[NJARC] Happy endings for the David Sarnoff Library

Thu Jan 14 22:43:15 EST 2010

When I was at Sarnoff (DSRC, RCA Laboratories, take your pick) I remember a lecture given by a researcher stating that the key that Sarnoff used to contact the Titanic was just good PR.  It never happened.

The researcher had tons of data backing this conclusion.  I believe the most damming evidence was that there are no newspaper articles from the period just after the sinking of the HMS Titanic that mention David Sarnoff.  And the story appeared long after the disaster.

I haven't viewed the film but I remember a card next to the key that indicated the key at the DS Library was a reproduction of the one at the Smithsonian.
Jim

--- On Thu, 1/14/10, pmalvasi at aol.com <pmalvasi at aol.com> wrote:

> From: pmalvasi at aol.com <pmalvasi at aol.com>
> Subject: Re: [NJARC] Happy endings for the David Sarnoff Library
> To: amagoun at davidsarnoff.org, njarc at mailman.qth.net
> Date: Thursday, January 14, 2010, 8:45 PM
> Just remember 
> Reply = Poster
> Reply All = Everyone
> 
> _________________________________________________________
> 
> Thanks Alex for the excellent status report and that link
> from 2007.  I had not seen that before and was riveted
> to the screen viewing all 30 minutes or so of it.
> 
> I have a question regarding the Morse telegraph key you
> show the interviewer.  That same model key, in fact,
> what appears to be an identical model appeared in the
> Smithsonian MAH for years before they "remodeled" the place
> recently and turned it into a church school show and tell
> exibit.     I have a good photo of it
> around here somewhere, but I am certain that key at MAH in
> DC was marked as THE VERY KEY used by Sarnoff at his post at
> Wanamakers in NY.   A year or so ago someone
> had a high quality reproduction of it on Ebay and I don't
> know whatever happened it to it
> however.   But it was clearer a newly made,
> fine repro.  The one in this video at the Library
> appears to be an original item.
> 
> Do you have any idea of why there may be two of those, or
> perhaps, did Smithsonian borrow this key for a time and
> returned it to the Library?  The last time I saw it in
> DC was about 10 years ago, maybe 15!
> 
> Also, is that item going to TCNJ?
> 
> Thanks again -- Pete W2PM
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alex Magoun <amagoun at davidsarnoff.org>
> To: NJARC <njarc at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Thu, Jan 14, 2010 3:18 pm
> Subject: [NJARC] Happy endings for the David Sarnoff
> Library
> 
> 
> Just remember 
> eply = Poster
> eply All = Everyone
> _________________________________________________________
> ecause inquiring minds want to know, here's what happened:
>  
> American Interfile loaded, moved, and unloaded 1,950 boxes
> of archival
> ollections to the Hagley Library in Wilmington, Delaware.
>  
> Bohren's Movers helped pack, loaded, moved, and unloaded
> 144 boxes, plus the
> lectron microscope, posters, and display cases, at The
> College of New
> ersey's old library, next to the room that is being
> renovated for the
> useum.
>  
> A hearty NJARC crew packed, loaded, moved, and unloaded
> over 200 boxes of
> CA Broadcast equipment manuals to InfoAge, along with
> paintings of Marconi
> nd Sarnoff, the duplicate set of Marconi Wireless Telegraph
> Company of
> merica schematics that complements InfoAge's holdings, and
> some others
> quipment.
>  
> The New Jersey State Museum received a Camden-made RCA
> Victor 630TS for its
> ollection.
>  
> The Camden County Historical Society is in the process of
> receiving three
> amden-made home instruments from the 1930s and 1940s, once
> its crew picks
> hem up from InfoAge, where the NJARC crew above moved
> them.
>  
> None of this would have been possible without John
> Tyminski, who came in
> ast summer to copy some RCA Victor service notes and
> realized that I needed
>  kick in the pants and a lot more help than I was willing
> to admit.  He not
> nly scanned to PDF almost the entire RCA Victor Service
> Data and Service
> otes for 1923-1952, he helped organize the moves, recruited
> family,
> riends, and club members to make the moves happen, and
> packed and labeled
> nough lab notebooks, tubes, and gewgaws to last two or
> three lifetimes.  I
> ave the impression that in his spare time he flushed and
> rebuilt the sewer
> nd electrical systems at InfoAge's H Block while restoring
> his own
> torm-damaged workshop.  If John doesn't become the
> mayor of Bordentown's
> enaissance, that town is beyond saving.  The man's a
> keeper, and David
> arnoff and all of RCA's staff should be smiling warmly
> wherever they are
> or his role in preserving their legacies.
>  
> Beyond John, Dave Sica began showing up in his unassuming
> way, first to
> hotograph as much material as he could wrest from my grasp
> before it
> isappeared into the Hagley's Hall of Records, and then to
> keep John sane
> hile doing his own enormous bit of packing, labeling, and
> cataloging boxes.
> Showing up" is a crude way of recognizing that Dave endured
> many long hours
> n the road to and from Princeton, and the Library owes a
> huge debt to him
> or his many digital, intellectual, and physical
> contributions.
>  
> Among others Phil Vourtsis dropped by from Myrtle Beach,
> Nick Domenico from
> ay down South Jersey way, Steve Goulart from InfoAge, John
> Ruccolo, Darren
> offman, Bob Masterson, Vin Lobosco put in mass quantities
> of time,
> alories, and thought into this enormous process. 
>  
> Beyond the NJARC, I want to thank Radwa Ali, Chris Evans,
> Erica Pierson, and
> aurice Schechter, for their help in cataloging and boxing
> the corporate lab
> otebooks and the artifacts, and for organizing the
> Library's AV collections
> nd digitizing much of them.
>  
> Researchers, history lovers, and students ready to be
> inspired join me in
> hanking all of you for your labors and devotion.  In
> the months to come
> 'll be working with TCNJ to re-stage the Library's exhibits
> and lay the
> roundwork for more educationally ambitious displays, and I
> look forward to
> eeing you all there as well as at coming meetings (except
> February, when I
> eturn to Shanghai for the lunar new yearJ)
>  
> Feeling nostalgic?  One of my board members just sent
> this link of a
> 0-minute tour for East Brunswick Public TV, way back in
> ought-seven, before
> he Flood: http://www.gardenstatelegacy.com/On_The_History_Trail.html.
>  
> Best,
>  
> Alex
>  
> Alexander B. Magoun, Ph.D.
> Executive Director
> David Sarnoff Library
> 39 Humbert Street
> Princeton, NJ 08542-3312
>  
> h 609 497-2423
> c 609 240-1320
> amagoun at davidsarnoff.org
> www.davidsarnoff.org
>  
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