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National Resources Planning Board 



in mathematics and physics and their appHcations of 

 Lord Kelvin (then Sir William Thomson), with the aid 

 of other competent men, guided the promoters and 

 manufacturers to improved processes of manufacture, 

 improved processes of laj'ing deep-sea cables, and im- 

 proved methods of testing them. Moreover, they 

 invented unique new instruments for sending and re- 

 ceiving messages. It was this process of industrial 

 research dedicated to the purpose of scientific discovery 

 and invention which, in spite of the early failures of 

 cables, made ocean telegraphy a success and has con- 

 tinued to contribute improvements. Land telegraphy 

 has hkewise profited, and is profiting, from such or- 

 ganized industrial research. 



Radio telephony and telegraphy are other extraordi- 

 nary results of industrial research. Following the 

 hint inherent in the. electromagnetic-wave experiments 

 of Heinrich Hertz, Marconi began his effort to apply 

 electromagnetic waves to wireless communications. 

 When he transferred his work from Italy to Great 

 Britain, a research organization was gathered together 

 to press forward the apphcations, which met with so 

 much success that similar laboratory organizations 

 entered the field in various parts of the world. Several 

 of the most important of these, including that of the 

 Radio Corporation of America, now are located in this 

 country. 



The addition of the triode-vacumn tube of De Forest, 

 and great inventions by others, brought corresponding 

 processes into the field of telephony with wire circuits, 

 with extraordinary results in improving telephone 

 service and lowering the prices necessary to be charged 

 to users of such service. 



The numerous improvements have so bettered the 

 service and lessened the cost of telephone and telegraph 

 service that in this Nation the public has profited in 

 multiple degree for all the large expenditures put into 

 the telephone and telegraph researches; in addition to 

 the individual citizens having gained so much in con- 

 venience and in recreation from the wire and the radio 

 communication systems. 



Active research continues in many industrial research 

 laboratories associated with the communications art, 

 with the result that scientific discoveries and inventions 

 are leading to further improvements. Recent advances 

 have added materially to the national economy and to 

 opportunities for national recreation. New telephone- 

 transmission channels have been secured through the 

 use of high-frequency carrier currents, and recently 

 the so-called ' 'coaxial ' ' cable has been added . Increased 

 speed of transmission, increased numbers of usable 

 transmission channels in a circuit, and decreased 

 cost of plant have been produced as the results of newly 

 discovered materials (such as magnetic alloys and 

 improved insulations) and from better understanding 



of the electrical properties of materials and of electric- 

 circuit combinations. Thereby the quick transmission 

 of intelligence has become a relatively low-cost product, 

 associated with all the favorable implications of mass 

 distribution of such a powerful influence as electrical 

 intercommunications for producing unity throughout 

 the population. 



Specifically in the telephone field, research has 

 resulted in (and is continuing to provide) economy 

 of installation and operation through the effects of im- 

 proved cable facilities, carrier and broad-band systems 

 of transmission, better understanding of transmission 

 phenomena accompanied by improved structure of 

 circuits, switching methods, insulating materials, vac- 

 uum-tube design, the utilization of piezoelectric crystals 

 for electrical filters and for standards of frequencies. 

 This not only is contributing new techniques to im- 

 prove service and decrease prices for local communica- 

 tions, but also is promoting speed and economy of 

 communications over long distances. 



In the radio-broadcast field important research is 

 progressing in various lines among which we may note 

 the effort to overcome disturbing effects caused by 

 "static" and other extraneous noises. Progress of 

 particular promise is shown in what is known as "fre- 

 quency modidation" and "phase modulation," and 

 combinations thereof, and these results may contribute 

 great improvement to the quality of broadcast recep- 

 tion. Such associated important radio procedures as 

 route and landing guides for airplanes and other radio- 

 wave applications are the outcome of long and intensive 

 laboratory research; and constant extension of such 

 service is observable. 



In the oldest field of wire communication, namely, 

 wire telegraphy, the developments have particularly 

 taken the form of improved factors governuig speed of 

 transmission, increased utilization of wire plant, and 

 extension of wire facilities for additional uses such as 

 picture (facsimile) transmission and the use of tele- 

 typewriters, with the printer-telegraph system made 

 capable of use on a toll basis. 



In general, industrial research in the electrical com- 

 munications field has been of a basic character relating 

 to circuit theory and to circuit networks which apply 

 to steady-state conditions of the currents, transient 

 conditions, and line transmissions; and also to the 

 prevention of mterference between circuits within the 

 communications field, and between high-voltage power 

 circuits and communications circuits; to means of 

 shielding circuits, the invention of repeaters and their 

 introduction into the operating circuits, and to me- 

 chanical acoustic systems. Basic studies of materials, 

 particularly of magnetic and electric materials, have 

 brought great fruit from the work carried on in the 

 commimications laboratories, and those laboratories of 



