subject: A Brief History Of The Development Of The Tv [print this page] This article will cover the most significant events leading up to the creation of the television.
-1862, the first still image is transmitted through wires by Abbe Giovanna Caselli using his Pantelegraph.
-1873, May and Smith discover that it is possible to convert images into electronic signals when experimenting with selenium and light. This has obvious implications for the development of the TV.
-1876, George Carey, a civil servant, presents drawings for a device that would allow people to see by electricity (selenium camera).
-1880, Inventor of the telephone Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison theorise about telephone devices that can transmit images as well as sound. Bells Photophone already used light to transmit sound.
-1884, Paul Nipkow successfully sends images through wires using a rotating metal disk.
-1900, The International Congress of Electricity is held at the worlds fair in Paris. Perskyi makes the first known use of the word television.
-1906, Lee de Forest invents the Audion vacuum tube, which allowed signals to be amplified. Boris Rosing combines Nipkows disk and a cathode ray tube and builds the first working mechanical TV.
-Campbell Swinton and Boris Rosing suggest using cathode ray tubes to transmit images. This is a specialised vacuum tube in which images are produced when an electron beam strikes a phosphorescent surface. They both develop separate methods of scanning and reproducing images.
-1923, Vladimir Zworkin patents his iconscope camera, a design based on Campbell Swintons ideas. This would become the cornerstone for further developments in TV.
-1924, John Baird becomes the first person to transmit moving silhouette images using a mechanical system based on Nipkow's disk.
-1926, John Baird operates a television system with 30 lines of resolution running at 5 frames per second.
-1927, The US Department of Commerce conduct the first long distance use of the television. This took place between Washington DC and New York City on April 9th. Herbert Hoover stated: Today we have, in a sense, the transmission of sight for the first time in the worlds history. Human genius has now destroyed the impediment of distance in a new respect, and in a manner hitherto unknown.
-Philo Farnsworth patents the first complete electronic television set.
-1930, The BBC begins regular transmissions, Charles Jenkins broadcasts the first TV commercial.
-1936, over two hundred television sets are in use worldwide.
