WEBVTT - Magnavox Gets Loud (1917 - 1930) 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:14.680 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:17.560 job in Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio, 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:20.239 and I love all things tech. It is time for 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:26.119 us to continue our stories about Magnavox. So we're picking 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:28.640 up where we left off from our last episode about 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:32.040 Magna Vox. Uh. That point was where I rushed to 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:36.199 explain where the name Magnavox came from. And so, in 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:38.320 case you missed the first episode, yeah, I taught for 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:41.159 nearly an hour and didn't even get to the company 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:43.680 getting its name. I mean, I just kind of squeeze 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:46.640 that in. In fact, we still have a little ways 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:51.160 to go before the company officially becomes Magnavox. The too 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:54.680 long didn't listen version of episode one, though I do 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:56.639 think you should go back and listen to episode one. 0:00:57.000 --> 0:01:01.640 But the short version is that a much engineer named 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:06.680 Peter Jansen and an American engineer named Edwin Prittum, previously 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:11.039 employed by Dutch radio pioneer Valdemar Poulson, had partnered with 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:17.200 money from Richard O'Connor, a candle and soap maker in 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:20.160 the San Francisco area in the early ninet hundreds to 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:24.240 create a radio company operating out of California. Bridham and 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:28.039 Jansen were the engineers and the R and D department 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:31.480 for this company, and they had created a voicecoil electro 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:35.160 dynamic speaker which they hoped to patent, but they ran 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:37.240 into a bit of a roadblock because it turned out 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:40.679 there were other inventors who had previously patented similar ideas. 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:44.280 They were, however, able to secure a patent specifically for 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:48.760 the voice coil version of their invention. I explained how 0:01:48.800 --> 0:01:51.840 that worked in the previous episode, so don't worry. I'm 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:54.640 not going to go into it here because I just 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:57.400 did it earlier this week. But I will remind you 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:00.840 that their version had a speaker, diaphragm, and an Edison 0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:04.559 phonograph horn, So in other words, you know, it wasn't 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:07.000 like a speaker the way we see them today. It 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:11.080 actually had a large physical horn attached to it to 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:15.079 project the sound outward. Now, the first time they actually 0:02:15.280 --> 0:02:19.679 connected the components, you know, with the speaker and a microphone, 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:22.720 the receiver and horn contraption let out a terrible noise. 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:26.360 In fact, Ensign would later write a crack like the 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:29.800 report from a gun came out of the horn, followed 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:34.400 by a screaming, howling noise which was ear splitting and terrifying. 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:38.880 This was, of course feedback, where as sound coming from 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:42.160 the speaker gets picked up by the microphone and then 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:45.280 fed back into the speaker you know, amplified, and then 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:47.880 this goes on and on. It becomes a feedback loop. 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:51.360 So Britam yelled to disconnect the battery before the whole 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:55.079 house blew up. By then, the connection was already broken 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:58.280 and the speaker went silent, and they eventually figured out 0:02:58.280 --> 0:03:00.680 what the problem was, so they mounted the speaker to 0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:03.840 the chimney of the bungalow they had in Napa. This 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:07.919 was the headquarters for the company that would become Magnavox. 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:11.760 In fact, according to one account, they even had Jenson's 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:15.920 younger brother, Carl, up on the roof. Carl and it 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:18.360 was his job to hold the loud speaker to the 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:21.799 chimney because they were actually worried that it would vibrate 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:24.480 so much that the speaker would shake loose and fall 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:27.440 off the roof of the house. They ran a line 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:31.280 down into the bungalow so that the transmitter would not 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:34.880 be close to the speaker, and they pointed the speaker, 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:38.760 you know, toward NAPA, and they talked into the microphone. 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:43.040 According to Jenson, when Prindom used the microphone, it sounded 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:47.560 as though quote, a supernatural colossus was shouting up the 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:51.520 chimney end quote, and Prindom gave instructions that seemed kind 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:55.840 of apocalyptic. He asked the residents to light the bonfires 0:03:56.160 --> 0:03:59.760 if they could hear him. Jensen reportedly dashed out the 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:02.480 bunk below. He ran as far as maybe two kilometers 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:06.200 according to Predom. He managed to set a personal record 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:10.000 for fastest run, and Jensen discovered that he could still 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:14.560 hear and understand Predom even a mile away from the bungalow. 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:17.880 Predom would experience this as well. He hopped on a 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:22.200 bicycle and pedaled off while Jensen spoke into the microphone. Suddenly, 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:25.200 the fact that they originally thought this is a really 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:29.800 limited use case technology kind of faded away, you know. 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:32.800 They originally thought that the loudspeaker would be useful for 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:37.320 public spaces like ballparks. In fact, making announcements at baseball 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:39.919 games served as the motivation for developing it in the 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:43.920 first place. They realized that their attempt at creating something 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:47.000 with limited use was in fact way more powerful than 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:50.320 they first anticipated, and it could be a real game changer. 0:04:50.839 --> 0:04:55.160 So they contacted Richard O'Connor, you know the money. O'Connor 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:58.960 was flabbergasted that hearing this news, it actually took some 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:02.599 convincing to assure him that they weren't just pulling his 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:07.120 leg and telling him stories or exaggerating, so he finally 0:05:07.160 --> 0:05:10.320 believed them, and then he arranged to have stockholders travel 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:13.160 out to Napa to see a demonstration of the loudspeakers 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:19.040 for themselves, and that demonstration was beyond successful. The stockholders, 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:22.680 amazed by what they heard, were excited, and Pridham and 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:25.800 Jnston were essentially told that finances would no longer be 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:29.080 a problem. It was at this point that Jnson and 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:32.160 pried Um then debated on what to call their invention, 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:36.960 and they had a few names under consideration. One of 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:40.120 them was just loudspeaker, but Jansen felt that wasn't a 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:43.240 very appealing name, even though, as we all know later on, 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:48.280 that would become the generic term for the invention anyway. 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:52.880 So then they thought maybe tele megaphone, which they dismissed 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:56.039 they would later use that for a product. They also 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:58.440 thought of a few other names, but ultimately they decided 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:00.520 that they would use a couple of Latin words at 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:03.640 to be the inventions name, and they wanted to call 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:06.680 it a Great Voice, so like you know, as the 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:08.680 great and powerful, like I said in the last episode. 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:12.560 So that's why they called it Magna vox Great Voice, 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:15.359 which we already know because I mentioned all that in 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:17.560 the last episode, but I had the circle background to it. 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:20.599 So the company, which at this point was still called 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:25.560 the Commercial Wireless and Development Company or c w d C, 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:29.560 got an influx of cash and the incident, Pridom continued 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:34.320 to refine their design of their loudspeaker all throughout nineteen fifteen. 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:38.159 They made tweaks to their design to improve the performance. 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:42.280 They also created an all in one electric turntable with 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:46.560 an electric toner arm our toning arm, and it had 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:50.280 a loudspeaker housed in the cabinet of itself, so when 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:55.560 the record turntable would play, the needle in the in 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:58.120 the arm would actually create an electrical signal that would 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:00.560 go to an amplifier that would go to the speaker. 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:03.600 So this was a very early example of an electronic 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:07.640 system that could actually play records back electronically, as opposed 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:10.760 to just being a purely acoustic horn. To amplify sound 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:14.400 that way, they would also occasionally play music out through 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:17.400 the loudspeaker that was attached to the chimney of their bungalow, 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:22.160 thus creating a sort of prerecorded concert experience for the 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:24.800 area of NAPA. It was a little bit like a 0:07:24.880 --> 0:07:28.760 proto radio station, except of course, you weren't picking up 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:32.120 radio signals. You weren't using an antenna to pick up radio. 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:34.680 You were just hearing music that was blasting out of 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:38.600 a loudspeaker attached to some dude's chimney, which I'm sure 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:43.920 the time was novel and exciting and interesting. I would 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:47.560 think of that today as being a gosh darn nuisance. 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:51.480 Towards the end of nineteen fifteen, Incid and Priedam had 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:54.280 created a loudspeaker powerful enough that it could be heard 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:58.840 within a radius of seven miles of the loudspeaker, which 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:02.920 is pretty darn powerful. But the demonstrations, while effective, were 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:06.480 kept pretty local. And you know, it was nineteen fifteen, 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:10.680 so word did not travel around particularly quickly. They actually 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:13.360 dismissed the idea of exhibiting their loud speaker at the 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:17.640 Panama Pacific World's Exposition, which was going on in San 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.520 Francisco that year. They were actually they were worried if 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:25.360 they showed it off at a big exposition before they 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:29.160 had really started to land, you know, deals with customers, 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:32.199 someone else might go along and copy their design and 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:35.520 then beat them to the market. They finally arranged for 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:39.199 a more formal exhibition of the technology in mid December 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:42.280 in nineteen fifteen. They wanted to do it at the 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:45.360 at a stadium that was located in Golden Gate Park, 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:48.800 and despite the fact that the weather was lousy and 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:51.600 these ding dang derned kids were in the park play 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:56.840 in football, the demonstration impressed the invited audience. One journalist, 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:00.640 Edgar Gleeson wrote about in the San Francisco Bulletin and 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:06.040 positively gushed about the loudspeakers capabilities. A couple of weeks later, 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:09.080 Jansen and Pridum set up by a loudspeaker for a 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:13.280 Christmas event in San Francisco's City Hall. They actually hid 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:15.880 the loudspeaker on a balcony and they put a flag 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:18.200 in front of it because they were still worried that 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:20.800 someone might, you know, get a good look and try 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:24.640 to copy their design. That event drew a pretty huge 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:27.240 crowd somewhere in the neighborhood of a hundred thousand folks 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:31.520 by one estimate. And again this demonstration went over really well, 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:35.719 and after a few more similar demonstrations, the c w 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:39.719 d C found itself a potential partner. This was the 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:44.440 distributing arm of a company called the Sonora Phonograph Company. 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:48.800 This attempted to establish itself in the phonograph slash early 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:52.960 record player industry, but Sonora had its own challenges, namely 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:57.880 that the Victor Talking Machine Company was jealously keeping a 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:02.840 grip on lateral recording of phonographic discs, which forced Sonora 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:07.960 to go with the alternative vertical cutting of phonographic discs. 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:10.840 But you might wonder, what the heck does that even mean. Well, 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:16.640 imagine a modern record. If you've ever seen a vinyl record, right, 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:20.880 it's got these grooves that are in it. Well, you know, 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:24.679 this is all about how you record vibrations onto these 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:29.840 these records, these rotating discs of material. So let's imagine 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:33.480 the grooves in a record are kind of like a trench. 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:38.280 So imagine you're inside a trench with lateral cutting, the 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:42.320 walls of the trench jut in and out. They you know, 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:45.440 come further into the trench. Sometimes they go a little 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:47.839 bit out of the trench. Uh. Sometimes things get a 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:51.679 little tight. Sometimes it's you know, relatively not tight. This 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:54.600 makes you know, a needle or stylist that's traveling through 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:58.319 the trench vibrate laterally as it's moving through the groove, 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:01.000 like the walls are pressing the needle to go left 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:04.040 or right, depending on how the walls of the trench 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:07.679 are shaped. Those vibrations then go to the rest of 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:09.400 the device to produce sound. And I'm not going to 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:11.160 go through all of that again because I'm more or 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:15.199 less covered in the last episode. Now, that is lateral cutting, 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:18.199 and that's what the Victor Talking Machine Company had a 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:22.319 tight hold on. So Sonora with vertical cutting. So now 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:25.080 imagine you're in that same trench. But the walls are 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:28.560 pretty much smooth, right You've you know, they still curve 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:32.960 because you're on our you know, around platter, but they're 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:36.520 smooth walls. It's the floor of the trench that's really 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:41.040 bumpy and a properly designed needle would move up and 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:44.960 down as it traveled through the groove, and that's what 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:47.640 would generate the sound you would hear. Uh. This method 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:51.280 produced lower quality recordings than lateral cutting, and also it 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:54.680 would eventually, you know, make the record were out. Actually, 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:57.079 you typically would have the record were out faster than 0:11:57.080 --> 0:11:59.200 you would if you were using a record that had 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:02.760 lateral cutting, because the needle is traveling the same up 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:04.679 and down path over and over again and wearing it 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:09.320 down over time, so there were disadvantages to it. Anyway, 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:14.439 the Sonora Phonograph Company had a distribution division in Oakland, California, 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:17.360 which is in the San Francisco area. The C W 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:21.479 d C and Sonora discovered that their goals were aligned, 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:25.520 and so the two companies formed a partnership and they 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:29.160 would merge together, forming an all new company in nineteen seventeen, 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:33.040 and that company would of course take on the name Magnavox. Now, 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:37.120 when I say Sonora and uh C w DC merged, 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:40.880 keep in mind this was one division of Sonora. It 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:44.559 wasn't the full Sonora Phonograph Company, but their distribution arm. 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:47.640 So while you could argue that Magnavox is history stretched 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:51.080 back to around nineteen o nine or so. The official 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:55.760 founding of the company named Magnavox would happen nearly a 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:59.800 decade later. This also means that Magnavox the Loudspeaker is 0:12:59.840 --> 0:13:04.920 actually older than Magnavox the company. The loudspeakers celebrated its 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:10.640 on birthday. In Magnavox the company was, you know, ninety 0:13:10.640 --> 0:13:12.960 eight years old at that point, if it were still 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:18.800 its own independent company. But that's just foreshadowing. Richard O'Connor, 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:22.240 who had headed up the c w d C, would 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:27.240 become a director of Magnavox. Frank Steers, who came over 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:31.960 from Sonora, would eventually serve as president for Magnafox. As 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:36.600 for Priedom and Jenson, they became co chief engineers. And 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:39.360 that might sound a little bit weird for two people 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:41.559 to serve in the same executive role. We've seen it 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:45.440 a few times in tech companies where you had more 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:49.520 than one person essentially inhabiting what would normally be a 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:53.440 single person role, and it certainly could lead to problems 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:56.560 should the two engineers disagree on the direction of development. 0:13:56.880 --> 0:13:59.520 So Jansen and Priedam had come up with a fairly 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:04.040 clever approach to leadership. They alternated one month Jensen would 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:07.439 serve as chief engineer and the next month Priedom would 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:10.040 do it, and then they'd go back and forth. This 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:13.360 was to avoid issues where a subordinate could potentially get 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:18.320 conflicting directions from the two leaders. So it was a 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:22.640 practical solution to a real problem. Now you might remember 0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:26.280 that the year at this point is nineteen seventeen, and 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:29.160 that's the same year that the United States entered into 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:32.240 World War One. We didn't call it World War one 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:35.840 at that point because that would be way too pessimistic. Accurate, 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:39.440 but pessimistic. One of the things that tends to happen 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:42.600 in wartime, however, is that companies in nations that are 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:46.880 embroiled in the conflict will frequently pivot towards creating stuff 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:49.440 to aid in the war effort, not always by choice, 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:54.200 sometimes mandated by the governments of those countries. Magnavox would 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:57.360 be no exception to this trend, and the young company, 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:01.120 having just branded itself, would find itself producing technology to 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:03.920 help support the United States military in World War One. 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:08.920 So Magnavox, which had been preparing to create a commercial 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:12.600 version of the electronic phonograph that Printum and Jansen had 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:15.920 designed a couple of years earlier. Put consumer electronics on 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:19.120 the back burner. The company participated in trials to see 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:22.240 if loud speakers could be used to communicate from a 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:26.720 ground station to a plane flying overhead. After all, early 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:29.360 tests had shown that the loudspeaker could project sound a 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:32.840 really long distance, like up to seven miles. But as 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:35.360 I'm sure you already suspected, it turned out that the 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:38.920 planes were just way too noisy, and the tests ended 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:41.320 up proving that loud speakers would not be an effective 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:46.320 communication tool for ground to air transmissions. However, Jansen and 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:50.160 pried Um experimented with microphone and speaker technology and found 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:53.640 one application that would prove to be really useful during 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:56.800 the war. More on that after we come back from 0:15:56.840 --> 0:16:06.920 this quick break. So what was the invention that Predoman 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:09.800 Jensen devised that would be a huge help in World 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:14.240 War One? Well, it was a noise canceling microphone. You see, 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:17.440 the planes were so loud that it was really hard 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:21.080 to communicate inside one, whether you were a pilot trying 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:24.240 to use a radio to talk with ground, or maybe 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:26.760 you were part of a larger aircraft like a bomber, 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:30.880 and you're trying to communicate inside a single aircraft. The 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:34.000 engine and the propeller noises were just too intense for 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:36.880 easy communication. Also, remember this is World War One. Some 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:40.000 of these aircraft were open cockpit aircraft. It was just 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:43.800 really hard to hear one another. So the engineers needed 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:46.680 to figure out a way to compensate for this, and 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:48.840 at first they tried to figure out a way to 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:53.960 isolate and thus exclude the noise, but everything they tried failed. 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:56.960 The noise was just too powerful and there wasn't any 0:16:56.960 --> 0:16:59.800 way to cancel it out. And then, out of desperation, 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:03.320 tried something that is at least at first counterintuitive, or 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:06.399 at least I found it counterintuitive. And what they did 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:09.480 was they took a microphone and they essentially stripped it down. 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:14.120 They removed pretty much everything that shielded the microphone, so 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:17.720 that now the diaphragm of the microphone was exposed on 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:22.880 all sides. And this worked. Why did it work? Well, 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:25.159 let's consider a sound for a second. And I know 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:28.040 I talked about sound a lot on this show, but 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:32.320 sound is vibration, and typically we're talking about fluctuations and 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:36.960 air pressure, air molecules, vibrate, and those vibrations propagate outward 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:40.359 from the source of the sound, and with microphones, we 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:43.560 usually designed the microphones so that they channel sound from 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:47.880 a specific direction for the purposes of transmitting that vibration 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:52.000 to a diaphragm, and then we end up sending that 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:56.760 signal onto amplifiers and then perhaps a speaker to amplify 0:17:56.840 --> 0:18:01.800 that sound while by removing all the shielding around the diaphragm, 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:05.040 what the incident printum did was they equalize the air 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:08.960 pressure from all the noise. The noise from the airplane 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:12.879 was essentially hitting both sides of the microphone diaphragm, so 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:15.560 it was canceling out the effect. It would be kind 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:18.400 of like if you had two people of equal strength 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:21.600 who were just pushing against each other, they would be 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:25.000 at a standstill. They wouldn't no one would gain advantage 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:28.199 over anyone else. Now, if you designed this kind of 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:30.320 microphone in such a way that a person who was 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:35.679 speaking into it was only affecting one side of that diaphragm, 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:38.840 that person's voice would come through right. All the noise 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:41.280 would be pushing on both sides, so it cancels it 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:45.760 itself out. But sound coming from your voice. If it's 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:49.440 only hitting one side, it's causing the diaphragm to actually vibrate. 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:52.600 Those vibrations get picked up and converted into electric signal 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:55.879 and there you go. So unlike the airplane noise, the 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:58.720 vibrations only come from one side when you're talking about 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:00.440 using it as a microphone. So the micro phones had 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:04.400 these attachments that would fit onto leather helmets, so you 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:07.639 you wear it like right in front of your mouth. Um. 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:09.679 In fact, when you look at pictures of this or 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:13.239 illustrations of it, uh, they look kind of like like 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:15.920 something out of a science fiction novel, right, because you've 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:19.440 got this weird little round microphone position directly in front 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:22.600 of the mouth of the person wearing the helmet. Um. 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:25.119 That would allow them to communicate with the ground or 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:28.840 with each other inside the same plane. Of course, the 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:33.080 microphones were paired with speakers that were mounted in headphones, 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:36.639 and these also attached to the leather helmets. So this 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:40.840 ingenious system, which was taking advantage of physics, allowed greater 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:46.159 communication inside planes and drastically increase their effectiveness. Now, that 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:48.960 was not the only thing that Magnavus designed for the 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:52.880 US military during World War One. The company also created 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:57.040 public address systems that would be used aboard naval vessels, 0:19:57.280 --> 0:19:59.960 particularly to allow those who are working in very NOI 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:03.160 easy environments like engine rooms to be able to hear 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:07.840 announcements and other communications from the bridge. Production increased to 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:11.840 the point that Magnavox had outgrown the bungalow. The company 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:17.240 relocated to the San Francisco area sometime around nineteen. Most 0:20:17.280 --> 0:20:20.520 of the employees at this time were women. You know, 0:20:20.880 --> 0:20:24.639 they weren't drafted to go fighting the war, So women 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:28.560 were the people who were building radio junction boxes and 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:32.160 working with circuitry. They were the ones building the radio 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:35.800 systems that pilots in World War One were dependent upon. 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:40.720 After the war, Magnavox continued to create technology for ships 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:44.520 with the design of watertight telephone systems. And it looked 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:47.440 for the moment like the loudspeaker, which was the thing 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:50.280 that launched the company in the first place, wasn't really 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:54.119 gonna go anywhere. But that was about to change. See 0:20:55.240 --> 0:20:57.840 leading up to the US ratification of the Treaty of 0:20:57.920 --> 0:21:00.760 Versailles and the formation of the lead Egue of Nations, 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:05.280 US President Woodrow Wilson had to conduct a campaign, a 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:09.080 national campaign to promote the post war peace effort and 0:21:09.119 --> 0:21:11.639 to get support for the Treaty of Versailles. He was 0:21:11.960 --> 0:21:16.240 encountering resistance to the US signing or ratifying the Treaty 0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:19.560 of Versailles out of Congress. So his idea was, well, 0:21:19.640 --> 0:21:22.560 let's go to the American people and if they support 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:25.560 these efforts, then Congress is going to have to go 0:21:25.600 --> 0:21:27.639 along with it, or else they're going to find themselves 0:21:27.680 --> 0:21:30.399 voted out of office. So he needed to get this 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:34.040 groundswell of support for the ratification process, and he was 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:37.000 supposed to travel to San Diego and make an address 0:21:37.119 --> 0:21:39.840 in what was called City Stadium it was later known 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:44.320 as Balboa Stadium. But Wilson's health was in serious decline 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:47.760 and his doctors were advising him not to be outside 0:21:47.800 --> 0:21:50.600 for long periods, and so it looked like the President 0:21:50.600 --> 0:21:52.239 was going to have to cancel his appearance because he 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:55.720 was going to just show up and speak inside a 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:59.120 stadium that was, you know, exposed to the elements. Well, 0:21:59.160 --> 0:22:01.399 the city leaders of San Diego weren't too keen on 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:05.640 the idea of, you know, Wilson canceling, so they wanted 0:22:05.680 --> 0:22:08.440 to find a work around. The notion was that Magnavox 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:11.240 would design a loud speaker system and they would install 0:22:11.280 --> 0:22:14.080 it in the stadium, and Wilson would appear, but he 0:22:14.119 --> 0:22:17.199 would be inside a glass booth while a lot of 0:22:17.520 --> 0:22:20.400 a lot of sources actually called it a large glass cage, 0:22:20.680 --> 0:22:23.639 which seems a bit ominous to me. And so he 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:25.919 would be standing in there, looking out through the glass, 0:22:25.960 --> 0:22:29.440 but addressing the crowd through a microphone system. The incident 0:22:29.560 --> 0:22:32.880 was actually across the country in Washington, d C. At 0:22:32.880 --> 0:22:36.400 this point he was attending meetings with various government officials 0:22:36.440 --> 0:22:40.119 regarding you know, Magnafox as other projects, and so it 0:22:40.200 --> 0:22:43.040 kind of filled a printum to create and install the 0:22:43.080 --> 0:22:47.160 system in Balboa Park. So he used a pair of microphones. 0:22:47.640 --> 0:22:50.160 They looked kind of like loud speakers. They each had 0:22:50.359 --> 0:22:53.439 a horn. So in this case, the horn's purpose was 0:22:53.480 --> 0:22:58.440 to funnel sound into the microphone, you know, towards the diaphragm, 0:22:58.560 --> 0:23:03.040 rather than propel or splify sound outward. He mounted loudspeakers 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:05.840 on top of the glass booth that pointed towards the audience. 0:23:06.320 --> 0:23:10.840 At this point, vacuum tubes were used in amplifiers. So 0:23:11.000 --> 0:23:14.280 it's a good time to remind ourselves how vacuum tubes 0:23:14.320 --> 0:23:17.719 work and how amplifiers work. So a vacuum tube looks 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:21.040 and somewhat behaves a bit like a light bulb, doesn't 0:23:21.080 --> 0:23:25.720 incandescent light bulb. So they are glass tubes, and inside 0:23:25.800 --> 0:23:29.200 these glass tubes you have components that look a bit 0:23:29.280 --> 0:23:31.840 like the filament you would find in an incandescent bulb. 0:23:32.359 --> 0:23:34.840 But rather than you know, a filament that lights up, 0:23:35.200 --> 0:23:38.440 what you have are you've got a cathode and an 0:23:38.440 --> 0:23:41.800 anode that are separated by a gap inside the tube. 0:23:42.240 --> 0:23:44.439 And again there's no air inside this tube. That's the 0:23:44.480 --> 0:23:48.119 whole vacuum part of vacuum tubes. So when you supply 0:23:49.119 --> 0:23:53.080 an electric signal to the cathode, the cathode begins to 0:23:53.119 --> 0:23:56.080 heat up, and as that happens, the metal in the 0:23:56.119 --> 0:24:00.600 cathode begins to release electrons. This is a process. It's 0:24:00.640 --> 0:24:04.040 called thermionic emission, and in fact another name for vacuum 0:24:04.080 --> 0:24:09.199 tubes would be thermionic valves. If you then apply a 0:24:09.440 --> 0:24:13.439