My speciality. Шепелева М.А - 31 стр.

transmitter in his Bronx, New York, home, De Forest tested his improved system
by airing phonograph recordings and such live singers as could be convinced to
perform into his microphone. De Forest even sent out the 1916 election night
returns with the help of a special tie line from one of the New York City
newspapers.
With the entry of the United States into the warm 1917, most radio telephony
advances had military point-to-point objectives rather than civilian entertainment
goals. Bell System engineers pioneered the transmission of conversations between
airplanes and ground stations as well as plane-to-plane exchanges.' Meanwhile, the
U.S. Navy took over all wire-less telegraphy stations not already under Army
control, enlisting these facilities in various phases of the war effort Even though
any thought of radio as a public entertainment medium was thus pushed into the
background, the war years did advance the cause of modern radio in two
significant ways. First, the needs of the military stimulated a rapid increase in
wireless research and development This development was relevant to voice as well
as code communication. Second, the armed forces trained thousands of young men
in the operation and maintenance of wireless systems. At the war's end, these
servicemen comprised an already-trained pool of engineering talent on whom an
emerging      radio     industry      could    draw     in     the    years   ahead.
Nevertheless, the 1918 Armistice did not signal a sudden explosion of radio
service
for the U.S. public. Most wireless companies saw their business as a future of
point-to-point communication, with voice transmissions serving as an extension of
the telephone. The old De Forest and even older Fessenden activities were seen as
little more than sidebar curiosities. Further, the financial troubles experienced by
both of these men (as well as by others) seemed indicative of what would befall
anyone seeking to make the wireless more than a vehicle for data transmission by
government and commerce.
Conrad Builds a Business However, the postwar United States was ready for
something more, as events in Pittsburgh soon proved. There, Westinghouse
Electric Company engineer Frank Conrad was operating a small radio telephony
station in his garage as a field extension of his laboratory experiments in the
factory. While Con- tad transmitted, an assistant checked signal strength and
quality from a variety of area locations. As a means of putting something on the
air, Conrad began by reading items from the newspaper; but he soon realized that
he could not monitor his equipment and read at the same time. Thus, an
arrangement was made with a local music store. The store would provide Conrad
with musical recordings he could transmit in exchange for mention of the store's
name over the air. Conrad's two sons soon became involved in announcing and in
planning informal wireless concerts, which j were regular events by the summer of
1920