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The first European to visit the
Pittsburgh area was Robert de la Salle, a French trader and explorer, who led
an expedition down the Ohio River from Quebec in Canada in the year 1669. Robert de la Salle claimed all of the areas
he traversed as part of the French colonial empire in North America, a claim
that France considered valid up until 1758, nearly 90 years. A counter claim was lodged by the British in
1681, a claim that they considered valid up until 1781, exactly 100 years.
In
1758, the year the French claim expired, the settlement of Pittsburgh was named
by the Scottish army general, John Forbes, in honor of the eloquent British
statesman William Pitt. Back in those
days the pronunciation was Pittsburrow, similar to the Scottish city Edinburgh
(Edinburrow).
Five years later, during the siege
of Fort Pitt by Shawnees loyal to Chief Pontiac, there was an early attempt at
biological warfare by the British garrison who tried to spread smallpox among
the native Americans with the use of infected blankets. This attempt was largely inconsequential
however, because the disease had already been rampant among the Shawnee tribe
during the previous year; it is estimated that as many as half a million may
have eventually died from this epidemic.
The Blockhouse at Fort Pitt in
Pittsburgh was constructed in 1764, and this is the oldest building still
standing in Pittsburgh. In 1769,
Pittsburgh was claimed by two states, both Virginia and Pennsylvania; though 11
years later, the new Mason-Dixon Line on the map of the United States settled
the issue and Pittsburgh was legally absorbed into Pennsylvania. The locale was incorporated as a town in
1771, and as a city in 1816.
The city was almost completely
destroyed by fire in 1845, and it was rebuilt during the next two years,
complete with an enormous total of new factories numbering 1,000. A score of years later one writer described
the city as “hell
with the lid off”.
In 1890, the spelling of the city name, Pittsburgh, was modified,
dropping off the final letter h.
However, the h was officially returned to the city 21 years later.
These days Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
is a large modern city with a population of ⅓rd million
covering an area of 60 square miles. It
is a very hilly city, with 446 bridges, and some 712 sets of outdoor pedestrian
stairs including hundreds of “paper streets”
as they are described; that is streets that are composed entirely of stairs and
steep sidewalks rather than regular suburban streets.
It was on January 8, 1886 that
George Westinghouse established a factory in East Pittsburgh for the
manufacture of turbine generators, large electrical coils, and electric railway
locomotives. This was the largest Westinghouse
factory and at its height, it employed 20,000 people. The factory subsequently manufactured home
appliances and radio receivers also.
Interestingly, 23 years after the
factory was established, the management ousted its founder George
Westinghouse. This important industrial
factory was closed during its 100th anniversary year
1986.
Electrical Engineer Frank Conrad,
who was closely involved with the development of radio broadcasting over
mediumwave and shortwave stations KDKA, was born in Pittsburgh on May 4,
1874. At the age of 16 he began
employment in the Westinghouse factory, where he soon demonstrated a remarkable
capability and expertise in many areas of electrical and electronic
development. He invented for example,
the circular watt meter which is still in use to this day.
In 1912, at the age of 28, Conrad
constructed a wireless receiver in his home at Swissvale on the edge of
Pittsburgh so that he could receive regular time signals from the Navy wireless
station NAA at Arlington in Virginia. He
also heard Morse Code signals on his new wireless receiver from a neighbor John
Coleman, so he built his own amateur transmitter so that he could communicate
with other experimental wireless operators.
Subsequently, he moved to another
locale near Pittsburgh, a two story house in Wilkinsburg, and he installed all
of his wireless apparatus in the room above the detached garage. He was granted a license for his amateur
station as 8XK in August 1916, two years into the First World War in Europe. After
the United States entered the war, all experimental wireless stations were
silenced in April 1917. However, Frank
Conrad was permitted to continue his experimental work with radio in
conjunction with the Westinghouse factory and they were granted two special
licenses for this purpose: station 2WE at the Westinghouse factory, and 2WM at
his Wilkinsburg home.
Two and a half years later in the
aftermath of the European war, the ban on amateur radio activity was lifted and
Conrad resumed transmissions over his amateur radio station under the original
callsign 8XK. Thus, in the evening of
Friday October 17, 1919, Conrad entertained local listeners for the first time
after the war with a music concert made up from his own record library together
with announcements about each rendition.
Thus began a continual series of
semi-regular radio program broadcasts, compiled from music records borrowed
from the Brunswick Shop in Pittsburgh; and the shop reported an increase in
sales due to this form of informal advertising.
Then too, there were occasional live broadcasts presented by family
members, relatives and friends who had a talent for vocal and instrumental
music.
During this era of informal program
broadcasts, Conrad re-applied for his former amateur license with the same
pre-war callsign 8XK. In due course, he
received the official license, dated January 21, 1920. His renewed license was listed as License No.
236½.
The local newspapers often gave
coverage to the various program broadcasts from Conrad’s
amateur station 8XK, describing what was broadcast, and giving also the
expressions of appreciation from the listening public. Then, in the edition of the local paper for
September 29, the Horne Departmental Store included an item in their display
advertisement stating that their own staff had listened to a Conrad broadcast
on their own radio receiver.
The Westinghouse Vice-President, Mr.
H. P. Davis, read this advertisement and he saw a commercial advantage in the
usage of radio, and so he set procedures in motion to establish their own radio
broadcasting station at the factory.
This new radio broadcasting station was quickly constructed and
temporarily installed under a tent on the roof of the Westinghouse
factory.
In the meantime, there was a
presidential election in the offing, and ARRL the American Radio Relay League
had invited amateur station 8XK to participate in the dissemination of news and
information. Westinghouse and Conrad
combined their involvement for radio coverage of the election results with the
use of their new factory station which was licensed under the callsign
8ZZ. Test broadcasts were made in
advance, and the new station was ready for the official event on November 2,
1920.
The main election broadcast on
November 2, 1920 were made from the new station 8ZZ at the factory, though
Conrad was at home with his own station 8XK, ready to put it on the air with
the official programming relay via a telephone line in the event of a problem
at the factory station.
Interestingly, another amateur radio
station in Pittsburgh, 8ZD operated by a Mr. Williams, carried the official
ARRL broadcast of the election results, due to the fact that Conrad and
Westinghouse were tied up with the operation of their own new radio station.
And that’s
how it all began. A couple of days
later, the official license to use their land station KDKA as a broadcasting
station arrived; and thus a new era in the history of radio broadcasting
began. More next time.
(AWR-Wavescan/339)