2008 Issue

www.utahengineerscouncil.org 36 Some detail is clear in that it was not a fully working system. His efforts received little encouragement. So, when the opportunity to work on TV for real came, Zworykin made sure he got the job. Sarnoff hired him in 1929 to set up TV re- search for RCA, and with money and men to perfect his ideas (and, it turns out, any other ideas which would make TV successful). His first assignment was to visit Farnsworth in San Francisco at the transition. The meeting occurred in April 1930 under misleading circumstances. It was assumed he was sent by Westinghouse looking to license. Farnsworth revealed much about his progress in- cluding instructions for mak- ing Image Dissectors. That gave Zworykin an invaluable lead-up as to what his labora- tory needed to do and the Dissector to do it with. He could now hire the talent to outstrip Farnsworth in the race to TV’s marketing. It took a decade to do so. But that marketing was deliberately held off until the war in order to defeat Farnsworth who, perhaps naively, believed that his patents provided protection. As has been said, patents are an invitation to a law suit, (which lone inventors can ill afford). But Philo was under constant pressure to find licensors and money. The effort to find the “holy grail” - the mosaic target – continued at RCA through many trials. Success came in 1931 by pure accident. The moment is crucial to our question because it completed Zworykin’s Iconoscope and RCA’s first TV system. The accident revealed there was no prior working TV before Farnsworth. It appears obvious that RCA had used the Image Dissector in order to make earlier progress. The scan- ning disk was what appeared in public. The Iconoscope never became very successful. It was replaced after WWII, when actual TV production began, by the Image Orthicon which became the workhorse of studio cam- eras designed byWebb. The Image Orthicon used generously from the features of the Dissector. As has been said, only slightly exaggerated, the Orthicon was 10%RCA and 90% Farnsworth. The combined advantages of both the Dissector and the Iconoscope was refused a patent because all the claims were to be found in Farnsworth patents. But, the fact is that it revealed new concepts not seen either by Zworykin or Philo. That credit belongs to Albert Rose and associates. Sarnoff is described as a mogul, an au- tocrat, an assumer of power and a genius at that calling. Actually, his beginnings were not that far from the Mongolians. He under- stood the powers of promotion, propaganda and persuasion. He used them so well that he could eventually credibly declare that he was the father and Zworykin was the inventor of TV. He recognized the sources of power and he knew how to take command. But primarily, he had great vision for the future so his actions had purpose far beyond self- promotion. Circumstances had put RCA in control of the nation’s radio patents. He gained control of RCA where he could lay a heavy hand on the rest of the radio industry. He foresaw the future of TV at its infancy. TELEVISION — continued He was determined to gain the same control of TV. In an earlier day he would be called a “robber baron.” Whereas earlier develop- ment, and its national benefits, would have run a slow and uncertain course without the Rockefellers and Carnegies, there was little need for them in the 1930’s. In fact, RCA’s monolithic control has inhibited TV’s diver- sity. The appearance of Philo upset plans and had to be dealt with. Perhaps the best insight into Sarnoff’s character is gained from his biography. He is said to have set up a secret division to counter Farnsworth, but that name never appears in that biography. He has been vanquished. An early example will show how events promoted in the world of industry are perceived as compared to those of the lone inventor. Achieving enough signal am- plification was a major prob- lem. A Farnsworth solution was the electron multiplier. In the modern Dissector it can stably and almost instan- taneously amplify the photo- cathode signal several million times. TV’s beginning would have almost been impossible without it or Rosing/Zworykin’s alternative - the storage target of which the successful Orthicon used both. The first electron multiplier, called a multipactor, was complicated. It required bouncing elec- trons back and forth between electrodes by changing polarities at high speed. The idea is basically the same as one contemplated by another now famous inventor, Ernest Lawrence, a nuclear physicist at Berkley who received the Nobel prize for his invention. Lawrence has been described as a reluctant inventor. He heard of Farnsworth (nearby) and paid him a visit. A demonstration of the idea actually working gave him the courage to go back to Berkley and set his people to work. There emerged a successive string of Cyclotrons (cycling and amplifying the energy of electrons, ions, protons, etc.) As they say - the rest is history. The effort to find the “holy grail” – the mosaic target – continued at RCA through many trials. Success came in 1931 by pure accident.