Electronics at Work (1943)

This is a 1943 Westinghouse video uploaded my the mysterious GBPPR2. It which explains the six basic functions of electronic vacuum tubes and how each type of tube is used in certain applications. About 4 years later the transistor was invented by William Shockley and tubes were obsolete for most applications.

1929 Air Telephone Directory

This is my 1929 Air Telephone Directory. The brand name originates in 1889 with the founding of the Dayton Fan and Motor Company. Day Fan was printing these bi-monthly and mailing them out at 50 cents for a 1-year subscription. This one describes itself as number 6, Volume 6. So Presumably that's last issue of year 6. So issue one, year one would have been February of 1924. I've scanned it below. It contains 38 pages of domestic radio stations and frequencies, even some international broadcasters.

The company only made fans until 1922, when they started to sell radio components, then whole radio units around 1924, which lines up nicely with my math. The company was bought in 1929 by General Motors and thus was became the General Motors Radio Corp. I've never found a directory any later than 1929, but I suspect they were printed into 1930 since that's only 30 days after this issue. But later than that is unlikely as the company was liquidated in 1931 as a result of an antitrust suit.

This of course was back in an era when we actually prosecuted anti-trust cases.  The General Motors Radio Corporation was owned 51% by GM the other 49% was owned by Westinghouse, RCA and GE. But why did they buy it?  By 1929 the company was a total money loser, it was insolvent, and funded by Charles Kettering, a VP at GM. It's likely that they bought Day Fan just because they had an existing license from RCA for their radio patents. It further concentrated market share in the hands of a few. But it was very late in a game they were about to lose.

In 1930, the DOJ filed their antitrust suit against against RCA, General Electric and Westinghouse. They lost and the DOJ divided up the pie. GE and Westinghouse had to give up their shares of RCA. RCA stayed in the radio business and GE and Westinghouse had to get out of the pool. They couldn't even compete in that industry for almost 3 years. As a result the majority of the shares in Day Fan were owned by companies no longer allowed to sell radios or GM for whom it was ancillary to their core business. The General Motors Radio Corp. was liquidated in 1931.  You can read more here  here.

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Adventures in Research

 No, not my Adventures in Research. Most of my research is kind of erratic and highly partisan. I refer to Westinghouse's radio series "Adventures in Research". It was a documentary-style radio series from the 1940s that was focused on science and research. Of course, they too are partisan. In one biographical episode they actually lionize George Westinghouse. In another they claim that radio broadcasting began on KDKA-AM.
Slightly self-aggrandizing, but usually informative it was described both as a celebration of "Yankee Ingenuity", and also as a Public Service Program. It ran from The 1942 to 1954 producing at least 75 different fifteen minute episodes. The episode about KDKA is #49596. though inaccurate to a fault, it's recreation the election returns broadcast was great radio. Of course the Adventures in Research program was being created in the studios of KDKA, so that one is perhaps more partisan than any other. **AUDIO EXPIRED** 

Other topics included rural electrification, Morse code, the telegraph, modernization of agriculture, radio navigation, penicillin and many others. The first programs are more stiff consisting largely of Q&A sessions with Paul Shannon asking the questions, and Dr. Phillips Thomas answering. The later programs included dramatizations that were much more engaging for listeners. It was a wise format change considering the young audience they were aiming for.

Host Paul Shannon was a Pennsylvania native, born near Washington, PA in 1909. He worked at KDKA-AM for years eventually leaving for a gig at WTAE-TV doing children's programming including the locally popular "Adventuretime". Throughout the 1950's and 1960's he continued to do similar shows, hosting reruns of youth-oriented programs. He retired in 1975, and died in 1990. More here.

Dr. Phillips Thomas was a research physicist for Westinghouse. His position historically is somewhat unclear. He's often sighted in magazines of the day demonstrating electronic gizmos like photoelectric marimbas, and a "vortex gun." He was a real member of the research department but seems to have segued into a spokesperson of some kind.

Their Adventuretime programs are available from OTR in a nice CD-R package here or download some from Archive.org. for free.