The HALL OF FAME
in Electronics, as selected by the Consumer Electronics
Association, includes two Zenith inventors, as shown in the list
below.
Benjamin Abrams, founder of Emerson Electric
 |
| Robert Adler |
Walter H. Brattain, co-inventor of the transistor
Karl Ferdinand Braun, inventor of the cathode ray tube
.jpg) |
| Add caption |
In the last blog post, we talked about Robert Adler and
his contribution of the remote control system, and its importance to Zenith. (There are many more such contributions from him!).
Here is a summary of Carl Eilers’ contributions, as listed in his obituary.
Four decades ago, high-fidelity stereo sound
revolutionized the radio listening experience, and Carl G. Eilers helped make
that vision a reality. Before the FCC adopted the Stereo FM Broadcast Standard
in 1961, high-fidelity two-channel audio was limited to phonographs.
Eilers' pioneering work brought crystal-clear stereophonic sound to tens of
millions of FM radio listeners worldwide.
A senior scientist with Zenith Electronics Corp. for more than 50 years, Eilers began his career working on subscription television technology in 1948. During the 1950s, he turned his attention to developing the stereophonic frequency modulation radio broadcast system that is now in use around the globe.
While seemingly mundane in today's digital world, Eilers stereo FM innovations meant that, for the first time, radio stations could transmit two stereophonic channels with full high-fidelity on each channel, signals that could also be received by existing monophonic FM receivers without loss of quality.
Likewise, Eilers' advances in MTS (multichannel television sound) and SAP (secondary audio programming) have enhanced the television viewing experience. Thus, Eilers holds a unique place in the annals of consumer electronics technology history as co-inventor of two key industry standards --stereo FM radio and MTS stereo TV. Eilers, who led development of Zenith's Emmy Award-winning MTS stereo TV system, adopted by the industry in 1984, has been working on high-definition television (HDTV) in recent years.
A lifelong member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Eilers has received many industry honors for his work, including the IEEE Fellow Award, the Masaura Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award, the Audio Engineering Society Fellow Award and the R&D100 Award. Eilers had been granted 17 U.S. patents.
A senior scientist with Zenith Electronics Corp. for more than 50 years, Eilers began his career working on subscription television technology in 1948. During the 1950s, he turned his attention to developing the stereophonic frequency modulation radio broadcast system that is now in use around the globe.
While seemingly mundane in today's digital world, Eilers stereo FM innovations meant that, for the first time, radio stations could transmit two stereophonic channels with full high-fidelity on each channel, signals that could also be received by existing monophonic FM receivers without loss of quality.
Likewise, Eilers' advances in MTS (multichannel television sound) and SAP (secondary audio programming) have enhanced the television viewing experience. Thus, Eilers holds a unique place in the annals of consumer electronics technology history as co-inventor of two key industry standards --stereo FM radio and MTS stereo TV. Eilers, who led development of Zenith's Emmy Award-winning MTS stereo TV system, adopted by the industry in 1984, has been working on high-definition television (HDTV) in recent years.
A lifelong member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Eilers has received many industry honors for his work, including the IEEE Fellow Award, the Masaura Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award, the Audio Engineering Society Fellow Award and the R&D100 Award. Eilers had been granted 17 U.S. patents.
The MTS (multichannel television sound) patent and its relevance to Zenith’s survival, will be discussed in some detail later in this blog.
In the spring of 2013, The Broadcast Technology Society Newsletter of the IEEE featured an article by Wayne C. Luplow and John I. Taylor titled “Channel Surfing Redux.” The article provided a brief history of the TV remote control and included a tribute to its co inventors, Gene Polley and Robert Adler. (Note: In Post 4, this blog also described the early work of the two inventors in the creation of the remote control system. )
In the previous Post, it was found to be impossible to insert Karl Horn's photo along with his obituary. Now, success! Here is his photo.
Karl Horn, 1923-2014.
Karl Horn, 1923-2014.
Zenith produced some odd products! Here are three of them.
ODD ZENITH PRODUCT—No.
1
The Jack-in-the Box
Television Set
A projection
television system uses an array of three television tubes side-by-side
that project a three-color image onto a reflective screen. The benefit of a projected array is that the
screen can be very large—80 inches . . . 100 inches, and more.
The image a television cathode tube can display is limited to a maximum image 40
inches in diagonal measure, because tubes any tube larger than that become extremely heavy and cumbersome. And if a tube that size ever “implodes” . . . havoc!
An unknown Zenith inventor . . . (if you know who it was, please let us know!) came up
with the idea of a greatly compacted projection system that comprised three
very small projection television tubes
side-by-side, tubes with specially designed slanted faces. The image projected by the three was focused
on the back of a translucent screen. It
was such a neat idea that someone asked: Why
not put it all into a standard-size television set cabinet? And they did! And so we had the Zenith
Jack-in-the Box Television Set!
By an incredible feat
of mechanical engineering, all the components were sized to fit into the “box”—the projection tubes, the screen,
the complex lifting mechanism, and
attaching parts. Upon command by a remote control unit, the cabinet lid folded
back, and the whole assembly rose—like Lazarus— from the cabinet . (Anything the Lady of the House had placed on the top would fall behind the
set, of course.) And it worked in reverse:
press a button on the remote control and-- Et voila!--
Zenith thought it had a winner, and it was proudly displayed
at the next stockholder’s meeting. But circumstances dictated otherwise. For one
thing, it cost a great deal than a standard set, and worse, the lifting
mechanism could not provide the precision of alignment necessary. Carefully
align the set, and it would show a beautiful television picture. Move it a few feet away (it was on casters) and the picture would
become a mess. The precision needed between
the optical elements was not maintained, nor could it ever be. The Jack-in-the Box Television set brought in
no “jack,” and Zenith could have used some jack at that point in time, for it
was facing eventual bankruptcy.
The best-laid plans of mice and men Gang aft agley. (Robert Burns To a Mouse. 1785.)
Odd Zenith Products No. 2
Early on, and long before the Japanese had captured the
radio market, Zenith tried to provide all types of radios, such as the table
models, and the portables such as the Trans-Oceanic broadband receiver—all
excellent sellers. Then Zenith designers
ventured into the clock radio market, a “hot” field because bedside radios that
could tell time and use the music in versatile ways such as to entertain and
serve as an alarm. So the “batwing clock
radio” was born. It wasn’t called that, of course, but it soon gained that
name.
The radio told time by means flipping over “flip cards.” There were 12 separate flip
cards for displaying the hours, 60 cards for the minutes, and 60 cards for
display the seconds. All were arranged
in rank formation beneath a display window. The cards displaying seconds were
busy little devils as they had to be
flipped over to display each second and show the progression of time. Occasionally, some of the cards would stick
together and turn over at the same time, and there would be a gap in the time
display. The contraption was powered by a synchronous clock motor which flipped
the cards in sequence, and which also
turned the radio on and off, serving as the alarm.
A sleepless person would of course become aware of the busy
little clock as it flipped the cards over and over to tell the time. One
amnesiac noted that it sounded like beating of bat wings in the night, hence
the name The Bat Wing Clock Radio. When
he awoke bleary-eyed , a sleepless poet might write:
Bat wings in the nightYou gave me a real fright!
The Bat Wing Clock Radio was soon withdrawn from the market. Perhaps the designers had learned that there were such displays as “Nixie” tubes, which are gas-discharge tubes designed to display numbers, an ideal system for clock radio displays.
The Roach Motel Cable Box
This product is not odd
in itself, it is just what happened to it that is odd. Another of the special products of Zenith was the “Cable Box” which is designed to convert the television signals from a cable into signals usable by a television set. It seems many of the boxes were stored in a warehouse in preparation for shipping. The warehouse was infested heavily those insects that have been around since the dinosaurs roamed the earth—cockroaches-- La Cucuracha! One day, a mother cockroach decided that a cable box was an ideal repository for her eggs, and she proceeded to lay a great many of them inside one of the boxes.
The box was shipped to a lady who kept an immaculate house,
one that had never witnessed such a thing as a cockroach (horrors!) . The box
was installed, plugged in and it warmed up to a temperature ideal for the maturation
of cockroach eggs. And the baby roaches
hatched and poured forth from the box to establish their usual cockroach empire. The lady of the house was appalled to discover not one, but hundreds of
them swarming around. So that is how the Roach Motel Cable Box was born-- and it
had a very short existence. (How the
situation was remedied, it was never told . . . perhaps by fumigating the cable boxes
before shipment.)
Many Zenith engineers worked on the early versions of the
Zenith Cable Box. Some of them are
shown in the caricature that follows, and you may recognize them. A significant one is Vito Brugliera (bottom, center) a brilliant engineer with an MBA who later joined Philip
Curtis in the battle of Zenith’s Second War, the War that Zenith lost. That is a story yet to come in
this blog. (I'm on the left, bottom.)
Bob Podowski sent in a notice that will interest you--
From: IEEE eNotice <enotice@ieee.org>
Date: Wed, Jun 4, 2014 at 9:01 AM
Subject: Historical Zenith Radio Technology event: June 18th at 7 PM To: robertpodowski@ieee.org
If you have an interest in the history of old time radio, check out this program offered by the Mount Prospect Public Library on Wednesday, June 18th at 7 PM.
In 1924, the Zenith Broadcasting Station established two radio towers in Mount Prospect. Big band talent of that era would come out to the station to play for the Chicago area radio audience. Lindsey Rice, Director of the Mount Prospect Historical Society will talk about the towers and the man who operated them. He was later to become the Vice President of Research and Development for Zenith. Registration is required.
Call the library at 747-253-5675 to register.
Mount Prospect Public Library
10 S Emerson St, Mt Prospect, IL 60056
So mark your calendars for June 18, 7 pm, at the Mount Prospect Public Library.
From: IEEE eNotice <enotice@ieee.org>
Date: Wed, Jun 4, 2014 at 9:01 AM
Subject: Historical Zenith Radio Technology event: June 18th at 7 PM To: robertpodowski@ieee.org
If you have an interest in the history of old time radio, check out this program offered by the Mount Prospect Public Library on Wednesday, June 18th at 7 PM.
In 1924, the Zenith Broadcasting Station established two radio towers in Mount Prospect. Big band talent of that era would come out to the station to play for the Chicago area radio audience. Lindsey Rice, Director of the Mount Prospect Historical Society will talk about the towers and the man who operated them. He was later to become the Vice President of Research and Development for Zenith. Registration is required.
Call the library at 747-253-5675 to register.
Mount Prospect Public Library
10 S Emerson St, Mt Prospect, IL 60056
So mark your calendars for June 18, 7 pm, at the Mount Prospect Public Library.
And here is another place of interest for those who delight in early radio and television. This one is located in Chicago at the place indicated on the map below.
It is the Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC). Its displays include a fascinating collection of radios and televisions, and memorabilia from historic radio television shows. The museum building itself is a stunning example of modern architecture.
So . . . Mizpah until next time.
McDonald’s
Philanthropy
Despite his often
rough speech and the stern actions made necessary by his role as the
chief executive, McDonald had a kind
heart. Four examples come to mind. First,
he was outraged when he learned of the high cost of hearing aids, which he
considered were little more than a tiny microphone along with a simple
audio amplifier and a speaker. So
he set up a separate division of Zenith devoted to hearing aid research, and to the
design and manufacture of hearing aids. The Hearing Aid Division was set up
in a separate building known as “Plant 5.”
He was also sympathetic toward deaf people because, according to his daughter
Marianne (below), he became deaf in one ear when a car he was
repairing blew up next to him.
Marianne McDonald
A second example of
McDonald’s philanthropy is shown by his concern for his women employees. Upon learning
that he had cancer of the throat (perhaps due to excessive smoking), he did as
he always did when confronted with a problem--he studied the disease. He
learned that there was also a common type of cancer that affected only women.
It is called uterine cancer, and that it
was curable if detected on time. He
immediately made its detection and treatment available to all women employees at no cost to them. Many lives were saved.
The third was his concern for Ebony Magazine, a publication
dedicated to the interests of the large African-American population in Chicago,
which he believed ought to have its own
“voice” in the community. He learned
that the organizers was struggling to
find the start-up money to begin
publication, so he contributed funds to make possible the publication of the first
issues.
The fourth example is, of course, his setting up the Zenith
profit-sharing plan for his employees.
It was perhaps the most generous of such plans ever conceived, and it ranked along with the most outstanding of plans, such as that of Sears.
McDonald believed that his
employees should share in any profit, for after all, they had made that profit possible.
In the previous write-up on Gene Polley, Polley described the generosity
of the plan, and what had it meant to him personally. (And may I add, what it has meant to me, the
writer of his blog, and all other Zenith employees.)
So that is it for the Zenith Book Blog post 8. A final word is a plea: Help! Help! Help write this blog! Let this be a place where you and others can recall and bring alive again that great company we worked for--Zenith! Just email your suggestions to ducord@gmail.com, and perhaps write an article yourself--as Bob Podowski did.So . . . Mizpah until next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment