Sfcrttnnan. Salem, Ore Sunday. Jan. 2. 1S55 See. 2) I
Pictures 'Caught Up' With News. When Wirephbtps Introduced 20 Years Ago
;
(Editor's Nater.The first Associ
ated Press Wlrephot tu trans
mitted 29 years f. marking the
btgiaalaf af a aew era la Journal
ism. Here is the story of a sys
tem that made the photograph as
timely as the headliae)
By SAUL PETT V
NEW YORK (A Twenty years
ago Saturday, The Associated
Press was wetjded to a daringly
new system of picture transmis
, sion Wirephoto. ,
While the immediate family was
optimistic, many relatives grum-
- bled that the marriage would
never last
1 They are so utterly incdmpati
ble, tsk-tsked a quivering aunt
' She'll make him broke within a
year, muttered 'an uncle with one
! band on his wallet.
But the marriage endured and
.prospered- and produced several
' ' hundred v thousand beautiful chil-
- clren. Along the way, it changed
. the face of journalism. Today, 20
years later, it is commonplacefor
pictures to, move by wire as fast
as the news they illustrate for
both to make the same edition.
" Today a camera often is as close
i to the news as a reporter's note-
' book, a negative is as breathless
as a bulletin. And the history of
Wirephoto told in its 20-year fanv
fly album is world history itself. . .
Dirigible Explosloa
r A huge dirigible exploding' In
mid-air. Chamberlain, Hitler, Mus
" solini and Daladier posing for the
.' 'shame of Munich. A half -sunk bat-
- tleship smoking at Pearl Harbor.
' The backs of nameless - GIs
; storming Omaha Beach. Marines
" raising the flag at Iwo Jima. The
slumped shoulders of Babe Rfith
; retiring to die. The monstrous
white mushroom billowing up from
Bikini. A crumpled Korean bridge
sagging under the -weight of flee
ing war refugees. Stalin's casket
, . borne by some men named Malen
' icov and Beria and Molotov . . ,
the new the old, the day to day,
the epic and the sidelong glance,
Wirephoto began Jan. 1, 1935,
" with 40 subscribers in 25 cities.
. Today its network stretches over
23.000 miles of wire, to more than
500 newspapers and television sta
tions in the United States and
Canada.
Its success is the success of men
and machines.
Fighting Off Mob
It is photographer Warren Win
'e, terbottom fitting off a pro-segregation
mob in Delaware. It is the
'r'. four AP cameramen who won
Pulitzer prizes. It is the staff pho
, tographer, the free lance and the
amateur. The amateur who fol
' lows the fire engines, who never
took a night shot before, who
"r- takes a picture "by guess"- a
t sensational picture of a woman
. plunging from a burning -hotel.
It is not the hokum Hollywood
. and television fictionalized into
, their newspaper dramas. It is not
men .working for the glory of God,
'1 country and. The Associated Press.
But it is men impelled or com
f pelled by, a mysterious something
in themselves to risk their neck,
to suffer long hours of boredom,
of cold and wet for the brief ex-
hilaration that goes with one great
picture.
. Noel Imprisoned
It is Bede Irvin. killed on the
"J Job at St Lo. It is Frank Noel,
. imprisoned in Korea for 32 months.
It is Murray Becker, too busy to
be scared, shooting in a furious
rhythm. Holder, slide, snap. Hold
. er, slide, snap. All while the burn
A ing Hindenburg falls before - his
' l r- i t-!
eyes ana speea urapmc.
1 It' Is two AP Pulitzer prize win-
. . ners -s- Frank Noel, torpedoed in
. , the Indian 'Ocean, photographing
, fellow survivors begging for wa
1 - ter; and Frank Filan, bitting the
beach with the Marines at Tarawa
. Filan survived thei war but died
: of cancer in 1952.'
It is Joe Rosenthal climbing
. SuribachL for the Marine ---flag-:
raising and Max Desfor "focusing
on the refugee-jammed bridge
, near Pyongyang, both shooting
their way to Pulitzers. It is Rudy
Faircloth ' turning . over blank
plates to a furious Klu Klux Klan
mob while he makes off with the
real thing. -
- It is men on burros, on dog sled.
- on skis, going-up mountains for
, a plane wreck . picture! or down
snowbound valleys for a stranded
train. It is the motorcycle boys
in the traffic-clogged cities rush
ing the stuff back to the office,
the boys in the dark room, the
Jewish Burial
Caverns Found
JERUSALEM UH Workmen
digging foundations for a house
in the Israeli sector of Jerusalem
have found a number of Jewish
burial caves believed to be .2.000
years old.
Bones, pottery and glass vessels
dating from the time of Herod
were . uncovered. . One burial urn
carried the inscription, in Greek.
"Rufus who is DanieL Apparent
ly the Roman name was added to
the original Hebrew name.
Photos Sent by Discoloring
Paper Strip With Electriiity
NEW YORK .Did you ever
try to discolor paper with electri
city? "
1 That is the broad principle in
volved in news picture reception
by wirephoto on Associated Press
Photofax .equipment, used by
many television stations and by
some newspapers in receiving pic
ture copy from AP's network.
. The photofax machine receives
electrical impulses during wire
photo transmission much like other
picture-receiving equipment The
final result occurs vhen these im
pulses, through special electrodes,
hit a roll of recording paper which
has been specially treated chemi
Wirebhoto Shoves Fatal Crash in Alabama
-
1 1 i
MONTGOMERY, Ala-Fonr Montgomery residents including Hoke
and snortsman. were killed Friday night when vandigrurs private
storm near Montgomery. Vandigriff was president of the . Montgomery Rebels in the Sooth At
lantic League. The party was returning from the Gator Bowl football game ia Jacksonville, Fla.
(AP Wirephoto)
I '
men on the desk. ,
It is the tiny photo-electric cell
which sends an 8x10 inch picture
in the eight minutes over thou
sands of miles. It is the small
portable transmitting unit as ubi
quitous as the weather, sending
from wherever there is a phone
line, from the: men's room of the
Cleveland ' stadium .during the
World Series, I from the basement
of the Capitol during a joint ses
sion of Congress, from the small
dining room of somebody's home
300 yards from the gates of Sing
Sing, where the Rosenbergs were
executed, from a Pennsylvania
hotel room high over a flood, while
a lobby switchboard stands up on
blocks. f
It is Preston Stroup shooting the
finish of the Kentucky Defby, rac
ing through the crowd to a dark
room 200 yards away, developing,
making prints, getting his first
picture on the wire within nine
minutes of the finish, and then
asking, VWho won?"
.It is 6-footj 5-inch photo editor
Bill Brown developing negatives
in a Montreal bank vault 6-feet,
2-inches high to be as near as
possible to the portable transmit
ting' pictures' of the King and
Queen's arrival in 1939. " '
During most of the years before
Wirephoto, news pictures were
distributed by a variety of meth
ods, none of them fast or always
reliable. They . were shipped Jay
train, plane,!, car, or, in- some
cases, even by carrier pigeon.
Fast train 5 mail took 84 hours
across country, in those days, air
express took 24 hours, barring bad
weather. Rival picture syndicates
fought each other for plane space.
It was not uncommon for one to
swipe the opposition's pictures or
to talk a pilot into throwing the
other fellow's package away and
substituting your own.
In the Twenties, somepacture
agencies ' even tried a strange
method of talking pictures over
a phoneJ f '
At one end of the line,, a man
set up a transparent grid over a
photograph before him. At the
other end, a man had a blank
sheet of paper, the same size as
the photograph, and a grid over
it. : J - . ' --.
Shaded Square ' ,
The first!, man described the
squares under the grid as black,
white or gray and the second man
simply shaded in his squares ac
cordingly. What they ended up
with was a "drawing, not a photo
graph, and while it was crude it
bore some resemblance to the i
original, t .
Then, in the Twenties, the lab
oratories of the American Tele
phone and Telegraph Co. devel
oped a limited commercial sys
tem, for moving , pictures . over ,
phone wires.
Sending and receiving stations
were set up in only eight cities,!
almost an hour was required to
prepare a picture for sending, the
actual transmission was slow and
the delivered picture was blurred
and indistinct . -
Bad as the system was, it was
all that was available and AP and
other gencies used it until 1933
when AT&T bandoned the proj
ect Picture deliveries once again
became a j matter of train and
plane schedules.
But Kent Cooper, then AP gen
eral manager, was still nursing an
old dream that a nationwide
network of leased wires could be
set up to flash AP pictures to AP
members all over the .country.
This time he didn't have long to
wait 3 - - ".
In 1933, Bell Laboratories, which
had been experimenting along en
tirely different scientific lines, an-
As electrical current passes
through this paper, impulses rep
resenting light-colored areas of the
transmitted picture create light
tones on the paper, with impulses
from the dark areas of the picture
making dark tones.
. As the j transmitted picture is
scanned by a photo-electric cell
on the sending machine, each tiny
fraction of image is simultaneously
recorded on the special paper.
When a picture transmission is
completed, the Photofax paper has
finished its job. No other process
ing is involved, The machine op
erates automatically, with no man
V'."
j .
Transmission of Color Picture
Copy by Wirephoto Devised .
NEW . YORK Wirephoto
transmission of pictures for color
reproduction in newspapers, was
just a dream when AP's coast-to-coast
picture network was inaug
urated 20 years ago. i
Associated Press engineers, how
ever, had insisted on equipment of
high fidelity 4- equipment which
Was ! further improved over the
years: Its precision was such that
the machine readily could handle
transmissions for color use. I
Picture copy for color reproduc
tion was sent by wirephoto for the
firs! time in 1939, during the Wash
nounced a new picture-sending ap
paratus faster by far than the old
Telephoto and more reliable.
All the picture services were' in
vited to attend a demonstration,
what they saw then is substan
tially ' the same way Wirephoto
works today. ' j
Wrapped on Cylinder
An ordinary photo print is
wrapped around a cylinder on the
sending machine. On the receiving
machine. 30 or 3,000 miles away,
and connected by a leased wire,
an unexposed negative is placed
on an exclosed cylinder. ;
At the sending point an attend-;
ant i pushes a button which starts
i . i"
You may discover that your records are not
as complete as they should be. The following
services will make for a more pleasanj and care
free investment program.'
1. We can provide you with complete informa
; tion on all dividends, interest, return of capi
l tal, capital gains, 1 stock splits, and tax-free
items for all types of securities for the year
1954. x ii ;
-'Iff
2. We have "dividend booklets' properly de
I sjgned to aid yli in recording this inf orma
I tion in the future. These are-free without ob-
ligation.
Is Your Investment Program
Geared for '55? 1 . .
Your financial program does not necessarily
change from day to day, but your investments do. They
should be re-examined periodically to see that they are
in keeping with your investment aims. Many securities
have already realized theit-expected growth in price
. . . while the price of others has not yet begun to
reflect their true value. You should never make a de
cision to buy, sell or hold any securities unless your
financial program has been brought up to date!
j We will be glad to anajyze your pres
ent list of securities 'without obligation.
Please phone Salem 3-4106 and we will
make an appointment to. meet with you ei
ther at your office, your home or Zilka,
Smitherjand Company's office. Out-of-town
residents please call collect. Free parking at
"Car Park," High and Ferry streets
G
203 Oregon Building
Ala offices la Portland Enfene Medford Heed
A
9
it'
;
I Vandigriff, wealthy contractor
Plane crasnea in a neary ram
ington visit of King George VI
and Queen Elizabeth.
From negatives made available
by The Chicago Tribune from its
three-in-one color j camera; color
separation prints were transmitted
to all newspapers then interested.
During 1954 wirephoto transmit
ted copy for newspaper, use in col
or on four occasions on jthe first
hydrogen explosion pictures, re
leased by the Atomic Energy Com
mission, on Winston Churchill with
the Eisenhowers, on the solar
eclipse of last summer from copy
provided by The Minneapolis Tri
bune, and on the opening game of
the World Series.
his machine as well as all the
receivers on the network. As the
cylinder on the sending machine
rotates, it moves horizontally
across a tiny beam of light.
The light reflects off the photo
graphic print into a photoelectric
eye. Here, the reflected light rays
are transformed into electrical
impulses, strong or weak as the
light or dark portions of the pic
ture rotate past .
The electrical impulses travel
over the wires at the rate of 1(XU
000 impulses per minute. Each
records on the receiving film at
exactly the same fraction of
second it, is sent The negative at
v
1
This is an appropriate timo
to tatxo a look at your
investment program.
present. ..ana future.
inVESTUENT SECURITIES
! ' i - - . . i .
Phont 3-410
the , receiving end is exposed to 1
exact proportion to the amount of
light reflected off the sending
cylinder. When developed, the fin
ished print is exactly like the ode
at the sending station.' : ,
This is what Kent Cboper and
the heads of rival picture agent
cies saw in the Bell Laboratories
in 1933. The opposition agencies
backed off. In a lingering depres
sion, they were not inclined to
take on a new, highly expensive
project, ;
WoaM he Expensive
Cooper was excitbd by the de
vice. It would be expensive, prob
ably more than a million dollars
a year, be acknowledged. But he
felt that AP had to follow this
trail to a new pictorial journal-
isnfc he set out to try to win sup
port for the project within the AP
family, the member papers which
make up the cooperative . news
agency'. ' j
The strongest opposition came ,
from the AP members which had '
Wheir own rival picture services.
All sorts ol charges were made
that the AP management was try
ing to pour money into an expen
sive impractical scheme; that the
AP had too little experience in
the picture field: that AT&T was
trying, to foist obsolete equipment
on the press service; that even
if Wirephoto worked, the vast ma
jority of members would not ben
efit i The fight reached its climax at
the i AP annual meeting in 'April,
1934. After long artd intense de
bate, it finally came to a vote.
.Wirephoto was approved by a
heavy majority. f
Cylinder Rotates
And at 1 a.m., Jan. 1. 1935. be
fore white-tied New Year cele
brants and shirt-sleeved staff
members, before radio announcers
and newsreel cameras, the send
ing cylinder in New York began
to rotate. Eight minutes later. 25
cities around the country received
Wirephoto's first picture a pho
to of survivors of a plane 'wreck
in the Adirondacks. - s
This was the beginning of an
operation that grew every year.
The old fear that the ! network
would prove too expensive for
small and medium-sized papers
proved groundless. Today, they
make up a sizeable proportion of
those receiving Wirephoto.
Only one major problem re
mained after that beginning in
1S35. Wirephoto gave the AP pic
ture service great speed once the
picture reached the machine. Now
it needed maneuverability.
The sending equipment then in
use was bi& and required consid
erable space It . meant that the
Pictures had to be brought to the
machines. The problem was how
to bring the transmitting machines
to the scene of the pictures.
Within . a year, AP engineers
came up with the answer: A small
portable transmitter, no bigger
than an ordinary suitcase, which
could be plugged into any phone
line. The first of these went into
action in, the Pittsburgh flood of
11936
7
BSSlBMta
Arthur W. Smither H. T. Smithcr
Tint V. P.
QVd
Ralph A. Smither
H. A. Willeck
John Goffrttr
1955
FORECAST
of economic con
ditions and esti
mates of earnings
and dividends.
Come U. phone
or write for your
ppy. , a
FREE,
4
Salem, Oregon
liver Vaneanrer, Wn.
Robert Holoubek
1- East and West'AP Wirephoto
is linked with the rest of the world
through commercial radio facili
ties. This never served more spec
tacularly than1 it did during the
coronation coverage of ,1953.
London transmitted pictures by
radio which -were piped simultane
ously into the domestic Wirephoto
. A i a a a . .
neiworK. ai me same ume inai
American members were receiv
ing London's pictures, San Fran-
Cisco was radioing them out to
Pacific points. Thus, an 8 by 10
photo- went all the way more
than 14,000 miles f from London
4-
nnv way
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Transmission Lines
In addition to commercial radio
facilities, AP also has expanded
its operation into direct radiopho
to service. Thus, today, pictures
are transmitted directly from the
AP offices in New York and San
Francisco via AP transmitters to
South American and . Pa c i f i c
points. ' ' i
Today AP Wirephoto averages
about 65 different pictures a day,
seven days a week, 52 weeks a
year. Most of them are devoted
4 to recording history as it happens.
Now . and then wirephoto be
uwu
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til they reached the stadium that
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another pair of tickets; the game
was. sold. ':. :. I
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tickets back in Tulsa, moved same
on the wire to Dallas and the Tul
sa man and wife were allowed
into the game on the basis of the
photographic evidence. .
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