[600MRG] Ria Jairam, N2RJ Podcast on the Fessenden Christmas Eve Broadcast from Brant Rock

[Bart Lee]

DR,

Good research!

AWA has a small alternator, probably from around 1920 or so, that claims to
operate on 25 KHz.

RF seems to have figured out how to get a multiple of the expected
operating frequency out of the alternator.  I do not know how he did it,
but once he did, the way was clear for RCA to plan and to some extent
operate the Alexanderson-design alternators.

I visited SAQ a couple of years ago.  What a show!

MX 73 de Bart, K6VK ##
-- --
Bart Lee

Texts only to: 415 902 7168


{Bart(dot)Lee(dot)K6VK(at)gmail(dot)com}
<http://www.lawforhams.com/>



On Thu, Dec 24, 2020 at 8:48 PM D.J.J. Ring, Jr. <n1ea at arrl.net> wrote:

> Ria Jairam, N2RJ has done a very good podcast on the Christmas Eve
> Broadcast from Brant Rock, Massachusetts, which is about 2 miles from where
> I live.
>
>
> https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?threads/reginald-fessenden-and-his-christmas-broadcast.740918/
>
> I tried for years (on and off for 20 years) to find the frequency used,
> and I finally found it about 15 years ago, but then I found it was even
> higher than I had found, it was 80,000 cycles per second continuous wave.
>
> Ria gets it wrong about the frequency used at Brant Rock, but I found
> that information very, very difficult to find, I started digging in the
> Fessenden lab records for many, many years, I found 64 kHz but it appears
> that it was much higher.  The nominal speed of the GE alternators was 10
> kHz. RCA had a world-wide network of these alternators and the only one
> still working is Grimeton Radio/SAQ in Sweden. Thorn Mays' book available
> at the New England Wireless and Steam Museum, the book was prepared for
> publication by Bob Merriam, W1NTE and Arthur Goodnow, W1DM, both friends
> who have passed away now but are still missed for their contributions to
> the radio art.
>
> https://youtu.be/aorNh9ewqIU
>
> According to Fessenden's lab notes he was able to achieve 100 kHz
> continuous wave signals using a modified Alexanderson GE alternator.
>
> It's in Fessenden wife's book "Fessenden Builder of Tomorrows"
>
> https://nvhrbiblio.nl/biblio/boek/Fessenden-Builder-of-Tomorrows-Helen-Fressenden-1940.pdf
> [Later called "FBT"]
>
> A 80,000 cycle per second machine was delivered to Brant Rock,
> Massachusetts September 1906.
>
> Even then I was sceptical because I didn't know
>> of any 100,000 cycle machines-neither did he, but he was
>> already working on it and after about five years of strenuous
>> effort and considerable expense, his first machine was delivered to him
>> at Brant Rock, Massachusetts, in September 1906. From this machine he
>> was able to get 750 watts at 8o,000 cycles." (Pittsburgh's Contributions
>> to Radio) - as quoted in "Fessenden Builder of Tomorrows" p 148-149
>
>
> On page 150
>
> Many years later Reg in a letter to Mr. Albert G. Davis at that time Vice
> -President and head of the Patent Depart. ment of the General Electric
> Company, wrote. ". . Of course for business reasons your company has never
> given me credit for this (High Frequency Alternator), but if you will look
> at the back correspondence you will see that I built the first one after
> the G. E. engineers had said that nothing above 10,000 was possible: and
> that Alexander- son, who is a splendid engineer) did not come in until
> after three months running at 100,000." In his reply of November 15, 1924
> Mr. Davis said:.- 1. As far as concerns the high frequency alternator, I
> thought that we had always given you credit for the work which you did in
> this connection. Alexanderson never claimed to have invented the high
> frequency alternator, as such, but merely to have invented certain
> structural features which worked very well in practice. His patents were
> limited to what he invented." (in testimony, Federal Trade Commission,
> Docket 1115, p. 4433. Library of Congress
>
> On page 153
>
> On Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve of 1906 the first Broadcasting
> occurred. Three days in advance Reg had his operators notify the ships of
> the U.S. Navy and of the United Fruit Co. that were equipped with the
> Fessenden apparatus that it was the intention of the Brant Rock Station to
> broadcast speech, music and singing on those two evenings. Describing this,
> Fessenden wrote:- "The program on Christmas Eve was as follows: first a
> short speech by me saying what we were going to do, then some phonograph
> music.-The music on the phonograph being Handers 'Largo'. Then came a
> violin solo by me, being a composition of Gounod called '0, Holy Night',
> and ending up with the words 'Adore and be still' of which I sang one
> verse, in addition to playing on the violin, though the singing of course
> was not very good. Then came the Bible text, 'Glory to God in the highest
> and on earth peace to men of good will', and finally we wound up by wishing
> them a Merry Christmas and then saying that we proposed to broadcast again
> New Year's Eve. The broadcast on New Year's Eve was the same as before,
> except that the music was changed and I got someone else to sing. I had not
> picked myself to do the singing, but on Christmas Eve I could not get any
> of the others to either talk, sing or play and consequently had to do it
> myself. On New Year's Eve one man, I think it was Stein, agreed to sing and
> did sing, but none of the others either sang or talked. 154
> FESSENDEN-BUILDER OF TOMORROWS We got word of reception of the Christmas
> Eve program as far down as Norfolk, Va., and on the New Year's Eve program
> we got word from some places down in the West Indies."
>
> 73
> David J. Ring, Jr., N1EA
>
>
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