Rhode Island Radio - Brown Wireless

In April of 1916, a wireless antenna was seen strung from the tops of two buildings at Brown University, Maxcy Hall and University Hall. From there the antenna lead went into the basement of Wilson Hall. Here in the corner of the electricl engineering laboratory is found what is described as a audion detector and sending apparatus of a one-half watt, 60-cycle, quenched-spark set.¹

Maxcy Hall

University Hall

Modern Mechanics, 1915

Providence Journal December 5, 1915.

Christian Science Monitor
February 19, 1916

Wireless Age April, 1916.

Brown University
Annual Report
to the
President
October 1916

Brown University
Providence Journal
November 3, 1916

Pawtucket Times October 9 1917

In 1917, wireless study was not just for men. Women were added to the course study of wireless as part of the effort to train women at jobs that were traditionaly held by men as part as the support of the WWI effort.

Brown University
Providence Journal
April 13, 1917

Providence Journal
April 18, 1917

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Providence Journal
July 8, 1917

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Electrical Experimenter October 10, 1917.jpg

Brown University
Annual Report
to the
President
October 1917

Brown University
Brown Daily Herald April 22, 1919

Brown's introduction to wireless was all due to Electrical Engineering Professor Arthur E. Watson. ¹

Arthur Eugene Watson (1866-1956), professor of engineering, was born in Providence on March 4, 1866. He graduated from Brown in 1888, and went to work with the Thompson-Houston Electric Company in Lynn, Massachusetts, and moved to Schenectady, New York, after the company became part of General Electric. He came back to Brown in 1895 as instructor in physics. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1899. He founded a department in the new field of electrical engineering. His title was changed to assistant professor of electrical engineering in 1914, and associate professor in 1920. In 1924 he designed the electrical plant for the airship Shenandoah. During World War II he designed electrical parts for Navy planes. After retirement in 1936 he continued his research in electrical engineering projects, some of them for military purposes. ²

On February 11th, 1947 Professor Watson sat at the head table of the Edison Centennial Dinner held at the Biltmore Hotel Ballroom sponsored by the Electrical League of Rhode Island in conjuction with The Providence Section, American Institute of Electical Engineers. ³ When Watson died on October 29, 1956, Professor Frederick N. Tompkins 1917, one of his students, wrote in the memorial minute for the faculty: ²

He was a capable engineer who combined to a marked degree the qualities of the theorist with those of the practical man. He was able not only to design apparatus and systems but to build them himself. This ability made him of great value during the developmental days of Electrical Engineering and of particular value to his students. ... he was a gentleman and scholar of the old school. Greek, Latin, and the English of Chaucer came as readily to his mind as the intricate formulas and theories of Electrical Engineering. He had a fine command of English, which, combined with a rather elfin sense of humor, made his lectures and informal talks a pleasure to listen to. By nature he was a very calm person, certainly not of the worrying type. He had great religious faith, which seemed to assure him that all would be for the best, no matter what happened. ²

The Daily Chronicle
January 8, 1900

Providence Journal
January 14, 1910

The Christian Science Monitor
February 19, 1916

Providence Journal March 3, 1916

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Providence Sunday Journal April 9th, 1916

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The Electricl Experimenter
September 1917

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The Electricl Experimenter
October 1917

Brown Alumni Monthly
December, 1919.

Providence Journal
March 28, 1920

QST September 1920

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Providence Sunday Journal April 19, 1921

Providence Journal May 12, 1923

Providence Journal October 25, 1924

Providence Journal April 22, 1925

Providence Journal September 4th, 1925

The Brown Radio Club Operated
an Experimental Class Special Land Station
using the call sign 1XX
from October 1920 to October 1925

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Providence Journal
November 22, 1925

Pawtucket Times November 1, 1927

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Providence November 1, 1927

Providence Journal April 15, 1928

Providence Journal
July 24, 1928

Providence Journal
October 21, 1928

Brown Daily Herald
October 22, 1928

Pawtucket Times
October 27, 1928

Pawtucket Times
October 30, 1928

Brown Daily Herald
November 5, 1928

Providence Journal
November 18, 1928

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Providence Journal May 5, 1929

Providence Journal
May 9, 1929

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Providence Journal October 13, 1929

Brown Alumni Monthly
March 1937

Brown Network (WBRU)

In 1936 David Borst and George Abraham, (Class of 1940), founded the first college radio station in the country ⁴.

Providence Journal
February 4, 1937

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Radio World January 1938

Borst and Abraham strung wires for an inter-dormitory connection to relay the messages and recorded music which Abraham had begun broadcasting to his fellow students on November 30. The next year Abraham fitted out a studio in his dormitory room, equipped with playback machines, microphones, and other equipment. Subscribers to the network were organized under section managers, who were the only ones allowed to talk on the lines, and 16,000 feet of wire stretched across the rooftops of the campus buildings. The University administration allowed the installation of the wires, but later forbade broadcasting. The network was reinstated after 400 students petitioned the committee on student activities. Student support also paid for the line charges to broadcast the Brown-Dartmouth football game from Hanover. After the damage caused to the wiring by the 1938 hurricane, the lines were connected to the dormitory radiators, which served as antennae. For the sake of better reception the wires were later brought through the heating tunnels. Within a few years twelve more colleges started stations, and in 1940 they formed the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System at an organizational meeting held at Brown on February 18, 1940 ⁵.

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George Stuckert (top) and Edward Sarnoff, David Sarnoff's Son (bottom), both Class of 1942,
string transmission lines on a Slater Hall chimney for the first broadcast of the IBS at Brown in May 1940.

The New England Hurricane of 1938 destroyed most of the distribution wires, and Borst and Abraham were forced to move the wires into the steam tunnels beneath the campus. On November 3, 1939, David Sarnoff, the president of the Radio Corporation of America (whose son attended Brown) made a broadcast over The Brown Network.

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Providence Journal November 5, 1939.

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Popular Science February 1940.

Brown Daily Herald
January 7, 1942.

Brown Daily Herald
October 1, 1952.

On February 17 18, 1940 an organizing convention for the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS) was held at Brown, attended by representatives from twelve colleges with existing or proposed carrier current stations. Abraham was elected the IBS Chairman, and Borst the Technical Manager. IBS's role was defined as a medium for the exchange of ideas and programs, in addition to working to attract national advertising contracts for the member stations. The first IBS intercollegiate broadcasts began on May 9, 1940, with a five-part series that was carried by stations located throughout New England at Brown, Harvard, Williams, and Wesleyan universities, in addition to the Universities of Connecticut and Rhode Island ⁶.

Photos from the book:

1982

1984

Gas Pipe Newteork
The History of College Radio 1936-1946

By Louis M Bloch Jr.

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Radio Craft January, 1940.

Providence Journal February 17, 1940.

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Providence Journal February 18, 1940.

Providence Journal February 19, 1940.

Radio Craft April 1940
INTER-COLLEGE WIRED RADIO NETWORK

Providence Journal February 8, 1941.

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Providence Journal December 14, 1941.

The Network survived the World War II years with the help of Pembroke students and students in the Army and Navy units. The station identification of the Brown Network was B.U.B.C (for Brown University Broadcasting Company) until 1945, when, upon the prompting of Stephen Plimpton 48, who hung felt banners with WBRU on the microphones, the network elected these call letters. The station celebrated its tenth anniversary on November 30, 1946, with a half-hour program broadcast from Alumnae Hall throughout New England by the Yankee network. In 1951 WBRU broke the long-distance record for collegiate broadcasting from the Ice Palace in Colorado Springs, covering Brown s appearance in the NCAA hockey tournament and sharing its coverage with Providence station WFCI for the benefit of Southern New England fans. WBRU was represented in Colorado by Barry Cohen 52 and Jordan Kaplan 52, while network president Dick Walton 51 remained behind to raise the $1,100 needed for the enterprise. WBRU joined the Ivy Network in 1952, gaining the advantages of shared advertising and exchange of dramatic programs and sporting events ⁵.