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2016 Editor's Forward-Introduction
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It is with regret that we report Bob Murray, our venerable editor of The AWA Review for the past ten years, had a sudden and serious medical situation arise in August 2015 that prevented him from serving as editor this year. Unfortunately, we did not learn of Bob's medical condition until December, and we were unable to make contact with him until very recently. We have been in contact with his wife, Eileen, since December and she has been optimistic about his recovery. In a recent conversation, Bob indicated he would like to serve again in some capacity with the preparation of future issues of the Review. We salute Bob for his accomplishments over the past ten years, including modernizing the format, expanding the range of content, developing a peer review process, and introducing color publishing to the Review. We all wish Bob and Eileen well, and we hope that Bob continues to recover in the coming year. In order to provide for continuity in the publication of The AWA Review for 2016, Eric Wenaas and David Bart volunteered to serve as co-editors beginning in early January 2016. We have had a particularly challenging year reviewing and editing manuscripts because of the compressed schedule. Since we have had no direct contact with Bob after July 2015, we do not have a complete picture of who contacted him with questions about The AWA Review or submitted papers for the 2016 AWA Review in 2015. In the end, a number of authors submitted excellent papers this year, and those selected for publication in the 2016 edition of The AWA Review are summarized below in their order of appearance: |
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•Dan Howard relates a compelling story of the early days of the U.S. Forest Service during three fire seasons from 1919 through 1921 when the Forest Service evaluated a number of technologies for communicating over its vast areas of forest land to report forest fires. Dan's story focuses on the tests performed in Oregon by foresters using radio sets developed by the U.S. Army Signal Corps and U.S. Navy during WWI. These sets were tested at selected locations in the forests and cities, including the lookout atop Oregon's Mount Hood.
•David Willenborg relates the life history of Arthur Lynch, who you may recognize as a prominent magazine editor and author for Radio News and Radio Broadcast magazines in the 1920s and 1930s. Lynch's name appears on the mast head of many issues as the editor and in the numerous articles appearing in these publications. David was able to write a comprehensive story of Lynch's exploits as a wireless operator, editor, author and entrepreneur after making contact with two of his relatives who had knowledge of his life story and supporting photographs, which appear in the article.
•David and Julia Bart review the role of the military telegraph in the American Civil War, and also include a bibliography and references that can be used for further research into this topic. The text is supplemented with images of numerous artifacts from the authors' collection, including original documents, photographs, medals, telegraph apparatus and much more. The article traces its roots to an award-winning exhibit compiled by the authors and presented at the 2013 AWA Conference: "Lincoln's Telegraphers: The 150th Anniversary of Gettysburg and the Emancipation Proclamation."
•John Dilks came across a farewell letter from Amory H. "Bud" Waite, Polar explorer and radio operator, which unknowingly came into his possession in the late 1990s or early 2000s with a number of other documents he obtained. John discovered this letter in 2010 and is now sharing this previously unpublished document with all of us. Bud wrote this farewell letter to his friends and relatives after receiving radiation treatments that nearly took his life in 1983. This letter recounts his many exploits with Admiral Byrd and other Polar explorers and is reproduced verbatim. The letter is supplemented by a number of images from John's own Polar collection that correlate with subjects described in the letter.
•Eric Wenaas continues his tradition of reviewing historical accounts of great inventors to report inconsistencies between the accounts recorded by the inventor and contemporaneous documents that chronicle the inventor's activities. This year it is Lee De Forest and his wireless telegraph companies that are under the microscope. Eric makes the case that Lee De Forest's autobiography is hopelessly flawed with errors and omissions that have been repeated by many historians over the years. In correcting the account, De Forest emerges as something of a scoundrel.
•William Hopkins informs us that June 15, 2016 marks the 100th anniversary of the Second German Reich's high powered wireless transmitter site at Konigs Wusterhausen (i.e., KW) near Berlin. Bill describes the activities of this station and its changing status over the past 100 years. He has included interesting drawings of the antennas and photographs of the site, and a photograph of German vacuum tubes on display in the museum that now stands at the site.
•Olin Shuler builds on his paper from last year dealing with his participation in the development of FM car radios while he was employed at Motorola. This year Olin provides a first-hand account of his participation as a production engineer in the introduction of the first successful 8-track tape player designed specifically for use in automobiles. Olin takes the reader through the unique problems and design solutions associated with the operation of the 8-track player in the thermal and mechanical vibration environments unique to the automobile as opposed to the home.
•Norman Braithwaite collects high-quality superheterodyne radios manufactured by the Lincoln Radio Corporation between 1928 and 1936. He points out that for all the advertising and articles, there are very few Lincoln receivers known to exist today. This disparity between publicity and product has been an enigma for the radio collecting community, and Norman unravels the mysteries of the Lincoln Radio Corporation in his report on the history, products and outcome of the company.
•David Willenborg relates the life history of Arthur Lynch, who you may recognize as a prominent magazine editor and author for Radio News and Radio Broadcast magazines in the 1920s and 1930s. Lynch's name appears on the mast head of many issues as the editor and in the numerous articles appearing in these publications. David was able to write a comprehensive story of Lynch's exploits as a wireless operator, editor, author and entrepreneur after making contact with two of his relatives who had knowledge of his life story and supporting photographs, which appear in the article.
•David and Julia Bart review the role of the military telegraph in the American Civil War, and also include a bibliography and references that can be used for further research into this topic. The text is supplemented with images of numerous artifacts from the authors' collection, including original documents, photographs, medals, telegraph apparatus and much more. The article traces its roots to an award-winning exhibit compiled by the authors and presented at the 2013 AWA Conference: "Lincoln's Telegraphers: The 150th Anniversary of Gettysburg and the Emancipation Proclamation."
•John Dilks came across a farewell letter from Amory H. "Bud" Waite, Polar explorer and radio operator, which unknowingly came into his possession in the late 1990s or early 2000s with a number of other documents he obtained. John discovered this letter in 2010 and is now sharing this previously unpublished document with all of us. Bud wrote this farewell letter to his friends and relatives after receiving radiation treatments that nearly took his life in 1983. This letter recounts his many exploits with Admiral Byrd and other Polar explorers and is reproduced verbatim. The letter is supplemented by a number of images from John's own Polar collection that correlate with subjects described in the letter.
•Eric Wenaas continues his tradition of reviewing historical accounts of great inventors to report inconsistencies between the accounts recorded by the inventor and contemporaneous documents that chronicle the inventor's activities. This year it is Lee De Forest and his wireless telegraph companies that are under the microscope. Eric makes the case that Lee De Forest's autobiography is hopelessly flawed with errors and omissions that have been repeated by many historians over the years. In correcting the account, De Forest emerges as something of a scoundrel.
•William Hopkins informs us that June 15, 2016 marks the 100th anniversary of the Second German Reich's high powered wireless transmitter site at Konigs Wusterhausen (i.e., KW) near Berlin. Bill describes the activities of this station and its changing status over the past 100 years. He has included interesting drawings of the antennas and photographs of the site, and a photograph of German vacuum tubes on display in the museum that now stands at the site.
•Olin Shuler builds on his paper from last year dealing with his participation in the development of FM car radios while he was employed at Motorola. This year Olin provides a first-hand account of his participation as a production engineer in the introduction of the first successful 8-track tape player designed specifically for use in automobiles. Olin takes the reader through the unique problems and design solutions associated with the operation of the 8-track player in the thermal and mechanical vibration environments unique to the automobile as opposed to the home.
•Norman Braithwaite collects high-quality superheterodyne radios manufactured by the Lincoln Radio Corporation between 1928 and 1936. He points out that for all the advertising and articles, there are very few Lincoln receivers known to exist today. This disparity between publicity and product has been an enigma for the radio collecting community, and Norman unravels the mysteries of the Lincoln Radio Corporation in his report on the history, products and outcome of the company.
We extend our sincere thanks to the authors for their excellent articles, and to the reviewers for their able assistance in reviewing the articles and making suggestions that improved the manuscript. The anonymous reviewers will remain anonymous this year. The AWA Review once again used the services of book designer Fiona Raven to layout each page of The AWA Review, which she designed for us several years ago. Her help this year was invaluable. We thank Fiona once again for her contributions and creative spirit.
The cumulative index of the Table of Contents has been updated this year and is now current though Vol.29 dated 2016. This index can be accessed on the AWA website at http://www.antiquewireless.org/awa-review.html.
We have both enjoyed serving as co-editors of The AWA Review this year. This has been a new experience for us, and we now realize just how much work Bob Murray put into editing the manuscripts and assembling The AWA Review over the past ten years. We will continue to serve as editors of The AWA Review until a new editor has been appointed by the AWA.
The cumulative index of the Table of Contents has been updated this year and is now current though Vol.29 dated 2016. This index can be accessed on the AWA website at http://www.antiquewireless.org/awa-review.html.
We have both enjoyed serving as co-editors of The AWA Review this year. This has been a new experience for us, and we now realize just how much work Bob Murray put into editing the manuscripts and assembling The AWA Review over the past ten years. We will continue to serve as editors of The AWA Review until a new editor has been appointed by the AWA.
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Eric P. Wenaas Coeditor
San Diego, California |
David P. Bart Coeditor
Chicago, Illinois |
2016 Table of Contents |
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