1932 - Communications, Media

Communications, Media

The Times New Roman typeface developed for the Times of London by London typographer Stanley A. (Arthur) Morison, 43, will come into wide use worldwide.

Manchester Guardian editor Charles P. Scott dies at Manchester January 1 at age 84, having retired in 1929 after editing the paper for 57 years; publisher-philanthropist Ellen B. Scripps dies at La Jolla, Calif., August 3 at age 95.

The first-class U.S. postal rate goes to 3¢ in July. It was 3¢ from 1917 to 1928 but then returned to 2¢ (see 1885; 1958).

The Family Circle begins weekly publication at Newark, N.J., early in September with 24 pages. Founded and edited by Harry Evans, 36, with the purpose of publishing "nothing that a woman could object to," it is the first magazine to be distributed exclusively through grocery stores. Charles E. Merrill of Merrill, Lynch, has financed the magazine, which is given away free to shoppers at two eastern chains and will have a circulation of 1.44 million by 1939 (see 1946; Woman's Day, 1937).

The Jerusalem Post has its beginnings in the English-language Palestine Post that begins daily publication December 1 under the direction of Ukrainian-born U.S. journalist Gershon Agron (originally Agronsky), 38. It will change its name in 1950.

Ring recording heads patented by Iowa-born Radio Corporation of America (RCA) engineer Harry F. Olson, 31, use a field coil instead of a permanent magnet and employ the first cardiod ribbon microphone.

Philco radio receiver sales fall to 600,000, down from about 900,000 last year, and dollar volume falls to $17 million (see 1930). Philadelphia Storage Battery Co. has hired Norman Bel Geddes to design good-looking cabinets, and it remains the industry leader, but some Philco models sell for as much as $150, and with unemployment at an all-time high of 25 percent the market for such radios has plummeted (see car radio antenna, 1934).

Radio pioneer Reginald A. Fessenden dies at Hamilton, Bermuda, July 22 at age 65, having received several hundred patents related to broadcasting and reception. He has doubted the value of corporate and government research laboratories, insisting that successful inventions came from individual minds.

BBC takes over the responsibility of developing television from the Baird Co. and adopts John Logie Baird's 30-line system (see 1926; 1927). Higher-resolution systems are available, but Baird's system is better understood, no suitable wide-band transmitters are easily to be had, and BBC can use the 30-line system with its existing audio transmitters for the low-bandwith video (see 1935).