The Start Of Radio Broadcasting
This is copied from a book titled Telegraphy and Telephony published in 1928 written by Archibald Williams and published by Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd. I have left it in the original form as the book is written through the eyes of a technical author. Most material about the start of broadcast radio in this country is biased towards the content of the broadcasts rather than the technology.
Derek Stewart G4HSY
While this country was settling down after the War, and wireless was still subject to severe restrictions, electrical manufacturers in the United States began to clear the decks for a big general development of radio, being unhampered by Government regulations. To England, however, belongs the credit of first broadcasting programmes by wireless. These were sent out twice daily, from a 15-kilowatt station at Chelmsford, for a fortnight (February 23 to March 6) in 1920. A wave-length of 2,800 metres was used, the same as that on which telegraphic news was dispatched from Poldhu to ships. Shipping companies and amateurs had been notified before-hand and asked to report results The programmes, consisting of instrumental and vocal selections, reached ships’ crystal receivers up to 1200 miles away, and were picked up by valve receivers at considerably greater distances.
Two months later, a station at The Hague began work. During the summer of 1920 Dame Nellie Melba and other well-known artistes were broadcasted from the Chelmsford station. One concert was heard in Northern Persia and New York. On another occasion reception was so strong in Christiania as to allow the music to be transmitted by telephone line to the chief newspaper offices, and in one case a gramophone record was made of an item received at the Eiffel Tower, Paris.
These few demonstrations led to a great boom in broadcasting in the United States during the years 1921 and 1922. The Western Electric Company led off with a station afterwards called KDKA, which opened on December 21, 1920. More the next year was out, stations had been equipped by scores of business houses and newspaper offices, which saw in wireless a good opening for advertisement. The absence of had the inevitable result of filling the ether with conflicting wavelengths and an immense contusion of sounds. The listener had indeed a large choice, but unfortunately he found it extremely difficult to choose only one station at a time and the nature of the programmes depended entirely on the taste of the owner of a transmitting station.
On the whole it was fortunate tor broadcasting in Great Britain that the Post Office authorities moved very slowly and cautiously, for the delay made it quite clear that, to do itself justice, broadcasting must be under some organized control in so thickly populated a country as ours. Not until 1922, did the Postmaster-General permit anything worthy of the name of regular transmissision from the Marconi station at Writtle, near Chelmsford. Even then the power was limited to 100 watts, the tenth part of an electrical horse-power and the time to half an hour. Writtle opened in March. Soon afterwards, a second station, 2LO, was licensed in London. It occupied a room on the top fioor of Marconi House, and used the same power as Writtle. At first only speech might be transmitted from 2LO: but the rule was relaxed later on and music allowed to figure in the programmes, which aroused great interest all over the country. By the autumn of 1922 over 30,000 licences had been taken out by amateurs wishing to hear what was transmitted. Meanwhile an agreement had been come to between the Post Office and a number of leading electrical firms, under which a company was formed with the title of The British Broadcasting Company Ltd, very soon shortened into B.B.C. The company undertook to erect and work eight eight broadcasting stations, and received a monopoly of broadcasting in Britain for a period of years, besides a share of the licence payable by every possessor and user of a receiving set.
Official broadcasting began from 21.0 on November 14, 1922, the day on which the results of a General Election were declared. The next day Birmingham and Manchester stations opened, followed by Newcastle, Cardiff, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Bournemouth, in this order. By the end of 1923 all these stations were transmitting, and also one at Belfast. During 1924 “relay” stations, using low power, and connected with “main stations” from which they took their programmes, were established at Sheffield, Plymouth, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Leeds, Bradford, Hull, Nottingham, Stoke-on-Trent. Dundee, and Swansea.
The heads of the B.B.C. had a herculean task to face in getting the technical equipment in order, arranging programmes, and collecting an efficient staff. For a considerable time after the official birth of 2LO work was carried on under the great handicap of extremely small and overcrowded quarters. This particular trouble was remedied when the new studio was opened on Savoy Hill; but even then other problems remained, such as the reduction of echo “to the proper” limit, and the correct placing of the various instruments of an orchestra in relation to the microphone.
On the technical side arrangements had to be made for connecting up 2L0 with the various main and relay stations as they were opened. The Post Office put ordinary land lines at the disposal of the B.B.C. during certain hours. By means of switches and these lines, London could make a “simultaneous broadcast” from all stations. This “direct” scheme of connection was altered and modified later on. All stations north of Leeds are now linked up with that town, from which four special lines run to London. The northern stations can therefore now each make independent connection with London through Leeds, and some hundreds of miles of lines have been dispensed with.
On April 29, 1923, a call came into the 2L0 station from a London hospital, asking that a summons should be broadcast to the wife of a patient who was lying very dangerously ill at the hospital. A telephonic or telegraphic message could not reach her, as it was Sunday. Would the B.B.C. give its aid? The first SOS. in B.B.C. history went out that evening into the ether. A few minutes later dozens of cars were hurrying to the address in an isolated village, and within three-quarters of an hour the lady summoned was speeding London-wards in a train. Since then hundreds of similar calls have gone out, and “An S.O.S before we begin” is now a quite common feature of broadcasting
The year 1924 opened with the broadcasting of the strokes of midnight on Big Ben at Westminster This marked the beginning of a system of daily time signals, given by the great clock, and directly, by six ” dot seconds” from Greenwich Observatory. It may safely be said that, since it became possible to check them by these signals, the clocks of Britain have kept time much more correctly than ever they did before.
The main broadcasting stations used sufficient power to operate crystal receivers within radius of 15-20 miles, and, so far as valve receivers were concerned, covered the larger part of the country. But it was felt that a high-power station, placed somewhere in the midlands, would be a great boon. Accordingly, in July 1925 a new station, 5XX, was opened at Daventry. This is vastly more powerful than any of the other stations, for it radiates about 25 kilowatts of energy. It can be picked up easily on a valve receiver at great distances, and on crystal sets within a radius of 60-70 miles. During the transmission of the local news of the bulletins Daventry sends out information about the weather to shipping especially fishing vessels and other craft working close to land.
To appreciate broadcasting at its true worth, one needs to be, or have been, confined to bed under conditions when movement and even reading are forbidden. Then indeed wireless is the good fairy. In health, one may have felt little inclination for listening-in. The headphones now prove themselves good friends in whiling away pleasantly hours that otherwise might have been tedious indeed.
Little wonder, then, that generous people saw in broadcasting a fine opening for generosity. Where, they asked themselves, would wireless be more warmly welcomed than in hospitals? The objections to placing loud speakers in some hospital wards were obvious enough. But if each bed were supplied with a separate pair of headphones any patient could listen independently without annoyance to other occupants of the ward. This distribution, of course, meant much greater expense, so the equipment of hospitals was slow, until the managing editor of the Deity News, after approaching the B.B.C. and hospital authorities for their advice and assistance, launched an appeal ill his paper asking subscriptions to a Wireless for Hospitals Fund.
Money came in freely, the Royal Family leading the way. Commercial houses, banks, and manufacturers of wireless parts gave warm support. Before the end of 1926 the number of London hospitals equipped numbered 121, and the beds supplied with headphones 15,766. A similar movement has taken place in the provinces, so that a hospital without radio is now somewhat difficult to find.
