The History of TV Technology: Pioneers
John Logie Baird -- 1888-1946
A Scottish inventor, almost always in frail health and short of money,
Baird was amazingly successful in building a working mechanical
television system in late 1920s England. He had a vision which propelled
him where more learned men would not go, and he held onto mechanical television
longer than most. During WWII he developed a color picture tube and is rumored to
have done secret radar work.
- 127 House Long text on Baird and mechanical TV in general
- Encyclopedia Long article on Baird's life and accomplishments, with references
- KINEMA - Part 1 Scholarly article on Baird's life, with references
- KINEMA - Part 2 Scholarly article on Baird's life, with references
- Quantel Excerpts from "Seeing by Wireless," a book about Baird
- Media History Project
Article (with links) about Baird videodisks
- Don Mclean
The restoration of original 1930s Baird videodisks (includes a Quicktime clip)!
Philo Taylor Farnsworth -- 1906-1971
A mostly self-educated inventor (like Baird), the Utah-born Farnsworth also had
a vision he would not abandon -- of all-electronic television. His Image Dissector
was the first workable electronic camera tube (1927). His struggles,
first against the proponents of mechanical TV and then RCA's electronic behemoth,
are inspiring and fascinating.
Vladymir Kosma Zworykin -- 1889-1982
A well-born Russian student of physicist Boris Rosing, Dr. Zworykin spent the most
productive years of his life working in the US for Westinghouse and then RCA. His
development of the Kinescope (picture tube) and invention of the Iconoscope
and other TV camera pickup tubes made electronic television practical.
Allen Balcom Du Mont -- 1901-1965
American engineer who developed practical cathode-ray tubes (CRTs), the foundation
of electronic television. He was particularly interested in large-screen picture
tubes, and was the first to market an electronic television receiver in the US, in 1939.
He founded his own TV network in the 1940s.
Looking for more info!
- NY Times Transcript of his obituary
-
IEEE A rather rambling 1973 recollection by a colleague
Paul Nipkow -- 1860-1940
The man who arguably started it all. In 1884 this German scientist invented
the scanning disk which was the basis for almost all (mechanical) television systems for the
next 50 years. Looking for more info!
Charles Francis Jenkins -- 1867-1934
A wealthy and prolific inventor, this American scientist invented the motion
picture projector, and founded the SMPTE. His mechanical television system
was simple, cheap to produce, and the most popular in the US well into the 1930s.
Looking for more info!
Ulises Sanabria -- 1907-?
A Chicagoan whose company, Western Television, produced mechanical TV
equipment in the 1930s. Looking for more info!
- MZTV A Western "Visionette" receiver
Kenjiro Takayanagi
This Japanese engineer, a contemporary of Zworykin & Farnsworth, demonstrated
an electronic television system at the Hamamatsu Technical College in
May 1928. Looking for more info!
- Japan
A page on early Japanese television history including Takayanagi
Manfred Von Ardenne -- 1907-?
German television scientist and inventor of the electronic flying-spot
scanning technique (1930), using a CRT as the source.
Looking for more info!
Dénes von Mihály
Hungarian who published the first book exclusively about television,
in Germany in 1923, and developed his own mechanical receiver design,
the "Telehor." Looking for more info!
Earl "Madman" Muntz
A flamboyant California entrepreneur and inventor (the 8-track tape player),
Muntz produced very inexpensive television sets in the early 1950s, by the
simple expedient of removing all parts that weren't absolutely necessary.
- Muntz A short but amusing biography
TV History Main Page
Updated May 3, 1997