The television picture invention

A 14-year-old farm boy named Philo Farnsworth looked out over freshly plowed potato fields and saw something no one else had: a blueprint for the future of television. In 1922, he sketched a system where images could be broken down into lines of light and transmitted electronically—an idea that mirrors exactly how TVs operate today.

By 21, Farnsworth built the first fully functional electronic television. When RCA, the biggest name in radio and technology, tried to steal credit for his invention, Farnsworth’s high school teacher brought out his original sketch as proof. In 1935, the young inventor defeated the corporate giant, securing his place as the true father of television. 📺🚜

Sources: Philo Farnsworth, Television’s Birth: My Story; RCA patent trial records; Smithsonian National Museum of American History
#PhiloFarnsworth #InventionOfTelevision #TechHistory

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ElwoodBlues · M

Not to take away from Farnsworth's 1922 conceptualization, there's also John Logie Baird's 1926 first demonstration of working TV system, based on mechanical rotating disks. Farnsworth's "raster scan" system was superior. Raster scan displays predate Farnsworth; however Farnsworth gets credit for inventing a fully electronic raster scan system from camera to broadcast to display.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/january-26/baird-demonstrates-tv#:~:text=On%20January%2026%2C%201926%2C%20John,demonstrated%20the%20first%20color%20television.

P.S. Farnsworth invented a kind of electronic TV camera known as an "Image dissector." It was soon replaced by a better kind of camera known as an "iconoscope" which was then replaced by the "orthicon" which was replaced by the "vidicon tube." Each revision was simpler and/or more efficient/sensitive. These were eventually replaced by solid state TV cameras, beginning with the CCD camera.