Dh RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1289 
How Radio Works 
HE TRANSMITTING STATION.—Before tell¬ 
ing you just lio\v and what you need for re¬ 
ceiving the broadcasts that are continually “on the 
air,” I am going to try to give you a description of 
■what takes place at a broadcasting station and in 
your home when you are receiving a broadcast pro¬ 
gram. Looking at the diagram that is given here, 
you will note that we have a “transmitting station” 
which is the broadcasting station, also we have the 
receiving station, which is your own receiving set. 
The broadcasting station has an “operating room.” 
where ail the machinery and controlling apparatus 
is; it has a “studio,” where the speakers, singers 
and entertainers do their “biton the roof of their 
building they have an “aerial,” which consists of 
several copper wires strung tightly between two sup¬ 
ports and well insulated from the supports and from 
touching any part of the building, this aerial being 
up by your aerial. Your aerial will be a piece of 
copper wire about 75 ft. long strung between your 
house and the windmill tower or any two poles, 
with a wire coming into the house to your receiving 
set. From your set another wire will run to your 
pump, or water pipe, if nearby, or be fastened to a 
rod driven in the ground. These wireless waves in 
passing through your aerial and receiving set are 
turned into electrical impulses which in turn work 
a pair of telephone receivers and you hear the words 
of the speaker just as you would over an ordinary 
telephone. Just how these waves are sent out and 
again turned into sound is not a subject that will in¬ 
terest us. but what we will need and how to use a 
receiving set will be of great interest to us. But 
before telling you of any receiving sets, and explain¬ 
ing how to use them, there are one or two little 
things that we should know or they will he causing 
trouble and misunderstanding at times. 
a full copy of the Massachusetts law. This was ap¬ 
proved on May 2, 1922. 
A survey of the State made last Winter shows 
that 7.000 acres of woodland in 15 towns was clas¬ 
sified under this law. This is certainly not a re¬ 
markable showing, yet it may be called promising. 
Apparently no attempt has been made by the State 
to advise or call particular attention to this law. 
Naturally, the local authorities would not do so. 
It is claimed for the law that it will make it possible 
for anyone who owns or starts a young forest with 
reasonable promise of a timber yield to engage in 
forestry as a business. Such a man pays the bulk 
of his taxes when he gets his return. The law will 
build up taxable property for future revenue, and 
thus offset the immediate decline in taxes. The 
law proposes that young timber shall be taxed on 
the valuation of the land alone, and that the stand¬ 
ing growth shall be free from taxes until cut, or 
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Diagram Showing Working of Radio 
(Mmmk 
I read an article in The R. N.-Y. about Montana seed peas and thought I would 
write you my experience with them. I came from Montana last September, and 
brought some pea seed with me. I am sending you a picture of the peas I planted. 
The picture really does not do them justice. They were planted in an old chicken 
run, and allowed to vine on the six-foot chicken wire fence. Some of the vines 
would measure eight feet high, and were loaded with peas. james hyde. 
connected by a wire to the machinery 
in the operating room ; also from this 
machinery there is a wire connecting 
this machinery with the earth. Thi- 
connection may be made through the 
steel framework of the building, 
connecting to a buried metallic object, 
such as a water pipe or iron rod. 
There are several people also in these 
rooms; one who announces each num¬ 
ber on the program, the men who op¬ 
erate the machinery, and the licensed 
operator whose business it is to see 
that the law is observed. 
BROADCASTING.—Let us now sup¬ 
pose that we have been invited to give 
a talk “over radio” and we had been 
shown into the “studio.” 
we enter the studio we are cautioned 
to keep quiet, as every sound that we 
make will go out over the radio. We 
quietly remove our wraps, sit in a com¬ 
fortable chair and wait for the “hap¬ 
penings.” Soon a pleasant-appea ring 
young man comes to you and says. “We 
are ready for you, come this way 
please. Now just talk into this (and 
he points to a curious object standing 
on a table) and please speak distinct¬ 
ly. You may begin your talk just as 
soon as you see this green light go 
out.” (He points to a little green 
light that is burning in front of you.) 
He then walks across the room, picks 
up a telephone and says, into it, “We 
are now going to have the pleasure of 
listening to Mrs. Mary Joyce tell us 
how she makes jellies. You listeners- 
in will remember that Mrs. Joyce took 
the first prize on her jellies at the New 
York State Fair. Mrs. Joyce.” Then 
suddenly the green light goes out and 
you know that now you must do the 
talking. Somehow or other you man¬ 
age to go thi*ough your talk, even if 
your knees are shaking, and as you 
finish the green light is lit again and 
you hear the announcer say, “This is WGY, General 
Electric Co., Schenectady, N. Y. You have just 
heard Mrs. Joyce, who has talked upon the subject, 
‘How to Make Jelly.’ Our next number will be—” 
and you know that though you have not seen a 
“listener-in” you have been heard by thousands of 
women all over this country. You then go home 
wondering at the marvel of radio, and feel proud 
of the fact that you have talked over it. Two days 
after your adventure you receive a hundred or more 
letters forwarded by “WGY” from people in nearby 
cities and States that tell you how they enjoyed 
your talk, and each day for many more you keep on 
receiving such letters. We have seen now a little 
of what took place at that broadcasting station, 
but. we have not seen how it was done. This we 
will not describe in detail, as it is too technical to 
be of interest to most of us, but we will tell just a 
little of how it was sent out. When you, or the an¬ 
nouncer, talked into that queer instrument (a mi¬ 
crophone) your voice was changed into electrical 
impulses that were passed through the different 
pieces of apparatus in the operating room, and from 
there were carried, still as impulses, up and onto 
the aerial upon the roof, and from there these im¬ 
pulses went in every direction as wireless “waves,” 
to be picked up by anyone within range who has a 
radio receiving set. 
RECEIVING.—The diagram will show you the 
wireless waves leaving the aerial of the broadcasting 
station and passing through space and being picked 
SPEED.—We think of automobiles moving much 
faster than horses, and we used to have some 
“speedy” horses. Trains, airplanes and birds have 
speed, sound travels a little over 1,000 ft. a second 
and light travels at a speed of 180,000 miles a sec¬ 
ond or over seven times around our world in one 
second. This then is the speed of radio waves, 
which travel with the speed of light. 
THE MODERN MIRACLE.—Think of it, you in 
your home, sitting comfortably in a chair with a 
pair of telephone receivers to your ears, listening to 
a radio program, actually hear the speaker’s voice 
before the people in the studio who are only 15 to 
25 ft. away hear the same voice. The time is so 
short that we call it instantaneous. We are fami¬ 
liar with the miracles performed 2.000 years ago, 
and unfortunately many doubt that these miracles 
were actually performed, yet today we are living in 
an age when miracles are being performed around 
us and we think nothing of them. I believe that 
radio, one of the greatest miracles, will do more for 
universal understanding and world peace than any 
other single thing that we know of now. j. h. f. 
The Massachusetts Forestry Law 
W E have had many questions from readers 
who ask about the forestry law in Massa¬ 
chusetts. They have heard that forest land is not 
taxed in that State, and as there is some little mis¬ 
understanding about the matter we print herewith 
until it has reached a specified average 
yield per acre. Then the owner will 
pay a tax of 0 per cent on the stump- 
age value of the trees. Of course, it is 
not known yet just what the outcome 
of this legislation will he, but the 
friends of forestry feel that they have 
made genuine progress in encouraging 
tree planting. 
Section 1. An owner of forest land, 
valued on the town tax list of the pre¬ 
ceding year for land and growth at not 
more than $25 per acre, and which does 
not contain more than 20 cords per acre 
on the average, but which is so stocked 
with trees as to promise a minimum 
prospective average yield per acre, ex¬ 
clusive of water, bog or ledge, of 20,000 
board feet for soft woods, or S,000 board 
feet for hard woods, or for mixtures of 
the two, such volume between said 
limits determinable by the relative per¬ 
centages of the two classes of growth, 
may apply in writing to the town assessors 
to have said land listed as classified for¬ 
est land, and such application shall con¬ 
tain a description of said land sufficient¬ 
ly accurate for identification. Section 2. 
Within 30 days after the receipt of said 
application the assessors shall decide 
whether the property fulfills the require¬ 
ments for classification, and shall notify 
the owner of their decision, giving their 
valuation of the tract as land alone, and 
if within 10 days of notification the 
owner accepts their decision the assessors 
shall give him a certificate containing the 
name of the owner and a description of 
the parcel to be classified, and stating 
that the land described conforms to the 
requirements for classification under this 
chapter. Upon the recording of this cer¬ 
tificate by the owner in the registry of 
deeds for the county or district where 
the land lies, the parcel shall become 
classified forest land. Each parcel of 
land so classified shall thereafter be des¬ 
ignated in the annual valuation list of the 
town, in the column provided for the de¬ 
scription of each parcel of land, as clas¬ 
sified forest land so long as the parcel re¬ 
mains so classified. The valuation and 
tax annually assessed upon land classi¬ 
fied under this chapter shall not include 
the value of forest trees growing thereon. 
When classified forest land is sold or 
otherwise changes title, the obligations 
and benefits of this chapter shall devolve 
upon the new holder of the title. Sec¬ 
tion 3. The standing growth on classified 
forest land shall not be taxed, but the 
owner of such land, except as hereinafter 
provided, shall pay a products tax of (» 
per cent of the stumpage value upon all wood or tim¬ 
ber cut therefrom, and one-tenth of such taxes collected 
by the town shall be paid to the State treasurer. Trees 
standing on such land shall not be included in the town 
valuation in apportioning the State or county tax 
among the towns. But an owner of classified forest, 
land may annually cut, free of tax, 'wood or timber 
from such land, not exceeding $25 in stumpage value; 
provided, that such wood or timber is for his own use 
or for that of a tenant of said land only. Buildings or 
other structures standing on classified forest land shall 
be taxed as real estate with the land on which they 
stand. Classified forest land shall be subject to special 
assessments and betterment assessments. The owner 
shall make a sworn return to the assessors before May 
1 in each year of the amount of all wood and timber cut 
from such land during the year ending on the preced¬ 
ing April 1. Section 4. When in the judgment of the 
assessors classified forest land contains on the average 
per acre 25,000 board feet for soft woods, or 10,000 
board feet for hard woods, or for mixtures of the two 
such volume between said limits determinable by the 
relative percentages of the two classes of growth, they 
shall notify the owner that two years from date of 
notification the forest products tax of 0 per cent of 
the value of the standing timber based on the above 
volumes will be levied and that the land and timber 
will at that time be taken from the classified list and 
placed in the general property tax list. Should the 
owner elect to reduce within two years, the volume of 
timber below the volume mentioned in the preceding 
sentence the land shall remain classified, but, if at the 
end of five years from time of cutting, the growing stock 
on the tract does not meet the requirements for classifi¬ 
cation contained in section one, the tract may be taken 
from classification by the assessors, and any taxes due 
thereon collected. An owner may withdraw his land 
from classification at any time by the payment of the 
land tax, and the forest products tax of 0 per cent on 
the estimated value of the standing timber. Within 30 
days after an owner requests to withdraw his land from 
classification the assessors shall determine the taxes 
due thereon, which shall be paid before the land is 
