C. Francis Jenkins, Pioneer of Film and Television

Chapter 8. Radio Pictures: Going Operational

8 radio Pictures: Going operational Jenkins’ private demonstrations of RadioVision and the transmitted photographs of public figures produced volumes of publicity. By 1922, even Scientific American was on board, foreseeing a distinguished future: “it is obvious that we already have broadcasting concerts and opera [on radio], there is no reason why we should not . . . broadcast an entire theatrical or operatic performance.” While the publicity produced anticipation for home theaters, available technology was not yet close to approaching that goal.1 The earliest “official demonstration,” as Jenkins called it, took place on December 12, 1922.2 He transmitted still pictures between his lab and the Anacostia naval radio station NOF in Washington, D.C.3 The demostration was attended by leaders of the military and the motion-picture industry. Military representatives included Admiral S. S. Robinson from the Naval Board; Admiral Henry R. Ziegemeier, Bureau of Communications; Captain J. T. Tompkins and Commander Stanford C. Hooper, Naval Radio Section; Lieutenant Commander A. Hoyt Taylor of the NOF radio station; D. C. Edgerton, supervisor of the post office’s radio activities; and John M. Joy, representing William H. Hays, who had most recently been President Warren G. Harding’s postmaster general and was now reassigned by the president to “clean up Hollywood.” He created the “Hays Code,” or what today is known as the Motion Picture Production Code, establishing standards and a code of conduct for filmmakers. Joy and Hays both would have known of Jenkins ’ motion-picture inventions, as they were active members of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers.4 As the dignitaries watched, a photograph of Edwin Denby, the new secretary of the navy, was transmitted.5 The photo was projected “across a photoelectric cell . . . [with] only a thin ‘slice’ of the LC 108 . chapter 8 image drawn across the cell” by the prismatic rings, and then transmitted. At the receiving end, “the rings automatically reversed the ‘sweeping’ process” to reproduce the picture line by line. It took six minutes to transmit it from the lab to the military base. Jenkinstookadvantageofhismilitaryaudiencetopointoutthatsecrecywas a bonus in his system, as “maps, coded messages and similar secret documents may be transmitted in such a way that no one, but the person for whom they are intended may receive them.”6 The process was so simple and inexpensive, it “may be attached to the ordinary sending and receiving radio outfits already in use at a cost of $50 to $150 [$677 to $2,032].”7 The navy experiments were more than a technological success—they were also a promotional success. The photographs reproduced so well, surprising the authorities, that the “Navy official continued their generous aid in further experiments.”8 On March 3, 1923, under the auspices of the North American Newspaper Alliance, radio photos were publically demonstrated, this time transmitting over a distance of 130 miles from NOF in Anacostia to the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin’s newspaper building.9 The Bulletin called it “the first time in world’s history . . . [that pictures had been sent] from city to city.”10 The photographic dignitaries included here were President Harding, Secretary Hoover, Governor Pinchot of Pennsylvania, and the Bulletin’s managing editor Robert McLean. Navy Commander Stanford C. Hooper observed that Jenkins’ prismatic ring was a spinning prism though which light passed to create scanning lines. The young model here reads the manuscript being transmitted. Courtesy Wayne County Historical Museum. radio pictures: going operational · 109 the method was “capable of transmitting and reproducing the most delicate shading effects met within black and white photography. . . . It is therefore, very much superior in this respect as well as in others.”11 Lawrence C. Porter, 1922–23 SMPE president, lauded the demonstration: “while these were still photographs and took a few minutes to send, Jenkins has all the elements necessary for instantaneous vision as far as present audio radio will travel.”12 On April 28, 1923, Jenkins was invited by an apparently skeptical National Press Club to demonstrate his pictorial transmissions. The portrait transmitted this time was of the president of the club, a New York Tribune reporter, Carter Field.13 Jenkins explained to his audience the technology of scanning and relay, then demonstrated the transmission of a clear photograph. The resolution the reporters had seen previously was vastly improved, as no lines were apparent in the transmitted photo. Jenkins proposed that his system provided reporters a means “by which sport news pictures could be broadcast...