird Television Development Company, which the author was interested in, and although it was "not presently practicable " it did "represent(s) a noteworthy scientific achievement", which I am sure was the writer's way of downplaying a very significant event.
"It is not at present practicable to include television in the broadcasting prgoramme in broadcasting hours", the article states--and indeed there problems with bandwidth, even though commercial radio broadcasts were not all that old at this point. It was suggested that there should be further experimentation for broadcast television, but there must also be care to not impact the existing programming, with a suggestion that a station be given to the Baird company by the BBC for this purpose.
The issue for broadcast television was spectrum space, and "that the wavelengths would need t be established as the existing was much congested." "Therefore" the report continues, "the company should press on with experiments on as low a band as possible" for visual broadcasting. Even at this level the visual broadcasting would be limited to between the hours of one and six in the morning.
"Hearings will be held to determine whether or not public interest, convenience, or necessity would be fulfilled by granting (the applications for developing new bands for broadcasting television)".
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