Radiovoting

Millions of radio listeners have long wished for some quick automatic way to convey their dislike of a program instantly to the broadcasting studio. Millions of other radio listeners have wished they could somehow signal applause. One evening last week in Manhattan a tall man with greying hair stepped up to a microphone, told his hearers they had not long to wait for their wish fulfillment. Dr. Nevil Monroe Hopkins' voice was tremulous with excitement. Seven years of work and thought had gone into his scheme for "Radiovotes" which he was now outlining in 15 minutes. As in elections, individual votes are submerged by the mass vote under the Hopkins plan, which works through electric power stations. Confronting the radio listener are three buttons, installed in his cabinet. One button is marked "Present," the second "Yes," the third "No." Each button closes a circuit through a 100-ohm resistance, thus consuming a measured amount of electric current. In the power station, besides the standard wattmeter which constantly records the total current in use and charts the daily peak loads, is a Hopkins wattmeter on which the recording chart is driven 96 times faster than standard. A few inches of this fast chart are required to record the drain on the power house for only 30 seconds. If the 30 seconds are taken when the station load is fairly steady, the recording line is practically straight. In the broadcasting station is a Hopkins "wattmeter receiver" with a fast chart to which is electrically transmitted the power station chart-record. The radio announcer says: "Those ready to vote, push the 'Present' button." Thousands of voters push. This sudden mass consumption of extra current causes the recording line on the power house and studio charts to veer almost at right angles, forming a needle-like peak. Since each push-button consumes a measured amount of current, the height of this peak can at once be translated into the approximate number of voters. The announcer then asks for a "Yes" ballot, in a few moments more for a "No" ballot. On the charts two smaller peaks (whose combined height should equal that of the "Present" peak) reveal the size of the yes & no votes. The announcer may at once announce election results. Dr. Hopkins was born 60 years ago in Portland, Me. Twenty-six years later he graduated from Columbian, now George Washington University, won Franklin Institute's John Scott medal for electrical research a year later. He lectures at New York University. During the seven years he has worked on radiovoting, sometimes in the secrecy of New Jersey's woodlands, many a corollary idea has struck him. One is to use infra-red radiation ("dark light") for voting in theatres, with a battery of infra-red projectors and photo-electric detectors on the stage measuring the audience's reaction as in pitch-darkness each member holds up a hand reflector--gilded (reflecting) side for "yes," black (nonreflecting) side for "no."

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