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From studio to your home

Model
Video

Abstract

Lynn Poole displays a section of coaxial cable and shows on a map the 67 U.S. cities using this and microwave relays to service 109 television stations. Dr. M.E. Strieby, Director of Demonstrations for AT&T, explains the two ways to carry television programs: by coaxial cable and transcontinental radio relay. He tells how coaxial cable works and shows an amplifier, Bell Labs radio tube, and other electronic devices used in television transmission. Using a phototransistor, electromagnetic wave generator, crystal detector, and a phonograph, Dr. Strieby experiments with various materials to show how microwave signals can be disrupted, reflected, and polarized. Photographs show the lenses of a microwave system and typical metal and concrete relay towers with television transmitters and receivers.

Solar battery

Model
Video

Abstract

Dr. Strieby, of American Telephone and Telegraph Co., demonstrates Bell Labs' recent invention of a solar battery, capable of producing sufficient electric voltage from any light source to operate a telephone. However, most telephone services have large power plants and storage batteries, which function when no light is available, so there is no reason to substitute a solar battery. Dr. Strieby next demonstrates a "personalized telephone" prototype ("like Dick Tracey's"), which functions like a mini-FM broadcasting station using transistors activated by a solar battery. This is only experimental and short-range because of the length of antenna required to transmit beyond a few hundred feet. Dr. Strieby then explains how a solar battery is built, using silicon from DuPont that is purified through a diagrammed process. Ultimately, with the addition of arsenic and boron gas, the thin sheets of silicon create a positive/negative juncture that allows light to become electricity.