Buried in the details of the first longish-distance transmission of television into a home (albeit the home of its creator, Dr. E.F.W. Alexanderson) is the little matter of how the sound was transmitted. The earliest experiments in transmitting motion pictures were focused on the pictures; since we already knew how to send sound over…

Yesterday, Hoxsie shared a link about the re-creation of the pallophotophone, also known as the RCA photophone, which was developed in Schenectady (you may have heard of it – it’s the Electric City!) in 1927 to provide a soundtrack on moving picture film. But you didn’t click on that link, did you? Well, now…

It always seems odd to think that when scientists were working on sending talking pictures by radio, having talking pictures in the theater was still a brand new thing. But in 1927, the problem of sound on film was still being worked out, and General Electric in Schenectady was on it. An article in…

Since we were just speaking of Ernest Alexanderson’s contributions to radio and television, here’s the story of that first three-mile transmission, as published in the Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 14, 1928: “Radio transmission of both sight and sound is near realization. Radio waves have carried both audition [sic] and vision into homes here to…

So, here’s a version of the 1928 song that was played in the first two-way radio communication between the United States and England, a piece of history for which Schenectady was on both the sending and the receiving end.

1928: SCHENECTADY, Feb. 21–Radio broadcast listeners to-day heard for the first time a two-way radio telephone communication between the United States and England. They also heard the rebroadcast in the United States of a phonograph record after the music had made a 1,000-mile round trip across the Atlantic. The broadcast was an experiment on…

Imagine a world in which the only long-distance communications were coded telegraph or the very expensive, one-to-one medium of long-distance telephone. No music from another town was ever heard unless the orchestra came to your town; no lecturer’s opinions were given unless he found a local podium. All news from parts unknown was written…

While we’re on the topic, a little more about Ernst F.W. Alexanderson, who today is primarily remembered for his early role in the development of television. In fact, his home on Adams Road in the GE Realty Plot was the site of the first home reception of television, in 1928. But the focus on…