Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 December 1937 — Page 21

Vagabond

From Indiana— Ernie Pyle

Bonanza Kings of Comstock Lode | Trailed by Tragedy and Riches; Last Monarch Waits New Fortune.

VIRGINIA CITY, Nev., Dec. 3.—1 have | been reading books to “prep” mvself on the history of the greatest gold and silver camp the U. S, has ever known—Virginia City. The books were built around the careers of the great bonanza kings of the Comstock Lode. The first king was Henry “Old Pancake” Comstock. He didn’t make the find himself. His loud voice scared the real finders into giving him a share, and naming it after him. Of those four men who first staked the Comstock, one died In poverty, one died in an asylum, one fell off a horse while drunk and was killed, and one committed suicide. The suicide was “Old Pan. cake” Comstock. The second King was William Sharon. He was small, bald, foppish. But with the Bank of California behind him he grabbed the Comstock and for 10 years ruled it with a monopolistic ruthlessness. When he lost the throttle he went on to the U. S. Senate. The third King was not one man but a set of four, working together. They rose from muckers and saloonkeepers to make fortunes of 20) millions. Their names were John W. Mackay (father of Clarence Mackay), James G. Fair whose daugh-

Mr. Pyle

ters married Vanderbiits and Oelrichs), James C. Flood and William S. O'Brien Thev worked the famous play out in 1878 The fourth king who then took over was Adolph Sutro. To me he is the noblest figure of the Comstock, because he fought so long and tenaciously on the side of a mere dream. His victory was almost too late and he abdicated after two years.

lode until it began to

And the fifth king—a modern king—oceupies the precious throne today. 1 went to call on him. His name is James Leonard. He is a gracious, gentle-voiced man of late middle age. He is head of the company now that controls the Comstock Lode. They own most of the ground that covers the great vein. They own the famous seven-mile Sutro tunnel which bores 2000 feet beneath Virginia City and drains the steaming water and foul air of the mines.

Waits for Another ‘Strike’

James Leonard has lived in Virginia City for 40 years. He came out from New York with his father when Sutro, the last king, was abdicating. James Leonard lives in a big white house one block above the main street. He showed me the great porched-all-around mansions of the old mine superintendents. We took = glance at the famous copper chandelier in the Crystal Bar, hanging there since 1884. He showed me Piper's Opera House, where Edwin Booth and Nat Goodwin and Patti and Modjeska came to entertain the newly rich. “Some day Virginia City will come back,” Leonard Savs. Geologists say the Comstock is a true fissure vein. which means that, the metal extends down and down and down, nobody knows how far. They've mever mined the Comstock below 2000 feet, because that is the level of the Sutro drainage tunnel. But as machinery advances, it doesn't seem impossible that another 700 million dollars might come boiling up from the lower regions of the Comstock Lode.

My Diary

By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

Juvenile Court Could Be Improved With Both Man and Woman Judge.

N° YORK CITY, Thursday.—I spent a good part of yesterday catching up with my neglected mail. In the morning, when I opened the course at the Todhunter School. I was much impressed by Mr. Boyd Fisher's speech on rural electrification. One fundamental fact was stressed. that the farmer cannot be served in the same way the city dweller has been. He cannot carry the cost unless the return on the invested capital is comparatively low This is a tremendous field which should be served. Where private companies cannot do so. there 1s no question but that the Government should supplement where it is needed. I made a mistake in one of my columns recently, when I stated that Judge Kelly in Memphis, Tenn., 1s the only woman juvenile court judge in the South. Since that time I have been told of two others. There are many men who have made successful and sympathetic juvenile court judges. If the court "1s in a large enough city, I should think it would be useful to have both a man and a woman serve, for many of the boys’ cases are better handled by a man.

Glad for National Sense of Humor

Perhaps it is a natural result of growing up. The woman reminds them of their early stages of weakness and dependence. The older the boys grow, the less they like that reminder. Many a woman Judge, however, can handle the entire family problem better than a man. I attempted to see “I'd Rather Be Right,” last night, but so many people asked me if I was going to be there that I decided undue interest would be aroused by my presence and relied on the reports of my friends for an impression of the play. They all enjoyed it very much. This play seems to be furnishing a great many people with an amusing evening, but most of them come back afterward with this remark: “Well, the outstanding interest is that we live in a country where a play like this can be produced and acted and have a long run without any interference from the Government. Thank God for democracies.” I would add, fervently thank God for a nation with a sense of humor!

New Books Today Public Library Presents—

AL orrs recollections of the musical world of yesterday and today are contained in Frances Alda’s brilliant and witty autobiography MEN, WOM - EN AND TENORS (Houghton). This is the frank and intimate story of a very charming woman with no inhibitions, told with no logical sequence, the thread of her tale interrupted with any spicy bit of gossip that comes into her head. Her pictures of the artists, Caruso, Garden, Farrar, Destinn, Toscanini, Orville Harrold and Lawrence Tibbett and many other celebrities are colored by her very intense likes and dislikes. Of particular interest are the side-lights into the character of Gatti-Cassazza, director of the Metropolitan Opera for many years, and also husband of the author. » ” ”

A COMPREHENSIVE book on a fascinating subject,

Success o

Side Gl

| | | |

HILL'S BOOK OF EVERGREENS, by L. L. |

Kumlien (D. Hill Nursery Co.), attempts “to answer the thousands of questions which people want to know

about evergreens,” and in this “attempt” the author |

presents us with a valuable and lovely chapter in the history of these decorative and useful trees of ancient and romantic ancestry. A list of the sections which make up the book indicates the scope of the volume: The geological and historical background, and the presentation of the families of evergreens; the cultural information: propagation, planting, pruning, etc.: the uses of evergreens and the proper selection of trees for various needs: illustrations and descriptions of the leading hardy evergreens. Since new varieties are constantly being developed and new species introduced, no book, says the author, can ever be made the “last work.” However, the usefulness of this volume with its hundreds of illustra- | tions, many in color, and its practical text, will be unquestioned. . ‘3 :

. i : 7 Ee

The Indianapolis Times

———————————

f Television

Due to Zworykin

(Third of a Series)

By Norman Siegel

HEN America finally is able to see the world in its living room through the magic of television it will be enjoying the pictorial fruits of the electronic labors of a small handful of men who have surmounted almost impreg-

nable obstacles.

Although television in its final perfected state will be the combined efforts of a number of men, it will be the triumph of a penniless immigrant who arrived in this country shortly after the conclusion of the World War and 14 vears later contributed to television the most important

development in its long laboratory history.

That man is

Vladimir K. Zworykin, who at present is head of the research department of the Radio Corp. of America.

Television was a scientist's dream until Dr. Zworykin gave it a of electronic eves with which to see and record through space the things that came within its range. The technical problem of sight transmission is that of taking a picture or image, breaking it down into thousands of component parts, transmitting each of those many elements with the speed of light and assembling them into an image of the original picture at the receiving end miles away. The clearness of the picture on the screen of the receiver depends upon the number of parts of the picture that can be broken down and assembled to the square inch. The more the clearer the definition. A television picture is similar {o that of a newspaper illustration. Inspected under a magnifying glass, the newspaper picture will be seen to be a series of small dots. The outline is formed by a grouping of the dots. In the darker portions the dots are numerous and close together, Each is a picture element. LJ o o N ordinary picture may contain 4000 such elements or approximately 65 lines per inch. Television needs a greater breaking down of the picture to produce a satisfactory image. At present it is working on 441 lines to the inch. An object or scene is visible only through the light waves which refect from it to the oye. The television camera catches these light waves. Then it must transmit them electrically to the receiving set, where they are transformed into light again so as to be =a reproduction of the original. Originally this was done through the means of a mechanical elec

set

ances—By Clark

tronic svstem. In the first Bell Laboratory and General Electric demonstration 10 years ago the subject was placed in an enclosure similar to a photomaton booth. Bright lights were flooded on the subject. : The camera lenses focused the light reflected from the subject onto a revolving wheel, with =a number of minute holes drilled in its circumference. Tiny ravs of this light passed through each hole to a photo-electric tube, which was sensitive to light. Wires connected this tube to a neon glow tube at the receiver. The more light that was permitted to fall on the first bulb the more electricity it generated and the more electrical energy it transmitted to the neon receiving tube the brighter it glowed.

» » »

fA Noes revolving disc, synchronized with the one at the transmitter, picked up the light components and formed the picture for the spectator. This was the system used in television until the electronic tube discoveries of Dr, Zworykin five years ago. The trouble with the system was that it depended upon moving parts in the scanning disc. The more perforations around the cir-

" cumference of the disc the clearer

the televised picture would be. But, as the number was increased so was the size of the disc, until it approached a breaking point. The two scanning discs used slso were hard to keep synchronized. The experimenters scon began to realize that while the scanning disc system was capable of transmitting pictures through space, it was not, capable of producing = clear enough image fdr practical purposes. An all-electronic system, free of mechanically moving parts, was necessary. 2Zworykin gave television that system.

QD {

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1937

~~RADIO0 OPE

NS ITS EY

— = »

ES |

Pr. Viadimir Zworykin, upper right, and his two important contri-

butions to television.

The “Tconoscope” tube, upper left, is the television eve which picks up light rays and converts them into elsetrical impulses to transmit the picture to the “Kinescope” tube, lower left, which transforms the rays back to light and produces the picture on the head of the tube. The inside of a television camera, showing the location of the “Jeon.

oscope” tube, center,

The scanning disc was perfected up to the point where it could transmit a picture on 180 lines, Zworykin's electronic tubes today can handle a 441-<line transmission. According to C. W, Farrier, NBC television co-ordinator, the 441-line screen is as good as the motion picture of today, The electronic system developed by Zworykin is based on the use of two cathode ray tubes. The tube in the transmitter is known As an “iconoscope,” from the Greek, meaning “image observer.” The receiving tube is known gas the “Kinescope.” The “iconoscope” is the microphone of television: the “kinescope,” the loud speaker,

R. ZWORYKIN outlines system as follows: “The translation of the visual image is accomplished by means of a vacuum tube called the iconnscope. This tube is a vertical elec-

the

tric eye and consists of a photosensitive mosaic corresponding to the retina of the human eve and a moving electron baam represent ing the nerve of the eve. The image is projected optically on the mosaic and transformed within the tube into a train of electrical impulses, representing the illumination of individual points of the image “The reproduction of the image 1s accomplished by means of another vacuum tube, the kinesoope, which transforms the electrical impulses back into the variation of light intensity through the bombardment of a fluorescent screen on the head of the tube by the moving electron heam “The movement of the electronic beams in both tubes, which is re sponsible for both transformations, is linear and divides the picture into a series of parallel lines. The movements are synchronized so that the instantaneous position of

’ Entered 8 at Postoffice,

the beams with respect to a point in the picture is always identical, The syhchronization is transmits ted together with the picture sige nals and operation of the receiver is completely automatic.” A gun at the base of the “loons oseope”’ tube shoots electrons out in all directions to a mica plate that focuses them It is coated with silver on one side in the form of numerous globules, which rons tain caesium. The back of the mica sheet is coated with a solid sheet of silver which acts ag an electrode, » » » HE mica acts as a condenser and the globules produce elec tronic rays when YHght is focused on them. Bach ray corresponds to the dot in the newspaper picture, The complete picture is pioked up 30 times a second by the “iconoscope.” Dr, Zworykin, the father of these two important television tubes, was born in the small town of Mourom, 150 miles from Moscow. He entered the Petrograd Institute of Technology in 1907, where he became the pupil of Dr, Boris Rosing Dr. Zworykin carried the ine spiration of Dr. Rosing through the war while serving with the Czar's army. Coming to this coun= try in 1918, he finally landed a job in the laboratories of the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co. in Pittsburgh. In his spare moments he tinkered with television, In 1924 he was able to demonstrate his findings to West« inghouse officials, They were impressed but Dr. Zworykin wasn’t enough of a salesman to get them to put up the million dollars or so for needed future experimentation. His problem was to perfeet an electronic system {hat would be capable of taking a picture con taining about 150.000 photo elements and convert it into a mov ing pieture by flashing it on a receiver 30 times a second. Handling 4.500.000 separate elements in the flash of a second. No wonder television has become the ale most, eternal problem. In 1928, Dr. Zworykin David Sarnoff, head of RCA and television's godfather. The result of that meeting was money for Dr. Zworykin's tests, A vear later, Dr. Zworyvkin moved aver to RCA and three years later gave the world the solution to television’s engineering problem.

met

NEXT=The television program, what will it he?

U. S. Cool to German Maneuvers To Gain Trade Agreement

to weaken the alignment of demo- [port conditions which it gives to any

By Raymond Clapper

Times Special Writer

| eratic powers which are struggling | nation.

Germany's foreign trade is

| ASHINGTON, Dec. 3.-Ger- |to restrain the German-TItalian- [built largely upon barter deals pro-

| {

v | | | | |

| | | | y. | |

| |

"We ve already missed the feature picture. | only hope we find a parking space in time to see the. previews."

| emphasis upon It is perfectly true that

many has been checking in Washington, trying to find some

way of getting in under the Hull reciprocal-trade program. But the reception was cool,

consider negotiations without

making major alterations in trade |sonal conversations. the Frankfurter Zeitung also Many-—probably most—of our of- |been here recently sounding out Secficials are not in sympathy with the retary Hull, Secretary Wallace, Assistant Secretary of State Sayre and no time was

practices.

Hitler regime

Unquesiionably a German-Ameri- | Treasury officials | can trade agreement now would be [any encouragement given to these

used for political purposes both abroad and at home. And the Hitler regime is extremely unpopular

Vehicle . for attack on the whole

reciprocal trade program.

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

DO not concur entirely with the opinion that women's voices should always be soft and well oduldated, for I believe there are times, and today is one of them, when the need is for stridency. In my limited experience

if she is surrounded by a

being heard.

gentlemen, It is a part of our tradition to be-

lieve that the softness of a woman's voice marks the tenderness of her | her | Some | petticoats |

the nobility of character. Alas for reality! of the slyest rogues in have used the husky whisper to disguise their evil intent. With the advent of diction

heart and

radio, more

the is noticeable. the President of the United States projects his persuasive personality to the farthest hamlet in the land

| Japanese bloc of aggressor nations,

» ” »

HE question came up soon after | the return of German Ambas- | sacdor Dieckoff from Berlin several Germany has | weeks apo. | been advised that it is hopeless to {munication first {ment which was followed up by per-

Germany sent to the State

The editor of

German overtures.

Important, too, is the

The provision requires

A WOMAN'S VIEW | Jasper—By Frank Owen

[that complete and basic her foreign trade program. That | | gets to the central purpose of the Hull break down these trade quotas and special arrangements and the harriers which protect them. and [throw all trade open to all on terms | of equality,

a com- | Depart- |

has

difficulty | concerning the unconditional most- | In Congress and a trade agreement | favored-nation clause. Secretary | with Germany would be used as a [Hull insists upon this in every trade | agreement Abroad, (that each party grant to the other I'such an agreement might be used |the benefit of the most favorable in -

| eould not

later deal tries,

tected by special import privileges

BVIOUSLY it is impossible now for Germany to meet condition, alteration of

program. Its purpose is to

Germany proposed a compromise

over the air waves and that for a|

time has come when, although the voice still lulls us, more people are beginning to listen to the meaning behind the musical phrases; and this is as it should be. The same reaction follows any long contact with what we used to

consciously we often associate with empty words, It has a soporific effect. I listen anxiously for American women to speak up and say some“Yes, sir.” Ae

(long time men and women listened | charmed and worshipping. But the |

| call the “elocutionist voice,” and un- | it

/ sp, ro rem 3 x 1 8

hn PA, INT Goon

Copr. 1937 by United Peature Syndicate, Ine.

J =) TN LLL So oo SH

p 3 ey Wf

— fhm 2-3

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"If he's putting up too much of a fight, Jasper, just forget about

Mamma's plligator

ous

Begond Olas Matter

It would require |

to |

Second Section

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PAGE 21

dianapolis,

Our Tow

By Anton Scherrer

First Telephone Venture Launched Here in 1878 Proved Tough Going Despite Jokes to Lure Business,

J EGEND has it that Cobb and Branham had a set of telephones connecting their office at Market and Delaware Sts, with their coal yards on Christian Ave. and on S. Dela. ware St, as early as 1877, This was only a year or so after Alexander Graham Bell had invented the thing and thought he had it working right, Cobb and Branham’s fast work didn’t impress anys body around here, much less, excite them. The coal merchants must have kept the secret to themselves, because out side of the immediate family nobody around here knew anvthing about it. I don’t know that anybody is better off now that he knows about tele phones, but that's neither here noi there, It remained for BW put. us wise to telephones. Mi Gleason came to Indianapolis in 1878 with 50 telephone receivers in

Cilranon to

Mr. Scherrer

{ his satehel and a million dollars in

had a paper in his telephone patent

his grasp. Outside of that he pocket showing awnership of Bell's for the State of Indiana, Strangely enough, the first thing Mr was to 1aok up the eoal merchants of Indianapolis, and try to interest them in his contraption. Cobh and Branham, of course, didn’t need a telephone which is why Engle and Drew get in today's column Al that time Engle and Drew had their office at 16 N. Pennsylvania St. and their coal vard west of Military Park. They had the two connected with a private telegraph line at the time, and Mr. CHeason talked them into turning it into a telephone system He even went, further, and let the people of Indfs anapolis in on the deal. The 50 receivers Mr, Cieason brought with him were attached to the office end nf Engle and Drew's wire, and at (he other end in tha coal yard, Mr, Gleason had a boy stationed who could crack jokes, whistle, and play the Jew's harp,

Some Wouldn't Believe It

The whole town turned out to learn what il was all about, and for weeks Engle and Drew's office was crowded with people listening to the precocious youngster at the other end of the line. Most of the people wouldn't believe it and said the kid was hidden in the cellar under the office Apparently, Mr, Gleason didn't care wha! (he people said, and went right ahead and organized (he Indiana District Telephone Co. First thing he did after that was to ask the Oity for permission to stretch wires in the streets and alleys, The Couneil wouldn't listen to him. The next vear, however, tha Council thought it would be kind of nice to have the 22 fire engine houses connected. Back in (hose days the firemen led the same lonely lives they do now, Myr. Gleason said he would do if for $251 vided the City would pay 8176 a vear for the instruments. The deal went through After that Mr. Gleason succeeded in getting a few of the larger business firms to connect, thelr «tere rooms with their warerosoms, They were oalled “renters,” not subseribers, and paid about #2 a month for the privilege. Tt wasn't enough to pay for Mr. Gleason's bed and board, and 1 believe he left town after that to seek greene pastures Since then, the telephone people have been doing right well, I'm told

Cileason did

pros rent of

Jane Jordan

Absence of Opposition May Balk

Wish to Marry, Jane Tells Suitor.

EAR JANE JORDAN-<1 am a voung man 36 vears oid and unmarried. All my life T have been a trifler where girls were concerned, falling in and out of love with the greatest ease. With one side of mv nature I want to marry and have a home and chile dren; but something else in me pulls the other wav, There is one girl whom 1 admire above all others. About three years ago I proposed to her and she accepted me. As soon as she said “yes” I became very unhappy and felt just the opposite from what a voung man should feel who has just won the girl whom he loves I had a good job al the time and wag making enough to support a wife in a modest fashion, 1 los interest in my job and felt discontented with my employers. Finally I got myself fired, While out of work I used up all the money I had saved to get, married on. I searched for and got another job out of town at lees than IT was making before and I realize that I accepted less than I could have made to furnish me with an excuse not to marry, Nevertheless, T cannot get the girl out of mv mind or the vearning for a home and children of my own On a trivial excuse I threw up my fob again and came home to be near her. Now I am working in ‘he eity, but T make less than hefore and have nothing saved,

| She is willing to marry me on what I have but 1 still

lack the nerve to make the decision, although 1 eannot keep away from the girl. My parants approve hut, say very little either for or against. Can vou help me make this decision? WEATHER VANE, ” o » wise enough to say posts marry the girl, Prom the way you have written your letter 1 imagine vou are looking for something to push vou into marriage, like a good strong parental “no.” Doubtless vour tie to your parents has something to do with your dread of marriage. If they would oppose you, you might find the strength to make the step, I often wonder how much the “no” of parents and Parliament played in the roval marriage which

Answer--T do not fee]

| has occupied public attention so mueh this vear. Hera

again we have a young man who was the despair of women until he found one forbidden because of twn previous marriages. The reason this marriage stirred up so much discussion is that it symbolizes a universal conflict, There are many persons who cannot fall head over heels in love, caused by infantile fixations which have not been dissolved; sometimes to an inability to break loose from the moorings of self in favor of another: some times to a morbid fear of the power and domination of the partner. If you continue to hesitate, the voung lady will solve the problem for you by marrying someone else,

claim that they Sometimes it is

| This solution won't satisfy you either, as that which | is unfulfilled persists and

haunts the personality which lacked the nourage to seize what it wanted. It iz needless for me to say, “Come. make up your mind.” That command belongs to the voung lady who sooner or later will bring you face to face with the necessity, JANE JORDAN, Put vour problems in a letter tn Jane Jordan, who will Answer vour questions in this column daily,

Walter O'Keefe —

ARIS, Dec. 3.—As vou study the English newss papers you become convinced that Hollywood should steal the press agent who builds up the British Royal Family. The whole cast is probably the highest, paid group of stars now facing a camera. The life story of King George is now running n the Daily Mail complete with pictures, exactly as it might be in the case of Garbo or Gable in America,

| His romance is certainly the old musical comedy plot

of the understudy who jumped into the star's role on a moment's notice and made good. The English love their royalty extravagantly: the King can do no wrong. Of course he can't under the rgscopic scrutiny of millions. He hasn't a chance, > ’ -