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Transcription: [00:05:37]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
Available to the public?

[00:05:38]
{SPEAKER name="George W. Bailey"}
Well that's difficult to say. Mr Davis, you know in asking me these questions reminds me of an instance which happened in 1930, when the empire state building was built.

[00:05:50]
{SPEAKER name="George W. Bailey"}
The top structure was strengthened because, at that time, they thought that dirigibles would be the coming mode of transatlantic travel.

[00:05:57]
{SPEAKER name="George W. Bailey"}
Well, of course, we know that dirigibles were outmoded, and that very great structural strength enabled the radio men to put an antennae up there, which is one of the electronic wonders of the world.

[00:06:09]
{SPEAKER name="George W. Bailey"}
With 5 television stations and 3 FM stations.

[00:06:13]
{SPEAKER name="George W. Bailey"}
That's illustrative of how difficult it is to look ahead.

[00:06:17]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
Well that does show that we don't always know where progress is going to go.
{SPEAKER name="George W. Bailey"}
True.

[00:06:23]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
What about the use of radar for controlling traffic. That's being done now isn't it, to a certain degree?

[00:06:31]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
Clocking the speed of cars on highways and that sort of thing?

[00:06:38]
{SPEAKER name="George W. Bailey"}
Yes it is, you remember that many years ago Nikola Telsa had an idea that radio power could be dissipated throughout the country.

[00:06:47]
{SPEAKER name="George W. Bailey"}
And so picked up on radio receivers, but of course that never worked out.

[00:06:51]
{SPEAKER name="George W. Bailey"}
But it seems possible, Mr. Davis, with new ceramic tubes and very high power and very high frequency, we may be able to beam radar down city streets and perhaps control lights on the dashes of automobiles.

[00:07:05]
{SPEAKER name="George W. Bailey"}
Maybe control their speed. Also have a conversation directed to the drivers to police and to taxi cabs.

[00:07:13]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
[[Laughing]] Well that's a new way of backseat driving, isn't it?

[00:07:17]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
It's going to be rather fearful, it seems to me, in the future, if you're -- When you're driving you have a crossing policeman yelling directions at you by way of radio.

[00:07:28]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
Do you think that there is a possibility of actually transmitting power for other useful purposes? I mean for primary power purposes by high frequency?

[00:07:41]
{SPEAKER name="George W. Bailey"}
Well, all I can say, Mr. Davis, is that it's a lot nearer now than it was in Tesla's time. How near, no-one knows.

[00:07:48]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
And what are these tubes that are being used for this purpose. You mentioned ceramic tubes?

[00:07:54]
{SPEAKER name="George W. Bailey"}
Yes, it seems almost certain that in the future, glass will disappear as part of a vacuum tube and some of the material used, such as ceramic material.

[00:08:05]
{SPEAKER name="George W. Bailey"}
You know a tube's a combination of the airports and metallurgists and mechanical engineers and the radio engineers.

[00:08:12]
{SPEAKER name="George W. Bailey"}
And I think they're a great future in high frequency tubes of other construction than glass.

[00:08:17]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
Well, we can let our imagination play on that, because there are so many applications that can be made of power through the air in this way.

[00:08:26]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
Although, it's really been one of the fantastic ideas of comic strips in the past that many engineers didn't really give much credit to.

[00:08:37]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
Now I'd like to talk about the possibility of radio control -- Electronic control, let's call it, of factories.

[00:08:46]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
Is there a possibility we'll have factories without people in them, except to repair the--