INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE—SARNOFF 185 
the long waves of powerful land stations swept across the sea and 
linked America with its Allies. War bulletins moved through the air 
at the rate of 30 to 40 words a minute. Today, short waves and high- 
speed automatic machines handle news at the rate of more than 600 
words a minute. In the First World War, American newspapers had 
to wait for ships to arrive with the historic pictures of Pershing and 
the A. E. F. in France. Now radiophoto service can deliver pictures 
of Eisenhower and his forces in Italy and MacArthur and his troops 
in the South Pacific a few minutes after the camera snaps them. 
Today, largely because of radio, New York is the communication 
center of the world. In 1918, it was London. During the first World 
War the United States found itself at the mercy of foreign communi- 
cations. America learned the lesson then, that radio was the nerve 
system of war as well as of peace. Immediate steps were taken to 
safeguard the future, to give the United States supremacy in world- 
wide communications and to make sure that never again would this Re- 
public be dependent upon the wave lengths, cables, or wires operated 
and controlled by other nations. 
As a result of this determination, the direct radiotelegraph circuits 
of RCA now reach 51 countries in Central and South America, the 
West Indies, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australasia. Radiophoto cir- 
cuits operate between New York and London, Stockholm, Berne, Mos- 
cow, Cairo, and Buenos Aires, while the terminal at San Francisco 
serves Honolulu and Melbourne. 
In this war, radio is everywhere—with soldier, sailor, marine, 
and airman. Modern warfare has put radio instruments into every 
bomber and fighter plane, into every mechanized unit, and into every 
ship. There were no walkie-talkies or handy-talkies in No-Man’s 
Land, at Verdun or at the Marne. The “cease firing” order signed 
by Foch was shouted and carried by runners along the trenches. The 
radio equipment of that day was too massive and too heavy for more 
than a limited use in airplanes. Now compact, efficient radio goes 
aloft with all planes; wave lengths are their life lints. Coordinating 
great aerial squadrons, radio guides the bombers and swarms of 
fighters over the targets, and safely back to the airports. The para- 
trooper leaps from the skies with a miniature radio transmitter—no 
larger than a cracker box—strapped to his belt. The artillery, 
through its radio, knows at all times what the infantry wants, when 
it wants it, and exactly where it wants it. 
These historic comparisons dramatize the great advances made by 
radio in a quarter of a century. Industrial science and private enter- 
prise, free and unfettered, took the war-born electron tubes, the radio- 
telephone, and the short waves, and adapted them to peaceful 
pursuits. Clues to what might be accomplished in peace were, how- 
