The origins of Television

Paul Gottlieb Nipkow

In the late 1800s, Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, a student in Germany, developed the first ever mechanical module of television. He succeeded in sending images through wires with the help of a rotating metal disk. This technology was called the ‘electric telescope’ that had 18 lines of resolution. http://www.thehistoryoftelevision.com

John Logie Baird

In January, 1926 an English man made the first RCA victor television receiver, basically an image receiver, known as "the televisor". The man was called, John Logie Baird. Who's invent didn't really catch on at first, well due to the war in the 30's but then came back bigger than ever after the war.



"They were shown a transmitting machine, consisting of a large wooden revolving disc containing lenses, behind which was a revolving shutter and a light sensitive cell. It was explained that by means of the shutter and lens disc an image of articles or persons standing in front of the machine could be made to pass over the light sensitive cell at high speed. The current in the cell varies in proportion to the light falling on it, and this varying current is transmitted to a receiver where it controls a light behind an optical arrangement similar to that at the sending end. By this means a point of light is caused to traverse a ground glass screen. The light is dim at the shadows and bright at the high lights, and crosses the screen so rapidly that the whole image appears simultaneously to the eye." http://www.bairdtelevision.com/firstdemo.html

"John Logie Baird of Scotland was the first to come up with the idea of a "television transmitter" and created the first television using the inventions of others. Baird began to show off his invention, in 1923 and after some perfecting the television began to be commercialized. By 1936, the BBC began television broadcasting using the Baird television. In 1939, there were a reported 20,000 television sets in London alone. While the invention was genius, it was also unreliable.

Philo Farnsworth

In 1928, the young American Philo Farnsworth made the first (reliable and working) television system. Though others had a hand in it and many attempted to produce their own versions of the television, Farnsworth is credited with inventing the modern day television off of which the first wide spread commercial production was made. By the 1940's televisions began to be mass produced and pretty soon nearly everyone had one." http://www.firsttelevisioninvented.com