Monday, February 15, 2010

Television Inventor

The man usually credited, as the television inventor is Philo Taylor Farnsworth. He developed the first device that could create and manipulate an electron beam. The beam could then scan images and transmit them to a receiving device where they could be recreated on a screen. Farnsworth, television inventor, was only 21 years old at the time and could be considered one of the greatest inventors of the 20th century. Farnsworth, who died in 1971, lived long enough to see his invention become a major part of everyday life. Farnsworth�s lab was located on Green Street and he was nicknamed �The Genius of Green Street�.

Farnsworth, television inventor, demonstrated his completely operational all electronic television system on September 7, 1927. Farnsworth�s invention made television a practical reality. Prior to 1927, all image scanning and transmission was accomplished using mechanical devices. The problem was that the devices required powerful lighting that generated so much heat actors could not stand in front of them for more than a few minutes. The existing mechanical devices used a two-foot diameter spinning metal disk that broke the image into dots of light and transmitted them to another disk that put the pictures back together and displayed them on a screen.

Farnsworth�s device used an electron beam without moving parts and scanned the image by varying the beam�s current as it traversed the image. He was the television inventor but he also invented a device that only needed half the sideband bandwidth as the mechanical transmission devices. (Sideband bandwidth is a buffer area that prevents broadcast signals from interfering with each other.)

Farnsworth�s device could send pictures are a rate of 20 pictures per second so motion was easily recorded and could be displayed accurately. He used an 8000 pixel resolution for each image. His screen was a one and a quarter inches square. Financiers George Everson and Leslie Gorrell backed Farnsworth�s work. After introducing Farnsworth, television inventor, to engineers at the California Institute of Technology, who declared his idea workable, Everson and Gorrell provided the money for him to develop a prototype. The rest is history.

To answer the original question�who is the television inventor? Philo Farnsworth is the inventor of the modern electronic method of broadcasting and frequently credit as the television inventor, but many other scientists and inventors paved the way for his success.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Who Was The Inventor Of The First Television

Who was the inventor of the first television? Actually, television is such a complex process that there were many small steps made on the road to it ultimate invention. So, who was the inventor of the first television?

The very earliest TV like devices were based on the photoconductive properties of selenium and a mechanical device that use spinning disks and mirrors to capture light on one mirror and transmit it to another mirror. The spinning disks were invented and built by Nipkow. In 1987, May and Smith from England discovered that selenium�s resistance to electricity decreased when exposed to light. They put forth the idea of using electricity to send pictures but never developed a way to do it. So, who was the inventor of the first television?

Paul Nipkow built a disk with holes cut in a spiral pattern that could read an image one dot at a time as it spun. However there are actual physical limitations that make the process of mechanical scanning of images impractical. However his scanning theory and methods was used as the basis for later developments. So, who was the inventor of the first television?

John Baird of Scotland used Nipkow�s disk to transmit pictures to be displayed on selenium-coated screens to recreate the images. Baird demonstrated this technique in 1925 by sending the image of a face with his device. Baird later achieved the first transatlantic broadcast and began broadcasting as the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) in 1929. So, who was the inventor of the first television?

Charles Jenkins invented the movie projector. Jenkins demonstrated a 10-minute broadcast of a movie in 1925 and called it radiovision. In 1929, AT&T broadcast Herbert Hoover over their phone lines and then a vaudeville act over wireless. They had designed and built the first very primitive videophone. General Electric was airing TV using mechanical scanning in 1929 and broadcast dramatic plays and political speeches over the airwaves. So, who was the inventor of the first television?

Mechanical television could not last because it needed such powerful lighting that actors could not stay on screen for more than a few minutes at a time because of the heat the lights generated. Electronic TV was the way to go, and Vladimir Zworykin and Philo Farnsworth were both working on that. So, who was the inventor of the first television?

Both of these men have been credited for inventing the TV, Zworykin invented the video camera and Farnsworth invented a device to create and manipulate an electron beam that could scan pictures, transmit them to a receiver and recreate the image on a second screen. So, who was the inventor of the first television?

Have you figured out who was the inventor of the first television yet? Zworykin got a patent on his device in 1923 and Farnsworth demonstrated his device in 1927 and patented it in 1930. Philo Farnsworth is generally considered the inventor of modern television because he invented and was the first person to broadcast pictures using an electron beam instead of a mechanical device. So, after reading all that, who was the inventor of the first television?

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Who Invented The TV

A rather interesting question, who invented the TV? According to some historians, Philo Farnsworth is credited with having invented the TV because he demonstrated the first actual transmission of moving pictures in September of 1927 using a device he built that created and manipulated an electron beam. He was awarded a patent for his device in 1930. So, who invented the TV?

According to his biography, when Farnsworth was a fourteen-year-old high school student he was fascinated by electrons and electronics. Young Farnsworth begged his science teacher, Justin Tolman, to allow him to sit in on a senior level electronics course. It was during that class that Farnsworth came up with the idea that an electron beam could scan pictures by moving back and forth over the picture collecting the images one pixel at a time and then transmit the data to remote screens where they could be recreated as pictures. That is a pretty basic description of how television works. At fifteen Farnsworth was admitted to Brigham Young University where he studied electronics. He was one of the most advanced students there, but later had to drop out when his father died so he could return home to run the family farm. He found private financial supporters so he could work on creating the machine that would make his idea come to life. So, who invented the TV?

Meanwhile Vladimir Zworykin who worked for RCA patented a similar device. After Farnsworth demonstrated his device in 1927, RCA wanted to produce the device but David Sarnoff, an executive at RCA didn't want to pay Farnsworth a royalty on the invention since his company had a patent on a similar device. So he sued Farnsworth for patent violation. So, who invented the TV?
Although Zworykin and RCA did own a patent on a similar device, there was no evidence they had ever built a working transmitter or receiver from the design. Justin Tolman testified on Farnsworth�s behalf and he still had Farnsworth�s original drawings. So, who invented the TV?
Farnsworth won the case. RCA appealed and lost a second time. Such a fuss over who invented the TV. About that time, WWII started and production of TV sets was stopped. After WWII was over, Farnsworth's patents expired and RCA purchased them and launched a publicity campaign proclaiming Sarnoff and Zworykin as the inventors of television. Have you decided who invented the TV?

Saturday, February 6, 2010

When Was The Television Invented

�When was the first television invented� is as controversial as who invented the first television. You would think something like a date for an invention would be an easy thing to determine. The problem isn�t so much when was the first television invented but rather the definition of what a television is.

The first cathode ray scanning tube was invented in 1897 in Germany. It worked basically the same as the present day CRTs and was capable of displaying images on its surface. But none had yet figured out how to get the images on the tube. Then Nipkow invented a mechanical scanning device that used two-foot diameter spinning disks with hole cut in concentric patterns that could scan images one dot at a time. When connected to a circuit that could produce sound waves, the images could be sent to a receiving device where the process was reversed and the light was projected on a cathode ray screen. Figured out when was the first television invented?

The first broadcast was in 1926 in England by Baird who later founded the British Broadcasting Company (BBC). That began the era of mechanical television transmission. The first successful public broadcast was in 1928. Meanwhile in 1927, Philo Farnsworth invented an electron beam that could scan images by varying the currents intensity as it passed over the picture. He also built a transmitting and receiving device patterned on the radio receivers in wide use at the time and successfully transmitted moving pictures at 20 frames per second. 20 frames a second is fast enough to capture true motion. Farnsworth applied for and was granted a patent in 1930. Found a definitive answer to when was the first television invented yet?

However, David Sarnoff of RCA and Zworykin held a patent on a similar device that was basically a primitive video camera. Since Sarnoff didn�t want to pay royalties to Farnsworth, he filed suit against him in court for patent infringement. The lawsuit prevented either company from marketing their devices. Eventually in 1945, Farnsworth won the lawsuit since Zworykin had never really built a working device. Know When was the first television invented yet?

However, television manufacturing was suspended during World War II and Farnsworth sold his patent to ITT. The question �When was the first television invented� was left unanswered. Was it in 1897 when the picture tube was invented, or 1925 when mechanical TVs were the rage or was it in 1927 when the first electronic TV was demonstrated? When was the first television invented? I don�t know�you decide.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Timeline of TV History

Most people think that television was basically unknown until the 1940s. While the general public didn�t become aware of it until then, it has been around a whole lot longer. Here is a general timeline of TV history from 1919 until 1960:

Timeline of TV history from 1919 to 1929
� 1999 -- RCA radio corporation was started 1923 -- Vladimir Zworkin patents the Inconoscope television tube.
� 1925 -- The first moving pictures were transmitted in Washington, D.C.
� 1926 -- The Federal Radio Commission (later the FCC) was created by Congress
� 1926 -- The National Broadcasting Company was started
� 1927 -- The first intercity television broadcast takes place.
� 1928 -- The first television image is sent from the United States to Europe.
� 1928 -- The first television image of a remote event is broadcast.
� 1929 -- The first color television images are demonstrated to the public at the New York world�s fair.

Timeline of TV history from 1930 to 1939
� 1930 -- The first closed circuit television image is shown on a movie screen.
� 1938 -- NBC operates a mobile television van in New York.
� 1939 -- RCA provides television coverage of the opening of the New York World's Fair.
� 1939 -- The Brooklyn Dodgers are the first major league baseball team to be televised.

Timeline of TV history from 1940 to 1949
� 1940 -- The Republican National Convention is broadcast for the first time in Philadelphia, PA
� 1941 -- The first television commercial was aired for Boluva watches
� 1945 -- Nine commercial TV stations operate in the United States.
� 1946 -- The first network soap opera Faraway Hills premieres
� 1947 -- "Kinescopes" are used to film TV broadcasts for later use.
� 1947 -- Harry S. Truman is the first U.S. President to address the public on TV.
� 1947 -- Kraft Television Theater presents the first commercial TV dramas.
� 1947 -- The first World Series is televised.
� 1948 -- Douglas Edwards anchors CBS-TV News, with first nightly news show.
� 1949 -- Leave it to the Girls is TV's first women's advocacy show.

Timeline of TV history from 1950 to 1959
� 1950 -- There are 8 million televisions sets in the U.S.
� 1951 -- Coast-To-coast live television becomes possible.
� 1951 -- Television covers the U.S. Senate hearings on crime.
� 1952 -- Jerry Lewis survives his first telethon.
� 1952 -- The presidential convention draws 70 million viewers.
� 1952 -- The UHF channels, 14 through 83, are set up by the FCC.
� 1953 -- The first issue of TV Guide appears.
� 1954 -- Television airs the McCarthy hearings.
� 1954 -- The Academy Awards appear on television for the first time.
� 1957 -- TV covers the Senate Rackets Committee hearings.
� 1959 -- Bonanza is television's first western in color.
� 1959 -- There are 50 million TV sets in the United States.

Timeline of TV history from 1950 to 1959
� 1960 -- Television carries the Kennedy-Nixon debates.
� 1961 -- ABC's Wide World of Sports debuts.
� 1961 -- TV broadcasts its first live presidential press conference.
� 1961 -- TV covers Alan Shepard's ride into space.
� 1963 -- Networks cancel all programming to cover the Kennedy assassination.
� 1965 -- Early Bird satellite transmissions begin.
� 1965 -- In a role played by Bill Cosby, I Spy features the first black hero on television.
� 1966 -- All of NBC's newscasts are broadcast in color.
� 1968 -- 60 Minutes premieres.
� 1968 -- TV covers the unruly Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Timeline of TV history from 1970 to 1979
� 1972 -- HBO joins the airwaves.
� 1973 -- America watches the Watergate hearings.
� 1974 -- Richard Nixon resigns live on television.
� 1975 -- The cable television boom begins.
� 1976 -- Atlanta's WTCG (later WTBS) begins satellite transmission.
� 1977 -- TV exists in 71 million (97 percent) American homes.

Timeline of TV history from 1980 to 1989
� 1980 -- CNN begins the first 24-hour TV news service on June 1.
� 1980 -- The cable network BET (Black Entertainment Television) begins.
� 1981 -- TV captures the assassination attempt on President Reagan.
� 1981 -- TV covers the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana.
� 1984 -- The A&E Cable Network begins operation.
� 1986 -- The Challenger space shuttle explodes on live TV.
� 1986 -- TV cameras cover U.S. Senate proceedings for the first time.
� 1989 -- The Berlin Wall opens on television sets worldwide.
� 1989 -- Television carries live coverage of the San Francisco earthquake.

Timeline of TV history from 1990 to 1999
� 1991 -- 93 million homes in America have television sets.
� 1991 -- The Courtroom TV Network begins broadcasting.
� 1991 -- The networks suspend regular programming to cover the Gulf War.

The timeline of TV history from 2000 until the present is still being written for this decade. Most recent changes seem to be improvements on existing things. The only major change is the availability of TV over the internet. Who knows how the Timeline of TV history from during the rest of this decade.