Today our life is integrated with such great achievements of science and high technology as plasma TVs, DVDs, internet, radio etc. But almost nobody ask himself about how the humanity had achieved such high results! We got accustomed to use TV as it is imprescriptible part of our life. However sometimes we need to know something more about TVs than just the date of its invention. Television is a part of our everyday life, but when was the first television made? And by whom it was made? Sometimes we all wonder what life would be like without the technological devices and services to which we have grown accustomed. Television is like that. Before the invention of television and the widespread availability of it, news and entertainment was only available by listening to the radio or going to the movies or reading a book. That was a wonderful life, is not it? People had chances to read books and know authentic stories not that cinematized today with great changes. But anyway we are glad to have TVs. So, let’s find out when was the first television made?
Development of the Television
What had given the push to the appearance of the first TV? Of course the development of the cathode ray tube (CRT) which was the main and central part of the first TVs. But how it had been working? The process seemed to be very simple. The image on the screen is the product of an electron beam that flows over the surface of the tube. The electrons strike the surface of the tube and as a result a bright pulse of light is emitted on the screen. The signal fed to the input of the electron beam determines what is seen on the CRT. Who had given the birth of a television device? It was a very clever young high school student who had envisioned a television. His name was Philo Farnsworth. At the age of fifteen he was admitted to Brigham Young University but with no long stay there because of some family troubles. At the age of 21 Philo began to file patents on various spheres of his invention (he was fond of studying physics and mathematics during school years). That time he and his wife were living in California. At the same time another outstanding scientist from Russia (he was an immigrant) – Vladimir Zworykin had been trying to develop the ideas of how to make a television system. He designed the system in drawings. They were so-called competitors. But Philo had one significant advantage. He had built and demonstrated his invention to the press in 1928 while Vladimir Zworykin had his ideas in theory only. It appears that Philo had passed ahead of the Russian. When the Second World War came the progress was halted. After the war, the time limit on the patents had almost expired. As soon as their time limit had expired, RCA quickly bought them and proceeded with their development for the open market. They had cheated Philo out of his share of the royalties.
The First Television Network
The first television network was established in 1928 in Germany. By 1936, the Olympic Games were broadcasted in Leipzig and Berlin and citizens could view the games in their hometowns. Since that time the television has been influencing on society. Around the world people began to get information about the latest news and to entertain staying home by using television. Exactly since that time the first ideas about TV stands and other entertainment furniture like wall units and theatre sitting has been appearing. There is one interesting fact – according to official statistics of Japan Japanese watches a TV 9 hours per day in average. After we have discovered the information about the time the first prototype of contemporary television was made we are to know who had invented it?
Who Invented the TV?
This is the big question! May be it could be a big big question for majority of us if there were not an internet in almost every home today! Thanks to all-powerful and omniscient world wide web which enriches our wit every time we are in internet! But this was little lyrical digression from the main and very important question to be more precisely – who invented the TV! Ok, I know that you can find all information in internet! But, listen, why to waste time on things which are spread all over the global web through sites if you can just find everything concerning the TV invention in one document!? And again it was little lyrical digression from the theme! I promise it never repeat again during this article!
In the late 1800s, images were able to be electronically transmitted using early fax machines. For example, images were able to be transmitted across the pantelegraph. In 1878, the earliest concept of the television was suggested – the idea of electronically transmitted images that were in motion. This idea was sketched under the title “telephonoscope.”
And now the very moment you have been waiting for since the beginning of this article! It was Paul Gottlieb Nipkow who in 1884 patented the first electromechanical television system with a scanning disk. This scanning disk was a spinning disk that had a number of holes that allowed rasterization. At this moment you are probably asking yourself what is rasterization? Rasterization was the process by which a visual image was converted into electrical pulses. When an image was captured by this rotating disk, each hole captured a portion of the whole image. This design became important to the development of the television. When Nipkow first patented the invention, it was manly used to transmit halftone images.
How the process of advancements in technology has been taking its pace through the 20-th century?
The development of the television truly began to take shape in the twenties. John Logie Baird was the person who demonstrated his abilities in transmitting the image of a silhouette, the images of moving, monochromatic pictures in 1925. Now I’ll try to explain in simple words why he could do it! The scanning disk of John was able to show an image of thirty lines resolution which was a great technological breakthrough that times because this resolution was just clear enough to discern certain details of the image. But the image could only be transmitted due to “high” resolution of the scanning disk but also due to usage of a double spiral lenses. Once a very talented engineer had appeared in 1926 – it was Kalman Tihanyi. I know that the names of many people who had deposited their skills and intelligence in the development of high technology may be unknown for you! But it is time to know the “science hero” by sight in the end! That very talented engineer whose name was Kalman created the design for a television system that used electronic scanning and display elements. Actually, he could use the idea of charge storage in his design. This idea was realized by him within the scanning tube. The 1927 became a threshold between the pro-television era and the of age “TV rule”. In 1927, Leon Theremin invented a mirror-drum television system. This system used the concept of interlacing and was able to display an image resolution of one hundred lines. Imagine, just two years before that a thirty line resolution system was invented! Do you feel how the humanity develops fast? This tendency can be observed through the whole history. And the more we were brought closer to the present times the faster the mankind has been growing!
The same year of 1927 had shown us another outstanding person – Herbert E. Ives. He is known for its achievement in transmission a moving image across a cable between Washington D.C. and New York City. That was the great day! The one out of many when the cable system showed its great capabilities! Herbert used a fifty-aperture disc for the transmission, and the transmission operated at the speed of sixteen frames for every sixty seconds. It is worth to point out that the sizes of the screens that he transmitted to were about twenty-four by thirty inches – very small! He was then able to transmit a moving image using the radio from New Jersey. Many genius people had invested their skills to the TV system development, but as a rule there is one person who is granted for the merits! In 1927, Philo Farnsworth created the first working television system that was able to electronically scan images into it and then display the images. Farnsworth success was demonstrated to the press in 1928.
What Were the Names Given to the First Televisions?
When TVs were first displayed to the public they were called “Image Dissectors”. There was another name for TVs not less funny – “Radio with Pictures”! Exactly such simple and primitive forms got the names of first televisions. Today we can only wonder why people of the first half of the 20 century had been thinking in such primitive way! Though it is apparent! That time the humanity was at the 3-rd stage of the technological setup! Thus grandparents of our parents or even grandparents could not imagine that the humankind can develop in such fast speed! However It took a long time for early televisions to become mainstream and it was decades from the time of their invention until they became a regular in most homes.