Wirephotos

In 24 newspaper offices throughout the land excited groups of newsmen stood around an imposing array of switchboards, generators, motors, and lathe-like machines. Lights flashed on the switchboards --green, red, white. Needles swung on dials. Whistles shrilled from loudspeakers, then a voice:

"New York speaking. This will be the first official roll call for Wirephoto."

"Baltimore ready."

"Ready," piped Syracuse.

"Ready," drawled Atlanta.

"Ready," barked Detroit, Chicago, Oklahoma City--24 cities from Coast to Coast.

Roll-call ended, New York announced:

"First picture will be an aerial view of the wrecked airplane just found in the mountains in upper New York. A fine shot. Will send it now."

Switches clicked, the lathe-like machines began to hum. Seventeen minutes later in each of the 24 offices an operator opened the machine, withdrew a large cylinder, rushed it to a dark room. Another few minutes and the finished photograph of the wrecked airplane was on editors' desks around a 10,000 mi. circuit. Thus last week Associated Press inaugurated its new $1,000,000-a-year Wirephoto service (TIME, May 7).

In principle the A. P.'s new service, designed by American Telephone & Telegraph, is what the world has long known as Telephoto. But A. T. & T., which developed Telephoto at a cost of $2,800,000 only to junk it for lack of patronage, has applied to Wirephoto a new technique* whereby it can transmit a picture so perfectly that the result is almost as good as the original. And instead of eight scattered Telephoto stations, often far from the news, Wirephoto has 24 to start with, any of which can send and receive pictures with all others.

When the airplane picture had hummed over the wires last week, the loudspeaker conversations were resumed with A. P.'s Picture Editor Norris A. Huse in New York acting as interlocutor and traffic director.

New York: What have you got, San Francisco?

San Francisco: Two shots. One shows a good-looking Chinese girl at the Chinese telephone exchange, sending New Year's greetings. The other shows a holiday crowd of young Chinese girls and fellows with lots of confetti and stuff.

New York: Any confetti with that switchboard girl?

San Francisco: No, just the girl.

New York: Send the confetti one. What have you got, Los Angeles?

Los Angeles had film actors wearing paper hats and blowing New Year's horns and "Shirley Temple being vaccinated. It was taken two days ago but it's good, it's cute. CUTE, cute picture." Dallas had Mexican Red Shirts arrested in Mexico City and Kansas City somewhat wistfully offered a view of the last session of the Bi-Cameral Legislature in Nebraska. "Okay, Dallas." or "Okay, Miami, you take the network," Editor Huse would direct. Or, if San Francisco had a picture of a missing lowan, of no interest to outsiders, Des Moines could get New York's permission to have the picture flashed to the Des Moines Register and Tribune when the network was not too busy.

Except for the remarkable airplane wreck picture, Wirephoto's first 24 hours gave its underwriters and readers little for their money but novelty value, which the newspapers ballyhooed loudly. With a straight face, the Baltimore Sun splashed across its front page a six-column bird's-eye view of the Pasadena Rose Bowl showing the customary football crowd and some specks indicating players. Most of the others did likewise. The same day's budget included a Miami

Beach scene, Denver's AdAmAn Club climbing Pike's Peak, ruins of a fire-gutted Home for the Aged in South Carolina, action scenes from various intersectional football games, finish of a Tropical Park horse race. New York's Governor Lehman taking oath, officials of the Burlington (Wis.) Liars' Club electing a champion, floats in Pasadena's Tournament of Roses parade. Papers like the Chicago Daily News, Omaha World-Herald, Milwaukee Journal and Washington Post spread such pictures as breathlessly as if the events themselves were epochal.

On the second day, however, the murder trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann began at Flemington, N. J. and thereafter Wirephoto had a chance to prove its worth. Col. & Mrs. Lindbergh took the stand. Three thousand miles away the Oakland Tribune, an afternoon paper, hit the streets with pictures of the witnesses in the chair, alongside printed stories of the testimony they were giving. That exploit was repeated throughout the week, with evening papers showing to best advantage. Then came the week's climax, when the Ward liner Havana ran aground near the Bahamas. Wirephotos of the distressed ship, loaded lifeboats, survivors ashore, made the front pages of every subscribing paper next morning--a resounding beat.

Oddest Wirephoto of the week: a burglar in a St. Louis tire shop stumbling over a trap that sounded a horn alarm, set off a flashlight, took his own picture. Dullest Wirephoto of the week: the Capitol dome frosted with snow.

Although 24 A. P. offices are equipped with Wirephoto machines, 49 newspapers actually take the service. Two or more members in the same city share the same equipment. Any of A. P.'s 1,200 members is eligible for Wirephoto, simply by sharing the cost. Based on population, Wirephoto cost per city ranges up to $150,000 per year for New York City, where Joseph Medill Patterson's tabloid Daily News carries it alone because the seven other A. P. members spurned it. In Chicago the Tribune, Daily News and Daily Illustrated Times are underwriters. Notable nonusers, in Chicago as in many another city, are the Hearstpapers. Nor does any Scripps-Howard paper have Wirephoto.

Both Publisher Hearst, with his 15 A. P. memberships, and Publisher Roy Wilson Howard with his six, strenuously fought against the Wirephoto project when it was introduced at last year's A. P. meeting. Both flayed it as a needless extravagance, sure to lead to ruinous competition, all for the sake of "pulling A. T. & T.'s $2,800,000 chestnut out of the fire." But Wirephoto's supporters tartly pointed out that Publishers Hearst & Howard were interested in competing picture agencies. Hearst owns International News Photos. Scripps-Howard has a sort of first-cousin in Acme Newspictures.

Last week International and Acme were giving Wirephoto as hot a race as they could by airplane delivery, watching it with an eye to joining in a competitive wire operation if necessary. Hearst was reported to be experimenting with an invention to transmit not photographs but engraved cuts, all ready for printing.

*A positive print is placed on a cylinder which revolves 100 times per minute and moves horizontally one inch per minute. A tiny beam of light, trained on the picture at a 45 degree angle, is reflected to a "light valve." Inside the valve is a shutter which vibrates 2,400 times per second--faster than a humming bird's wings. The reflected beam sends the lights & shadows of the picture through the shutter to a conventional photo-electric cell ("electric eye")- There the image is translated into electric impulses which flash over the wires--10.000 mi., if desired--to the receiving machine. The receiver reverses the process, registering the image on a sensitized film, which is then developed and printed like any ordinary picture.

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