David Sarnoff Library preserves the legacy of a media visionary
By Christian Kirkpatrick
Special Writer
The next time you wonder, “How did we ever get along before the Internet?,” ask yourself, “How did we ever get along before radio, television, computers, lasers and communications satellites?”
Beginning a hundred years ago, a series of communications technologies was invented, each as profound and far-reaching as the creation of the World Wide Web. They were born within a single life span, and one man — David Sarnoff — directed much of their development.
A trip to the David Sarnoff Library at the Sarnoff Corporation in West Windsor can take you back to those heady days when Sarnoff led the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and founded the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC).
Alexander B. Magoun, Ph.D., executive director of the library, begins tours in a reinstallation of Sarnoff’s office at Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan. Mr. Magoun tells visitors that Sarnoff came to America from Belarus in 1900 at age 9. Six years later, he began to work full time, first in a telegraph office and then at the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America. He became something of a celebrity in 1912 when, over a period of 72 hours, he relayed the names of Titanic survivors who had been rescued by the Carpathian.
The young Sarnoff rose quickly in the company. In 1915 he suggested it create “radio music boxes” to use sound waves to bring music into homes, but no one took up the idea. A few years later, however, interest in radio technology grew dramatically — both in the company, which was now called RCA, and throughout the country.
Sarnoff seized the moment. Now RCA’s general manager and soon to be its president, he bought a group of fledgling broadcasting stations in 1926, forming NBC. In 1929 he purchased the Victor Talking Machine Co., which owned a vast store of musical recordings that these stations could broadcast. Sarnoff had realized his dream of “radio music boxes” in American homes.
As Mr. Magoun tells this story, he moves from Sarnoff’s office into the museum’s main room. Here he begins to discuss the many important technologies that the RCA research scientists developed while they were directed by Sarnoff.
Standing before a sewing machine-sized device, he describes it as the “the Sharper Image-type hit” of 1940, the first portable radio. It sold for $25 then (about $325 in today’s dollars), but soon the use of transistors would shrink the size and the price.
Other museum displays chart the invention of television. In the late 1920s Sarnoff began to fund research into how to add pictures to sound. In 1939 he introduced the first television program, which RCA broadcast from the 1939 World’s Fair.
World War II disrupted further development of the technology, but soon after its end RCA researchers turned their attention to creating color television. The museum holds the first commercially available RCA color set. After its introduction, the company soon became America’s leading manufacturer in this field.
”The real challenge of broadcasting is getting a good picture,” says Mr. Magoun. RCA researchers developed a series of cameras to meet the industry’s needs, including color cameras and wireless ones for operation outside of television studios. Other cameras developed by RCA were used during medical operations and on Apollo 15.
RCA research also led to the development of LCD television. Sarnoff’s scientists and engineers invented liquid crystal displays.
Other accomplishments include the construction, in 1947, of an analog computer called Project Typhoon. It plotted bomb trajectories with its 4,000 vacuum tubes and 256 bits of memory. Parts of it were used until the late 1960s.
The RCA labs were also known for electron microscopes. In 1940 James Hillier brought RCA a prototype of the first of them. He quickly joined the company and eventually directed its research labs in West Windsor. For 20 years, he refined his invention. Now the earliest known electron microscope stands in the Sarnoff Library museum.
Sarnoff died in 1971. In 1986 the company was bought by General Electric, which spun off the West Windsor laboratories as the Sarnoff Corporation. It is now owned by SRI International, formerly known as the Stanford Research Institute.
Although the David Sarnoff Library is located next to the Sarnoff Corporation, it is not a part of it. Instead, the library is an independent, nonprofit enterprise.
The library includes the museum and archives. By appointment, Mr. Magoun leads groups of adults and children through the library’s museum. There is much he can talk about. Recent tours for school children have focused on Sarnoff’s experiences as an immigrant, comparisons of radio, television and computer technologies, and the concept of sound waves.
Mr. Magoun would like to attract more school tours. The contributions of engineers and tinkerers tend to be overlooked in schools, he believes. The Sarnoff Library would like to be a resource for teachers who want to teach about their history.
The library also maintains extensive archives that maintain papers, books and memorabilia from Sarnoff, as well as files, photographs and publications by and about RCA scientists.
After some of these important papers were damaged during flooding earlier this year, the Sarnoff Library appealed for donations to help conserve them. Some 200 people and organizations contributed around $60,000.
Because the most valuable of the damaged materials were treated first, they are in the best shape. Items that were in water longer have not fared as well, but 95 percent of them are readable, says Mr. Magoun. The library now has to catalogue its saved materials and replace its lost items from its store of duplicates.
The library is seeking contributions for this effort and volunteers to act as docents, organize events and catalogue objects. Those interested should call 609-734-2636 or visit davidsarnoff.blogspot.com for more information.
On the Web: www.davidsarnoff.org.
On Saturday, Oct. 27, at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m., the David Sarnoff Library will sponsor a re-enactment of Orson Welles’ broadcast of “War of the Worlds.” This is an annual event staged in cooperation with the Hunterdon Radio Theatre and New Jersey Antique Radio Club.
The sound effects and actors’ voices will be transmitted through 1930s microphones to 1930s radios, provided by members of the club. This is a family-friendly event and a fun preparation for Halloween.
Tickets will be $10 in advance and $15 at the door for the 2:30 performance. For the 7:30 performance, they will be $20 in advance for adults and $10 for children and seniors, and $25 at the door for adults and $15 for children and seniors.
To order tickets, call Hawkins & Co. at 215-885-5355.