Radio Age - 1944, January - 36 Pages, 3.3 MB ... - VacuumTubeEra

This method L-cmpi'ised KriiuliiiK.
polishing and optical testing operation
repeated a great many times
and at great expense in time and
money. While the RCA men succeeded
in reducing the number of
operations, especially those of optical
testing, they were still using
the general methods and machines
developed by astronomers. Their
shortcuts were chiefly due to the
fact that they did not need and did
not strive for true astronomical
accuracies.
The gain in light over the conventional
projection lens was very
attractive, but the cost of individually
produced lenses was prohibitive.
The apparent solution to the
cost problem was molded aspherical
lenses. A development was undertaken,
and soon was concentrated
on clear transparent plastics known
under the complicated name of
methyl methacrylate with simpler
terms of Plexiglass and Lucite as
their trade names.
A new set of difficult problems
presented themselves. The manufacturers
of plastics lent a willing
and helping hand, but they did not
know how to mold precision optical
elements. The problems of making
metal molding surfaces in shapes
of negative replicas of aspherical
surfaces promised to be formidable.
The intensive efforts directed to
this problem, however, proved successful,
and experimental models of
pro.iection television receivers with
plastic aspherical lenses were operating
in RCA laboratories as early
as 1940.
The molding process is essentiall.v
that of applying very large
jiressure to heated plastic material
confined in the mold and cooling it
under pressure until it reaches
room temperature. The mold is then
opened, the lens extracted and the
hole for the neck of the protruding
cathode-ray tube is bored out. The
lens is then ready for use, with no
polishing or finishing of any sort
needed. As a rule, plastic lenses
have been found to be of better
quality than their glass counterparts,
since it is permissible to
spend a great deal more time and
money on a mold good for, say,
1,000 pieces than on one piece by
itself.
RCA MEN ROVE WAR FRONTS
Seruice Eiuvneen. "Liiisiint Heroes," Insfull and Maintain Rodio- electronic
Equipment for Armed Forces at Far-flumj BtUlleStiniotis-Teach "Knoio-hoiu."
By W. L Jones
'i'ice
President and General Manager,
RCA Service Co., Inc.
Camden, N. J.
HE
was on duty at Pearl Harbor
the infamous morning of Deceml)er
7, 1941, when the Japs
staged their sneak attack; he's been
an island-hopper in the Southwest
Pacific; he demonstrated radio
"know-how" to our allies in darkest
Africa; he moved with Allied forces
as they pushed the Germans out of
North Africa, out of Sicily and
northward into the mountains of
Italy.
He doesn't receive military decorations,
win medals, march in parades
or have his exciting odyssey
glamorized by Hollywood, but you
will find him in the Aleutians, on
Guadalcanal or with Uncle Sam's
li.uhliiig
men on other far-flung war
fi'onts.
His only reward—and the only
vt'ward he desii'es — is the sheer
satisfaction of knowing he's doing
his part in the battle against the
Axis.
He is the unsung, unassuming
civilian field engineer assigned to
the Navy by the RCA Service Company
to install and service RCA
electronic equipment for the armed
forces, and to give instruction on
ojieration and maintenance.
After months of high-geared activity
at far-off battle stations, the
RCA engineer is called home long
enough to brush up on new developments
in radio and electronics. Then
he stands b.v in readiness for his
next assignment.
Frank Hartwick, recently back
from Guadalcanal and nearby islands,
has won the sobriquet of "circuit
rider of the Southwest Pacific."
Called by the Navy from Pearl Harbor
on what apparently was a short
emergency assignment, he was
given a roving commission to go
from one island to another, wherever
he thought he was most needed
and could do the most good.
Riding herd on the complicated
e(iuipment which is the voice, the
eves and the ears of the armed
BATTLEFRONT ENGINEERS MERRILL CHAPIN (LEFT) BACK FROM THE
ALEUTIANS, AND FRANK HARTWICK, "CIRCUIT RIDER OF THE SOUTHWEST
PACIFIC." INSPECT A RADIO TRANSMITTER AT THE RCA CAMDEN PLANT.
[RADIO AGE 27
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