Abstract
THE Postmaster-General recently appointed a committee to consider the constitution, control and finance of the broadcasting services of Great Britain, including broadcasting to the Empire, television broadcasting and the system of wireless exchanges which will be conducted after December 31, 1936. He appointed as chairman Viscount Ullswater, and everyone will agree that this was a happy choice; but we were surprised to see that the committee did not include any men of science. We do not believe that any other country in the world would have appointed such a committee without a representative of science. Mr. Whitley was very proud of the new research department of the B.B.C. and was looking forward to it being a great help in the future. Already it has done valuable work, but little reference is made to it in the B.B.C. Annual for 1935. In our opinion, the addition of two or three scientific and technical men to this committee is necessary. So far as we can see, none of the committee has any real knowledge of the scientific principles underlying the problems its members will have to discuss. We hope that this will soon be remedied. It is necessary to consider the instructional and entertainment values of broadcasting, but it would be foolish to neglect the scientific development of the art. We have tried to find out from the Annual the amount expended in 1934 on research. Unfortunately this does not appear; it is apparently included in the general sum of £334,959 mentioned on p. 91 for maintenance, salaries, development and research, etc.
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Broadcasting in Great Britain. Nature 135, 757–758 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135757c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135757c0