Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 5, 1992 TAG: 9201050265
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: D-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by LARRY SHIELD
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
THE MEN WHO MADE RADIO AND CHANGED THE WORLD
EMPIRE OF THE AIR. By Tom Lewis. HarperCollins. $25.In this electronic media-dominated world, it is hard to believe that less than a century ago, more than 21,000 newspapers were published in the United States.
The late-breaking news in those papers was, at the least, days old. No sense of immediacy was present as no sense of immediacy was possible. Three men - a genius, a schemer and a visionary - changed this world of past occurrence to the world of instant information. In this book, Tom Lewis explores the lives of Edwin Armstrong, Lee de Forest and David Sarnoff, men whose stories deserve to be remembered.
At the turn of the century, radio consisted of the wireless transmission of coded messages. The company that could transmit a message farther and faster than another would reap the bounty of customers requiring quick, timely communications. Into this world, a new Yale graduate named Lee de Forest decided to make his fortune. Working for a wireless company, he developed a component which allowed messages to be recorded faster than competing systems.
The repeater, as the device was called, was actually a derivative invention which appropriated several ideas from other inventors. Using this technical advantage, de Forest started a string of companies which could only be described as stock swindles. Unfortunately for de Forest, his partners also swindled him and left him penniless.
Using derivative technology again, de Forest patented the Audion, the first amplifying vacuum tube. This tube made possible the simple reception of audio signals which catapulted radio from a simple message medium to the entertainment we know today. While de Forest couldn't explain how the Audion worked, he parlayed his patent to great fortune and the popular nickname "the father of radio."
Tinkering in his bedroom, Edwin Armstrong developed and later patented a method of increasing the power of transmitters and receivers. The method known as regeneration allowed the development and marketing of inexpensive radio receivers. The patent required any radio manufacturer to pay a royalty to Armstrong. Unfortunately for Armstrong, the patent was not drawn correctly and de Forest contested it.
The description of the patent battles between Armstrong and de Forest are vivid and dramatic enough for an episode of "L.A. Law."
David Sarnoff parlayed his early experience as a telegrapher into the presidency of the Radio Corporation of America, RCA. It was the monopoly which built radio transmitters, receivers and the first radio network, NBC. Sarnoff had the marketing acumen to predict the directions communications would take and to position RCA to exploit them all. When code was king, RCA controlled long distance code transmission. When voice transmission evolved, RCA acquired licenses to both de Forest's and Armstrong's patents.
Sarnoff predicted television would become bigger than radio and convinced the FCC that RCA methods - all patented - should be the standard methods throughout the United States. The patent fight Sarnoff had with Armstrong over FM transmissions - the lengthy litigation caused Armstrong to commit suicide in 1954 - was a classic confrontation between the iconoclastic single inventor and the giant industrial monolith.
The interweaving of the three lives makes fascinating reading. Tom Lewis is to be commended on the excitement his prose produces. "Empire of the Air" is biography as biography should be written. No three men had more influence on the world today. This book guarantees they will not be forgotten.
Larry Shield writes software.