There was also an audio-frequency oscillator capable of giving a pure note which could be varied from the lowest to the highest in the audible range. Around the laboratory were specimens of almost every known loud speaker, and switches by which they could be rapidly compared. In the late afternoon I was taken into the laboratory of Mr Rice and Mr Kellogg, who had worked together so successfully in evolving the new loud speaker. Sometimes these men seem to work for a year or two without apparently producing anything of value, but at last comes some important invention which proves to be exceedingly profitable to the company. The idea is an expensive one, but I am sure it pays. The policy of the General Electric Company is to engage a large number of brilliant scientists - mostly young men - and to equip them with everything they need for first-class research work, leaving them to work out their ideas without being worried every few minutes to see whether they have produced a commercial invention.
In the afternoon I visited the various research laboratories which are distributed throughout large buildings. It was quite impossible to distinguish the difference. A minute or two later he stopped, came through the door, and repeated the same passage in person.
It was difficult to realise that nothing, whatever was coming directly from him. 'Listen carefully,' said the manager, 'and then come and listen to the same tune on the Rice-Kellogg loud speaker'. Perfect Realism Another view of the BTH Rice-Kellogg instrument showing the power amplifier and rectifying valves. Through the glass door I could see his lips moving, While his voice was coming from the Rice-Kellogg loud speaker. Nevertheless, I was totally unprepared for the big advance given by the Rice-Kellogg at WGY.Īfter the piano test one of the engineers went into the main studio and read about half a page of a magazine. Hearing these had given me a shock, for their reproduction was greatly superior to anything I had heard up to that time in England. These cone loud speakers distributed the music through the hotel from a band playing in one of the dining-rooms. Up to that time by far the best loud-speaker reproduction I had heard emanated from the Western Electric Kone loud speakers, used in conjunction with the Western Electric public address system in the Hotel Pennsylvania, New York. It was weird and uncanny in its naturalness. To say that I was startled would be greatly to underestimate the effect produced. Instead of being put 'on the air', the signals were led to the Rice-Kellogg loud speaker and the strength adjusted so that the reproduction from the speaker was about equal to the original strength from the piano direct. Connections were made so that a condenser microphone in the main studio picked up the sound-waves and passed them to the station amplifiers. We returned to the first and smaller studio, and shut the door. The instrument includes a power amplifier and complete HT, LT and grid bias from the mains. The First Experience This is a front view of the Rice-Kellog loud speaker manufactured by BTH. Taking me into the larger studio the studio manager sent for an accompanist, who forthwith sat down at a grand piano and played a rather intricate, and certainly very charming, tune, which had probably been chosen for its wide range of tone. Immediately adjacent to this room, and separated from it by a sound-proof glass partition, was a larger studio, photographs of which have appeared on many occasions in this and other journals. 'I would like you to hear our new loud speaker', remarked my guide, pointing to a square box standing in one corner of a small studio. It is over three years since I presented my credentials at the Research Laboratories of The General Electric Co., in Schenectady, for the purpose of examining the control room, transmitting apparatus, and the studios and research laboratories of WGY and 2XAF. In this article Mr Harris deals with these instruments in his usual practical and very interesting manner. The moving-coil speaker, which is capable of uncannily realistic reproduction, is now within the reach of many amateurs.
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