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Home , Charles Francis Jenkins, Charles Ginsburg, Fax, Fernand Holweck, Geissler tube, Giovanni Caselli

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The Invention of

Albert Abramson

elevision is the electrical transmission and came in 1843 when Samuel F. B. Morse developed reception of transient visual images, and is his telegraph (distant-record) machine. This was probably the first invention by committee, in a means of communication by which the letters the sense of resulting from the effort of hundreds of of the alphabet were converted into electrical equi- individuals widely separated in time and space, all valents (the ) that could be either re- prompted by the urge to produce a system of seeing corded on paper tape or transcribed by trained over the horizon. operators. Since the code was transmitted over wires Whether with tom-toms. smoke signals, or sema- at almost the speed of , it soon became the phore. human beings have always tried to com- quickest means of point-to-point communication. municate with neighbours beyond the horizon. The Before long, electric wires were strung on poles con- desire has been a matter of commerce, curiosity, or necting most of the major cities. These same wires most importantly, warfare. Written messages were were also run under the lakes and oceans of the sent by ships, horses, birds, and shanks mare. But world. these were slow, cumbersome, and subject to the About the same time, other inventors were seek- whims of weather, terrain, or the endurance of ing means to transmit more than dots and dashes animals. The first steps towards instant commun- over these same wires. One of the earliest was ications were really taken by seventeenth- and Alexander Bath in 1843. In Bains device, alphabetical eighteenth-century scientists such as Luigi Galvani, letters were formed by a number of lines, each being Allesandro Volta, Hans C. Oersted, Andre Ampere, connected by a separate wire. A comb like probe George S. Ohm, Michael Faraday, and James Clerk containing insulated metal points scanned the type Maxwell, who found that electrical currents could to he transmitted. At the receiver, a similar metallic flow through certain materials as well as interact comb reproduced the letters on chemically treated with magnetic forces. The first practical solution paper. Albert Abramson TIIE INVENTION OF TELEVISION

the first mention in the literature of an all-electric The Transmission of Symbols By the end of t878, the combination of Bells tele- Experiments with electrical discharges inside phone and Edisons invention of the phonograph evacuated glass tubes started with the work of television system. Unknown to Campbell Swinton, both Professor A more advanced device was that of Frederick C. ( 1877) combined with progress being made in photo- Heinrich Geissler and Julius Plucker in 1858. Placket- Boris Rozing in Russia and Or Max Dieckmann in Bakewell in 1847 for transmitting handwriting, graphy led the magazine Punch to print a cartoon designed a sealed glass tube filled with gas, with an were also experimenting with cathode which used a metal foil inscribed with insulating of a new Edison invention the . electrode inserted at each end. When a certain volt- ink wrapped around a cylinder. As the cylinder was Here was depicted a two-way visual system on a age was applied to the electrodes, the gas in the tube ray tubes as receivers. 1-lowever, no one before had suggested the use of a tube as an image rotated by clockwork, a metal stylus was used to wide screen depicting parents in speaking ionized (incandesced), current flowed, and the tube glide over the foil. A similar device at the receiver with their daughter in Ceylon by means of an elec- glowed with a characteristic colour. This became . Just one year later, in 1909, three different televi- provided means to shift the pens and to keep the tric camera obscure and . Edison did not known as a Geissler tube. sion systems were actually built and operated. The devices in synchronism. apply for a patent on a motion picture system until Other scientists soon started to experiment with first (in order of publication) was that of Dr Max Another interesting device by in 1889. It is ironic that Punch should have Edison invent these tubes. Wilhelm Hittorf discovered in 1869 that 1855 used the actions of pendulums. At the trans- an electric camera before he invented the motion a solid body would cast a shadow on the walls ofthe Dieckmann. His equipment consisted of a unique device at the transmitter with a Braun mitter a stylus connected by a lever to a pendulum picture camera. But there were many schemes for tube. In 1876 Eugen Goldstein concluded that the tube for a receiver. The transmitter consisted of a would physically trace the object to be transmit- visual communication gadgets at the time. radiation came from the cathode and called them rotating wheel that was fitted with twenty wire ted and would be electrically turned on or off as In 188o Maurice LeBlanc detailed an ingenious cathode rays. William Crooks showed that the rays brushes. (It had no photo-cells or other light-trans- it scanned parts of the message. At the receiver, method of transmitting moving images over an elec- were projected at high velocities by electric forces ducing means.) The brushes actually touched the another stylus moved by a pendulum would be trical wire. He described a scanning device (at both near the surface of the cathode. Jean Perrin showed image to be transmitted, very much like the early turned on or off in sequence and would create a and receiver) consisting of two vibrating mir- that the charge was negative in 1895. In 1897, J. J. devices of Bain and Caselli. At the receiver, the Braun replica (on some form of recording medium) of the rors working together at two different rates of speed. Thompson proved that they could be deflected by an tube with four deflecting magnets scanned a pic- image being transmitted. The light from the image would be sent to a trans- electrostatic field, and finally in 1897 Karl Ferdinand ture approximately 1.25 inches square. The The scanning of simple figures was quite im- ducer (such as a or Becquerel thermo- Braun developed the cold cathode ray tube that bears off as the rotating brushes portant as it involved two of the foundations of electric cell) to be converted into electricity. At the his name. beans was turned on or touched the object, thus creating a picture on the the later system of instant visual transmission. The receiver, he proposed that two pieces of mica (as a screen. This was not a true television system as the first was sequential scanning (dissecting) of the shutter) would be moved according to the signal to transmitter was actually a form of telegraph sender picture. The second was a means to synchronize control the light from a lamp. He suggested that The Cathode Ray Tube rattler than a transducer alight to electricity. (keep in step) the transmitter with the receiver. because of persistence of vision, it would be possible The second system was that of Ernst Ruhmer. It These primitive machines, while quite cumbersome, to build up a likeness of the transmitted image. An International Electricity Congress was held in consisted of a mosaic of twenty-live selenium cells in did work, and though of limited value at the time LeBlancs n88o fundamental paper contained in fact conjunction with the ono Exhibition. On 25 rows of live each. Each cell when exposed to light led to more important devices in the future. These all the elements for a practical visual transmission August moo a paper was read by one Constantin sent an alternating systems were then called copy-telegraphs. Today system. Perskyi entitled "Television, in which he described was connected to a relay, which current over a line to a receiver. I fere, there was a they are known as photo- or facsimile It was not long before the first practical solution an apparatus based on the magnetic properties of similar mosaic consisting of twenty-live incandes- (). appeared. In 1884, Paul Nipkow applied for a Ger- selenium. This new term slowly supplanted the .. • . cent lamps. At the receiver, there was one relay for The next step was the transmissioh of audio over man patent for an Elektrisches "feleskop. The heart of older names suds as the telephot or these same wires. In 1876 the telephone pioneer Nipkows patent was a revolving apertured disc. The to describe the newly born art and science of seeing each cell that would operate its own incandescent could be shown. transmitted the sound of a disc had twenty-four holes in a spiral near the outer at a distance. lamp. Only simple geometric figures voice by means of an electric wire and thus three rim. Nipkow proposed that light from the subject The various theories of transmitting pictures by As it was a multi-wire (simultaneous) device, it was means of instant communications came into exis- would pass through the perforated disc on to a sele- wire had created much controversy in the scientific not a true television system. tence, the telegraph, the copy-telegraph, and the nium cell. At the receiver, a similar perforated disc community. A to by The third was a quite different television device telephone, and the time was ripe for the introduction would be illuminated by a polarized light source. in June 1908, reviewing the various methods being built and demonstrated by Georges Rignoux and of a visual transmission system. With both discs rotating at a constant speed, it was proposed, concluded that, It was improbable for Professor A. Fournier in 1909. The transmitting In MTh Willoughby Smith with Joseph May, an intended that an image would be built up and viewed any system of television to view images hundreds screen consisted of a bank of selenium cells, each electrician working on the Atlantic Telegraph cable, through an eyepiece. This patent had all the ele- of miles apart. connected to a separate relay. The relays were con• reported that selenium rods used for continuity ments (synchronization was presumed by a constant This letter was answered by Alan Archibald nected in sequence by a rotating commutator. As checks changed their resistance (conductivity) when rotating speed) for a successful visual transmission Campbell Swinton who wrote that distant electric each relay was connected in turn to the commutator, exposed to varying light. This ability of certain system, and was soon followed by other ideas based vision was possible with tubes using cathode rays it sent its signal through a single wire to a receiver. metals to react to changes of light intensity was on a rotating disc, including revolving mirror drums (at both the transmitter and receiver) properly syn- Here the signals were sent to a light yak e (modula- widely reported and manifested itself in plans for (Lazare Weiller), lensed discs (Louis Brillouits), and chronized and with the necessary means for con- tor( based on the Faraday effect of polarized light. devices that would transmit pictures. perforated bands and strips (Paul Ribbe). verting light us electricity and back to This was (The light beam was aligned by a Nicol prism and

1 0 11 Albert Abramson TIIE INVENTION OF rELEVIS/ON then sent through a tube filled with bisulphate of from a scientific laboratoi y in ), including his the Theplione Group. this alliance did trot last: two transmitter across the laboratory. As lar as can he carbon around which was wrapped a coil of wire.) own photoelectric cells. For this he had the assistance years later ATT sold its RCA stock but remained in determined, these were the first witnessed demon• As the current varied in the coil (due to scanning) of a young engineering student by mince of Vladimir the patent pool. mations of -television ever reported. the polarized light was rotated in such a manner Kosma Zworykin. Zworykin had been chosen by Commercial radio began in the as to vary the amount of light passing through the Riming in out to help him with his laboratory experi- in 1920 whets Westinghouse Electric tube. This modulated light was then sent through a ments as a result of his great interest in . started operating radio station KDKA. This was The Struggles of set of rotating mirrors where the image was recon- Rozing introduced him to the new art of electrical so successful that on ao June 1921, Westinghouse stituted on a screen. There were means provided to telescopy, something Zworykin had never heard Electric was allowed to join the GE /RCA /ATT About this time in 1 92 1 , a young experimenter, John synchronize the receiver with the transmitter. This of before. Zworykin worked part time in Itozings consortium. KDKA was soon joined by hundreds of Logic Baird, star ted what was to be his lifes work on was a real television system, the first on record as laboratory until his graduation in 1912. This was the radio stations all over the United States. television in London. With the financial assistance having been built and operated. beginning of young Zworykins interest in cathode Interest in television was also revived after the of Wilfred E. L. Day he was set up in a laboratory at ray television. war. In August of t921, the first patent for an electric 22 Frith Street, Soho. I le filed for his first television patent in July 1922 It included a Nipkow disc at the Rozing, Zworykin, and Swinton In November 1 9 11. A. A. Campbell Swinton canters tube was applied for by one Edvard Gustav- became president of the Röntgen Society of Lon- Schoultz of Paris. There is 110 record Of this tube transmitter with a hank of arranged to form an Important work on a cathode ray system was also don. He gave an inaugural speech entitled Distant being built and no more was heard of the inventor. image cm a screen at the receiver. This was the first of being conducted by Professor Boris Rozing of the Electric Vision. He elaborated on his article of NOB In the United States, had a multitude of patents taken out by Band in his quest Technological Institute of St Petersburg. In 1907, in Nature magazine and described a complete elec- turned his attention from the motion picture (he for a practical television system. Rozing applied for a Russian patent proposing a tele- tric television system using cathode ray tubes for had invented the first motion picture projector with Another application for a camera tube was made vision system using a cathode ray tube as a receiver. both transmitter and receiver. He admitted that his in 1895) to that of telephotography on 29 December 1923, by Vladimir K. Zworykin of The transmitter used two mirror drums for scanning plan was an idea only, had never been constructed, and television. In Jenkins applied for his first the Westinghouse Electric Company. It was part of a and dissecting the image. Ilse mirror drums moved and that it would take a great deal of experiments- . patent for transmitting pictures by . It used patent fin- an all electric television system. The cam- magnetic coils as they rotated, thus creating scan- Lion and modification to be practical. However, the a unique scanning device. prismatic rings. These era tube had an foil plate covered with a ning currents for deflecting the electron beam at the Röntgen Society was quite small and its journals were glass prisms with varying surfaces that would thin layer of potassium hydride. At the receiver, a receiving tube. circulation quite limited, so his ideas were not wide- bend the light from an object as they rotated. At Braun tube would reconstruct the image on a fluor- At the receiver, the currents were sent to a cold spread at the time. the transmitter, the two prisms operating together escent screen. While this patent had many similar- cathode ray (Braun) tube which had its beam de- With the start of the World War in in 1914 would scan the scene (at two rates of speed) to ana- ities to the original Campbell Swinton plan 011 911, it flected by either moving coils or plates. The beam interest in the new art of television diminished. But lyse it and send the light to a photoelectric cell. At differed in one major aspect. Campbell Swintons itself was modulated (varied) in brightness by phys- the war brought great advances in communications the receiver, two similar prisms reconstructed the camera tube disclosed a mosaic of rubidium cubes, ically moving up or down between two small metal both by wire and radio. The end of the war found image using a light valve of the Faraday type pro- Zworykins showed a plate covered with a layer of plates in the neck of the tube in accordance with the the (British) Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company posed by Rignoux. This light was projected on a photoelectric material. This was to cause Zworykin incoming signal. (At the time, there was no known in virtual control of long-distance communications type of fluorescent or phosphorescent screen. much grief during the patent process and it took method for modulating an electron beam, so this between the United States and Europe. The Marconi Jenkins was assisted by both the fifteen years before it was granted by the US Patent was quite ingenious.) The electron beam itself was Wireless Telegraph Company then tried to buy from Company and Westinghouse. He was the first experi- Office. deflected by coils using currents generated at the the General Electric Company the Alexanderson menter to use the special light valve developed In April 1924, Campbell Swinton again described transmitter. This patent was second only in import- radio alternator, which made these long-distance by D. McFarlan Moore of the General Electric Com- his all-electric television scheme in Wireless World ance to that of Nipkows of 1884. communications possible. This was brought to pany in his receiver. and Radio Review. Ile had updated his ideas with It is claimed that Razing had started working the attention of the US Navy Department, which In December r923. Jenkins demonstrated his the use of a to create an electron beam on such a device as early as 1904, and was actually objected strenuously. General Electric was told in television apparatus separately to lino Gernsback, resulting in better focus at the viewing screen. building working apparatus. In 1908, he had carried reject the order. It was decided to buy out the editor of Radio News, and Watson Davis, editor of I-le lamented the hopelessness of his task unless out experiments with actual models and attempted American Marconi Company and replace it with a Popular Radio. They claimed that the apparatus was one of the big electric companies with money and to transmit simple images (slides, drawings. hands. new American company to be formed by General crude and cumbersome. Gone were the prismatic resources decided to get involved. This paper stimu- etc.). In May 1911, he successfully demonstrated a Electric. This new company was to be called the rings, prismed, mirrored discs being substituted. lated many researchers to start work on television distinct image consisting of four luminous bands to Radio Corporation of America (RCA). A patent Jenkins was using the sensitive Theodore Case projects. including the General Electric Company in his colleagues at the Technological Institute of St pool was formed and on 17 October 5919, RCA was Thalofide photoelectric cell at the transmitter and Schenectady, the American Telephone Telegraphs Petersburg. For this he received a gold medal from incorporated. On r July 1920, an agreement was the General Electric Moore glow-lamp at the re- Company, as well as many independent researchers, the Russian Technological Society. also reached with the American Telephone and ceiver. Both editors claimed that they could put small among them Dr August Karolus and Manfred von Professor Rozing built all of his apparatus (except Telegraph Company and its subsidiary the Western objects in the path of the transmitter and see them at Ardenne in Germany and in for the cold cathode Braun tube that he purchased Electric Company, which were together known as the receiver. The signals were sent by a small radio Japan.

12 13 Albert Abramson THE INVENTION OP TELEVISIC of various widths in one direction, on a cathode r; In January 1 925 the Bell Telephone Laboratories Meanwhile in the autumn of 1925 (the exact date television. He claimed that he was able to transmit tube, so that any movement at right angles was easi (the arm of the American Telephone is unknown) Vladimir K. Zworykin assembled a the Japanese character katakana (i) inscribed on a Telegraph Co.) started a research programme deal- complete, working electric television system for a mica plate on 25 December 192.6. recognizable. ing with the problem of television, under the guid- demonstration to management at the Westinghouse On 7 , the American Telephone Farnsworth continued to improve his system. ance of Dr Herbert E. Ives. He had been working on Electric Company. With the help of his tube blower Telegraph Company gave their first public demon- January 1929, he hired a young engineer, Han photoelectric cells for photcutelegraphy and invited he built the first electric camera tube in the world stration of television. This was a joint effort of the Lubcke, to work in his laboratory and by July 192 Dr Frank Gray and John Hoick to head the pro- and used a converted oscilloscope Bell Telephone Laboratories and Western Electric Lubcke and Farnsworth had devised and built an a gramme. With the enormous technical resources of tube for a receiver. He also constructed the rest of the that was part of the Telephone Group. It consisted electric scanning and synchronizing pulse general the new Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York system, which operated quite erratically. of a television programme transmitted by land-line With it installed, Farnsworth was now open City, the group made excellent progress and by July Unfortunately the demonstration, which con- (wire) from Washington, DC, to . ing the first all-electric television system in the worl 1925 were sending half-tone pictures from slides sisted only of an X painted on the face of the camera There was also a wireless (radio) transmission from It consisted of his camera tube (the across the laboratory. tube, was not considered a success by management. Whippany, New Jersey, to New York City. It was and his magnetically focused picture tube (the osc Their mechanical system was based on the They recommended that he be put to work on some- claimed that there was no difference in the quality lite). There were absolutely no mechanical parts Nipkow disc for both transmission and reception. thing more useful. Zworykin was then forbidden of the images transmitted. the entire system. 28, General Electric gave a telel Their success came from the invention by Dr Frank by Westinghouse to do any more actual work on tele- Using a 50-hole Nipkow disc running at 18 frames On it January 1 9 Gray of the flying spot scanner, developed around vision (filing patents was permitted) and he con- per second, the pictures were of excellent quality. sion demonstration from its labs in Schenectac MayJune 1925. In this device, the subject was bathed centrated on photoelectric cells and other devices It was in fact the finest demonstration of television New York. This was under the direction of Dr Ent of a 4 in a flying spot of light from an behind the that had immediate commercial value. However, this ever made up to that time. The Bell Laboratories F. W. Alexanderson. It was a demonstration live magi Nipkow disc. The reflected light went to four huge demonstration was the first of an electric camera admitted that they had been working on the pro- line picture at 16 frames per second of photo-cells that picked up the picture signal. This tube to be displayed on a cathode ray tube. ject since 1925 and the demonstration required the using the flying spot system of Dr Frank Gray. Tt Images were received on three receivers located i made half-tone television possible. On 26 July 1926 Edouard Belin gave a demonstra- services of almost L000 men. In April 1925, John L. Baird set up his apparatus tion in Paris of his new cathode ray television system This successful demonstration by the Telephone the Schenectady area. in Selfridges Department Store in London for three to three important French officials. He revealed that Group dismayed , now Vice-President In April 1928, RCA applied for a permit for a telev weeks and gave the English public their first crude he had been joined by Dr Fernand Holweck, Chief of of RCA. Relations between the two giants of com• Sion station to be constructed in New York City. demonstration of . Then on Staff of the Madame Curie Radium Institute. The munications, the Radio Group (GE/Westinghouse was to be operated by the Research and Test Del of RCA at Van Cortlandt Park under the direction 2 October 1925 Baird also independently discovered system was now called the Belin and Holweck sys- /RCA) and the Telephone Group, were strained. wi the principle of the flying spot scanner. He applied tem after its inventors. It had been built and operated Earlier ( July 1926) Sarnoff had successfully removed Dr Alfred N. Goldsmith. This station W2X13S for a patent on this idea on zo January 1926, and gave by Belins chief engineer Gregory N. Oglobliosky. the American Telephone Telegraph Company part of a plan by David Sarno!) to have a televisio a demonstration of his new system to some forty The images were picked up by two small vibrat- from radio broadcasting and he certainly did not station operating by the end of the year. members of the Royal Institution at his laboratory ing mirrors that were synchronized together. The want them to have the lead in television research. On 8 August 1928, Westinghouse Electric gay in Frith Street on 26 January 1926. This was the first receiver featured a metal cathode ray tube that had Sarnoff immediately ordered both General Electric a television demonstration of radio-movies friar public demonstration of television with half-tones been designed by Holweck. The lace of the tube and Westinghouse Electric to double their research their radio station KDKA in East . It was ever given. could only show outlines of faces or figures. These efforts to match those of the Telephone Group. transmission of 35 mm motion picture film of 6o-lin While it was reported that the pictures were faint. pictures were 33 lines at about to frames per second. In , , a newcomer to the pictures at t6 frames per second. The pictures wen and often blurred, the demonstration was consid- They gave the first demonstration of moving images field of television, Philo T. Farnsworth, applied for transmitted by land-line (wire) to the transmitte ered a success. Baird and his associates were careful on a cathode ray tube. a patent (7 January t927) on a completely different and back by radio (wireless) to special receivers at ch. not to reveal how it had been done at the time. About two weeks later (z August 1926) the cathode electric television system. His camera tube was an laboratory. Westinghouse gave radio engineer Frani (The flying spot principle had been patented by G. ray television system of Dr Alexandre Dauvillier image dissector that had a photoelectric plate upon Conrad credit for this demonstration. Rignoux in in 1908. by A. Ekstrom in Sweden of the Physical Research Laboratory of the Louis which the light front the scene was converted into Conspicuously missing from this demonstratio: in 1911, and filed for in August 1923 by John H. de Broglie Laboratories in Paris was revealed. fie electricity. This created an electron image that was was Dr V. K. Zworykin. True to its word, Westing Hammond Jr. in the USA; issued in 1929.) also used two small vibrating mirrors to dissect his passed en masse by scanning coils sequentially to an house had not allowed him to participate in it In June t925, Charles P. Jenkins made headlines in image. However, his cathode ray receiving tube electrode where it became the television signal. Sometime late in November 1928, on David Sarnoff newspapers all across the United States. He again was quite modern. It was made of Pyrex glass, had a Farnsworth had started work on his system in May orders, he was sent to Europe to inspect the variou demonstrated his television system by transmitting high , and used magnetic focus. His screen 1926. Ire had obtained financing and was construct- laboratories that had commercial agreements wit! the image of a revolving windmill five miles by radio was made of willemite. lie claimed to be producing ing all of his equipment in a small laboratory in Los the Radio Group (GE Westinghouse/ RCA), takini from the US Navy radio station NOF in Anacostia, 4o-line pictures at to frames per second. Angeles. He soon moved to San Francisco, where in Germany, , and France. In Paris he visirec , to his laboratories in Washington, DC, In October 1926, Kenjiro Takayanagi in Japan he continued his experiments. It was claimed that time laboratories of Etablissements Belin and wa: an event witnessed by many United States officials. started his first actual experiments with cathode ray by 7 , he was able to transmit lines shown all of their work in progress. Here he mei

14 .4 ..,...... 1.1110,:411414146611.11641..., . o . /. , (DO it41 3 p k 1/4.1. Albert Abramson la u 1 LA TOE INVENTION OF TELEVISION Edouard Belin, founder; Fernand Holweck. chief gave his consent and Zworykin was set up in his own the tube would have more sensitivity than a tube Graphaphone Company Ltd. As the business depres- scientist; Gregory N. Ogloblinsky. chief engineer; laboratory at East Pittsburgh and provided financing without it, such as Farnsworths image dissector. sion was now world-wide, it was decided that by and one Pierre E. L. Chevallier, consulting engineer. and manpower to build a practical television system In January 2930 all RCA television research was combining facilities, they could bring shout certain He was shown an advanced version of the Befits based on his revolutionary picture tube. taken over by Zworykin, who moved his laboratory economies of operations. A silent partner was RCA, and Holweck television system. It had a new pic- In February 1929, Zworykin ordered thirteen glass to the huge Victor Plant in Camden, New Jersey. which owned 27 per cent of the new company. David ture tube that featured electrostatic focus. This was bulbs front the Corning Glass Company and began Here he and Ogloblinsky produced many two-sided Sarnoff sat on the EMI Board of Directors. accomplished by carefully controlling the voltages work on his new system. The first usable tube was camera tubes. But they were hard to build (they were EMIs first television project was to perfect a tele- in two diaphragms that were in the path of the assembled in April. A modified 35 mm film projector full of electrical and mechanical defects) and the vision system for the transmission of film based beam. The two-piece tube was metallic, continu- (Zworykin had no camera tube at the time) was to resulting pictures left much to be desired. on the RCA/Zworykin kinescope. EMIs engineers ously pumped (a Holweck speciality) with a glowing be used as a source of picture signals. Several top Finally by July 1931, Zworykin and Ogloblinsky, from HMV included William F. Tedham (who was in cathode that displayed 33-line pictures at to frames engineers from Westinghouse were assigned to the who had been joined by Harley lams, Arthur Vance. charge of the project)• C. 0. Browne. R. B. Morgan. per second. It was rather crude, and, while quite project. They included Harley tams, John Batchelor, Sanford Essig, and Les Flory, had decided to take a J. Hardwick. and W. D. Wright. formerly of West - sharp. could not display pictures with any more Arthur Vance, Randall Ballard, and W. D. Wright, an new approach. They proposed to build a camera inghouse. From Columbia Graphaphone came Isaac brightness than the usual Braun tubes using either optical engineer. tube with a single-sided target • that is, one in which Shoenberg, Allan Blurnlein, P W. Winans, and magnetic or gas focus. The project went very well. On u May 1929, a the electron beans and the light from the subject others. Sarnoff sent the EMI laboratories at Hayes. demonstration was given of motion picture film impinged on the same surface. Many variations of Middlesex, several kinescopes for experimental pur- using three sets of electrical circuits. Finally, on t7 the single-sided design were built and tested. On 9 poses. RCA now had a powerful ally in its race for A Practical Television System August 1929, a demonstration was given by radio to November 1931, the first tube displaying good pie- domination of the new television industry a group of RCA and General Electric engineers. tures was tested. Zworykin now named this tube The EMI laboratories were also privy to the Dr Zworykin was elated by this disclosure. He knew The receivers were all-electric, with no moving the (icon for image and scope to see). Zworykin experiments with an electric camera that by making several important changes to this parts. The seven-inch picture tubes, now called A patent covering this new design was filed on I.) tube at Camden. Sometime in the summer of 1932. tube he had the answer to the problem of a pract- kinescopes (kineo to move, scope to see) could , November 1931. At last Zworykin and David Sarnoff William Tedham and Dr Joseph D. McGee (who ical television system. He made arrangements with easily be viewed in a dimly lit room. Seven receivers I had a camera tube that had the same potential as the had come to work for EMI in January 19321 took it Belin to purchase a Holweck cathode ray tube and a were installed at various locations in East Pittsburgh kinescope. But the iconoscope was not revealed for upon themselves to build an electric camera tube. Holweck vacuum pump and bring them back with (including one in Zworykins home). Zworykin was k two more years to the public. According to McGee. it worked quite well for a short him. He also made plans to hire Ogloblinsky at an allowed to use the KDKA Conrad short-wave radio, In fact, the kinescope was now so bright that it was period of time. Dr McGee claimed that as it was not early date. transmitter late at night for his experiments. causing considerable flicker at the 24 frames per sec- an official (sanctioned) project it was not reported Zworykin arrived back in Westinghouse late in Zworykin filed for a patent on the kinescope on ond rate in use. This was based on 35 mm sound film to the Director of Research, who was now Isaac December 1928 and related his finding to Samuel t6 November 1929, and revealed it in a speech before speed. On t9 July t932, Randall C. Ballard of the RCA Shoenberg. At any rate. it was the first working Kintner, his superior at Westinghouse. Kintner the Institute of Radio Engineers on 1 9 November Zworykin laboratories applied for a patent for inter- camera tube built in . A patent for it was showed very little interest in it and suggested that t929. His paper was an oral presentation only, no laced scanning. This solved the problems of both filed on 25 August 1932. Zworykin go to New York and see David Sarnoff demonstration was given. The speech was featured flicker and limited . While not a new idea Early in 1933, EMI proposed to the General Post personally as he had gone to Europe on RCAs (not in papers, magazines, and journals all over the world. (it had been done with Nipkow discs) this was the Office that it he allowed to go ahead with a televi- Westinghouses) behalf. His development of the kinescope was the single first time it had been applied to a cathode ray tube. sion service. They suggested that with a few minor This resulted in the famotts meeting between Dr most important event in the . Each frame was divided into two fields (4$ fields changes in the BBCs ultra-short-wave radio trans- Zworkyin and David Sarnoff and their oft-quoted It made television as we know it today possible. per second) and then intermeshed so that it provided mitter in London it could go ahead and produce conversation. Zworykin convinced Sarnoff that he At Westinghouse, Zworykin was not content to a continuous 24 frames per second picture. An odd receiving sets by the autumn 41933. had the solution to a practical television receiver— ; rest on his laurels with the kinescope. With the number of lines (81 at the time) was necessary to Baird Television Ltd.. which had been running an to wit, one that needed no maintenance, had no cic; arrival of Ogloblinsky from Paris in July 1929, he make this system work. This important patent was experimental low-definition (30 lines at 12.5 frames moving parts. could be viewed in a semi-dark room, went to work to perfect a television camera tube. soots incorporated into the RCA (and later the EMI) per second) television service for the BBC in London and operated by the average man in his home. j They used the same demountable Holweck cathode patent structure. At first it was done with a mech- since September 1929, was quite upset by this and He told him that he had the basic device working ray tube as the basis of their experiments. While only anical scanning disc, but by 1935 an all-electric inter- demanded that there be a competition for such a ser- in his laboratory. This was true: he had converted producing tx-line pictures, it proved that a camera laced scanning generator was finally designed and vice. A demonstration to the General Post Office in the Holweck cathode ray tube to conform to his tube with charge storage was possible. operated. April 1933 proved that EMIs system was far superior new ideas. When asked how much it would cost, Charge storage was a long-sought-after goal. It In April 1931, it was announced in England that a to that of Bairds. In May 1933, Capt. A. G D. West Zworykin stated. some Stoo,000, a considerable meant that a camera tube would accumulate an elec- new holding company, Electric and Musk-al Indus- became of Baird Television I rd. understatement. But Sarnoff, who was quite eager trical charge on each element that would continue to tries Ltd. (EMI)• had been formed by merging the and immediately started a crash programme into to give RCA the lead in television research, gladly build up until scanned by the electron beam. As such I IlvIV Gramophone Company with the Columbia cathode ray tube reception.

16 17 Albert Abramson THE INVENTION OF TELEVISION

On Monday, z6 June tan, at the Eighth Annual The First Television Services ous success. Both the Baird and Marconi-EMI sys- to the American public. The National Broadcasting Convention of the Institute of Radio Engineers in tems were demonstrated and it was obvious from the Company/ RCA system was not able to provide a Chicago, Illinois, Dr V. K. Zworykin presented a On 54 January 1935, the Selsdon Committee made its start that the Marconi-EMI high-definition 405-line high-quality service similar to that of the London ,. paper, The Iconoscope: A New Version of the recommendations to Sir Kingsley Wood. It stated interlaced picture was far superior to that of Bairds Television Service. I Electric Eye. In this paper he revealed the existence that a high-definition television service should be 240 lines, a tribute to Isaac Shoenberg and his staff. On 7 Juste 1939, Harley lams and Dr Albert Rose of of the new RCA camera tube, the iconoscope. He started in London with two companies, Baird Tele- (-^ The programming, under Cecil Madden, included the RCA Laboratories announced details of a new made much of the fact that it used charge storage, vision Ltd. and Marconi-EMI Ltd. furnishing the 1 game shows, musical numbers, drama, and a variety camera tube called the orthicon (orth for linear which made it quite sensitive. However, just as with technical apparatus. The transmission standard was of outside broadcasts that covered everything from and icon from iconoscope) which used a low. the kinescope in 5929, it was neither publicly exhib- to be at least 240 lines at 25 frames per second. the Coronation to cricket matches, boxing, and exhi- velocity electron scanning beam. It was considered a ited nor demonstrated. Zworykin then went to On 2.2 March 1935, the German Post Office bitions. A steady stream of visitors from the United great improvement over the Zworykin iconoscope, which used a high-velocity scanning beam. Picture __ Europe in the summer of 1933 and revealed the (DRP) opened what was called a regular medium. States (and elsewhere) were amazed at the uniformly plans for the iconoscope to Isaac Shoenberg of definition (180 lines at 25 frames per second) service high quality of the pictures, the regularly scheduled resolution was between aoo and loo lines and it .---. EMI in England and Fritz Shrtiter of in from Berlin. It consisted primarily of the projection programmes, and the coverage of t-emotes (outside was supposed to be to-so times more sensitive than Germany. A camera tube laboratory was set up at of motion picture film; no live coverage. It was not broadcasts). the iconoscope. Work on this new tube had begun EMI at Hayes with Dr J. D. McGee in charge. By i a success. The picture quality was quite poor. No The Marconi-EMI 405-line interlaced 25-frame in 5937, when Dr Albert Rose had joined Harley lams 24 January 1934, the first EMI camera tubes were-17 television receivers were ever sold, programming standard was chosen in February 5937. This marked at RCA. producing fair pictures. EMI raised its television was sporadic, and as a result of a disastrous fire it the beginning of modern as The London Television Service was now a great 00 sets a week were being sold. By standard to 240 lines at 25 frames. On 12 May 1934, went off the air on 10 August 5935. we know it today. The only problem was the high success. Over 5 Hans G. Lubszynski and Sydney Rodda of EMI The competition between Baird Television Ltd. cost of the receivers. These were manufactured by September 5939 over 10,000 sets were in use in the applied for the first patent on a new, improved and Marconi-EMI was fraught with difficulties. The Baird, Cosset-, Ferranti, GEC, HMV, Marconi, Ecko, London area. However, with the invasion of Poland iconoscope camera tube. This new tube was called two companies would not exchange any informa- and several others. Costing front 37 to 570 guineas, by Nazi Germany and the start of World War II, the the Super-Emitron. tion and would not cooperate in any way. At the less than 3,000 sets found their way into homes in station was shut down with no advance notice on The rivalry between Baird Television Ltd. and , EMI planned to use a live studio London. Baird Television turned to large-screen cin- September 1939. This was as if actual war conditions EMI led the BBC and General Post Office to set up a equipped with four Emitron cameras along with a ema television. were being observed. The transmitter was turned off committee to settle their differences. This was under 35 mm film projection unit. Baird Television Ltd. On 30 September 1 938, the London Television and all of the cameras and other equipment were — the chairmanship of Lord Selsdon. It sent delegations relied on a studio equipped with a flying spot Service telecast the arrival of British Prime Minister carefully packed and stored away for the duration. abroad to study the state of the art in the United scanner, an intermediate film (a high-speed film Neville Chamberlain from Munich (Peace in our Television progress was lagging in the United States and Germany. developing process) system, a zoo-line Nip- Time) at Heston Aerodrome by means of its out- States. NBCs experimental programming was spo- On 24 May 1934, the Marconi Wireless Telegraph kow disc film transmitter, and the Farnsworth elec- side broadcast unit. This was covered by three radic and of very poor quality. Very few sets were Company and EMI Ltd. merged to form Marconi- tron camera. While Baird Television relied on the Emitron cameras and relayed live to the Alexandra being sold due to their high prices and there was , EMI Ltd. This powerful cartel left the Baird Televi- 240-line sequential scanning standard, Marconi-EMI Palace were it was rebroadcast while actually hap- very little public interest. In order to overcome this lion Company with AG and the (English) proposed to use a new high-definition 405 lines at pening. This was the first actual broadcast by tele- apathy, the Federal Communications Commission i General Electric Company as its only allies. GE was 25 frames per second interlaced (the Ballard method) vision of a major news event as it occurred. (FCC) stated that a commercial service could begin \ developing picture tubes. Fernseh was developing television system. With the success of the London Television on or after t September 1940. RCA immediately both an intermediate film system (using film that The Eleventh Olympic Games were held in July- Service, David Sarnoff decided, in October 1938, to announced a great sale of receivers at reduced prices. was speedily developed and projected) and the Farn- August 5936, in Berlin, Germany and were shown by start a television service in the United States. This This upset the rest of the radio industry , sworth electron camera. television. The coverage was by the German Post was to begin with the opening of the New York Zenith, and the Du Mont Laboratories). They feared, In the summer of 1934. gave the Office (DRP), which was using iconoscope cameras Worlds Fair in April 1939. Six American set manu- as in radio, that the NBC/ RCA television trans- first public demonstration of all-electric television furnished by Telefunken, intermediate film vans facturers promised to have receivers ready for sale. r mission standards would become the official USA by a demonstration unit at the for outdoor events, and the Fernseh (Farnsworth) Television made its semi-formal debut in the standard giving RCA another monopoly. in . His system consisted of his image electron camera. Most viewing was done in the Untied States on 30 April 5939. There was a speech by . As a result, a National Television Systems Com- dissector tube, an all-electronic scanning and sync Olympic Village and in selected theatres through- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and shots of the , mittee (NTSC) was formed in July 1540, to produce generator, and his magnetically focused picture tube. II, out the city. Sadly, the transmitted pictures were Fairs activities. However, David Sarnolf had jumped i one set of universal standards agreeable to the entire The entertainment consisted of vaudeville talent, quite unsatisfactory. They were unstable, having low the gun and a week earlier (2o April 5939) had made i industry. It would not do fur the United States to have athletic events, and appearances of various politi- I image detail, and suffered from severe flicker. a telecast dedicating the RCA Exhibit Building 1 more than one set of transmission standards. A single clans. Each programme was of fifteen minutes I By contrast, the opening of the London Television While there was much enthusiasm for the new lock and key situation was needed in under that all duration. I Service in London in November 19:551 was a tremend- American system, few television ieceivers were stilt! `. receivers could receive the same pictures. 18 19 Albert Abramson 1.1111 INVUNTION OF Tel. FV1510N

The NTSC submitted a report to the FCC ill old iconoscope and orthicon cameras, which were past stationary heads. Ile later used a multitrack machines.) This new helical format (but with two _January rear. It proposed a new set of technical stand- slowly replaced with the new RCA image orthicon. high-speed approach that consumed an enormous heads) slowly superseded the original mach- ards for American television. Among them was a new With the rapid growth of television in the USA in amount of tape. Similar high-speed projects were ines and later became the industry standard. 525-line standard and the use of FM for the audio por- the early 195os, the need for programme material being undertaken by RCA, the BBC Research Labor- By 1961. Ampex added a host of features to the tion. In May 1941. the FCC agreed to these standards to fill expanding schedules was tremendous. As in atories, and others. basic machine. This included Intersync . , Armee, and announced that commercial (sale of programmes) radio, the big production centres were in New York, The Ampex Corporation, now in Redwood City, Color-Tec, and a rudimentary Electronic Editor. television could start in the USA on or after t July Chicago. and . Since the United States decided to solve the recording problem using a Finally, in April 1 963. Ampex introduced FDITEC. 1941. The issue of colour was to be taken up later. was divided 11110 three different time zones, a major rotating head approach. This would allow them to the first electronic videotape assembly device. Not On t July 1941. commercial television program. problem was broadcasting the same programme at run the magnetic tape at a normal speed of 15 inches only did the videotape recorder enable time shift- ming began In the USA. However, it was a lukewarm the same hour across the country. In radio, this was per second. In December 1 95 1, Charles Ginsburg was ing, it made editing of programme material as easy affair. Only NBC/ RCA had paid, sponsored pro- done by means of magnetic recording of the audio hired to build such a device. l le was joined by a stu- as pushing a button. gramming. CBS and DuMont, beset by technical programmes. dent engineer. . and by June t955 they were In the USA, the battle for a compatible colour sys- problems, offered only limited fare. For the rest of able to demonstrate very crude pictures. The project tem continued. CBS had perfected its mechanical continued in September 1954, with the addition of colour system and it was adopted by the FCC in the year, there was only minor television program- Recorders and Cameras ming. Out of twenty-two licensees, only seven were Charles P Anderson, Alex Maxey, Fred Prost, and September 1950. However, this required a different actually broadcasting. In television, this problem was temporarily solved by Shelby Henderson. set of transmission standards. But David Sarnoii and The bombing of Pearl I- larhor by the Japanese on ABC. NBC, and DuMont with the co-operation of This ingenious team produced a revolutionary RCA were determined that only a colour system that could he fitted (electrically compatible) into the reg- 7 December 190 quickly put a halt to most program. Eastman Kodak by the introduction of a system of transverse recorder that vas demonstrated at the ming in the United States for the rest of the war. television film recording called kinescope record- National Association of Radio and Television Broad ular 6 MI lz monochrome FCC USA channel should Television returned to the laboratory, where it was to ing. This was accomplished with a special motion casters Convention in Chicago its April 1 956. It was a be adopted. As a result a second National Television become a tool for guided missiles and long-range picture film camera that photographed the television machine with a rotating four-head drum that used Systems C010111111Ce was formed in 1950. Through reconnaissance. image on the face of a special picture tube. This film two-inch magnetic tape running at 15 inches per the efforts or the major radio manufacturers, includ- and Philco. At first this war work depended on the newly record could either be quickly processed and shown second. in addition to the picture. it included both a ing I lazeltine. General Electric. Zenith. developed RCA orthicon camera. But it had many within a few hours, or more likely was processed cue and audio track. The picture quality was quite new set of transmission standards was agreed upon defects and was not as successful as promised. Its war and shown at a later, more convenient time. This good abetter than any kinescope recording) and and was adopted on t7 December to53. This meshed use in guided missiles and for reconnaissance was was mainly done on 16 mm film. The accompanying the resolution was over 320 lines. Playback of pic- a colour system into the existing standards and was limited. The RCA Laboratories decided to improve sound was either recorded directly on the film or for ture and audio was instantaneous, no processing die basis for every new colour system later adopted its performance. The result was the development better quality in some instances was recorded separ- was necessary. throughout the world of the new highly sensitive tube called the image ately on a magnetic track. (Similar recording tech- This new recorder completely changed all televi- There was much effort made to improve the sion programming. No longer was a local station performance of and reduce the size and weight of orthicon in 1944. niques were also started in Great Britain for basically This tube was developed by Dr Albert Rose, the same reasons.) By 5953, it was reported that too forced to show a programme as it came off the net- new video recorders and cameras. Mimic in61, Kurt Machcin of Mach-Ironies Inc. of Mountain View. i; Paul K. Weimer, and Harold B. Law of the RCA million feet of film would be required each year for work feed. It could be played at any convenient time. Laboratories. As a result, RCA came out of the war, television recording in the USA. The first videotaped network broadcast was made California, introduced the KIVR• to, the first one-inch with a tube so sensitive that it could be used in However, this was an expensive, wasteful method. by CBS TV with Doug Edwards and the News from helical recorder. In 1964 , for the BBC, the Ampex normal room light. It was first demonstrated on It was evident that a more efficient, less costly system Television City in I Iollywood on 312 November (956. Corporation introduced the VRa000. the first high• band higher recording standard) video recorder 25 October 1945, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The of television recording was needed. The obvious Time shifting of television material had begun. The original image orthicon camera was equipped with alternative was to record the picture on magnetic Ampex revolution was underway. with excellent colour quality. In July (965, the MVR a single lens, but soon it was furnished with a four 1 tape, as was done with audio. But because of the In September 1959, a different kind of video Corporation of Palo Alto. California. demonstrated lens turret and an electronic viewfinder. This tube wider bandwidth used by a television picture this recorder was introduced by Norikazu Sawasaki of the first single-frame video disc recorder. It could assured RCA supremacy in the development of post-...," presented some formidable problems. The first the Toshiba Corporation of Japan. It also used a be used for instant playback, including still frames. war television all over the world. effort to solve this problem was by John T. Mullin, rotating head system. However, the magnetic tape In April t 966, the Westel Company of San Mateo, With the war over, the BBC readied the Alexandra who was associated with Bing Crosby Enterprises in was scanned by a single head in a helical-scan California introduced the Westel WRC•t 5o. die first Palace for the resumption of telecasting. On 7 June Los Angeles. He altered a standard audio recorder (slant-track) machine. This had many advantages self-contained one-inch portable television camera 1946 it returned so the air. Although they had a from the Ampex Electric Corporation of San Carlos, as it could be run forward or backward, at various with a video recorder. In April 1967 the Ampex chance to change their standards they decided to go California, and gave the first demonstration of video speeds and be stilt framed for stop motion. (The Corporation introduced the first batter y•operated along with the original 405-line standard. signals recorded on magnetic tape on it November Ampex Corporation also had a helical machine in portable colour video recorder, the V Itioon. In the United States some fifteen television sta- 195t. In order to get this wide band signal on to their laboratories in 1959. but had decided not to In 1964 the N. V. Company of the Nether- tions went back on the air. They were still using their magnetic tape, he ran the recorder at high velocity reveal it in order to protect its original transverse lands introduced the plumbiron . ( lead oxide-) camera

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