Radio and a Public Address System for the High School

Author

Kenneth H. Westlake, University of the Pacific

Date of Award

1932

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Department

Physics

First Advisor

S. R. Cook

Abstract

All the findings and knowledge of electricity and magnetism are not new; even the Greeks as far back as 600 B. C. knew something about these forces. As time went on the facts increased.

After the experiments of Faraday, Maxwell, Hertz and such men as these, electricity and magnetism became a vital part of human life and endeavor. Within the last twenty-five years the advances in electricity have been very rapid. The action of the electric current is a vital part of many developments and is helping to make human life more enjoyable and interesting.

Almost all schools today are using electric clock systems, telephone systems, fire alarm systems, automatic ringing of bells, program systems and lighting systems. These have been used long enough to become established, and no one questions their aid to America's public education. And now the force of radio with all its possibilities already established as a vital part of American life is being felt in the school. The possibilities of education by radio are immense and in time can be built to a power through-out the land. Woodrow Wilson once said, "The great voice of America does not come from the seats of learning. It comes in a murmur from the hills and woods and farms and factories, rolling and gaining volume until it comes to us from the homes of common men."

It is not my purpose In this study to deal with the arrangement of broadcast material for the school or to champion the value of education by radio. This study deals with (1) school radio installations (2) public address systems in the school (3) a project on the installation of a radio and public address system carried on at Tracy Union High School. It is my purpose to describe, illustrate, and furnish the data which would be of value and importance to any who wish to equip their school for complete radio and public address systems; to give the names and addresses of commercial firms where parts may be bought for those who wish to Install their own equipment or of those firms which will install radio and public address equipment in the school.

School administrators do not have the correct information necessary in selecting this type of equipment and in placing installations. It is hard for the manufacturers to know what the school needs because radio and public address is so new to the school. I realize that radio with all its applied forces at its best today is still an infant. And surely there are not many schools in California at this time who have as a part of their teaching and administrative equipment, an up to date Radio and Public Address System.

It has always been the tendency of the human race to look with skepticism upon that which is new. Just so has it been with the progress of radio in the school. There are those who dismiss the whole matter as impractical or visionary and there are others who even have the teachers replaced with the loudspeakers. The experienced educator will take a stand between these two and be alert to new devices and techniques which will enable him to administer his school more effectively.

Pages

137

Recommended Citation

Westlake, Kenneth H.. (1932). Radio and a Public Address System for the High School. University of the Pacific, Thesis. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/4191