590 Our Surroundings 



Although television is still in the experimental stage, wonder- 

 ful results have already been achieved. It probably will not be 

 many years before we can sit at home, seeing and hearing foot- 

 ball games, plays, concerts, political meetings, and hundreds of 

 other forms of entertainment and instruction. 



Telephoning Across the Ocean. Not long ago a business 

 man in New York City wished to talk to a customer in Paris, 

 Kentucky. He told his secretary to call long-distance and get a 

 certain number in Paris. The secretary did as she was told, but 

 to his great surprise the business man found himself talking to 

 someone in Paris, France, instead of in Paris, Kentucky. This 

 shows how easy it now is to telephone to Europe, even though 

 there are no telephone wires across the Atlantic ocean. 



How is this done? You pick up your telephone and tell the 

 operator that you wish to call such-and-such a number in London, 

 England, or else you give the name and address of the person 

 whom you wish to call. Your connection is made, like any long- 

 distance telephone connection, with a powerful radio station near 

 New York City. The radio operator calls a certain station in 

 Scotland which receives all messages intended for any point in 

 the British Isles. He establishes clear radio communication with 

 this station, using short radio waves. These short waves are not 

 so long as the usual radio waves used in broadcasting, but they 

 will carry farther. 



When communication has been established, the American 

 radio operator makes a connection between the telephone line and 

 the radio sending set. Your telephone now serves as a broadcast- 

 ing microphone, sending a varying electric current to the sending 

 set, where it is amplified and sent through the aerial wires, thus 

 setting up radio waves in the ether. These waves are picked up by 

 the radio station in Scotland and turned back into a varying elec- 

 tric current, which is sent through telephone wires to the proper 

 telephone receiver in London, England. Thus, through the medium 

 of telephone and radio, you are able to talk to a person in Europe 

 almost as well as to another person living within a few miles of 

 your home. 



Even passengers on ocean liners can now telephone to their 



