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Inventing Television: Transnational Networks of Co-Operation and Rivalry, 1870-1936

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Inventing Television: Transnational Networks of Co-Operation and Rivalry, 1870-1936 Inventing Television: Transnational Networks of Co-operation and Rivalry, 1870-1936 A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the faculty of Life Sciences 2011 Paul Marshall Table of contents List of figures .............................................................................................................. 7 Chapter 2 .............................................................................................................. 7 Chapter 3 .............................................................................................................. 7 Chapter 4 .............................................................................................................. 8 Chapter 5 .............................................................................................................. 8 Chapter 6 .............................................................................................................. 9 List of tables ................................................................................................................ 9 Chapter 1 .............................................................................................................. 9 Chapter 2 .............................................................................................................. 9 Chapter 6 .............................................................................................................. 9 Abstract ..................................................................................................................... 10 Declaration ................................................................................................................ 11 Copyright Statement ................................................................................................ 11 Dedication ................................................................................................................. 12 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................... 13 Glossary ..................................................................................................................... 15 Chapter 1 Introduction and literature review ....................................................... 20 1.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 20 1.2 Literature review .............................................................................................. 24 1.2.1 Framework for analysis ............................................................................. 24 1.2.2 Histories of television ............................................................................... 32 1.3 New primary sources........................................................................................ 41 1.4 Structure of the thesis ....................................................................................... 45 Chapter 2 Dreams, ideas, hoaxes and practical solutions: 1870-1920 ................. 51 2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 51 2.2 Roots of the „television‟ concept...................................................................... 56 2.2.1 „Visions‟ through the ages ........................................................................ 56 2.2.2 Saint Clare‟s vision of Mass ..................................................................... 57 2.3 An invention, a discovery and a study ............................................................. 59 2.3.1 The rise of telephony and its public perception ........................................ 60 2.3.2 The discovery of photo-electricity ............................................................ 61 2.3.3 Persistence of vision .................................................................................. 63 2.4 Adding sight to sound – hoaxes, inventions and speculation, 1878-1881 ....... 65 2.4.1 Hoaxes and speculation ............................................................................. 66 Page 2 of 373 2.4.2 The photophone – a case of mistaken invention ....................................... 67 2.4.3 Real proposals for a „distant vision‟ machine, 1878-1881 ........................ 72 2.5 No easy solution, 1881 – 1900 ......................................................................... 78 2.5.1 Speculation grows ..................................................................................... 80 2.5.2 Further practical suggestions .................................................................... 81 2.6 „Television‟: a new word is born – Paris 1900 ............................................... 86 2.7 Dashed dreams, 1901-1918 .............................................................................. 89 2.8 Conclusions ..................................................................................................... 95 Chapter 2 Figures ................................................................................................... 98 Appendix 2.1 Technical descriptions ................................................................... 107 2.1a Non-scanning systems .............................................................................. 107 2.1b Nipkow‟s disc patent ................................................................................ 107 2.1c Weiller‟s drum .......................................................................................... 108 2.1d Szczepanik‟s scanning mirrors ................................................................. 108 Chapter 3. Spinning Discs and Revolving Mirrors – the Future of Television is Mechanical .............................................................................................................. 109 3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 109 3.2 The maturing of sound broadcasting, telephony and the cinema in the early 1920s .................................................................................................................... 114 3.2.1 The rise of sound broadcasting ............................................................... 114 3.2.2 The maturing of telephony ...................................................................... 115 3.2.3 The beginning of the cinema boom ......................................................... 116 3.2.4 Early 1920s developments in electro-mechanical television across the world ................................................................................................................ 117 3.3 Making the most of just a few lines – Ulises Sanabria and Western Television Inc., 1926 – 1934 .................................................................................................. 122 3.3.1 Background and early work .................................................................... 122 3.3.2 Making television make money .............................................................. 135 3.4 The large company approach to electro-mechanical television: Marconi‟s Wireless Telegraph Company Ltd. ...................................................................... 140 3.4.1 Review of MWTCo.‟s television options .............................................. 141 3.5 Excellence in electro-mechanical television by Scophony Ltd...................... 146 Appendix 3.1 ........................................................................................................ 167 The Flying Spot Scanner .................................................................................. 167 Appendix 3.2 ........................................................................................................ 169 The Interlaced Scanning Principle ................................................................... 169 Appendix 3.3 ........................................................................................................ 171 Synchronisation ................................................................................................ 171 Page 3 of 373 Appendix 3.4 ........................................................................................................ 172 The Scophony system ...................................................................................... 172 Appendix 3.5 ........................................................................................................ 174 Nipkow disc replication ................................................................................... 174 Chapter 4. Television with tubes: networks of dissemination............................ 175 4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 175 4.2 The development of the cathode ray tube to 1910 ......................................... 181 4.3 Campbell Swinton and his scheme for „distant electric vision‟ with no moving parts ...................................................................................................................... 183 4.3.1 Campbell Swinton and his networks of influence in British science, engineering and commerce. ............................................................................. 184 4.3.2 Distant electric vision with no moving parts – the idea and its dissemination. .................................................................................................
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