THE COVER: The first intelli-
gible words over the telephone
were a call for help—see
page 121. From a painting by
George Rapp.

AN IMPROVED TELEPHONE BATTERY, U. B. Thomas . 3... 97
THE GENERAL PURPOSE ANALOG COMPUTER, A. A. Currie. . 101

A MICROWAVE NOISE SOURCE, W. W. Mumford . . . . . 116
7o teams PATENTS ISSUED . 129
AT&T ANNUAL REPORT . 122 LIFE INSURANCE... . 130

NEW JERSEY RAIL DISASTER 125 SERVICE ANNIVERSARIES . 133
JEWETT FELLOWsHIP . 126 RETIREMENTS . . . . . 134
IN MILITARY SERVICE . . 128 PIPE FITTER—ARTIST . . 138

463 WEST STREET, NEW YORK 14, N. Y.
0. E. BUCKLEY, president J. W. FARRELL, secretary M. B. LONG, treasurer

PAUL B. FINDLEY, editor
PHILIP C. JONES, science editor
JULIAN D. TEBO, science editor

R. LINSLEY SHEPHERD, associate editor
HELEN McLOUGHLIN, assistant editor
THEODORE N. POPE, circulation manager

During 1950 Bell System Operating Com-
panies will be receiving storage batteries
with an expected life at least 40 per cent
longer than those now being used. In addi-
tion, the new batteries will bring about
further savings, through simplified mainte-
nance procedures. This improvement results
from the use of calcium in place of anti-
mony as a hardening agent for the lead
alloy in the grids and other metallic parts.

The grids function as supporting struc-
tures for a battery’s active materials: the
sponge lead of the negative plate and the
lead peroxide of the positive plate. Under
the conditions encountered in telephone use
it is now known that the eventual failure of
a storage battery is usually caused by the
corrosion of the positive grid. As shown in
Figure 1, this corrosion results in an expan-
sion or “growth” of the grid structure which
ultimately cracks the grid frame and thus
destroys the support for the positive active
material. The calcium alloy shows less cor-
rosion and growth, under comparable con-
ditions than the antimony alloy which has

been standard for many years. The story
that is behind this development is an
interesting example of the progress of a
research program the first step of which
was the identification of a trace of an un-
expected gas in the atmosphere of a battery
room. It started in 1930, when a program of
electrochemical research on the lead-acid
storage battery was initiated under the di-
rection of H. E. Haring. The purpose was
to determine whether the existing battery
type could be improved from the standpoint
of the telephone system’s special require-
ments. Although there was little complaint
against the lead-antimony storage battery,
it had not undergone any radical change in
fifty years. Inasmuch as recognition of fault
is prerequisite to improvement, the initial
object of the investigation was to discover
in what ways the operation of the telephone
battery was less than ideal. It was believed
that this procedure would provide a clue
which would open up a profitable program
of research. Results obtained from subse-
quent tests supported this belief but the clue

Sometime previously a series of analyses
of the atmosphere in central offices had
been made in studies of relay contact tar-
nish. Close re-examination of the results
revealed that the concentration of reducing
gases, such as sulfur dioxide and hydrogen
sulfide, was always slightly higher in the
atmosphere of a battery room when the
battery was being overcharged.

This mysterious excess of reducing gas
was traced to the batteries. Caught in a
liquid-air trap, it was positively identified
as stibine (SbH3) a gaseous compound of
hydrogen and antimony.°®

Identification of this gaseous compound
of antimony suggested the hypothesis, later
confirmed, that in the course of normal bat-
tery operation, antimony a dissolves
from the positive grid, passes through the
electrolyte, and plates out upon the sponge
lead of the negative. During the overcharge
period, the hydrogen formed at this elec-
trode combines with the antimony to form
the gas, SbHs. The migration of antimony
from the positive to the negative electrode
has two results: the positive grid structure
is weakened, and the negative plate is con-

taminated with antimony. Being electro-
positive to the sponge lead which consti-
tutes the active material of the negative
electrode, the antimony causes local action
and hence self-discharge. Thus, antimony
is objectionable in telephone batteries be-
cause it accelerates self-discharge, and re-
duces their life by hastening the destruction
of the positive plates.

Theory showed that the grid-hardening
material should be electronegative to lead.
It should also be present in minute amounts
and well-dispersed to minimize leaching out.
A lead-calcium alloy then being developed
for cable sheath approximately met the re-

quirements. In 1933 experimental cells using
a lead-calcium alloy containing less than 0.1
per cent calcium were made in the labora-
tory and compared with similar cells using
the 12 per cent antimony alloy then being
used in commercial telephone batteries. As
predicted, self-discharge was markedly
slowed down in the calcium cells. They re-
quired only one-fifth as much current as
the antimony cells to maintain them in a
state of full charge. Moreover, the new
alloy was less susceptible to corrosion.
Next, arrangements were made with a
manufacturer to produce a number of full-
size lead-calcium cells for field trial. Proper

control of the very small amount of calcium
required presented a major difficulty. Some
of the calcium originally added to the melt
was lost by oxidation during melting and
casting; determination of the calcium con-
tent was laborious and slow. Consequently,
the composition of the final castings was
variable, with results, however, that later
proved to be highly significant.

In November, 1936, a battery of twenty-
four cells with a rated capacity of 684
ampere-hours was made and installed in a
teletypewriter power plant of the Long
Lines Department at 32 Avenue of the
Americas, New York. On an adjacent rack
a comparable battery using the standard
antimony alloy was installed and operated
under identical conditions. After four years
of operation, some of the positive grid
frames in the lead-calcium batteries began
to develop cracks. Since this is usually a
precursor of failure, all the lead-calcium
batteries were replaced and sent to the
Laboratories for study.

The cracked grids, it was found, had not
affected the electrical performance of the
batteries, which still delivered 120 per cent
of their rated capacity. Moreover, chemical
analysis showed that cracking was limited
to grids having more than the specified 0.1
per cent calcium. On the basis of this in-
formation, it was then decided to order cells
for additional tests, with more careful con-
trol of calcium content.

In 1945, after nine years of service, the
lead-antimony battery at 32 Avenue of the
Americas had reached the end of its useful
life. A discharge test showed that some of
its cells could deliver less than 70 per cent
of their rated capacity, well under the 75
per cent minimum required for a telephone
battery. In contrast the remaining lead-cal-
cium cells in simulated service at the Lab-
oratories, still delivered nearly 120 per cent
of their rated capacity, despite the bad
physical condition of many of the positive
grids. More recent tests show no significant
decrease in capacity of the lead-calcium
cells after thirteen years of life—40 per cent
longer than the useful life of standard bat-
teries. Their total life still remains to be
determined. (See Figure 3).

batch were disassembled at the end of the
nine-year period for inspection and com-
parison with some of the antimony cells
removed from 32 Avenue of the Americas.
The earlier findings were confirmed: grids
with the specified calcium content remained
in excellent condition; they had no cracks
and showed relatively little growth, (Figure
2). Similar results were obtained after thir-
teen years. The grids with more than 0.1
per cent calcium expanded and, in many
cases, deteriorated badly. As shown by the
curve in Figure 4, the degree of growth is
closely correlated with the excess calcium.
The antimony grids from the cells which
had failed in service had grown three to
five times as much as lead-calcium grids
containing 0.07 to 0.08 per cent calcium.
The grid-cracking in the first commercial
lead-calcium batteries vividly demonstrated
the need for close control of the alloy in the
manufacture of these batteries for the Bell
System. For the analysis of calcium in lead,
there was developed a completely new and
very simple method which virtually elimi-

Fig. 4—Growth rate of 11-inch positive plates for
various concentrations of hardening agent.

nates the difficulties of calcium control in
manufacture. Sensitive to 0.001 per cent cal-
cium, the new method takes less than half
an hour, instead of the forty-eight hours
previously required. The first group of bat-
teries made using the new test method
demonstrated that the desired calcium con-
centration can now be maintained with
little difficulty.

The first post-war calcium cells were de-
livered in 1947. After a period of laboratory
tests, twenty-four of these commercial cells
were installed in the PBX at the Murray
Hill Laboratories and have been a regular
part of the power plant since January, 1948.
This installation is shown on the first page.

All three of the Bell System’s regular bat-
tery suppliers have now made lead-calcium
batteries which have operated satisfactorily
in a broad program of field trials: in large
48-volt batteries in the Beechmont central
office in Cincinnati, the Plantation central
office in Pittsburgh, and in the central of-
fices at Maple Heights and Bedford, Ohio,
and Tonawanda, N. Y. Most of the 12-volt
filament batteries for the TD-2 radio relay
route from New York to Chicago will be of
the lead-calcium type. Present plans call for
the conversion of future production of
nearly all cells of 180-1680 ampere-hour

Calcium cells will not require the equal-
izing charges now necessary to counteract
the change produced by aging in lead-
antimony cells. Their low self-discharge
rate means a reduction of 80 per cent in the
power consumed in maintaining a state of
full charge. More important, the water addi-
tions required to maintain the electrolyte
level will be reduced by 80 per cent. This
represents an important saving in mainte-
nance cost in unattended remote locations.
Reduced maintenance and a longer period
between battery replacements are expected
to result in savings which greatly exceed

A word of caution is directed to those who
may expect to buy long-life lead-calcium
batteries for other uses. The new battery
was developed for the specific requirements
of the Bell System where the majority of
telephone batteries are maintained on a
closely regulated floating routine with bat-
teries held at a voltage just sufficient to
maintain a full state of charge. Discharge
occurs only during the infrequent failures
of commercial power. With continual charge
and discharge, lead-calcium may be less
satisfactory than lead-antimony.

THE AUTHOR: Uprron B. Tuomas, Jr., re-
ceived the B.S. degree in chemistry at the College
of William and Mary in 1929 and joined the Tech-
nical Staff of the Laboratories in July of that year.
Since that time he has been engaged in funda-
mental studies on storage batteries and on the
contact resistance characteristics of tarnished metal
surfaces. He is active in the Electrochemical Society
as secretary-treasurer of the Battery Division and
as associate editor of the Society’s Journal.

Seated at the consol of the computer, Miss R. A. Weiss operates the controls.

One of the trends in science and tech-
nology is that the problems requiring solu-
tion are getting ever more complex. In
developing communication systems, exten-
sive research and engineering effort is re-
quired to design a system which will be
practicable, reliable, and economical. The
successful culmination of this effort de-
pends, to a large extent, on the success with
which complex systems of mathematical
equations are solved. Many of them may
be solved in the conventional manner—by
use of pencil, paper, slide rule, and pos-
sibly a desk calculating machine. Others
are very difficult to solve in this manner,
and some are not susceptible to hand solu-
tion at all. It is necessary, therefore, to
place more and more reliance on one or
another of a variety of computing machines
which have been evolved over the past
decade or so. Such computers are of two
general classes: digital and analog. Typical
of the former is the relay computer! devel-
oped in these laboratories a few years ago.
To date the only analog computers devel-
oped by the Laboratories have been for
specific applications,” such as the control of
anti-aircraft and seacoast artillery fire. Re-

cently, however, a general purpose com-
puter of the analog type has been con-
structed to assist in the work of the
Laboratories.

In this computer, electronic circuits are
used to perform the various mathematical
operations of addition, subtraction, multi-
plication, division, integration, and differ-
entiation. Some of the circuits employed
for these purposes have already been de-
scribed in the Recorp,® and to a large
extent the new general purpose analog
computer is based on these earlier circuits.
Its basic computing unit is a three-stage
negative feedback amplifier, shown in sim-
plified form in Figure 1. A number of
inputs are provided, all feeding through
input resistors of the same value to the
signal grid of the first stage. The amplifier
output is normally connected through an-
other resistor of the same value to the
signal grid for feedback. When a volt-
age is applied to one or more of the inputs,
a voltage e appears on the grid on the first

Fig. 1 — Simplified schematic of the basic feedback amplifier of the analog computer.

tube, and a voltage Ey = — pe at the output
of the final stage. The currents through
all but the feedback resistor are of the
form (E, —e)/R, with the direction of flow
being as indicated. Since the grid of the
tube draws essentially no current, and the
connection to the automatic zero set circuit
is open except during the momentary check
periods, the only path for the current flow-
ing in the input resistors is through the
feedback resistor. Current in this latter
resistor, in the direction indicated, is thus
(e —Eo)/R. Since this current is the sum
of the other currents, the basic equation
for the amplifier is:

Multiplying both sides of this equation by
R and rearranging, the equation becomes:

Since ==—ye as noted above, —ko/p
may be substituted for e in equation (la).
This results in the equation:

It is this characteristic—that to within
very close limits the output voltage is equal
to the negative of the sum of the input
voltages—that makes this type of amplifier
so useful in the computer. It is, of course,
necessary to match the input and feedback
resistors closely and use care in the design
of auxiliary circuits associated with the
amplifier to realize accuracies of this order.

With only slight changes in some of its
ancillary circuits, this same basic amplifier
is used for most of the functions performed
by the computer. That it serves as an
adder is evident from equation 4.

It becomes a differentiator with respect
to time if the resistor for the input voltage
is replaced by a capacitor, as shown in
Figure 2. With this circuit, ip — (e —Eo)/R

In other words Fo is now proportional to
the derivative of E, with respect to time.

To convert the amplifier into an inte-
grator, the resistor and capacitor of Figure
2 are interchanged, giving the arrangement

shown in Figure 3. By equating the cur-
rents as before, this circuit gives the
expression:

For multiplying and dividing, potenti-
ometers are associated with the amplifier.
Figure 4, for example, indicates the circuit
used for multiplying by Kk, where x is less
than 1. Here, because of the potentiometer,

The potentiometer is shaped to compensate
for the load imposed by the input resistor
of the amplifier. The purpose of the ampli-
fier in this and similar circuits is to prevent
any variable load of succeeding elements
of the circuit from affecting the voltage KE.

For dividing by a constant less than 1,
the potentiometer is put in the feedback
path as indicated in Figure 5. As may
readily be calculated, the equation for this
circuit is:

(8)
Since multiplying by a constant greater
than 1 is the equivalent of dividing by the
reciprocal of this constant, multiplication
by a constant, L, greater than 1 may be
accomplished by making the k of equation
(8) equal to the reciprocal of L. Similarly
to divide by a constant greater than 1,
equation (7) will serve if k is made equal
to the reciprocal of the constant.

The above two equations will take care
of situations where a variable is to be
multiplied by a constant. Very often, how-
ever, it is necessary to multiply two
variables together, such as xy, or to multiply
one variable by a function of another
variable, such as ycosx. For such pur-
poses, and for a number of others that
sometimes arise, an amplifier is used as
the control element of a servo that drives
two or more potentiometers; the potenti-
ometers may be wound uniformly (i.e.,

linearly) or shaped to match any one of
several common functions such as the sine,
cosine, etc. The circuit employed under
these conditions is illustrated in Figure 6.

In this circuit the amplifier is essentially
the same as in the other schematics except
for the Rc circuit connected to the mid-
point of the feedback resistor. This is
inserted to avoid oscillation or “singing”
of the servo; insofar as the basic circuit
equations are concerned, it may be ignored.
Any output voltage, Eo, from the de ampli-
fier interacts with one phase of a two-phase
alternating voltage supplied to the modula-
tor amplifier by a 200-cycle oscillator. The
modulated two-phase voltage is amplified
and applied to the two-phase servo motor.
The motor will thus rotate clockwise or

Fig. 2— Block diagram of the basic amplifier
arranged for differentiation.

Fig. 4 — Block diagram of the basic amplifier
used for multiplication by a constant.

Fig. 5 — Block diagram of the basic amplifier
used for division by a constant.

counterclockwise at a rate dependent on
the polarity and magnitude of £; it will
stop when Ey = 0.

In Figure 6 it will be noticed that two
inputs are connected to the de amplifier—
a voltage E, representing some variable in
the computing system, and a voltage Ey:
from the brush of one potentiometer of
the servo. This particular potentiometer
is connected to the negative computing
voltage source, —E.. The servo is so con-
nected that when E; + Ep; does not equal 0,
the resultant control voltage, Eo, will drive

the motor to a position where E; + Ep: = 0.
At this balancing point, the angular brush
position will be the same fraction of the
maximum angular span, @m, of the potenti-
ometer as FE; is of the computing voltage,
Ec, OF

Now consider a voltage, E2, representing
another variable, applied to another potenti-
ometer of the servo. The relative brush

The above two equations indicate how
the servo operates, i.e., it requires a volt-
age input, E,, and the end product is a
voltage, Ep2, appearing on the brush of a
potentiometer. These quantities may be
interpreted mathematically by dividing
both sides of the second of the above equa-
tions by E,; it then becomes

Mathematically, then, the voltages in-
volved in the operation of the servo may be
represented as decimal fractions of the com-
puting voltage, and these ratios related to
the various quantities of the mathematical
equations. This same notation is used
throughout the computing system in trans-
lating mathematical quantities to operating
voltages. Using this notation, the ratios
appearing in the above equation may thus
be replaced by single letters, as: ry2 re
>< 1. An example will indicate the proce-

m xX
200 X 250 == 50000
Since each of the variables must be re-
duced to a decimal fraction, assume that

The number 90000 is selected arbitrarily
so that all quantities in the equation will
be 1.0 or less. The ratio 0.667 which repre-
sents m is now to be associated with £;, and
if the computing voltage, E., is 100 volts,
will equal 0.667 < 100 — 66.7 volts, or

The ratio 0.833, which represents n, will
be similarly associated with F2, and thus
E2 will be 83.3 volts. The servo will bal-
ance at a value of ©/O,— 0.667, since
E,/E, — 0.667, and the brush voltage Epe
will be Ep2 = E3(@/@m) = 83.3 X 0.667 —=
55.5 volts. But 55.5 volts is 0.555 &X Ee:

The output is thus seen to be 0.555 in the
notation which has been adopted, which
agrees with the mathematical equation in
decimal fraction notation. Obviously, by
retranslating this equation, the actual value
of p is readily obtained: p/90000 = 0.555,
Or p — 0.555 X 90000 = 50000.

Besides these various uses of the basic
amplifier, it is also used to obtain the basic
+100 or +50 measuring voltages referred
to above, to isolate two successive potenti-
ometers in a circuit, and also to multiply
by —1.

JACKS - SERVO POTENTIOMETERS
POTENTIOMETERS POTENTIOMETERS POTENTIOMETERS
1&2 IN EACH 3&4 IN EACH 5&6 IN EACH
SERVO SERVO SERVO + 7TO12

JACKS AND CORDS — AMPLIFIER OUTPUTS
30 ADDERS
1 DIFFERENTIATOR
12 INTEGRATORS

JACKS — AMPLIFIER INPUTS
30 ADDERS
1 DIFFERENTIATOR
12 INTEGRATORS
9 SERVO AMPS

CORDS - POTENTIOMETER BRUSHES
(SAME ARRANGEMENT AS POTENTIOMETER JACKS ABOVE)

POTENTIOMETER KEYS
(SAME ARRANGEMENT AS POTENTIOMETER JACKS ABOVE)
THESE KEYS USED TO APPLY +100 VOLTS TO
POTENTIOMETERS IN LIEU OF INPUT VIA JACKS

tegrators, and 9 servos, for which 45 linear
potentiometers and 15 assorted function
potentiometers are available. In addition
there are 41 potentiometers which may be
set by hand to supply the constant volt-
ages called for by various equations. To
permit these units to be selected as required
in setting up a problem, their inputs and
outputs appear in one form or another on
a three-panel patch board shown in
Figure 7.

On this board, the appropriate terminals
of all of the adders, integrators, differ-

Fig. 9— A power supply unit at left, a stand carrying
two of the single-motion recorders, middle, and left
end of the control console at the right.

entiator, servo amplifiers, potentiometers,
and recording units, are brought to con-
ventional telephone type jacks and plugs.
In a complex problem, 100 or more con-
nections may be required, and thus it
is necessary to distribute the apparatus
terminals judiciously to avoid an undue
concentration of cords on the board. All
amplifier terminals appear on each bay,
with the input terminals connected to’ jacks
and the output terminals to jacks and cord
plugs. All potentiometer terminals are
brought to jacks, while potentiometer
brushes are connected to cord plugs. These
elements each appear once; they are dis-
tributed over all three bays. The general
arrangement is shown in Figure 8. By dis-
tributing the terminals in this way, all bay-
to-bay patching is avoided, and the patch-
ing for a given problem is distributed
generally over the board as a whole. Most
connections are made by cords integral to
the board; additional connections may be
made as required by separate patch cords.
Lamps on the patch board are associated
with each potentiometer or amplifier input
jack for monitoring purposes. A lighted
lamp informs the operator either that a
connection has been made to an input jack
on another bay, or that the computing
voltage has been applied to a_potenti-
ometer by operation of the key on the
bottom panel. No apparatus failure will
occur if the operator disobeys these warn-
ings, but the resulting circuit will no longer
be analogous to the system under study.
For recording the solution of problems,
four Leeds and Northrup single-motion
type-G Speedomax recorders and two Leeds
and Northrup two-motion type-G Speed-
omax recorders are employed. In addi-
tion all servos are equipped with drum
dials by means of which brush positions
may be read to 0.001 for problems where
only the end product of the computation
is significant. The Leeds and Northrup
single-motion units contain a synchronous
motor for the paper drive, and a servo-driven
pen. Any voltage applied to the pen servo
will cause the pen to assume a propor-
tionate position between 0 and 1 (0 to 10
inches of pen travel) to scales of 1, 2, 5,
10, 20, 50 or 100 volts per 10 inches as

desired. A dependent variable may there-
fore be graphed automatically as a func-
tion of time.

The two-motion recorders are similar to
the single-motion units except that the pa-
er as well as the pen carriage is servo
controlled. These units may, therefore, be
used to plot any two variables regardless
of how each of them varies with time.
These two-motion recorders have been
modified to enable them also to introduce
empirical data into the computing circuits,
and are thus referred to as function units.
A curve representing the desired data is
plotted on the chart of one of these
recorders, and then when the pen is made
to follow the plotted curve, either by
manual or by automatic means, a voltage
proportional to the value of the function
is supplied to the computing circuits.

The four single-motion recorders are
mounted on two movable stands, one of
which is shown in the middle of Figure 9.
The two double-motion recorders, which
are the ones used as function units, are
mounted on the control console, shown in
the photograph at the head of this article.
In all, the computer includes 6 units: the
patching panel, the control console, the
two recorder stands, a power supply unit
(shown at the left of Figure 9), and the
computing unit, which is shown with its
covers removed in Figure 10. This latter
unit houses the power supply regulators

THE AUTHOR: After graduating from the
University of Pittsburgh with a B.S. degree in
Electrical Engineering in 1933, A. A. Currie spent
some seven years with the Westinghouse Electric
Corporation engaged chiefly in synchronous mo-
tor design. In January, 1941, he was ordered to
active duty as a First Lieutenant in the Coast
Artillery Corps, and during the next five years
served as an Instructor, Officers Division, Coast
Artillery School, Fort Monroe, Virginia, Instructor-
in-charge, Fire Control Section, in the Enlisted
Division of the Antiaircraft Artillery School. Cam

Davis, N. C., and as a Member of the Antiaircraft
Artillery Board, becoming a Lieutenant Colonel be-
fore leaving the Army. In February, 1946, he joined
the technical staff of these Laboratories and since
then with the Military Electronics Department, he

TABLE I — ACCURACIES OBTAINABLE IN THE
VARIOUS COMPONENTS OF THE COMPUTER

Settable to nearest turn of
wire on control potenti-
ometer. Potentiometer card
ratios accurate to at least one
part in 1000.

at the left, and the various computer cir-
cuits at the right. Near the top of this
latter unit may be seen three of the servos,
and in the row of apparatus immediately
below them are some of the servo modu-
lators and the 200-cycle oscillator. Be-
neath these, about in the middle of the
cabinet, is the automatic zero-set circuit,
and on the left of this are 12 feedback
amplifiers and on its right are 9 amplifiers.

Control of operation of the system for
most problems is effected by operation of

a single switch on the control console. In
the initial, or RESET, position of the switch,
the inputs to the integrators are opened,
the integrator feedback condensers are
short-circuited, and the timer is stopped.
In the second, or INTEGRATE, position, the
inputs are closed, the feedback condensers
released, and the timer started. The third
position, MEASURE, may be used where it
is desired to measure quantities throughout
the system at particular values of the inde-
pendent variable. In this position of the
switch, the integrator inputs are opened
and the timer stopped. Since there is no
current flow on the grid side of the ampli-
fier, except the very small signal grid
current and the intermittent automatic zero-
set grid current, there is no appreciable
change of voltage across the feedback con-
densers of the integrators, and their output
voltages remain fixed. This situation is
analogous to “stopping” time for a brief
interval.

In an analog system of this type, where
the circuit configuration is variable from
problem to problem, individual component
accuracies must be as high as practicable
to avoid unduly large over-all errors. In
addition, of course, the machine must be
used judiciously to avoid unfavorable scale
factors. In general, the component char-
acteristics shown in Table I indicate the
accuracies which are obtainable. The
accuracy of the computer has been checked
on a limited number of problems and has
been found to lie generally within the range

0.1 per cent to 1 per cent. On a recent
problem, for instance, which utilized about
70 per cent of the capacity of the machine,
it was found that the solutions agreed with
those produced by a digital machine to well
within 1 per cent on the average. On other
problems, spot checks made by hand com-
putation have indicated computer accu-
racies of the order of 0.1 per cent.

The operation of the computer is rela-
tively simple but demands a broad knowl-
edge of the capabilities of the components
in order to select scale factors and circuit
configurations which are optimum. Main-
tenance, likewise, is not difficult, tech-
nically, but may be cumbersome due to
the large number of components involved.
The components themselves are identical
with those developed in World War II
for use in fire control systems, and are
reliable under severe operating conditions.
The assignment of a small portion of the
available operating time to routine main-
tenance by skilled engineering personnel
serves to maintain the instrument at peak
operating efficiency.

The general design of the computer was
conceived by E. Lakatos of the Math-
ematics Research Department, and_ its
detailed design and construction was un-
dertaken by the Military Electronics De-
partment under the direction of O. H.
Danielson. J. Maas and E. Habit of this
group, under the direction of J. C. Bain,
carried out the mechanical design, and the
author, the electrical design.

In the general purpose analog computer,
circuits are available to perform a number
of the basic mathematical operations, such
as addition, subtraction, multiplication, divi-
sion, integration, and differentiation. In
solving a problem, certain of these circuits,
each corresponding to one of the operations
required in solving a problem, are connected
together in the proper sequence. As the
first step toward a solution, therefore, the
problem is analyzed to determine which
computer components should be employed
and how they should be interconnected.
An over-all circuit is then drawn up to indi-
cate the connections required. To simplify
the sketching of this over-all circuit, symbols
have been devised to represent the various
elements of the computer. These are shown
in Figure 1, where their correspondence to
the actual circuits described in a companion
article*® will be evident. All of the circuits
shown employ the three-stage amplifier, but
the amplifier symbol is not shown specif-
ically in the servo symbol.

How a problem, or a part of a problem,
might be drawn to guide in setting it up on
the computer is shown in Figure 2. Here
the dependent variable v is expressed as a
polynomial with time as the independent
variable. The first integrator, at the upper
left, receives a de voltage of unit amplitude.
The output voltage of this integrator is
therefore proportional to time. This voltage
is used as the input for the next integrator
in the chain, whose output is thus propor-
tional to the square of time. In this manner
the successive powers of time may be gen-
erated. The individual terms are taken off
the output terminals of the integrators, and
then by use of potentiometers are multiplied
by fixed constants so as to yield the indi-
vidual terms of the polynomial. These
terms, including the constant term, which
is derived from a unit negative voltage, are
then summed by an adder. The resulting
output v represents the polynomial.

Suppose instead that the polynomial is
in a variable y that is not proportional to
time. The first step is to convert the input
voltage y to a shaft motion in a servo. As

shown in Figure 3 this is done through the
use of potentiometer Po driven by the shaft
of the servo. This servo shaft also drives
potentiometers P,, P2, Ps, and thus the
brushes of all these potentiometers will be
maintained at position y. The voltage of
each brush will thus be y times the voltage
applied to the winding of the potentiometer.
A positive unit voltage is applied to the
winding of the first potentiometer, and thus
its brush voltage is +y. An amplifier con-
verts this to —y, which is applied to the
winding of P2, and thus results in —y? on
the brush of P2. This process may be con-
tinued to secure as many powers of y as
are required. Voltages corresponding to
each power of y are applied to hand-set
potentiometers set for the coefficient of
each respective term. Amplifiers are in-
serted when needed to change signs. The
amplifiers in the potentiometer chain are
not primarily for the purpose of changing
sign, however, but to avoid the errors that
would arise if one potentiometer were a
direct load on the preceding one. The vari-
ous terms proportional to powers of y,
together with the constant term from an-
other hand-set potentiometer, are all con-
nected to the input of an adder to obtain
the output voltage v.

These examples illustrate the term by
term correspondence existing between the
circuit and the mathematical expression.
Differential equations may be set up by an
essentially similar process. There is one
difference, however. The above expressions
for v are not really true equations but
merely quantities to be computed. In a
true equation, something must be solved
for. To accomplish this, the circuit must
be arranged—through the use of feedback-
to make the two sides of the equation bal-
ance each other. The equation itself should
be written with all its terms collected on
one side, thus making the other side zero.

integration from (2). FEEDBACK t
The circuit for this equation is shown in no [uct

article, the action of the basic feedback Tig. 4— Circuit set up to solve Equation 8. |

the amplifier essentially equal to the sum an increasing voltage to appear at the
of the input voltages exclusive of feedback, output of the integrator 1, and this latter
or, in general terms, to make: voltage, over feedback path No. 1, will affect |
(4) = (yp the value of the output voltage y. The |
at ee ee curve drawn by the recorder will be like |
Since this output voltage Eo is fed back to that shown in Figure 5. |
the input, the sum of all the input voltages The above example is a first-order linear
including the feedback is 0. This relation- differential equation with constant coeffi- |
ship may be obtained, of course, by re- cient; to solve a non-linear first-order
arranging equation (4) to the form: differential equation, a servo will be re-

(3) and thus if the two to (5) dt
amplifier ai of Figure 4 be made equal to
—0.5 and +5 ydt, the output voltage—
which is fed back to the input—will be

equal to y. (6) y— ye + ff, (t + y)ydt, = 0,
The —0.5 input voltage is obtained from
a potentiometer set at 0.5 with unit negative 0.5

voltage applied to its winding. A voltage Fig. 5 — Curve
equal to f° ydt is obtained by connecting drawn by the re-
the output voltage y to the input of an corder while the
integrator, which thus gives —f° ydt at its computer is solving
output, and then connecting this output to Equation 3.
another amplifier to reverse the sign. The

output of this latter amplifier is thus "
+f, ydt, which provides the second input
voltage required.

Before beginning the solution on the
computer, the capacitor in the integrator
will be discharged, and the input lead to
the integrator is disconnected. The solu-
tion is started by reconnecting this lead.
At the instant of beginning the solution,
there will be no voltage on the input sup-
plied over feedback path No. 1, but there is
a voltage —0.5, obtained from the hand-set
potentiometer at the extreme left, on the
other input. As a result the output voltage y [ all +y) dt
will be +-0.5, and the recorder will begin —
drawing its curve from this point. At once,
however, this voltage will begin to cause

7 as: the solving amplifier, is applied to the point
of an adder Az whose output is thus
—(t+y).
piney! sents To permit the multiplication of (t + y)

by y, the output of the solving amplifier is
also connected to a servo, which thus main-
ics nected to it at position y. One of these
potentiometers Po, is used to control the
operation on the servo, but to the winding
the other, the output of az is con-
«nected. The voltage on the brush of P, is
always —y(t + y), which is the nega-
tive of the quantity under the integral sign
ssi of equation (6). This voltage is connected
: to the integrator 12, which thus gives the
+ I | ul y
=
Fig. 7 — Curve drawn by the recorder while the tn /
where yo, the constant of integration, is the |
value of y when t equals 0. @=1.6375 C=-0.0625 4=1.705
To solve this equation, the circuit set up

on the computer is as shown in Figure 6. vI vil vil
As before, the solving amplifier a; has three =[~ | —
inputs: one supplied from a_hand-set —t}—
potentiometer giving the value —yo, an-
other the term y fed back from the output
of a;, and the third from a circuit arranged | |}
to give (t+ y)ydt. The output of a,
will thus always be equal to y, and is con- | ||| || — =
nected both to the recorder and to the |
auxiliary circuit that derives the above in- \ ‘
tegral. This auxiliary circuit is more in-
volved than that used for the previous | =
problem since it must add t and y, multiply | -
the sum by y, and then integrate.
To secure a voltage equal to t, integrator nile
11 is employed, which has minus unity Fig. 8 — Group of graphs made by a recorder w
voltage applied to its input. Its output is computer was solving an equation for various
thus —1dt—t. This voltage, together

Fig. 9—A non-linear differential equation, above, and the circuit set up on the computer to solve it.

voltage f° (t + y)ydt required as the other
input for the solving amplifier. This equa-
tion is of the Ricatti type, and its solution
as actually drawn by the recorder is shown
in Figure 7.

The ready solution of ordinary differen-
tial equations, either linear or non-linear, is
one of the outstanding advantages of the
general purpose analog computer. Once the
set-up has been made, solutions can be
turned out at the rate of about one every
two minutes. The highest order that can be
solved directly is limited by the number of
integrators available, namely 12. This does
not mean that all 12th order equations can
be solved, for bottlenecks may develop
from other components. On the other hand,
one case of a 15th order equation, occurring
in a PCM problem, was handled by the
expedient of breaking the problem into two
parts; recording the solution for the first
part, and using this as the input for the
second part.

While ordinary differential equations fre-
quently occur in the work of the Labora-
tories, they necessarily comprise only a
modest portion of the various mathematical
problems requiring solutions. However, in
many of these problems, inspection shows

that the most powerful technique is to de-
liberately convert their equations into dif-
ferential form! This is a rather astonishing
conclusion to one used to thinking in terms
of the conventional hierarchy of math-
ematical operations. Most of us have been
conditioned to think that integration is a
higher-level process than the algebraic
operations, and the solution of differential
equations is at a higher level than integra-
tion. Consequently, there is a feeling that
in some sense it is wasteful to replace
algebraic operations or integrations by
methods which require solutions of differ-
ential equation. This, of course, is a reflec-
tion of the experience that few differential
equations can be solved by pencil and paper
methods. Nevertheless, it has been our ex-
perience that the differential equation tech-
nique is generally the simplest and most
powerful when backed up by a computer of
this type.

One of the virtues of the General Purpose
Analog Computer is that it permits a rapid
and thorough exploration of a complicated
situation. An instance of this arose in con-
nection with the design of delay equalizers
for the L-3 carrier system. The design
engineer wished to determine that com-

which would result in optimum perform-
ance. He wished the variable Pp to trace in
the complex plane a figure of given shape
as the independent variable z traversed a
unit circle centered on the origin. The
problem was run with an assumed set of
values of the four constants. The design
engineer examined the shape of the result-
ing figure, made a few slide rule computa-
tions, chose a new set of values, and the
problem was then re-run, and so on. A
group of these trial runs are shown in
Figure 8. The individual runs took about
two minutes. The total elapsed time from
proposal of the problem to the time the
design engineer had his solution was two
and a half hours. To get the same result by
any other means available to the Labora-
tories would probably have taken some
days.

Another instance of such an exploration
occurred with a problem in telephone relay
design. By analysis, the engineer had re-
duced the problem to the non-linear differ-
ential equation shown in Figure 9, and he
wanted the solution of this equation for two

THE AUTHOR: Graduating with an M.E. de-
gree from Stevens Institute in 1926, Emory Laka-
Tos spent a year with the New York and Queens
Electric Company, and then joined the technical
staff of the Bell Telephone Laboratories. With the
Apparatus Development Department he first en-
gaged in the design of telephone transformers, but
a few years later transferred to the Acoustical Re-
search Department. From 1938 to 1941 he was
associated with the switching analysis group de-
veloping switching equipment. During the war
years he worked on fire-control projects with the
Physical Research Department. During this period
he also acted as consultant to Section H, Division
A, of the N.D.R.C. Since the end of the war he
has been with the Mathematical Research Depart-
ment.

values of cy and for a wide range of values
of k. The actual circuit employed is also
shown in Figure 9.

This particular problem was complicated
by the wide range of values of x, which
necessitated two changes in the machine
set up. Nevertheless, the elapsed time from
receipt of the problem to completion of the
runs was only two days. The need for a
complete survey of this particular problem
has been felt since about 1938. At any
time prior to the advent of the general
purpose analog computer, however, the
means available for a direct attack on this
very complicated problem were so pro-
hibitively laborious that the engineer con-
cerned was forced to rely on somewhat un-
satisfactory approximations.

Many other problems have been solved
by the techniques described above. They
include the equations of motion of a tele-
phone relay for the operate case, an electron
trajectory problem, the effect of band lim-
iting on PCM pulse shapes, the roots of a
transcendental equation encountered in a
study of piezo-electric crystals, harmonic
analysis of speech data, and a non-linear
partial differential equation arising from the
study of eddy current transients in a mag-
netic core. While the machine has only re-
cently been put into use, it has already
demonstrated its versatility and reliability.

On March 6, 1911, the Engineering De-
partment of A T & T issued a circular
(T.C. 30) to the Bell operating companies
pointing out the desirability, from the point
of view of the general public, of a uniform
plan of designating jack-per-line party-line
stations. At this time some companies were
using letters only, and some a combina-
tion of letters and numerals. There was
also a considerable difference in the letters
chosen by the various companies. In four-
party service, for instance, such combina-
tions were being used in the different large
cities as L.X.J.Y., Y.R.X.L., A.Y.M.Z., X.Y.-
J.M., X.Y.Z.K., and J.L.M.R.

With the thought that there must be
some combination of letters which would
involve fewer misunderstandings than any
other when calls were passed by subscrib-
ers to operators, extensive tests had been
made, the results of which were given in
the circular. It had been found that the let-
ters which gave the fewest misunderstand-
ings were W, R, J, and M, and the circular
requested comments by the operating com-
panies regarding the standardization of
those letters.

The replies received in answer to this
circular indicated a general agreement with
the recommendations, and the letters W,
R, J, and M were accordingly standardized
for four-party service in a circular issued
on October 28, 1912 (T.C. 52). For two-
party service, the letters W and J were
chosen, it having been determined that they
occasioned fewer misunderstandings than
M and R.

At the time these letters were adopted,
manual service was predominant, and the
easy distinguishability of the four letters
adopted was the important factor. With the

rapid expansion of dial switching, and the
adoption of lettered dials an additional ad-
vantage became evident, since the four let-
ters selected were sufficiently separated
in the alphabet to bring each letter op-
posite a different finger hole. The same
letters could thus readily be used with the
dial system since each corresponded to a
distinct digit: W — 9, R == 7, J = 5, and
M = 6.

Did you ever hear the sound caused by
one molecule colliding with another mole-
cule? Of course not, for the energy involved
in a single collision is so small that the
human ear does not respond to it. It would
take many simultaneous collisions to build
up the total energy to an audible level, and
that is just what happens when steam
escapes through a small orifice. The char-

E. L. Chinnock holds a fluorescent lamp noise gen-
erator in his left hand preparatory to a measurement
of noise figure of an experimental amplifier.

acteristic hissing noise of escaping steam is
the result of many many molecular colli-
sions; as the agitated molecules are being
forced through the small orifice, they col-
lide, and the vibrations caused by these im-
pacts add up to an energy level sufficient
to actuate the mechanism in our ears that
imparts to us the perception of sound. It
can be likened to the noise of many random
collisions of billiard balls, although it occurs
at a much lower sound level.

collide, but it is a different kind of energy
and our ears do not hear it. It is electro-
magnetic energy, such as is light, to which
our eyes respond, or X-rays, to which photo-
graphic emulsions are sensitive, or radio
waves which bring television and radio pro-
grams into our homes. As in the case of
molecular collisions, single electronic col-
lisions involve minute amounts of energy
but when many many collisions are occur-
ring at random, the total effect may be
strong enough to be detected by our eyes.
This happens when electricity is applied to
an incandescent lamp. The flow of current
heats the filament, and the free electrons
within the metal filament are agitated, col-
liding as they jostle about. As the electric
current increases through the lamp, the

more vehement, and the resulting radiated
energy increases until the level is high
enough to stimulate the eye.

The eye is not sensitive to all of this
energy, however. Some of it lies in the vis-
ible region of the spectrum to be sure, but
much of it lies in other frequency ranges,
to which the eye is insensitive. Some lies
above and some below the visible range,
and the relative distribution of the energy
depends upon how hot the filament be-
comes. If it becomes very hot, the relative
energy in the high-frequency or ultra-voilet
range is enhanced. If it is cooled off, the
relative energy in the low-frequency range
or red region is enhanced. The total ener
available in all frequency ranges also pd
pends upon the temperature, among other
things; the higher the temperature the more
the radiated energy.

When a hot metal filament—as in an in-
candescent lamp—is operating in a circuit,
only that part of the collision energy at
frequencies that will pass through the as-
sociated circuits will appear in the output.
In audio frequency circuits, only the audio

will appear in the output. If its amplitude
is great enough, it will be heard as a hissing
sound like that of escaping steam and is
thus called noise. In high-frequency circuits
the portion of the collision energy passed
by the associated circuits will be far above
the audio frequencies, but since in tele-
phone and radio broadcasting circuits it is
always reduced to audio frequencies ulti-
mately, the collision energy is called noise
even when at its point of origin it is at fre-
quencies very much above the audio range.

How great the noise will be, however,
depends on several factors. First it depends
on the intensity of the collisions, that is, on
the number of collisions per second and on
the velocity of the electrons at the time of
the collisions, and both of these depend in
turn on the temperature of the filament.
This relationship is linear; the noise power
is directly proportional to the absolute tem-
perature of the filament.

Even with the highest temperatures at
which a metal filament is operated, how-
ever, the noise is not great enough to acti-
vate a loudspeaker. Before the noise can be
heard, there must be amplifiers between the
source and the loudspeaker, and thus a sec-
ond factor in the loudness of the noise is
the amount of amplification. Amplification
in turn brings in a third factor because the
amplifier is an electronic device, and thus
introduces noise of its own. This applies
equally to all different types of repeating
amplifiers, whether they be operating in the
audio frequency range or the microwave
range. Indeed it even applies to our home
broadcast and television receivers. The hiss-
ing noise that one hears in the background
when the receiver is tuned to a distant sta-
tion is caused partly by the accelerated elec-
trons colliding with each other within the
vacuum tubes. The familiar “snow storm”
that one sees on a television set when it is
tuned to a weak station is also caused by
electron collision energy. This type of in-
terference has been known as noise, even
though no sound may be involved at all. It
is called “thermal noise” if it originates in
a hot body, or “shot noise” if it originates
from the interaction of electrons with elec-

trodes within a vacuum tube. All known
substances, devices, and amplifiers possess
a noise level due to electron collisions which
will mask weak signals.

In any communication system, the output
noise is a disturbing influence. There is usu-
ally a definite level of noise, relative to the
speech or signal level, which will not im-
pair the quality of the transmission. If this
relative level is exceeded by the noise, the
transmission of intelligence is degraded.
Conversely, if the level of the noise is too
far below the tolerable value, the transmis-
sion system will be operating uneconom-
ically. As a result, the noise level is an es-
sential consideration in the design of prac-
tically all telephone apparatus; its proper
control is vital in seeking the Bell System’s
objective of “the best possible service at the
lowest cost.”

One important component of a telephone
transmission system is the vacuum tube am-
plifier, and a first step in attempting to con-
trol its noise level is to evaluate the perform-
ance of the amplifier in terms of the elec-
tronic noise it generates. This evaluation is
based upon the ratio of the actual output
noise power of a receiver to the output
noise power which would exist if the re-
ceiver contributed no noise of its own.
This ratio is called the “Noise Figure” of an
amplifier or receiver. A receiver with a poor
noise figure, i.e., a high noise figure, will
generate most of the output noise within it-
self; only a small fraction of the noise out-
put will be generated in the circuit attached
to the input terminals of the receiver. On
the other hand, a receiver with a good noise
figure, i.e., a low noise figure, will contrib-
ute very little noise power to the total out-
put power; most of the output noise power
will originate in the circuit attached to the

input terminals of the receiver. From these
considerations it is evident that a receiver
with a good noise figure will have a better
signal-to-noise ratio in its output circuit
than a receiver with a poor noise figure.

To measure the noise figure of a receiver,
or circuit of any type, a circuit like that of
Figure 1 is commonly used. The internal
resistance of the generator is designated
r1, and since the noise caused by a resis-
tance varies as its absolute temperature, it
is possible to change the noise produced by
the generator over a wide range. By making
output readings for two different values of
noise in the generator without changing the
conditions of the circuit under test, it is
possible to determine the noise figure of
the receiver.

If the noise produced in the output with
the generator resistance at a temperature
of 290 degrees absolute is represented by
ngi and the noise output caused by the re-
ceiver is some constant, c, times Ngi, then
the total noise output is Ngi + cng. Since
the noise figure is defined as the ratio of
Ngi + cngi to the noise output that would
have been found had there been no noise
produced in the receiver, that is had c
been zero, the noise figure, F, is thus:

Suppose now that a measurement is made
of output noise when the generator source
is at 290 degrees absolute and thus con-
tributes noise of value Ngi, and then that
the noise of the generator is increased by in-
creasing the temperature of the resistance
until the output noise is some constant y

Since the noise is proportional to the ab-
solute temperature, this expression may be
written:

(3a)
Such a measurement of noise figure is
commonly made by increasing the etfective
temperature of the noise generator until the
noise output is double what it was before.
Under these conditions y = 2. Thus:

Since 12 may be determined, this gives a
method of measuring the noise figure.

Noise generators for measuring the noise
figure of receivers have been devised, and
have been used throughout most of the use-
ful radio frequency spectrum. At low fre-
quencies, a vacuum tube diode is com-
monly used as a source of noise, and the
effective temperature of this noise generator
is readily calculable when the filament is
saturated. The noise diode is convenient
in that it furnishes a source of noise that
can be readily adjusted by changing the
filament temperature, so that a convenient
increment in output noise power can be ob-
tained. The noise diodes that are commer-
cially available are not suitable for use in
the microwave region, however, because of
their large dimensions relative to the wave-
length, and satisfactory measurements of
noise figures at microwave frequencies be-
come difficult to make. It has been discov-
ered, however, that ordinary fluorescent
tubes produce a suitable level* of noise, and
methods have been devised in these Lab-
oratories for using them to obtain noise
figures at microwave frequencies.

For this purpose the fluorescent tube is
mounted in a wave guide structure as shown
in Figure 2. Within the guide the lamp is
exposed, but the two ends are encased in a
metal shield. These shields are too small
in diameter to permit the propagation of
4000 mc energy, and hence noise produced
at the cathode and anode does not enter
the guide; the only noise that does is that
originating in the positive column, where
the electrons are moving rapidly with
random velocities in a stable manner.

*Practically, this level is too low to interfere with
ordinary radio reception.

These random collisions of electrons give
rise to microwave noise power equivalent
to that of a resistance at a temperature of
about 11,400 degrees absolute. This tem-
perature appears to be characteristic of the
fluorescent lamp under normal conditions.
Of 32 different lamps, including ten differ-
ent types of fluorescent coatings such as
used in the pink, red, gold, soft white,
daylight, green, white, 4500-degree white,
black light, and blue, 31° were all within
+ 0.25 db of each other in excess noise, as
was also a germicidal lamp with no fluo-
rescent coating. The microwave noise power
from a fluorescent lamp is substantially in-
dependent of the d-c current from 40 ma to
140 ma, but changes slightly with ambient
temperature. This coefficient is only —.055
db per degree centigrade, however, and
can be ignored for some applications. The
noise power also appears to be indepen-
dent of frequency, having been checked at
several different frequencies, 65 mc, 3000
mc, 4000 mc and 9000 mc.

One thing that the fluorescent lamp lacks
as a noise source is variability. When it is
used to determine the noise figure, there-
fore, a slightly different test procedure has
to be followed. Substituting 11,400 de-
grees for T2 in equation 3a reduces it to:

and the noise figure is readily found by in-
serting the observed value for y. If this
ratio were 1.05, for example, the noise figure
would be, from Equation 5, F == 38.3/
(1.05 — 1) = 766, or 29 db. For poorer re-
ceivers, the accuracy falls off rapidly, but
we are usually interested in accurate meas-
urements only on the good receivers. The
best receivers at 4,000 mc have noise fig-
ures around 8 db. This corresponds to an
increase in output noise power of about
seven times when the fluorescent lamp noise
source is connected to the input of the re-
ceiver. A power ratio of seven times can
be measured readily with fair accuracy on
a thermocouple type of power meter.
Greater accuracy can be achieved, how-
ever, by using a carefully calibrated attenu-

*One of the 32 lamps flickered erratically. At
times its excess noise was % db higher than average.

ator in the output of the receiver, in order
to take advantage of the accuracy obtained
when reading full scale deflection on the
power meter. This expedient may, however,
lead to overloading of the receiver on the
peaks of the noise if the power handling
capacity of the output stage of the receiver
is comparable with the power required to
actuate the output power meter. In this
event, it is better to attenuate the noise
elsewhere in the setup, where the noise
level is low enough not to cause overload-
ing in the succeeding stages, yet high
enough so that the noise originating in suc-
ceeding stages is insignificant. If this is not
convenient, as for example in an amplifier
contained all in one long strip, the cali-
brated attenuator can be inserted in the
output of the noise source, thus reducing
the excess noise to give any convenient

value of y desired. Equation 5 no longer
applies, since the effective temperature of
the combination of the fluorescent lamp
plus the attenuator pad is no longer 11,400
degrees.

To compute the actual effective tempera-
ture of the combination, one considers the
contributions of the two resistances in
series, and adds the resulting noise powers
together. One of these resistances, that due
to the hot noise generator, is at a tempera-
ture of 11,400 degrees and constitutes a
fraction a of the total resistance, r. The
other resistance, that due to the attenuator
pad, is at a room temperature, 290 degrees,
and constitutes a fraction l-a@ of r. The
mean square noise voltage in a resistance
R is given by the relation:

where k is Boltzman’s constant, T the abso-
lute temperature, and B the effective band-
width of the system.

From the lamp, the noise voltage is thus
£2 == 4k(11,400) ars, and from the pad it is
E2 == 4k(290) (1-2)RB. Adding these, gives
for the total mean square noise voltage:

temperature of the combination, and sub-
stituting this for T2 in Equation 3a gives:

Thus it is seen by adding a variable at-
tenuator to the constant noise source, meas-
urements of noise figure can be made just
as accurately as they can be made with a
variable noise source.

During the course of the experimental
work which involved the measurement of
the microwave noise level of the fluorescent
lamp, an interesting tie-up between micro-
wave noise and black body radiation de-
veloped. Since the level of the microwave
noise energy from a fluorescent lamp is so
constant with respect to time, reproducible
from tube to tube, practically independent
of the current, and only slightly affected
by the ambient temperature, it might be ex-
pected that it is being controlled or limited

THE AUTHOR: W. W. Moumrorp majored in
mathematics and physics at Willamette University,
and after graduating with an A.B. degree in 1930,
at once joined the Technical Staff of the Labora-
tories. With the Radio Research Department at
Holmdel, he has worked on ultra-short-wave propa-
gation and microwave components for radio relay
systems. During the war he engaged in develop-
ments for radar. Mr. Mumford’s contributions in
the microwave field include the directional coupler,
wide-band coaxial to waveguide transducers, helix
to waveguide transitions as used in the traveling
wave tube, and the gas-discharge noise generator.

by some invariant physical property of the
atoms and ions within the gaseous dis-
charge. Suppose we ask ourselves, “If we
should terminate our wave guide in a re-
sistance at 11,400 degrees, what color would
the resistance be?” According to Wien’s
displacement law, the wavelength of max-
imum radiation from such a “black body”
is given by the relation:

This is indeed an interesting result, since
the mercury vapor discharge in the fluores-
cent lamp radiates most of its energy in the
ultravoilet line spectrum at = 2537 (10)
cm. The design of the lamp was guided by
an effort to accentuate the radiation at this
wavelength, and the manufacturers state
that this has been achieved so successfully
that no other spectral line is excited to radi-
ate more than two per cent of the input
power.

The striking similarity between the black
body and the mercury vapor discharge at
2537 (10)-8 cm, suggests the following
hypothesis:

“In a gaseous discharge which is radiat-
ing light energy substantially monochro-
matically at a particular wavelength, Am,
the microwave noise energy is the same as
that available from a black body which
radiates its maximum energy at that wave-
length, Am.”

This hypothesis remains to be proven. It
is a controversial matter, but in the mean-
time we now have a microwave noise source
that we have long been waiting for.

HE GREAT EVENT took place in the evenin
Toe March 10, 1876. Alexander Graham Be
and his assistant Thomas A. Watson were
working on Bell’s experiments as they had
been for months in the attic of the boarding
house at 5 Exeter Place, Boston, where Bell
had rented two rooms for the purpose. Bell
in the front room was at the transmitter of the
one-way line and Watson in the rear room
had his ear to the receiver with the connect-
ing wire strung out through the hall between
them when Bell accidentally spilled battery
solution on his trousers. This was serious be-
cause Bell, then twenty-nine years old; had a
small wardrobe and little money.

To Watson, Bell’s voice seemed to leap
from the receiver. He had heard sounds here-
tofore (in June of the previous year Mr. Bell
had succeeded in devising and Watson in
making a telephone which transmitted voice
sounds but not words). This time he heard a
complete sentence. He dropped the _instru-
ment and ran down the hall to Bell’s door.
“Mr. Bell,” he exclaimed, “I heard every word
you said—distinctly.”

Forgetting all about his acid-spattered
clothes Bell dashed into Watson’s room to lis-
ten while Watson talked. This was the trium-
phant moment for which he had been ponder-
ing and laboring for years. Night after night
he and Watson had Jabored until the small
hours of the morning hoping to achieve this.

Man’s desire to extend the sound of his
voice is no doubt older than history. Nobody
knows who first discovered that if he cupped
his hands about his mouth and shouted, his
voice would travel farther than if the sound
were allowed to be dissipated in all directions.
Later the megaphone, the speaking tube, and
the string telephone or “lover’s telegraph” were
devised. In the thousands of years that man had
been talking, he had developed no better facili-
ties for transmitting voice sounds than these
until that historic night seventy-five years ago
when Bell proved that it was possible to gen-
erate and use a current of electricity that
would “undulate” as he put it, or vary in in-
tensity as sound waves, shrill or deep, loud
or soft, vary as they disturb the air. He had
come to understand that to transmit sound
electrically, he had to have a current that could
be “shaped” by sound.

In Bell’s newly devised variable resistance
transmitter on this night of March 10, 1876,
a wire attached to a voice-operated diaphragm
dipped into a cup of acidulated water, the

cup with its conducting liquid and the mov-
able wire forming part of the electrical circuit
containing also a battery and a receiving tele-
phone. As the diaphragm vibrated, the wire
would rise and fall in the liquid causing the
resistance of the circuit to change and the
current to vary in conformity to the sound
waves set up by the voice directed upon the
diaphragm.

In today’s transmitter, carbon granules in a
tiny chamber rest against the diaphragm. As
the vibrations of the diaphragm alternately
press the granules closer together and allow
them to relax, the varying pressure on the gran-
ules causes a varying resistance to the talking
current just as in the liquid transmitter. In
later receivers, the simple reed became a
diphragm, which has undergone continued de-
velopment right up to the present time.

Replicas of the liquid transmitter and tuned
reed receiver used on this memorable eve-
ning are in the collection of the Bell System
Historical Museum at the Bell Telephone
Laboratories. A length of the original wire
connecting the two rooms has been preserved.

System served more people and handled two
and a half billion more conversations than in
any previous year. The national emergency
brought a new tide of telephone demand. Serv-
ice high in quality was well maintained. The
men and women of the System did a superb
job.
; Today more than ever, our country has the
most and the best telephone service in the
world. This is a bulwark of defense. The tele-
phone speeds production. It is vital to the
Armed Services. It spreads warning against
attack. As the nation gathers its strength, the
urgent calls of the hour are on the telephone
lines.

The Bell System is alert to its essential task
and is preparing further. The System will do
its full part in helping to keep America secure.
That is our Number One job today.

Operating revenues of the System in 1950
were $3,261,528,000, an increase of $368,255,-
000 or about 13 per cent over 1949, Operating
expenses of $2,334,362,000 compared with
$2,248,833,000 in 1949. Net operating income
in 1950 was less than 4.5 per cent on telephone
plant and the return would be even lower if
the plant were valued at present costs. The rate
of earnings on capital was 6.1 per cent, com-
pared with 4.9 per cent in 1949 and 7 per cent
in 1940, ten years ago.

Wage, tax and material costs have continued
to mount. Telephone rates and earnings must
be sufficient to meet these increases, to attract
and protect equity capital, and to assure a sound
financial structure. With rates adequate to
maintain the necessary earnings, most of the
Company’s convertible debentures would be
converted into stock and the debt would be
reduced.

Though the gain in telephones in 1950 was
a little less than in 1949, the gain in the second
half of the year was higher. Toll and long dis-
tance messages increased throughout the year
and most sharply in the second half. Demand
went up as the nation acted to meet the defense
emergency. The importance of good telephone
service was never more clear.

Six million telephones were installed to meet
new requests for service. The net increase of
1,955,000 brought the total number in service

to over 35,300,000. Toll and long distance calls
were put through at an average speed of 1.6
minutes and 94 per cent of them were handled
while the calling party held the line.

The whole expansion and improvement of
the telephone system since World War II have
made it more sturdy, more useful, more con-
venient, and a greater asset to the nation. The
long distance network has grown from 16 to
26 million miles. Dial service has been greatly
expanded for both toll and local calling. Rural
areas served by the Bell Companies have more
than twice as many telephones as in 1945. Serv-
ice to automobiles, trucks, boats, trains and
other vehicles is available in nearly 150 areas
and more than 9,000 vehicles are being served
—a 20 per cent increase last year.

Radio relay systems were extended more
than 2,000 miles in 1950 and construction to
provide transcontinental telephone service by
radio relay is now under way. These systems,
like coaxial cables, provide wide communica-
tions highways that can carry hundreds of tele-
phone conversations, or television programs.
Facilities for carrying television programs more
than doubled during the year and networks
now serve 82 television stations in 44 cities, or
19 more cities than at the end of 1949. These
stations broadcast over areas containing half the
country’s population.

Bell System research has resulted in a greater
output of new things in the last five years than
in any similar period before. It has produced
a new telephone set for the customer’s use; new
kinds of wires and cables to carry his messages;
new ways of using the wires and cables more
efficiently; new devices and systems for carry-
ing intelligence by microwave, without wires;
new dial systems to connect telephones to-
gether; and new ways of automatically record-
ing information for the customer’s bill.

These things will contribute greatly to the
nation’s defense, both in providing essential
communication services and in reducing the

A supply of copies of the Annual Report
is available in the Libraries at West
Street and at Murray Hill.

need for scarce materials. For example, a new
system is now being manufactured that permits
twelve conversations to be carried over each
four wires in short telephone cables, from 20
to 200 miles in length. This can be applied to
cables already in place and hence will be of
particular value in saving copper. Carrier sys-
tems, of which this is one, have been employed
for years and Bell Laboratories has led the
world in their development. Previous systems,
however, have been economical only over long
distances. The new “N Carrier,” combining new
ideas and miniature apparatus, opens up a
whole new field to the carrier art.

Bell Laboratories scientists are diligently
seeking substitutes for various scarce materials
used in telephone equipment. Research on ma-
terials has long been a major Laboratories
activity, and the experience gained will help
greatly in obtaining utmost economy in critical
materials, with a minimum of compromise in
the quality of equipment.

Bell System research facilities are also an in-
valuable national resource in the development
of military equipment. Bell Laboratories con-
tributions in World War II, especially in radar,
submarine detection, and per and bombing
control systems, as well as in military communi-
cations by wire and radio, played a major role
on land and sea and in the air. Since the war
a substantial amount of research has been con-
tinued for the Armed Services on projects re-
quiring the Laboratories’ skills and facilities.

Western Electric Company had another busy
year meeting the heavy needs of the Bell
Telephone Companies. Production was again
far above the level of pre-war years although
not as large as in 1949. Sales amounted to
$758,064,000. Eighty-seven per cent of the
sales were to Bell Telephone Companies and
most of the remainder to the United States
Government. Earnings for the year were $38,-
647,000 or 5.1 per cent of sales.

The Company’s ability to produce telephone
equipment and cable for the Bell Telephone
Companies has already been affected by short-
ages of strategic materials such as copper, zinc,
nickel, rubber and aluminum. Continuing dif-
ficulties in obtaining materials and parts may
curtail deliveries to the Bell System in 1951.
Western Electric and Bell Laboratories are
taking advantage of all practical substitutions
and adaptations but these can meet the problem
only in part.

Since the end of World War II the Company
has continued to produce much special equip-

ment for the Government defense departments.
Deliveries to the Government in 1950 exceeded
$53,000,000. In recent months work has started
on large additional orders for military equip-
ment, chiefly electronic in character.

Through its subsidiary, the Sandia Corpora-
tion, Western Electric with the cooperation and
assistance of Bell Telephone Laboratories con-
tinues to operate the Sandia Laboratory at
Albuquerque, New Mexico, for the Atomic
Energy Commission. Sandia is concerned with
military applications of atomic energy.

For three quarters of a century the Bell Sys-
tem has rendered service of more and more
value to the American people. The telephone
began in this country. Here it has been most
widely developed and used. Our service has
always been the best in the world, and its
greatest increase in usefulness has come in the
last five-years. This is a great asset in helping
to defend the freedom of the United States.

Our telephone service is also a product of
freedom. In the building of the Bell System,
countless discoveries and inventions have had
to be achieved by the inquiring spirit of free
men. Opportunity has been _ to all. Com-
petition has flourished throughout the organi-
zation. Worthwhile incentives and reasonable
rewards have fostered the will and capacity for
leadership. In the rendering of service day by
day, the responsibility to get the message
through is accepted as a public trust: that too
is the exercise of freedom.

All that has been achieved flows from the
nation we serve. Under public regulation, the
Bell System has generally been allowed the
freedom it needs to perform its service well. It
is essential that this freedom to serve be undim-
inished; that research and invention go vigor-
ously forward; that new leaders be encouraged
and prepared to lead; and that earnings be fully
adequate to continue to pay good yr me to
employees, and a return to investors sufficient
to attract and protect the billions of dollars of
savings that make the service possible.

Through the years private enterprise and
public policy in telephone communication have
returned to the nation a value beyond price.
We are confident they will do no less in the
years to come. We are determined to meet the
responsibilties entrusted to us, and we pledge
our utmost efforts, always, in devotion to the
public service and to the lasting security and
advantage of the people of the United States.

On January 24, O. B. Blackwell, former
Vice President of the Laboratories, who, be-
fore his retirement in 1947, was Assistant
Vice President of A T & T, received the Edi-
son Medal for “his pioneer contributions to
the art of telephone transmission.” Presenta-
tion was made at a General Session during the
Winter General Meeting of the American In-
stitute of Electrical Engineers at the Hotel
Statler, New York City.

O. B. Blackwell (left) receiving the Edison Medal
from T. G. LeClair, President of the American Insti-
tute of Electrical Engineers. H. S. Osborne, Chief
Engineer, A T & T, is looking on

most important lines were built around the
big cities because going through the cities
would mean going through sections of cable,
and that would spoil the transmission. At that
time, the Bell — served approximately
two million telephones.

Mr. Blackwell was one of the outstanding
contributors to the developments in the tele-
phone transmission art that brought about the
vast extension and growth of long distance
telephony. Early contributions were new test-
ing routines and splicing methods which made
practicable the application of the phantom
principle to cables. He also invented and de-
signed the first transmission measuring set and
inaugurated a system of transmission mainte-
nance measurements that has been of untold
value in maintaining transmission quality of
the telephone plant throughout the country.

“I can testify” said Mr. Osborne, “to the
inspiration of working with Mr. Blackwell.

Honorable Dan A. Kimball, Under Secretary of the Navy, and Rear Admiral C. M. Bolster, assistant
chief for Research and Development of the Bureau of Aeronautics, visited the Murray Hill Laboratory
on Monday, January 29, to review the Laboratories’ progress on research programs for the Navy. Left
to right: R. K. Potter, J. B. Fisk, Mr. Kimball, Admiral Bolster and M. J. Kelly.

His creative imagination and penetrating
power of analysis made him a real leader. His
intellectual honesty was infectious. His keen
sense of humor and dry wit, and his unfailing
consideration for all, made it a great personal
pleasure to work under his supervision or to
collaborate with him. He was not only our
leader, but was and is our cherished friend.”

In his response, Mr. Blackwell expressed
his appreciation to those who had placed his
name on the roster of medalists. “A medalist,”
said Mr. Blackwell, “is allowed a short time
during which he is expected to say something
important, or failing that, at least something
interesting. The most important matters I
know today are the appalling problems of
human relations which confront us. A man
who has had the experience of seeing and
feeling the power of large scale, properly
staffed and organized scientific investigation,
naturally wonders what a similar approach
would do to the problems involved in human
relations.

“We develop a great deal intellectually as
we become adults, but our emotional progress
is not very marked—and emotions are the
driving forces in our lives. The pleasantest
use of the intellect is in rationalizing the ac-
tions our emotions bid us do. It is men who
have not grown up emotionally and do not
know it, and cannot be told, who are danger-
ous. Just now the world’s ‘emotional children’
are playing with fire.

“Surely, everyone should welcome whatever
the intellect of man can find to help his emo-
tional childishness. “The proper study of
mankind is man’ is more completely true to-
day than when it was written; a study with
every technique and tool that man can devise,
and in coverage and intensity commensurate
with its importance.”

Emergency crewmen of the New Jersey Bell
Telephone Company doubled as rescuers and
installers at the scene of the Pennsylvania
train wreck at Woodbridge, New Jersey.
Eighty-four commuters died in the accident
and over 500 were injured. Among the casual-
ties were four New Jersey Bell people killed
and 24 injured. No members of the Labora-
tories were involved.

Within an hour of the fatal crash, 32 tele-
phones had been installed within a hundred
yards of the wreck for use by police, Red Cross
and the press. Emergency lighting equipment,
cutting tools, blankets, bandages and other med-

Three repairmen and one installer, who were
working on regular assignments in the vicinity
of the crash, immediately left for the scene and
began first aid treatment for those trapped in
the telescoped rail cars that teetered on the
edge of a 20-foot embankment.

Arrangements were made to clear all lines in
the vicinity for emergency use. Party-line tele-
phones in four homes nearest the wreck were
converted into individual lines and with the

During this month the American Red Cross
is making its annual appeal to all of us for
funds to support its work at home and with
our Armed Forces. With so many of our men
and women already in service, the cause of the

Further information about the campaign will
be sent to all members of the Laboratories call-
ing attention to the opportunity to make contrib-
utions to the Red Cross and giving information

A traffic supervisor who was a passenger on
the train but was uninjured left for the Wood-
bridge central office after assisting in first aid
relief and there coordinated traffic operations.
Within the first six hours after the crash, a total
of 150,000 calls above average were handled
by exchanges within a 25-mile radius. Despite
the heavy calling, the record traffic was handled
with dispatch by operators, many of whom
reported to their posts as soon as word of the
disaster reached them.

Dr. W. D. Widdowson was on leave for a
month to organize an emergency medical dis-
aster plan for the Military and Civil Defense
Commission for Pennsylvania at Harrisburg.

In a letter to Dr. Buckley, Richard K. Mel-
lon, Commanding Officer of the Commission,
wrote: “Your cooperation in making Dr. W. W.
Widdowson’s services available to this Commis-
sion during the recent critical planning period

There’s no anachronism here; the beards are just as
real and even newer than the A.M.A. equipment
which the wearers are watching. The group are busi-
nessmen of Media, Pa., who engaged in a beard
growing contest as a feature of the town’s centennial
celebration. The telephone in Media has a long his-
tory; it was introduced in 1881.—The Telephone News.

is one of the most valuable contributions so
far made to civil defense in Pennsylvania.

“It goes without saying that to draft a State
emergency plan for maximum use of medical
resources, both of manpower and material,
would be an enormous task under any circum-
stances. To do so within a month’s time, with-
out prior study either of the general problem
or of local conditions, is an assignment that
would have discouraged all but the most stout-
hearted. Dr. Widdowson not only met the
challenge, but brought to it such enthusiasm
and good nature that all who worked with him
were sorry when his leave of absence came to
an end.

“In thanking you for this invaluable aid, I
am speaking not only for myself personally,
but for everyone concerned with civil defense
in the Commonwealth, which means more
than ten million men, women, and children.”

A seventh group of promising young scien-
tists have been named as recipients of
the 1951-52 Frank B. Jewett post-doctoral
fellowships. The awards, designed to stimu-
late and further the work of researchers in
the physical sciences, grant $3,000 to the
recipient and $1,500 to the institution at
which he chooses to do his research.

Recipients, with the subject of their re-
searches and the institution where they will
work are:

Murray Gerstenhaber, higher mathematics,
particularly mapping problems; Harvard or
Chicago.

Donald Roy Francis Cochran, light nuclei
and their energy levels; specifically, the reac-
tions of tritium with helium and _ beryllium;
Johns Hopkins.

Ilse Lis] Novak, relation algebras; Institute
for Advanced Study, Princeton.

Donald Robert Yennie, theory of elemen-
tary particles; Institute for Advanced Study.

Awards were made on recommendation of
a committee consisting of Ralph Bown, chair-
man; M. B. Long secretary; C. S. Fuller,
L. A. Wooten, Ha Nyquist, T. C. Fry,
J. B. Fisk, and William Shockley. Primary
criteria were the demonstrated research ability
of the applicant, the fundamental importance
of the problem proposed and the likelihood
of growth as a scientist.

A number of Laboratories People partici-
pated in the second A.I.E.E.-I.R.E.-N.B.S.
Conference on High Frequency Measurements
held in Washington, January 10 to 12, 1951.
The meeting was organized by the Joint
A.LE.E.-I.R.E. Committee on High Frequency
Measurements of which E. I. Green is I.R.E.
Group Chairman, and E. P. Felch and E. W.
Houghton are members.

Among the twenty-five papers in the four
technical sessions were the following by Lab-
oratories authors: Measuring Techniques for
Broad Band Long Distance Radio Relays by
W. J. Albersheim; A Precise Sweep Frequency

Some of the participants of the Introductory Survey posed for their picture at Murray Hill.

Method of Vector Impedance Measurement
by D. A. Alsberg; Wide Band Swept Fre-
quency Measurements Applicable to Traveling
Wave Tubes by F. E. Radcliffe; Measure-
ment of Characteristics of Crystal Units by
L. F. Koerner; and High Frequency Crystal
Units for Primary Frequency Standards by
A. W. Warner.

E. P. Felch arranged and presided at the
session on Measurement of Transmission and
Reception and E. W. Houghton, that on Meas-
urement of Power and Attenuation.

E. I. Green presided at the evening demon-
stration session which was also the Annual
Joint Meeting of the Washington Sections of
A.LE.E, and I.R.E. W. E. Kock, assisted by
F. K. Harvey, presented a demonstration of
the parallel behavior of microwaves and centi-
meter wavelength sound waves to accompany
his paper, Measurement of Microwave Field
Patterns Using Photographic Techniques.

Also attending the conference were A. W.
Clement, J. R. Flegal, A. A. Roetken, B. S.
Woodmansee, G. R. Frantz, A. G. Fox, W. M.
Goodall, F. F. Merriam, F. A. Polkinghorn,
O. E. DeLange, E. D. Reed, L. H. Von Ohl-
sen, R. C. Pomeroy, V. W. Wall, L. E. Cisne,
C. A. Bieling and D. M. Black.

As a means of acquainting the new mem-
bers of the technical staff with the several
areas of technical effort and staff activities
embraced by the Laboratories, and to intro-
duce them to their associates—particularly
those in management positions—a series of

meetings was held during December and
January. These meetings, along with visits to
A T & T Long Lines, the New York Telephone
Company, and Western Electric at Kearny,
gave the new people an opportunity to be-
come better acquainted with what is going
on in the Laboratories and in other Bell Sys-
tem Companies.

Talks by representatives of management
included descriptions of the functions of the
Laboratories in the Bell System and discus-
sions of the broad policies in those functions.
Technical aspects were described, such as
Switching Development, Transmission Devel-
opment and Engineering, Systems Engineer-
ing, Electronic Apparatus, and Research. Visits
to the several Departmental Laboratories gave
the new members a coordinated view of the
many Laboratories activities. Inspection trips to
the other Bell System locations were precede
with suitable talks.

During January, five more Laboratories peo-
ple were granted leaves of absence to enter
military service.

William J. Benjamin, who came to the Lab-
oratories in October last year, has enlisted in
the Navy and is now a Chief Hospital Corps-
man at the U. S. Naval Hospital in St. Albans,
Long Island.

Thomas W. Kearkuff, an assembler of elec-
tron tubes, who also came here last October,
has enlisted in the Air Force and is now in
training in Texas.

Clarence L. Ransome, a Helper in the
restaurant, has been employed by the Labora-

tories since May, 1950. He has been called for
military service in the Army, and is now at
Fort Dix, N. J.

Frederick J. Skinner, member of the Tech-
nical Staff, came to the Laboratories in Au-
gust, 1938. During World War II he served
tor 3% years, returning to the Laboratories in
December 1945. As a reservist, he returns to
duty as a Major in the Signal Corps, and is
now at the Coles Signal Laboratory at Fort
Monmouth, N. J.

James E. Trogdon, Restaurant Helper, en-
listed in the Army and is now at Fort Dix.
He came to the Laboratories in October, 1950.

Bell Laboratories’ engineers were honored by
the American Institute of Electrical Engineers
during the Winter General Meeting at the
Hotel Statler, New York, January 22 to 26.
John Meszar of Switching Systems Develop-
ment received the first prize in the Communica-
tion Division for his paper Fundamentals of the
Automatic Telephone Message Accounting Sys-
tem. Second prize in this division was awarded
to B. Ostendorf, Jr., of Telegraph Transmission
i a for his paper A New Electronic
Telegraph Regenerative Repeater.

The Laboratories took a very active part in
the program of the Meeting. Technical papers
and talks were given at sessions held through-
out the week. At a meeting on Magnetic Mate-
rials at High Frequencies, January 23, with
R. M. Bozorth presiding, K. K. Darrow gave
a talk, Electronic and Nuclear Magnetic
Resonance. On the same day, L. H. Germer

spoke on Electrical Breakdown of Very Short
Gaps at a session on Electrical Breakdown in
Gases. On January 24, at a session on New
Techniques of Network Synthesis, R. B. Black-
man spoke on Transducer Design Based on
Statistical Properties of the Signal. In the after-
noon, at a session on Advances in the Com-
munication Switching Art, Telephone and Tele-
graph, with R. C. Davis presiding, W. M.
Bacon and G. A. Locke presented a paper
entitled A Full Automatic Private Line Tele-
typewriter Switching System; at the same ses-
sion, N. A. Newell and A. Weaver presented
a paper entitled Single Frequency Signaling
System for Supervision and Dialing Over Long
Distance Telephone Trunks.

On January 25, at a meeting on A New
Carrier System for Medium Haul Telephone
Circuits, with P. G. Edwards presiding, R. S.
Caruthers gave a paper entitled The Type N-1
Carrier Telephone System — Objectives and
Transmission Features. This was followed by
the paper N-1 Carrier Telephone System — Ap-

L. Espenschied spoke on The Genesis of Sub-
marine Cables at a meeting in the afternoon on
Electronic Paths Under the Sea to mark the
centennial of cable laying. At this session, J. J.
Gilbert presented his paper A Submarine Tele-
phone Cable with Submerged Repeaters.

On January 26, at a session on Point-to-Point
and Mobile Radio Communication, L. A. Dorf
gave a paper, Operational Study of a Highway
Mobile Telephone System. In the session on
Feedback Control Systems, J. C. Lozier pre-
sented a paper entitled Carrier Controlled
Relay Servos.

Committee meetings were attended by a
number of Laboratories representatives. R. K.
Honaman was present at a meeting of the
Publications Committee; at the Forum of Tech-
nical Committee Chairmen, R. C. Davis, L. G.
Abraham and J. D. Tebo represented their
committees. D. E. Trucksess attended meet-
ings of the Electronic Power Converter Com-
mittee, Hot Cathode Power Converter Subcom-
mittee, and Metallic Rectifiers Committee.
W. H. Tidd, vice-chairman of the Electronic
Instruments Sub-Committee, attended a meet-
ing of that committee. L. G. Abraham and

R. C. Davis were at the Communication Divi-
sion Advisory Committee meeting. Mr. Abra-
ham is chairman of the Wire Communication
System Committee and P. G. Edwards is
secretary; they both attended a meeting of
this committee. H. A. Affel was also present.
R. C. Davis, chairman, and John Meszar, secre-
tary, attended a meeting of the Communica-
tion Switching Systems Committee.

W. H. MacWilliams, vice-chairman of Com-
puting Devices, attended a meeting of his com-
mittee. R. L. Dietzold was present at the
Electric Circuit Theory Subcommittee and
Basic Science Committee meetings. J. G. Fer-
guson attended a luncheon meeting of the
Committee on Instruments and Measurements;
E. F. Watson and R. B. Shanck were at the
Telegraph Systems meeting. E. I. Green, chair-
man of the Science and Electronics Division
Advisory Committee, called a meeting at which
J. D. Tebo, member-at-large, was present. Mr.
Green also attended a luncheon meeting of the
Technical Advisory Committee. J. D. Tebo was
present at meetings of Section Delegates, the
Nominating Committee, and the Committee on
Basic Sciences. Mr. Tebo also attended the
luncheons that were given for medalists K. G.
Compton and O. B. Blackwell.

E.L. Alford J. B. DeCoste A. E. Hague F. W. Koller A. T. Nordsieck = W.G. Shepherd (2)
A. E. Anderson O. E. DeLange D. A. S. Hale (2) J. G. Kreer (2) H. G. Och F. J. Singer

H. L. Barne G.H.Duhnkrack _J. B. Harley B. F. Lewis E. Peterson(3) § G.C. Southworth
).F. Barry (2) B. Dysart H. C. Harrison W. D. Lewis (2) L. C. Peterson L. J. Stacy

U.S. Berger W. B. Ellwood (3) _R. V. L. Hartley E. Ley K. W. Pfleger (2) J. C. Steinberg
C.A. Bieling E. L. Erwin G. Hecht G. A. Locke J.R. Pierce (4) —_R. R. Stevens (2)
A.E.Bowen(2) L. Espenschied R. A. Heising J. J. Lukacs R. K. Potter(3)  W.B.

W.H. Brattain (5) A. G. Fox (4) A. N. Holden A. S. Martins A. J. Rack R. L. Wallace
H.B. Brehm M. Fritts (2) H. F. Hopkins W. P. Mason (4) O.E. Rasmussen’ H. M.

M.D. Brill R. R. Galbreath R. T. Jenkins C. F. Mattke (2) W. T. Rea (8) E. J. Walsh (3)
H.W. Bryant A. S. Gano A.E. Joel J. H. McConnell J. B. Retallack J. R. Weeks

H. Carmer M. S. Glass A. C. Keller K. W. Miller S. D. Robertson S. B. ‘wetinaas (3)
P. Caroselli M. C. Goddard S. B. Kent H. A. Miloche V. L. Ronci O. H. Williford
L.E.Cheesman (2) W.M. Goodall L. A. Kille R. C. Miner W. L. Roth A. Wilson
-W. Clayden J.W.Gooderham __ K. L. King (2) D. Mitchell (3) A. L. Samuel (2) I. G. Wilson
C.F. Clement R. S. Gormley J. P. Kinzer L. F. Moose A. K. Schenck D. E. Wooldridge

E. Coleman E. I. Green W. A. Klute W. A. Munson R. W. Sears G. R. Yenzer
}.E. Corbin L. Gross W. A. Knoop R. C. Newhouse W. L. Shafer W. R.

Everybody pays for life insurance. You pay
for it if you purchase the insurance needed;
otherwise your family pays for it by doing
without things they should have. All of us can
set up a program of insurance which, supple-
mented by Social Security and the Employees
Benefit Plan, will take care of most needs after
we are gone.

Saving money is always hard work. It re-
quires resolve and sacrifice and determination.
but these are the qualities necessary to carry
any plan to completion. Without them we get
nowhere. Since buying life insurance is saving
money, it can be done with confidence.

There are certain expenses which will be
with us always; such as tood, rent or its equiv-
alent, clothing, medical expenses, recreation,
general running expenses, insurance premiums,
etc, Since this is the case it is only common
sense to understand and make proper provision
for them. This usually means to budget for
them. There are many books dealing with budg-
ets so that we can know when we are setting
aside a proper amount for most of these items.

Cash, to meet immediate expenses of last
illness and funeral, to pay up debts and cur-
rent obligations, to meet administration ex-
penses (lawyers and other fees, etc.), to pay
the current income tax, to provide running
expenses for the family until the estate can be
settled. For many there will also be cash
oo to pay Federal Estate and State
Inheritance Taxes.

Funds to provide permanent housing for the
family. If there is a ana it is then a question
of whether it is best to liquidate the mortgage,
to sell and to rent elsewhere or to continue
the mortgage. No matter. what is decided,
funds are required to meet the situation.

An income is required to enable the wife to
keep the home together and to meet the cur-
rent living expenses. This can be done on a
short time basis to give her a period of adjust-
ment to the new circumstances and time to find
a means of earning the required income her-

self. Or it can be done on a basis which will
enable her to keep the home together and man-
age it herself until the children have acquired
their secondary or college educations and are
able to then support themselves and to help
their mother. Or it can be arranged so that the
wife will have an income for her lifetime
thereafter and be independent of assistance
from the children.

Educational expenses. This is a need which
attracts all parents today and is one which is
most often provided, to the exclusion of other
needs. Many times the wife will unselfishly
impoverish herself in order to set aside funds
for this purpose. But it is only one of the needs
which a father must provide for. It should be
considered as a part of the whole picture in
setting up a program.

Retirement income. After all we either die
too soon or live too long. Both situations re-
quire financial planning. Fortunately however,
if we plan wisely for the former, and have
luck, those same funds will also take care of
the latter.

A well organized and designed financial
— is not completed overnight. It is

uilt to meet the requirements discussed above.
It should be changed or revised as these evolve.
First we examine what each now has. There
is the Bell Laboratories Benefit and Pension
Plan. There are the death and retirement bene-
fits from Social Security. Then, there is the
life insurance already owned as well as cash
in the bank, investments and equity in any
property owned.

These assets must be examined to determine
how closely they meet the requirements. If
they do not, then more life insurance is
needed. This is the only way the needed
money or income can be provided quickly. It
would take many years otherwise to provide
the needed funds through straight savings or
investment. For one seriously desiring to
provide for his family, judgment requires
the device of the insured method instead of
taking the chance of living long enough to pro-
vide otherwise.

< A brief welcoming
address was delivered
by H. J. Delchamps,
Vice President of the
Chapter, at the start of
the Pioneer party.

H. G. Geetlein, at >
the piano and "Evelyn
Dee (Mrs. Geetlein)
entertain an audience
that responded with de-
mands for encores.

On Wednesday evening, January 17, the
New Jersey Council held another regional get-
together in the East Orange Hotel Suburban.
Col. Loren B. Thompson of the New Jersey
Bell Telephone Company gave a_ first-hand
factual presentation on Korea and the Far East,
with a prolonged and interesting question and
discussion period following.

A short musical program was given by Harry
Geetlein, Evelyn Dee (Mrs. Harry Geetlein),
course on Koreaand the and John Dry. A pleasant evening was topped
Far East was closely off by drawing for door prizes which were won
followed. His listeners by D. G. Blattner, Mrs. R. T. Jenkins, and
subsequently were _  E. G. Conover, and a social hour around the
loath to break for the buffet table where both active and life mem-
refreshments as wit- bers with their guests enjoyed the Pioneer fel-
nessed by the pro- lowship. More than 180 reservations were
longed questioning to received for the party.

the Colonel and
athe iron The Winnahs! A. J. Akehurst, left, is handing E. G.
smaller groups. Conover a prize drawn by Mrs. Geetlein who also
gives another that she drew to D. G. Blattner. K. P.
Hansen, rear, glows because his wheel-of-fortune

R. P. Wells operating the Civilian Defense Radio
Control Station at Livingston, N. J.

Increasingly nowadays, the Recorp learns
about Laboratories people who are accepting
one or several responsibilities within the en-
sarging civilian defense effort. In the amateur
radio communications field, for example, func-
tional organization is now geared for faster
tempo, and activity of New Jersey radio club
members, many of them from the Laboratories,
grows accordingly. The following news relating
to the counties of Morris and Essex has come
to light recently and similar items will be wel-
comed by the Recorp.

In Morristown, efficient amateur radio com-
munications emergency service for the Red
Cross, community and area civil defense per-
sonnel, as well as for municipal authorities, is
a major objective of the Morris Radio Club. As
the name implies, this club is made up of radio
amateurs who are organizing the club’s local
facilities in cooperation with the American
Radio Relay League, the parent organization
of radio amateurs. Radio telephone and tele-
graph networks, partially with independent
power supply, have already been established
within the amateur bands, These networks per-
mit fixed or portable stations and mobile units
owned by individual amateurs to communicate
with one another under a versatile centralized
control. This control, at the Morristown head-
quarters of the Red Cross, will tie in with
state, inter-county, and national networks to be
alerted as necessary to relay messages to and
from National Headquarters of the Red Cross
or other relief authorities.

The club’s apparatus and procedures are
being perfected and periodic drills are held to
familiarize members with emergency operation
and maintenance. Among the more active mem-
bers who are also Laboratories employees are
T. W. Winternitz, president of the Morristown
Radio Club, T. A. McCann, G. H. Day, L. R.
Schreiner, B. McWhan, A. H. Lince, F. A.
Shorkley, B. F. Orchard, J. W. Schrage, V.
Wall, W. P. Slichter, and F. B. Walters.

In Essex County 22 communities are lining
up to link amateur, police and civil defense
communications to headquarters located at the
West Orange armory.

Livingston is a typical community enlarging
its own communications through cooperation
with the Livingston Radio Club, Inc., and the
Civil Defense Council. The township police
radio system at present serves the communities
of Roseland, Essex Fells and West Caldwell
and an enlarged a is being established. A
radio trunk line already exists between Living-
ston and Morris County headquarters. R. P.
Wells of the Laboratories is president of the
Livingston Radio Club as well as Civil Defense
Communications Director, American Radio
League Emergency Coordinator and Secretary
of the Council of Essex County Emergency
Coordinators.

Civil defense activities of the Bloomfield
Radio Club members include R. L. Tambling
who is American Radio League Emergency
Coordinator for Glen Ridge, Radio Communi-
cations (amateur) Chairman of the Glen Ridge
Civil Defense Council and Chief Operator
of the Bloomfield Radio Club; W. R. Neisser,
a member of the Emergency Communications
Board of the Bloomfield Radio Club; E. J.
Aridas, a member of the American Radio

Relay League Emergency Corps for Newark;
and J. I. Stockwell, Jr., who is American Radio
League Emergency Coordinator for Montclair,
Radio Communications Chairman of the Mont-
clair Civil Defense Council, and of the Amer-
ican Red Cross Chapter, and member of the
Emergency Communications Board of the
Bloomfield Radio Club.

The Bloomfield Radio Club’s emergency
communication plan was put into operation
at the request of the Montclair Red Cross at the
time of the explosion at Perth Amboy. Radio
communications were established between

Perth Amboy and Montclair using three mobile
radio units and a fixed station. This network
handled vital messages necessary for proper
operations of the Montclair Red Cross Chapter
at Perth Amboy. Recently the club has put on
tests for the Sheriff of Essex County, the New-
ark Police, and several Civil Defense Councils
in Essex County.

All radio amateurs in Morris and Essex
Counties and environs are invited to participate
in this emergency communications program
either by operating their own or available sta-
tions in the established networks.

15 years
Elizabeth Chambers
80 years
85 years L. P. Bartheld
H. A. Affel F. S. Entz
T.C. Fry G.S.
0. C. Hall A. J.

Among those retiring from the Laboratories
are May Reilly and S. H. Anderson, each with
34 years of service; and W. A. Bischoff and
A. I. Crawford, 31 years.

she got a position in Wanamakers book depart-
ment. The work was congenial, and she built
up a clientele which eventually included some
of Western Electric’s patent executives. Be-
cause she could find books with but a slight
clue to the title, she was offered a position in
the Patent Files and joined Western Electric
in 1917.

There is a rumor that when Miss Reilly is
asked to verify something that happened long
ago, she puts on a special pair of gloves with
eyes in their finger tips. Be that as it may, she
is remarkably successful in her quests. A good
memory helps, but her meticulous supervision
of her force over the last quarter-century and
her genius for good housekeeping are princi-
pally responsible.

Living alone in upper Manhattan, Miss
Reilly looks forward to her leisure years as time
to be filled with service to others, perhaps as
a hospital volunteer, and as time to catch up
with her reading.

Soon after joining Western Electric in 1916
Mr. Anderson came to the Systems Develop-
ment group at West Street, where until 1927
he was engaged in the development of central
office systems, particularly power plant equip-
ment. He was especially active in the early
development of large gas engines for standby
emergency power generation in central offices.
He then transferred to what is now the Quality

Assurance Department and continued to devote
his time to power apparatus and equipment.
For many years he has been in charge of a
group handling quality surveys, investigation
of complaints and related activities in this field.

The Andersons are home-owners in Hollis.
Their immediate plan is to return to their native
town, Brookfield, Missouri, where many of their
kin still live. If they like it, they may stay; if
not, they will come back to Hollis. Mr. Ander-
son is a graduate of University of Missouri
(B.S. in Eng. 1916), and a member of Eta
Kappa Nu, Tau Beta Pi, and A.LE.E.

After several years’ experience elsewhere,
Bill Bischoff joined us as a draftsman early in
1920. His first work was on the printing tele-
graph, at that time built by Western Electric.
In 1924 he was given charge of apparatus in-
formation files, the Apparatus Card Catalogue
and some of the departmental staff services.
Three years later, placed in charge of appa-
ratus drafting, he reorganized the procedures
of the group and became actively interested in
standardization work. One of his first activities
in this connection involved the establishment
of a new series of Laboratories drawings from
which Western Electric manufacturing draw-
ings are produced photographically and without
substantial alteration. This change has effected
very large savings in over-all drafting effort.

During World War II Mr. Bischoff entered
the standardization problem on a national scale.
As chairman of an A.S.A. war committee on
drafting, he and his associates in Army, Navy
and industry brought together representatives
of many important industries and secured
agreement with the Armed Forces as to uniform
sizes of drawings, presentation of information
on them, and to a considerable extent the
standardization of details. Work of this group
is now being carried on by the Armed Services

Heard on the Telephone Hour February 5.
Austin Bailey (left) A T & T, and Arthur Os-
wald (right), Bell Laboratories, re-enact the
first call with Tom Shirley, the announcer.

Announcer: Let’s turn back the calendar
twenty-five years—to the night of February 6,
1926. In a quiet room in New York City a man
with earphones on his head listens intently.
The hands of a clock move to eleven minutes
past eleven. The man hears a crackling and
humming and then a voice!

Announcer: The voices you have just heard
are those of Austin Bailey and Arthur Oswald,
speaking once again the words they used in
the first telephone conversation ever to span
the Atlantic. That was twenty-five years ago,
and Bailey and Oswald were members of the
Bell System team that for many months had
been working to make two-way Trans-Atlantic
telephone service a reality.

And today they are still working on re-
search to extend the range of the human voice
—Austin Bailey at the headquarters of Amer-
ican Telephone and Telegraph Company, and
Arthur Oswald at Bell Telephone Laboratories.

Their work today has the same objective as it
had on that night twenty-five years ago—to
help make your telephone service ever better,
whether you call across town or the ocean.

for you to talk with anyone beyond this con-
tinent. Today, you can talk from your own
telephone to almost every other telephone in
the world. A businessman picks up his tele-
phone and orders supplies from Australia or
South Africa. The far corners of the world are
in instant touch with America by telephone.

And today, across this land the telephone
gives the orders, receives the orders, and helps
move into high gear the productive power of
the most productive nation on earth.

And yet it’s only twenty-five years since that
first telephone conversation across an ocean.
What another 25 years will bring no man can
tell. But this we do know. Improvement in
your telephone service will continue, and each
step will come from the teamwork of telephone
people like Austin Bailey and Arthur Oswald,
the two men who were the first to talk together
across an ocean's span.

Thank you Mr. Bailey and Mr. Oswald for
re-enacting that night twenty-five years ago.

In 1948 Mr. Bischoff moved to Murray Hill
where he has most recently been in charge of
all drafting and technical file records relating
to transmission, station and outside plant work
engineered at that location. In recent years he
has been chairman of the Laboratories’ design
standards committee which specifies standards
for drawings, parts and processes.

Florida where in the vicinity of St. Petersburg
they are building a house. Bill expects to play
golf, go fishing, and make a garden, to catch up
with some of the leisure he has long wanted.
The Bischoffs have one son, a master technical
sergeant in the Air Force.

During Allen Crawford's Bell System career
he has seen electronics unfold from a few
“vacuum tubes” to the extensive line of today.

Entering Western Electric here at West Street
in 1920, he had had engineering training at
Purdue and elsewhere, and with his drafting
experience he first went into that work. Soon
he transferred to mechanical design; his sub-
sequent work on tube bases and sockets indi:
cated a transfer in 1928 to electronics develop-
ment. For many years he headed up a group
which was responsible for the preparation, issu-
ance and distribution of manufacturing draw-
ings, specifications and technical information on
vacuum tubes. He alsu had under his charge
the development of packaging for vacuum tubes
and the coordination of the technical investi-
gations of field complaints and the quality
assurance matters within the Vacuum Tube
Development Department. For several years
Mr. Crawford was a member of standardization
committees under the Joint Electron Tube
Engineering Council. Thus he took part in
the coordination of many manufacturers who
during World War II made identical tubes
for various government agencies.

When it was decided to station a group of
Laboratories engineers at the Western Electric
plant in Allentown, Mr. Crawford laid out their
physical facilities and supervised the installa-
tion. At that time the specification work was
moved to Allentown, so he gave up that job,
and worked on the layout of the department’s
facilities at Murray Hill, supervising that move
also. Recently he has been working on labora-
tory layouts for various developments, and do-
ing a number of special jobs.

Mr. and Mrs. Crawford have leased their
home in Manhattan and have completed a
house at 500 Rafael Boulevard, Shell Isle, St.

Petersburg, Florida, where they expect to spend
the major part of each year, returning North
for short visits. Mr. Crawford has been inter-
ested in numerous real estate activities in the
past and expects to devote considerable time
to this activity in the future. This, along with
other hobbies such as golf, fishing, etc., will
undoubtedly keep him busy. He has one son in
business in Dover, Delaware, and three boys
still in preparatory school.

A sust of ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL for in-
stallation in the Hall of Fame on New York
University’s campus will be executed by Miss
Ethel P. Hood. Among other portrait busts
from her hands are those of Helen Hayes and
Beatrice Lillie. Selection of Miss Hood was
made by a committee of distinguished sculp-
tors. Dr. Bell was accorded recognition in the
Hall of Fame last year, along with Woodrow
Wilson, General Gorgas, Susan B. Anthony,
Theodore Roosevelt and Josiah Willard Gibbs.

Proressor M. H. L. Pryce of the University
of Oxford visited Murray Hill on January 10
and at a conference there spoke on recent de-
velopments in paramagnetic resonance. This
consists in the appearance, at certain character-
istic frequencies, of enhanced magnetic prop-
erties in certain metals and inorganic com-
pounds, The study of this phenomenon in-
creases our knowledge of the properties and
structure of solids in general and of magnetic
substances in particular. It serves as a tool in
the continuing effort to improve the materials
needed by the Bell System.

Greatness, in this hour, is not beyond the
reach of any man, nor is it reserved for
those who make the headlines in world
affairs. Its fuller measure is the willingness
and capacity to rise to the urgency of the
times, whatever the job may be.

Men with these elements of greatness are
shaping this country’s destiny today. Many
wear the proud uniforms of our country.
Many are in the hundreds of thousands of
factories, mines and offices throughout the

land. They are launching, once again, the
most powerful weapon that history has
ever known—the might of American
production.

Guiding this effort are the men of manage-
ment. They have spent their lives planning
for the future, inventing or developing new
machines, building new resources. These
are the men who, in the last five years,
have lifted the industrial capacity of this
country to a level never dreamed of before.

It is America’s production that is the foun-
dation of her strength and security.

J. W. Gorcas of the Switching Systems De-
velopment Department has devised a radically
different and very much simpler form for cir-
cuit schematics that would replace both the
SD and OS forms now used. He has explained
the construction and uses of the new schematic
to A T & T and Western Electric engineers at
Kearny, and recently—with D. H. WETHERELL
and R. E, Cotiis—went to Chicago to discuss
the new schematics with Hawthorne engineers.
More information regarding this new type of
circuit schematic will appear in a later issue of
the REcorp.

Type-N Carrier is a new twelve-channel sys-
tem intended for shorter distances than have
been thought economical for type-K carrier. A
number of pre-production systems have been

Miss Gertrude Schleifer, who has recently be-
come one of the three supervisors who share
supervision of the West Street Restaurant. She
is a graduate of Pratt Institute (1947) in diet-
etics and institutional management. Her initial
assignment is to the kitchen; after this tour
is completed, in April, she will become better
known to restaurant patrons.

built at Kearny and installed in various parts
of the country. A. J. Aikens has visited one of
these, at Harrisburg, to investigate noise dif-
ficulties. He has also visited Eastern Maryland
to study the probable effect on a proposed
type-N system of nearby radio stations that
use the same part of the spectrum. He also
made tests on a newly-installed type-N system
between Boston and Gardner.

When men go out deliberately looking for
trouble, that’s news: news that attracts atten-
tion and arouses interests. Those responsible
for preparing script for the Telephone Hour
felt this way about the story of the Laboratories
static studies in the September Rrcorp (page
409), and briefly described the work for the
Telephone Hour program of January 29 under
the above title. Most of the equipment used
for these studies is shown in the accompany-
ing interior view of one end of the Hamoka-
hodo Test Station in Madison, Florida. The
tape recorders on which the static was recorded
are on the large table near the left center.

A top notch noon hour program of folk songs,
old favorites and close harmonies was presented
by the Murray Hill Glee Club in the Arnold
Auditorium January 25 with U. A. Matson as
accompanist. Staging coordinator was A. J.
Akehurst. The Glee Club, a newcomer to the
entertainment field at Murray Hill, is the out-
growth of informal gatherings of a singing
group previously at Graybar Varick. Organized

y R. H. Klie, with A, R. Rienstra as coach and
conductor, the Glee Club includes the Barber
Shoppers, a twelve-man close harmony com-
bination directed by G. B. Thomas, Jr.

Those on stage for the first presentation were:
B. H. Carmer, Jr., T. R. D. Collins, R. D.
Ehrbar, M. O. Fichter, G. T, Ford, C. T. God-
dard, D. W. Grant, N. J. Herbert, ]. J. Jansen,
R. H. Klie, S. Korba, H. P. Lynch, A. R. Rien-
stra, E. F, Sartori, G. B. Thomas, Jr., R. L.
Trent, D. C. Weller, N. C. Wittwer, W. H.
Yocom.

Shown below is one of Mr. Murphy's regular
jobs—maintaining the sprinkler system.

_ so many Laboratories people, it is hard
to guess what Luke Murphy of the West
Street Building Shop does in his spare time
when you see him working with a four-inch
pipe. Who would think that he could handle
a tiny artist’s brush with the same facility? And
yet Luke is an accomplished artist, having stu-
died in his native city of Liverpool, England
and in Wexford, Eire. He is a member of the
Irish Academy in New York. In fact, during the
Irish Art Exhibit at the De Motte Galleries in
New York January 1948, Mr. Murphy’s “Sea-
scape” was exhibited along with paintings and
sculpture by such masters as Sir William Orpen,
Sir John Lavery and Andrew O'Connor,

Mr. Murphy came to America in 1921 as a
passenger, but shortly afterward he was back
at sea, working for several different shipping
concerns. Within two years, he had visited
many places on both the East and West Coasts
of North America, Central America and South
America, Between 1923 and 1927, employed
by the United States Lines, he made eighty
crossings of the Atlantic. The next fourteen
years he spent with the American Sugar Re-
fining Company in Brooklyn, coming to the
Laboratories as a steam fitter in 1941.

The Murphys live on Long Island in Kew
Gardens with their two dogs and a parrot. They
have no children. While out walking with his
dogs on the evening of November 22, 1950,
he was startled by the crash on the Long Island
Railroad. For the next six hours, Mr. Murphy
aided in rescue work—a job, he says, that he
hopes he will never again have to do.

During lunch hour, cards provide recreation. In.
the photograph, left to right, are E. H. Johnson,
James Marshall, Thomas Walsh (back to cam-
era), Mr. Murphy, Harold Shaw (partly con-
cealed), and H. A. Rosenbohm.

The photograph, right center, shows Mr. Mur-
phy threading a large pipe with the thread-

Mr. Murphy at his hobby of oil painting.
Marine scenes are his favorite subject.

Mr. Siegmund (center) with Dr. Six (left) and
Professor Bahler. Dr. Six is with the N. V.
Philips Company in Eindhoven, Holland. Pro-
fessor Bahler of Delft University is a consultant
of the Philips Company.

one side of the street, in the Eastern Sector,
wooden poles are lashed together to form the
scaffold. At the extreme left, in the Western
Sector, a modern steel derrick and a concrete
pouring tower can be seen.

In the village of Bad Orb, a milch cow pulls a
wagon that uses a skid to replace rear wheels.

H. O. Siegmund, Switching Apparatus En-
gineer, who visited Europe recently to study
telephone switching developments there, had
an opportunity to compare East and West
Berlin during his travels. “From the stand-
point of personal reaction,” says Mr. Sieg-
mund, “my visit to Berlin was the high spot
of the trip. In the Soviet Zone, I saw the
complete destruction of the buildings formerly
occupied by the Reich Chancellery, the Luft-
waffe and the Propaganda Ministry. All were
in complete ruins and, for the most part,
remain so, including the palace of former
Kaiser Wilhelm, the National Museum, Na-
tional Library, the Cathedral and other public
buildings. There is extensive effort to rebuild
in the Eastern Sector, particularly buildings
for use by the People’s Government. At the
boundary between the East and West Sectors,
the most casual observer cannot fail to recog-
nize the striking differences in the conditions
under which life is carried on and work is
being done in the two zones. In the Western
Sector, reconstruction is accomplished by
means of modern power equipment, tools,
trucks, materials, and facilities comparable
to what we are accustomed to in America.
Across the street, in the Eastern Sector, the
methods are different. Here one finds little
power equipment, hand labor largely from
women, derricks operated by hand-cranked
winches, scaffolding of tree trunks mortised
together and lashed in place with rope.

“In the rural sections of occupied Germany,
the scars of war are much less in evidence
and life there is quaint and unchanged. The
needs of the people are small and their work
is primitive. In these places, age and antiquity
are all around.”

The West Street mixed chorus, directed b
R. P. Yeaton, will appear in concert on Marc
20 at Grand Central terminal. The 40 voices,
accompanied at the piano and organ by Grace
Wagner and Betty Garrow, will be heard in
a group of hymns and spirituals at 5:30 p.m.

he —
i
<>
om.
Contrasti ] hods i li
ri ontrasting construction methods in Berlin. On
=.

Several members of the Laboratories at-
tended the 1951 annual meeting of the Ameri-
can Physical Society held at Columbia Uni-
versity in New York City, February 1 to 3.
G. E. Moore, secretary of the Division of Elec-
tronic Physics, took an active part in arranging
the meeting; preceding the annual meeting his
Division, along with the Panel on Electron
Tubes of the Research and Development Board
held a conference at the City College of New
York on January 30-31. At this conference,
J. A. BEckER gave a paper on Migration of
W Atoms on the Surface of a W Single Crystal
As a Function of Temperature and Electric
Field Strength. H. D. Hacstrum spoke on
Ejection of Electrons by Positive Ion Impact:
He+ and Het++ on Mo; H. W. Auuison and
G. E. Moore gave a paper on The Adsorption
of Sr Metal on Tungsten, and C. Kirret dis-
cussed Theory of Antiferroelectric Crystals.

During the annual meeting, at a symposium
of the Division of Electron Physics held Feb-
ruary 1, J. A. Hornbeck spoke on Distinguish-
ing Atomic from Molecular Ions: A Review of
Positive-ion Mobilities In the Noble Gases. On
the morning of February 3 at a session on
Semi-conductors; Photoconductivity; Lattice
Defects, with W. Shockley presiding, K. G.
McKay presented a paper on Efficiency of
Alpha-Bombardment Conductivity in Ger-
manium; E. J. RypER spoke on Mobility of
Electrons in High Electric Fields; and Dr.
Shockley gave a talk on Mobility of Electrons
in High Electric Fields: Theory. In the after-
noon of February 3, J. BARDEEN spoke on
Supraconductivity and Lattice Vibrations. At
the same time, in another session, MATILDA
GorrTz gave a paper entitled Heat Treatment
of Iron-Silicon Alloys in a Magnetic Field.
Miss Goertz was introduced by R. M. Bozortu.
Also on February 3, P. W. ANDERSON spoke on
Theory of Paramagnetic Reasonance Line
Breadths in Diluted Crystals.

“In recognition of his initiative and interest
in furthering communication progress in Japan”
during the two years that he served as Director
of the Research & Development Division of
the Civil Communications Section of General
MacArthur's staff, Frank A. Polkinghorn of
Military Electronics has been elected an Hon-
orary Member of the Institute of Electrical
Communication Engineers of Japan. Formal
conferment will be made in the Spring.

P. E. Mills shown here with his bass viol, is one
of the seven Laboratories people who are mem-
bers of the Metropolitan Bell Symphony Or-
chestra. This orchestra, a full symphony or-
ganization, composed of Bell System people of
all types of occupations, will offer its third
Carnegie Hall concert Friday, March 30, at
8:30 p.m. Guest soloist will be the distinguished
concert pianist, Amparo Iturbi. Tickets for the
concert, priced from $1.00 to $2.50, can be
obtained by filling out the application blanks
that will be distributed to all members of the
Laboratories.

Among the projects carried out under Mr.
Polkinghorn’s guidance was the organization of
the Electrical Communications Laboratory, the
research and development body of the Ministry
of Telecommunications, which was initiated by
King Gould, and carried forward by R. D.
Parker. This laboratory is under the leadership
of Dr. Goro Yoshida who visited the Labora-
tories last July. Another project was the organi-
zation of electrical engineering professors for
the improvement of engineering education.
This project was responsible for the sending of
five professors to America to study. All of these
men were visitors to the Laboratories in 1950.
A third project was the supervision of courses
in industrial management given for the benefit
of the communications industry. One of the
two leaders of this course was Charles W.
Protzman of the Western Electric Company at
Point Breeze.

The October issue of the Journal of the Insti-
tute of Electrical Communication Engineers of

Japan contains an article (in Japanese) on the
Improvement of Telecommunications Engineer-
ing Education in Japan by Mr. Polkinghorn.
This is a translation of a talk which he gave to
professors and students at several universities
in furtherance of a program for obtaining more
effective engineers. The translation was made
by Dr. I. Koga, neg of communication
engineering at Tokyo University and Tokyo
Institute of Technology, who was a visitor to
the Laboratories last Spring and who is well
known in the United States for his researches
on quartz crystals.

The August, 1950, issue of the Journal of
the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan
also contained an article on engineering eco-
nomics by Mr. Polkinghorn. The September,
1950, issue of The Bridge of Eta Kappa Nu
published an article on “The Occupation in the
Land of the Rising Sun” by Mr. Polkinghorn
describing the purpose and policies of the
Occupation as well as life in Japan since the
end of the war.

Since October 1, Ann Williams has been the
registered nurse in attendance at Whippany.
She is also trained as an X-ray Technician, and
alternates with Gertrude Thomas of Murray
Hill in providing that service there — an ar-
rangement that assures X-ray coverage. Mrs.
Williams is a graduate of the Robert Parker

in Sayre, Pa. She lives in Upper Montclair,
N. J., with her husband and four and a half
year-old son. Mr. Williams is a supplier of
medical equipment.

C. W. Halligan has been appointed head of
a new department which has been set up for
the duration of a special project; he will re-
port to W. H. Martin. Mr. Halligan will con-
tinue supervision over his previous group as
station systems development engineer. K. E.
Gould is transferred from Carrier Systems
Engineering to the new department, reporting
to Mr. Halligan.

Commercial and Staff Service formerly re-
porting to H. J. Wallis in a “junior” position
has been assigned to W. C. Pitman, Jr., in ad-
dition to the project and local order service
group and the plant and shop service groups
which he is retaining. Mail, Central Corre-
spondence and Catalog Files, formerly report-
ing to Mr. Pitman, have been assigned to Gen-
eral Service reporting to R. C. Carrigan.

Shirley Lawton, formerly in charge of Ap-
paratus Files, has been made supervisor of
Patent service at Murray Hill. Her place has
been taken by Marguerite Johnston, super-
visor of Apparatus Records; and Miss Johnston
in turn has been replaced by Lillian Schou.

J. F. Neill has replaced the late Edward
Alenius as supervisor of the Illustrations group.

Mary Regan, a clerk in Apparatus Records,
has become a junior draftsman in the Appara-
tus Drafting Department.

The Sixth Annual Exhibition sponsored by
the Laboratories’ Arts and Crafts club will open
on May 22 in the Game Room (Section 1H) at
West Street, to run for three successive days.
Deadline for entries is May 18.

Every member of the Laboratories is invited
to submit entries and to attend the exhibit.
Work submitted must have been made by the
entrant, and not have been entered in previous
exhibitions at West Street or Murray Hill.
Classes for entry are sculpture and ceramics,
oil paintings, watercolors, pastels and mono-
chromes; and handicrafts. The last group may
include metal, leather, wood, stone, plastics,
needlework and china painting. Each exhibitor
may submit an unlimited number of works.
Not eligible for showing are commercial art,
technical illustrations, photographs, collections
such as stamps or coins, and art, sculpture or

Ina wagon drawn by “Babe”—a possible descendant
of Paul Bunyan’s famous blue ox—four Bell System
men start for the woods to study pole production in
the southern pine forests. Seated, F. F. Farnsworth
and guide. Standing, F. R. George, Purchasing Divi-
ion, and L. L. Bulter, Supplies Service Division, of
Western Electric, and G. Q. Lumsden of the Labora-
tories-Photo courtesy of Mr. Lumsden

ceramic ware which is a facsimile of an exist-
ing work. Full rules covering the exhibition,
and a list of prizes to be awarded will be an-
nounced soon by the exhibition committee. In-
formation can meanwhile be obtained by call-
ing Alice Loe, Ext. 560, or Mrs. C. H. Hamil-
ton, Ext. 1179.

The annual election of the Murray Hill Popu-
lar Orchestra held January 4 resulted in the
following officers being elected: Executive
Chairman, U. A. Matson; Secretary-Treasurer,
F. L. Crutchfield; Orchestra Director, L. J.
Speck; and Librarian, W. H. Kossman. Because
of the increase in the activity of the orchestra,
a new officer—Talent Director—was created
whose duties include the recruiting of musical
talent at Murray Hill and the rehearsing of
such talent for performance with the organiza-
tion. H. G. Geetlein was elected to this office.

RESPONSIBILITY for Western Electric sales
made directly to the United States Government
of all wire communication products and of
radio communication products of a type identi-
cal or similar to those sold to Bell Telephone
Companies has been transferred from Western
Electric’s Radio Division to its Telephone Divi-
sion. H. N. Willets, presently Commercial Re-
lations Manager, Telephone Division, has been
designated Manager, Government Communi-
cation Sales. The post of Commercial Relations
Manager will be taken by S. Hubbard,

NEED of the Bell System and other pole users
for the urban type joint-use poles—those that
support both telephone and power wires or
cable—has raised a question as to whether
southern pine forests can continue indefinitely
to supply sufficient quantities of these poles.
The western species such as western larch,
Douglas fir and western red cedar are being
used to supplement the short supply of southern
pine poles in those sizes under great demand.
However, it takes at least 100 years for some
of these western poles to grow, whereas the
southern pine poles of these same sizes are full
grown at 30 to 35 years. Because southern pines
grow rapidly in those areas under strict forestry
management, particularly where forest fires are
controlled, the production of pole timbers is
becoming an increasingly important activity.
Results in certain areas, particularly in the long-
leaf-slash pine region i the deep South, indi-
cate that much can be accomplished by inten-
sive forest management, Recently F. F.
FaRNSworRTH and G. Q. LUMSDEN visited one
such area, the Satilla Forest, belonging to the
Georgia Forest Products Company at Wood-
bine, Georgia, to examine the results of the
methods successfully used there. On the same
trip they looked over treating plants in neigh-
boring states.

AT A CONFERENCE to discuss the work of the
Physical Electronics Research group held in
the Arnold Auditorium at Murray Hill January
17, H. W. ALLIson gave a talk on The Adsorp-
tion of Strontium on Tungsten and G. E, Moore
spoke on The Thermionic Emission of Barium-
Strontium Oxide without Metallic Support. A
second conference held January 24 included a
talk by H. D. Hacstrum on The Ejection of
Electrons by Positive Ion Impact—Singly and
Doubly Charged Helium Ions on Molybdenum
and another by J. A. Becker on The Use of the
Field Emission Electron Microscope to Study
the Adsorption of Tungsten on Tungsten and
Barium on Tungsten.

Mrs. Entrabartolo, after attending business
and secretarial schools, began her Bell System
career in 1929 when, as Mary Studney, she was
employed as a stenographer at Western Elec-
tric in Kearny. After a few months she ac-
cepted a position as a clerk at West Street. In
October, 1949, she transferred to Murray Hill
where from May of last year until the time of
her death she worked as a secretary. Mrs. En-
trabartolo devoted much of her spare time to
charitable work. As one of her benevolent proj-
ects, she “adopted,” through the Commission
for Children’s Relief, a small Polish boy who
had been seriously wounded early in World
War II. She sent money and numerous pack-
ages of clothing to help the lad, his brother

Kaiku Uljas Kalske, an assembler and wire-
man, joined the Laboratories in September,
1944. He was graduated from Theodore Roose-
velt High School, New York City, in 1938, and
worked as a carpenter for various companies,
including Bethlehem Steel Company in Hobo-
ken before he came to the Laboratories. At
Murray Hill, he was on assignment to various
engineering laboratories, and recently worked
on the wiring of components of the L-3 carrier
system.

K. K. Darrow gave a talk on Electricity in
Metals and Semi-Conductors before the Pough-
keepsie (New York) Sections of the A.LE.E.
and I.R.E. on January 9. Dr. Darrow has been
reelected Secretary of the American Physical
Society, beginning his eleventh year in that
office of the Society.

Last May, A. G. JENSEN gave a lecture on color
television before the Science Engineering Club
at Kearny. Since that time, the a of
this lecture has been attested by the number
of times he has repeated it. Capacity audiences
greeted him twice at West Street and at Mur-
ray Hill and once at Whippany during June,
1950. A number of Sections of the I.R.E. and
A.I.E.E. have also heard the talk.

THe DEcEMBER 9, 1950 issue of the English
publication Nature contains a review of W. P.
Mason’s new book Piezoelectric Crystals and
Their Application to Ultrasonics. Recognition
is given to Dr. Mason’s extensive contributions
to the researches on piezoelectric crystals; the
reviewer states that Dr. Mason has compiled a
“lucidly written book.”

W. L. Mraz presented a paper on Automatic
Gain Control and Automatic Frequency Con-
trol as Feedback Problems at the U. S. Naval
Air Station, Willow Grove, Pa.

G. N. Vacca has been made a member of the
Wire and Cable Technical Committee of the
Industry Operations Bureau, National Produc-
tion Authority. Among the committee’s objec-
tives is to recommend ways of allocating stra-
tegic rubber for wire and cable use. H. PETERS
works on a similar committee for the hard
rubber industry. Substitutes for scarce metals
were discussed by E. E. Scuumacuer, D. H.
Wenny and J. H. Scarr at Hawthorne.

DURING A RECENT VISIT to Hawthorne, E. L.
FIsHER, with the cooperation of the E of M and
Quality Control engineers, established observa-
tional standards for use in inspecting the new
cylindrical protector blocks used in the recently
developed station protectors and protected dis-
tribution cable terminals. In today’s heavily
loaded plant, occasionally distribution cable ter-
minals are over filled with drop wires. While
in Chicago, Mr. Fisher discussed with repre-
sentatives of the Illinois Bell Telephone Com-
pany the design features of a supplementary
cover which might be used to provide more
wiring space in these congested locations.

AT THE JANUARY meeting of the Deal-Holmdel
colloquium C. H. E:rmenporr described the
new L-3 carrier system for coaxial cables and
its transmission objectives. This system will en-
able the transmission of 1800 telephone chan-
nels or alternatively 600 telephone channels
and one television channel. Mr. Elmendorf
stressed the need of planning the system and
designing its equipment for ready conversion
of existing systems from L-1 to L-3 operation.
At a February meeting A. M. SKELLETT, for-
merly of the Bell Laboratories, and now with
the National Union Radio Corporation, spoke
on Recent Developments in Dark Trace
Cathode Ray Tubes.

AS DEMANDS for communication apparatus in-
crease, particularly apparatus to be used in
airborne equipment, space and weight limita-
tions become more and more important. Efforts
are constantly being made to “miniaturize” not
only capacitors and resistors, but is extending
to transformers and other power coils. Ter-
minals for hermetically sealed power coils re-
quired visits during January to several plastics
companies by L. W. Kirxwoop together with
H. R. Bosworth, C. J. Rix, R. A, Walker and
W. Stolberg of the Western Electric Company.
Mr. Kirkwood also visited the Westinghouse
Electric Corporation at Sharon, Pa., to review
production of 400-cycle power coils.

ComMoN cause of relay contact failure is a
microscopic deposit of dust which mechanically
prevents closure. Studies are underway to de-
termine the types of dust which do the most
damage and how best to keep them away. T. F.
Ecan, H. J. Keerer, H. W. HERMANCE and
G. T. KouMan visited the Lehigh and Home-
stead Central offices in Pittsburgh where The
Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania is
cooperating in analyses of atmospheric dust in
relation to contact performance.

HIGHER RESISTANCE subscriber loops in step-by-
step areas will become possible in the near
future as a result of Laboratories developments.
By taking advantage of more precise control of
the per cent break period of a new dial, and of
the use of full selective ringing sets employing
313A vacuum tubes, it has been possible to re-
adjust the step-by-step relays at the central of-
fices to secure satisfactory operation on loops
of more than 18 per cent higher resistance than
has been possible before. A. S. Kinc and F. B.
LaMBERTY of the step-by-step equipment and
circuit groups, respectively, were recently in
Hawthorne to discuss with the Western Elec-
tric Company the best ways of getting this im-
provement into the field promptly.

Seated on the spring board during a lull in the swim-
ming club activities are (left to right) Doris Ketchow,
Thelma Gradwell, Elizabeth Hull, Priscella Westphal,

The Murray Hill swimmers do not let the
weather interfere with their activities, as their
program continues the year round. Having a
large competent staff of Red Cross instructors,
and with the objective of teaching greater
safety in the water, the club provides training
in all phases of Red Cross water safety. During
the fall and winter season the program em-
phasizes beginner and intermediate swimming
skills. In the spring, life saving training is added
to the program. Early in the summer the in-
door program moves from the Plainfield, N. J.,
Y.W.C.A. pool to the outdoor lake at the Schiff
Scout Reservation near Mendham, N. J. An in-
tensive training course in boat and canoe han-
dling skills rounds out the over-all program.
Occasionally, public demonstrations have been
given of swimming, life saving skills and the
handling of canoes.

Practicing lifesaving skills are, at the top, W. C.
Westphal being towed by R. W. Hull; in the center,
W. C. Buckland is being “rescued” by J. B. De Coste;
in the foreground, H. Peters is towing Mildred Read.

CatHopes that don’t wear out are a steady
goal of Laboratories tube research, H. E. KERN
and R. T, Lyncu reported some new slants in
their paper Emission and Life of Planar Diodes
as Related to the Reducing Agent Content of
Cathode Nickel before the Symposium on Elec-
tron Emission, City College, New York.

IN oRDER to reduce labor costs involved in
underground conduit construction, the stand-
ard lengths of the more commonly used conduit
sections have been increased by six inches, This
will result in more duct footage per manufac-
turing operation and a comparable decrease in
the number of joints required. A further change
is the elimination of the glaze from the conduit.

There is a need for qualified American
Red Cross First Aid Instructors to meet
an anticipated demand for Out-Of-Hour
instruction in First Aid in connection with
Civil Defense.

Preparations are being made to con-
duct a combined First Aid Advanced and
Instructor Reactivating Course at West
Street and Murray Hill to qualify former
instructors whose certificates have lapsed.

Currently qualified instructors inter-
ested in teaching First Aid, and former
instructors interested in re-qualifying and
teaching, may obtain information regard-
ing registration from L. E. Coon, Exten-
sion 1713, at West Street.

These changes have introduced some new prob-
lems in manufacturing routines. J. H. Gray
visited a supplier’s plant in Indiana recently to
consult with the manufacturer and to examine
some of the conduit produced.

SUBSCRIBERS DROP WIRES have long been made
with a composite conductor embodying a steel
core for strength and an outer copper sheath
to provide conductance. Western Electric engi-
neers have now developed a method of making
this conductor in which the steel core wire is
continuously plated with copper to provide the
desired mechanical and electrical characteris-
tics. After “electroforming” the conductor is
insulated and jacketed in the usual manner.
Recently, J. B. Drxon, W. K. Oser and I. V.
WILLiAMs visited Point Breeze to observe the
operation of the pilot plant which is making
this conductor.

GROWING INTEREST in telephone switching has
called a number of our switching engineers to
the lecture platform in recent months. As has
been mentioned in an earlier issue of the
Recor, A. E. is giving a course on
switching at M.I.T., and he has recently had
two guest lecturers from the Laboratories. On
January 9 E. G. ANprews talked on Switching
Techniques in Digital Computers, and on Janu-
ary 15 and 16 W. KeisTer talked on Automatic
Telephone Switching Systems. Mr. Keister also
addressed an A.I.E.E. meeting held in Cincin-
nati on January 25 on Fundamentals of Tele-
phone Switching.

BELL SysTEM MAINTENANCE PRACTICES are
prepared by the Laboratories to guide the
Operating Companies in the maintenance of
their circuits and equipment. To make sure
that the material and form of presentation is
best suited to the needs of the local mainte-
nance force, discussions are being scheduled
with key men of the Operating Companies to
secure comments and criticisms, Recently F., S.
EntTz, Switching Systems Development engi-
neer, CHARLES BREEN, Switching Maintenance
engineer, and L. A. LEATHERMAN of the Power
Development group were in Indianapolis, to-
gether with a representative of A T & T, to get
from the Plant and Engineering Department
representatives of the Indiana Bell Telephone
Company, their comments on the current type
of Practices.

W. H. BENDERNAGEL and V. MANSUETTO
were recently in West Haven, Conn., to discuss
modifications in the fluorescent lighting system
which is now being applied to step-by-step as
well as to crossbar and panel offices.

A WEATHER ANNOUNCING SYSTEM has been
operating in Cleveland for the past year on
more or less of a trial basis. E. Von DER LINDEN
and R. O. L. Curry recently visited the in-
stallation to arrange for final modifications.

FoR THE NEW 302A power plant, designed for
the larger central offices, a greatly improved
motor-operated switch for cutting in and out
emergency cells is being manufactured by
Albert & J. M. Anderson Company in Boston.
H. T. LANGABEER and H. M. Spicer, who sug-
gested the design, were recently in Boston to
go over the final drawings.

F, P. Wicur of the trial installation group and
R. W. Burns of the switching maintenance
group were recently in Philadelphia to arrange
with the Bell Telephone Company of Pennsyl-
vania for a trial installation of a line insulation
test frame in the Media No. 5 crossbar office.
When set in operation by a maintenance force,

this frame automatically runs through all the
lines in the office and within a few minutes has
obtained a measurement of the resistance to
ground of each line.

DuRING THE WEEK beginning January 19, J. W.
McRae gave several talks before I.R.E. and
A.I.E.E. Sections in Detroit, Toronto, Cedar
Rapids and Des Moines on the subject of
Microwave Super Highways for Television and
Telephony.

A FIFTEEN-WEEK Seminar and Public Lecture
Series on Prevention of Corrosion, sponsored by
the Graduate school of Stevens Institute of
Technology began on February 7. This series
of lectures is in co-operation with the National
Association of Corrosion Engineers. One of
these lectures, to be given May 16, 1951, will
be by R. M. Burns, on the subject of Paints
and Organic Coatings.

H. S. BLack was recently appointed to the
Board of Editors of the I.R.E. and to the Ad-
ministrative Committee of the Board of Editors.
J. G. Kreer, JR. was appointed chairman of
the Task Group on Transducer Definitions.

J. R. Townsenp addressed the York, Pennsyl-
vania Section of the American Society for
Metals on Plastics and Metals in Engineering,
and the Pittsburgh Section of the American
Chemical Society on the Role of the Tech-
nologist in the Utilization of Materials in the
Modern World.

IN KEEPING with the Bell System’ Program to
conserve strategic metals, it is planned to sub-
stitute steel in place of aluminum for the
greater part in future production of antennas
for the TD-2 Microwave Radio Relay System.

R. R. ANDRES, in company with C. B. Cottrell
of Western Electric, visited the Tennessee Air-
craft Company in Nashville to discuss design
and fabrication of these antennas.

A. H. Lince visited the Western Electric Com-
pany at Winston-Salem to discuss tests on wave
guide pressure windows for the TD-2 Radio
Relay System. Mica, heretofore used for these
windows, is becoming difficult to obtain and
glass-resin laminates are being investigated as
a substitute for mica.

WirTH soME of the materials used in permanent
magnets becoming difficult to obtain, Labora-
tories people, in cooperation with Western
Electric, are investigating the use of substi-
tutes. P. P. Crorri visited Hawthorne recently
to discuss these developments. He was also at
the new Indianapolis plant to assist in solving
production problems arising in the use of a
new alloy for the ring armature telephone
receiver.

LABORATORIES ENGINEERS are continually striv-
ing to hold down apparatus costs, but without
impairing telephone service. In addition, there
now is the problem of finding substitutes for
strategic materials which are becoming more
difficult to obtain. A. C. Ekvaut visited Haver-
hill recently to discuss cost saving items and
substitute materials on coils and transformers.
IN THE M1 CARRIER SYSTEM, a new unit has
been developed by which several rural sub-
scribers can be served by one carrier terminal.
Voice-frequency lines are run to the subscriber
and a conventional installation made at the
subscriber’s location, A. J. Wier and D. T.
Oscoop visited the Western Electric Plant at
Winston-Salem in connection with the manu-
facture of these voice-frequency extension units.
THE JANUARY MEETING of the Movie Division
of the Murray Hill Photographic Club featured
a talk on movie planning and making by Mr.
Sidney Moritz, a well-known amateur movie
maker and a winner of awards by the Amateur

When the Coil Shop moved from West Street
to Murray Hill this Fall, its potentiometer test-
ing laboratory was removed to Whippany, ac-
companied by Marya Motowski, standing, who
had worked on it during the war. She is shown
with Lorraine Prothero checking tests on an
electronic component.

Cinema League and Metropolitan Motion Pic-
ture Club. The Murray Hill Photographic Club
meets every other Monday at 12:15 P.M. in the
Arnold Auditorium.

To ACQUAINT a group of large-scale users of
Long Lines facilities with the background of
Bell System Research and Development, mem-
bers of the Communications Managers Associ-
ation of New York spent January 10 at the
Laboratories. This association is made up of
representatives of large industrial users of com-
munication facilities. They were accompanied
by representatives of the Commercial Organi-
zation of the A T & T Long Lines Department.
After an introductory talk by R. K. Honaman,
visits were made to several locations within
the West Street and Murray Hill buildings for

A Seminar on Prevention of Corrosion spon-
sored by the Graduate School of Stevens Insti-
tute of Technology in cooperation with the
National Association of Corrosion Engineers,
began on February 7. This series of 15 lectures
includes a talk by R. M. Burns entitled Paints
and Organic Coatings scheduled for May 16.

ON A RECENT TRIP to the Pacific Coast, Joun G.
FeRGusON visite. the Hewlett-Packard Com-
pany and the Stanford Research Institute to
discuss new developments on measuring ap-
paratus. While on the West Coast, he gave
short talks before transmission groups at the
San Francisco and Los Angeles Headquarters
of the Pacific Company.

THE SEVENTH annual national technical con-
ference of the Society of Plastic Engineers was
held at the Hotel Statler in New York January
18-20. C, J. Froscu was chairman of the Com-
mittee on Prize Papers.

StupENTS from the Bell Telephone Company
of Pennsylvania, who have been receiving
training in telephone transmission, have visited
the Murray Hill Laboratories to hear talks in
this field. The third group of these students
visited Murray Hill January 26, where they
were given a series of talks on transmission
subjects.

J. B. Fisk has been chosen as a member of the
1951 Nominating Committee of the American
Physical Society.

R. G. Treutinc conferred with a group in
Cleveland, including Professor W. M. Bald-
win of Case Institute of Technology, to arrange
an educational symposium on residual stresses
in metals for the 1951 Fall Meeting of the Na-
tional Metals Congress. Mr. Treuting has been
invited to give the introductory lecture. Re-
sidual stresses are important in apparatus parts
as affecting dimensional stability and sometimes
life of the parts.

IN THE FACING ADVERTISEMENT S, R. KING o>
Outside Plant Development demonstrates the
technique of loading a 152-pair, 22-gauge
Alpeth cable. Loading coils are spaced at inter-
vals of 6000 feet.

MANY more wires can be crowded into a
cable sheath when the wires are fine. But
normally, wires don’t transmit as well when
they are fine and closely packed.

Bell engineers long ago learned to make
wires do better work by loading them with
inductance coils at regular intervals. The
coils improve transmission and let messages
travel farther. But originally the coils them-
selves were large, heavy and expensive. The
cases to hold them were cumbersome and
costly too.

So year after year Bell scientists squeezed
the size out of coils. To make magnetic cores

of high permeability they developed Permal-
loy. Tough but extra-thin insulation per-
mitted more turns to a core.

New winding machines were developed by
the Western Electric Company. Coil size
shrunk to one-fiftieth. Some—like the one
shown above—can be mounted right in cables
themselves.

The 15,000,000 coils in the Bell System
today mean thinner wires, more wires in a
cable—more economical service for you. They
demonstrate once more how Bell Telephone
Laboratories work continually to add to your
telephone’s value.

Bell Laboratories Record  1951-03: Vol 29 Iss 3