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75th Anniversary of Television

SpiceWare writes "In the summer of '21, Philo T. Farnsworth was struck by an inspiration after plowing a field. He transmitted the first television image six years later on September 7, 1927."

8 of 339 comments (clear)

  1. Claimed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Because it is so. John Logie Baird

    John Logie Baird is remembered as the inventor of mechanical television, radar and fiber optics. Successfully tested in a laboratory in late 1925 and unveiled with much fanfare in London in early 1926, mechanical television technology was quickly usurped by electronic television, the basis of modern video technology.

    Your Farnsworth guy got to invent electron beam scanning television, but J. L. Baird got "television" first.

    Now go prepare your missile sheilds. I hear you'll be needing them in a few days time.

  2. Re:Philo T. Farnsworth? by Meowing · · Score: 5, Informative

    Baird came up with a mechanical scanning system that bore little resemblance to what we now think of as television. Farnsworth's invention was fully electronic television, built atop Braun's work. Vladimir Zworykin invented an electronic television system at about the same time, but it only became practical after Farnsworth's ideas were incorporated.

  3. John Logie Baird in 1926 by Tim+Colgate · · Score: 5, Informative
    Some people might recall John Logie Baird as being the creator of telveision. Have a look at this article for more background. Here's a relevant quote:

    On January 26, 1926 Baird demonstrated a fully working prototype of mechanical television to members of the Royal Institution at 22 Frith Street, Baird's residence and laboratory. This was the world's first demonstration of true television because it showed moving human faces with tonal gradients and detail. Far from perfect, the images flickered quite a bit, but the individuals on screen were fully recognizable.

    1. Re:John Logie Baird in 1926 by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 2, Informative
      read the quote: "mechanical television" I can't remember ever having owned an tv that was not all electronic.

      The trick is that several different people where working on getting pictures through the air. Baird had one that never worked out. Sorta like the wright brothers didn't have the first aircraft, just the first proved to be start of usefull flight.

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  4. Little known fact: by Kredal · · Score: 4, Informative

    Philo, the resident mad scientist of U-62, in Weird Al's movie "UHF" was named after the inventor of the electronic television.

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  5. Re:Philo T. Farnsworth? by cioxx · · Score: 2, Informative

    Indeed it's another one of those lies which totally gives credit to the wrong people.

    The pioneers of television were the Russians, Nipkow who invented a mechanical revolving scanning disk in 1884 and Rosing who used a cathode ray tube in 1907 to display images from a mechanical transmitter. In Britain in 1923, John Logie Baird began to demonstrate television transmission using Nipkow disks. In America, Rosing's student, Vladimir Zworykin, filed a patent for an electronic television system in 1923, but the project was dropped by Westinghouse and Zworykin had to wait for RCA to restart the project in 1930. Meanwhile, an Idaho schoolboy, Philo Farnsworth, invented an electronic system in 1922, and by 1927 had transmitted television images. So you cannot deny the fact that the first Television was in fact invented by Russians. Zworykin's iconoscope led to modern televison cameras and Zworykin's kinescope was the basis for the modern television picture tube. Note that Nipkow and Zworykin are two different people.

    So in the end, we know who was the real inventor and who was just the contributor to the development.

  6. Re:quality television ? by MattXonn · · Score: 2, Informative
    A friend of mine just moved to the US from Australia. Not a small country, Australia. Twice the size of Europe. He and his family are bewildered by the sheer amount of everything we have in this country. Took him to a grocery store the other day. Our city is nowhere near a coastline, but we get seafood by the ton flown in every morning. The produce available in our markets comes from every corner of the world, and it's all fresh and unbelievably cheap.

    Actually, Australia is a small country when you look at population. It has less than 20 million for a country the size of continental USA. You may not be able to get seafood in a market in Alice Springs (central Australia), but the restaurants in central Australia will have it on the menu. Food is cheap in Australia. Most of it is produced in Australia.

    As for television in Australia, there are only 5 broadcast channels. Pay-TV is having a hard time here. I wouldn't get it. Why would I when all the good American programs are on free-to-air. Our TV stations can show what American broadcast stations wouldn't dare (South Park, Sex In The City, Six Feet Under, Queer As Folk, to name a few). We also get good British programs. More channels doesn't always mean there's better programs to watch.

  7. World Literacy Day by mobydobius · · Score: 3, Informative

    How ironic that the anniversary of the Television coincides with World Literacy Day...

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