2008 Issue

www.utahengineerscouncil.org 34 By Clayton A. Washburn I N 1989 MRS. PHILO T. FARNSWORTH WROTE A BOOK, DISTANT VISION, TO CORRECT THE RECORD ON THE QUESTION OF “WHO IN- VENTED TELEVISION?” TO WHICH MANY THOUGHT THEY ALREADY KNEW THE ANSWER – AFTER ALL, THAT RCA INVENTED TV HAD BEEN mentioned many times in the newspapers. But the book provides the untold detailed account of early struggles and intrigues in the development of TV. There was no reaction for several years, then a TV documentary and the following six pertinent books appeared: Tube: The Invention of Television by David E. and Marshal Jon Fisher Philo T. Farnsworth, the Father of Television by Donald G. Godfrey The Boy Genius and the Mogul: The Untold Story of Television by Daniel Stashower The Last Lone Inventor: A Tale of Genius, Deceit, and the Birth of Television by Evan I. Schwartz The History of Television by Albert Abramson TELE-VISIONARIES – The People Behind the Invention of Television by Richard C. Webb History is only what has been written. The facts of TV invention are known. What has not been overcome is the misperceptions of a one-sided record. What was the most important invention of the twentieth century? The answers have included: DNA, automobile, radio, photography, movies, x-rays, CRT/TV, airplane, vacuum tube, gasoline tractor, radar, the “A” bomb, jet propulsion, computer, transistor, IC, and internet to name a few. The list could go on, but TV has directly affected many more lives than any other invention. That makes Farnsworth the most underrated inventor of the twentieth century. The question as to who invented TV is answered by simple facts and the inventive efforts of many individuals. To understand the facts requires some background. A patent must provide a new useful device which works and was not previously thought of. The first inventor to meet the patent requirements is by law and by custom “the father of the invention.” Patents are built step by step through a history of learning, discoveries, ideas and failed attempts. TV is too complex for one patent. There have been thousands of contributors to its present state. But they are all beholden to that number one which got the ball rolling: “the father of TV.” Philo Farnsworth’s history, at 14 years old (1921), had begun with the reading of Popular Science and Mechanics magazines. Philo’s inquisitive mind did not stop there, he searched out and evaluated pertinent literature and ideas. TV started with discovery of a light sensitive element which converts the illumination at any single point (spot or pixel) to an electrical signal. A converter must scan in a high speed sequential fashion the image to be televised, creating an electri- cal signal or video stream corresponding to the image and transmitted. The reverse process occurs in the receiver by modulating a source of light to the CRT recreating the image. TV did not start with Farn- sworth. TV stepping stone inventions had been in course for some 40 years. Early TV (1920s) was opto-mechanical primarily by John Logie Baird. It used versions of the Nipkow scanning disk both for dissecting the image and then reproducing it. Philo realized that to be useful TV had to be faster, electronic fast, which doomed the scanning disk. Av electron beam intensity modulation can reproduce a picture at high So – Who Did Invent Television?