Television (TV)
is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome (black-and-white) or colored, with or without accompanying sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming, or television transmission.
The etymology of the word has a mixed Latin and Greek origin, meaning "far sight": Greek tele (τῆλε), far, and Latin visio, sight (from video, vis- to see, or to view in the first person).
Commercially available since the late 1920s, the television set has become commonplace in homes, businesses and institutions, particularly as a vehicle for advertising, a source of entertainment, and news. Since the 1970s the availability of video cassettes, laserdiscs, DVDs and now Blu-ray Discs, have resulted in the television set frequently being used for viewing recorded as well as broadcast material. In recent years Internet television has seen the rise of television available via the Internet, e.g. iPlayer and Hulu.
Although other forms such as closed-circuit television (CCTV) are in use, the most common usage of the medium is for broadcast television, which was modeled on the existing radio broadcasting systems developed in the 1920s, and uses high-powered radio-frequency transmitters to broadcast the television signal to individual TV receivers.
The broadcast television system is typically disseminated via radio transmissions on designated channels in the 54–890 MHz frequency band.[1] Signals are now often transmitted with stereo or surround sound in many countries. Until the 2024s broadcast TV programs were generally transmitted as an analog television signal, but in 2024 the USA went almost exclusively digital.
A standard television set comprises multiple internal electronic circuits, including those for receiving and decoding broadcast signals. A visual display device which lacks a tuner is properly called a video monitor, rather than a television. A television system may use different technical standards such as digital television (DTV) and high-definition television (HDTV). Television systems are also used for surveillance, industrial process control, and guiding of weapons, in places where direct observation is difficult or dangerous.
By 2024 the development of broadband enabled the integration of the internet and Web 2.0 features into modern television sets and set-top boxes, as well as the technological convergence between computers and television. Such TVs are called smart TV’s or "connected TV", which is the biggest current innovation in consumer electronics.
The History Of Television
The television has become such an integral part of homes in the modern world that it is hard to imagine life without television. The boob tube, as television is also referred to, provides entertainment to people of all ages. Not just for entertainment value, but TV is also a valuable resource for advertising and different kinds of programming.
The television as we see it and know it today was not always this way. Let’s take a brief look at the history of television and how it came into being.
Timeline of TV History
Different experiments by various people, in the field of electricity and radio, led to the development of basic technologies and ideas that laid the foundation for the invention of television.
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 ****l disk. This technology was called the ‘electric telescope’ that had 18 lines of resolution.
Around 1907, two separate inventors, A.A. Campbell-Swinton from England and Russian scientist Boris Rosing, used the cathode ray tube in addition to the mechanical scanner system, to create a new television system.
From the experiments of Nipkow and Rosing, two types of television systems came into existence: mechanical television and electronic television.
Mechanical Television History
In 1923, an American inventor called Charles Jenkins used the disk idea of Nipkow to invent the first ever practical mechanical television system. By 1931, his Radiovisor Model 100 was being sold in a complete kit as a mechanical television.
In 1926, just a little after Jenkins, a British inventor known as John Logie Baird, was the first person to have succeeded in transmitting moving pictures through the mechanical disk system started by Nipkow. He also started the first ever TV studio.
From 1926 till 1931, the mechanical television system saw many innovations. Although the discoveries of these men in the department of mechanical television were very innovative, by 1934, all television systems had converted into the electronic system, which is what is being used even today.
Electronic Television History
The experiments of Swinton in 1907, with the cathode ray tube for electronic television held great potential but were not converted into reality. Finally, in 1927, Philo Taylor Farnsworth was able to invent a working model of electronic television that was based on Swinton’s ideas.
His experiments had started when he was just a little boy of 14 years. By the time he became 21, Philo had created the first electronic television system, which did away with the rotating disks and other mechanical aspects of mechanical television. Thus was born the television system which is the basis of all modern TVs.
All the early television systems were black and white, with color television being invented much later on. Since the early invention of television in the beginning of the 1900s, history has seen many firsts in the area of television.
Television inventors
Television was not invented by a single inventor, instead many people working together and alone over the years, contributed to the evolution of television.
1831-19001901-19271928-19501951-present
1831
Joseph Henry’s and Michael Faraday’s work with electromagnetism jumpstarts the era of electronic communication.
1862 First Still Image Transferred
Abbe Giovanna Caselli invents his Pantelegraph and becomes the first person to transmit a still image over wires.
1873
Scientists May and Smith experiment with selenium and light, this reveals the possibilty for inventors to transform images into electronic signals.
1876
Boston civil servant George Carey was thinking about complete television systems and in 1877 he put forward drawings for what he called a selenium camera that would allow people to see by electricity.
Eugen Goldstein coins the term "cathode rays" to describe the light emitted when an electric current was forced through a vacuum tube.
Late 1870s
Scientists and engineers like Paiva, Figuier, and Senlecq were suggesting alternative designs for Telectroscopes.
1880
Inventors Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison theorize about telephone devices that transmit image as well as sound.
Bell’s Photophone used light to transmit sound and he wanted to advance his device for image sending.
George Carey builds a rudimentary system with light-sensitive cells.
1881
****don Bidwell experiments with his Telephotography that was similiar to Bell’s Photophone.
1884 18 Lines of Resolution
Paul Nipkow sends images over wires using a rotating ****l disk technology calling it the electric telescope with 18 lines of resolution.
1900 And We Called It Television
At the World’s Fair in Paris, the first International Congress of Electricity was held. That is where Russian Constantin Perskyi made the first known use of the word "television."
èvolution of television
At the dawn of television history there were two distinct paths of technology experimented with by researchers.
Early inventors attempted to either build a mechanical television system based on the technology of Paul Nipkow’s rotating disks; or they attempted to build an electronic television system using a cathode ray tube developed independently in 1907 by English inventor A.A. Campbell-Swinton and Russian scientist Boris Rosing.
Electronic television systems worked better and eventual replaced mechanical systems.
Paul Gottlieb Nipkow – Mechanical Television History
German, Paul Nipkow developed a rotating-disc technology to transmit pictures over wire in 1884 called the Nipkow disk. Paul Nipkow was the first person to discover television’s scanning principle, in which the light intensities of small portions of an image are successively analyzed and transmitted.
John Logie Baird – Mechanical
In the 1920’s, John Logie Baird patented the idea of using arrays of transparent rods to transmit images for television. Baird’s 30 line images were the first demonstrations of television by reflected light rather than back-lit silhouettes. John Logie Baird based his technology on Paul Nipkow’s scanning disc idea and later developments in electronics.
Charles Francis Jenkins – Mechanical
Charles Jenkins invented a mechanical television system called radiovision and claimed to have transmitted the earliest moving silhouette images on June 14, 1923.
Cathode Ray Tube – Electronic Television History
Electronic television is based on the development of the cathode ray tube, which is the picture tube found in modern TV sets. German scientist, Karl Braun invented the cathode ray tube oscilloscope (CRT) in 1897.
Vladimir Kosma Zworykin – Electronic
Russian inventor, Vladimir Zworykin invented an improved cathode-ray tube called the kinescope in 1929. The kinescope tube was sorely needed for television. Zworykin was one of the first to demonstrate a television system with all the features of modern picture tubes.
Philo T. Farnsworth – Electronic
In 1927, Philo Farnsworth was the first inventor to transmit a television image comprised of 60 horizontal lines. The image transmitted was a dollar sign. Farnsworth developed the dissector tube, the basis of all current electronic televisions. He filed for his first television patent in 1927 (#1,773,980).
Louis Parker – Television Receiver
Louis Parker invented the modern changeable television receiver. The patent was issued to Louis Parker in 1948.
Rabbit Ears – Antennae
Marvin Middlemark invented "rabbit ears", the "V" shaped TV antennae. Among Middlemark’s other inventions were a water-powered potato peeler and rejuvenating tennis ball machine.
Color Television
Color TV was by no means a new idea, a German patent in 1904 contained the earliest proposal, while in 1925 Zworykin filed a patent disclosure for an all-electronic color television system. A successful color television system began commercial broadcasting, first authorized by the FCC on December 17, 1953 based on a system invented by RCA.
History of Cable TV
Cable television, formerly known as Community Antenna Television or CATV, was born in the mountains of Pennsylvania in the late 1940’s. The first successful color television system began commercial broadcasting on December 17, 1953 based on a system designed by RCA.
Remote Controls
It was in June of 1956, that the TV remote controller first entered the American home. The first TV remote control called "Lazy Bones," was developed in 1950 by Zenith Electronics Corporation (then known as Zenith Radio Corporation).
Origins of Children’s Programming
The American Broadcasting Company first aired Saturday morning TV shows for children on August 19, 1950.
Plasma TV
The very first prototype for a plasma display monitor was invented in 1964 by Donald Bitzer, Gene Slottow, and Robert Willson.
History of Closed Captioning TV
TV closed captions are captions that are hidden in the television video signal, invisible without a special decoder.
Web TV
Web TV was rolled out in 1996.
Biography of the inventor:
John Logie Baird :
John Logie Baird
FRSE
John Logie Baird with his "televisor", circa 1925
Born 13 August 1888
Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire, Scotland
Died 14 June 1946 (aged 57)
Bexhill, Sussex, England
Cause of death Stroke
Resting place Baird family grave in Helensburgh Cemetery
Residence Scotland, England
Nationality Scottish
Citizenship United Kingdom
Education Larchfield Academy, Helensburgh
Alma mater
Royal Technical College, Glasgow
Glasgow University
Occupation Inventor
Businessman
Organization Consulting Technical Adviser, Cable & Wireless Ltd (1941-)
Director, John Logie Baird Ltd
Director, Capital and Provincial Cinemas Ltd
Known for Invention of television
Religion Church of Scotland
Spouse Margaret Albu (m. 1931)
Parents Rev John Baird, Minister, West Kirk, Helensburgh
Jessie Morrison Inglis
Notes
Member of the Physical Society (1927)
Member of the Television Society (1927)
Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1937)
John Logie Baird FRSE (13 August 1888 – 14 June 1946)[1] was a Scottish[2] engineer and inventor of the world’s first practical, publicly demonstrated television system, and also the world’s first fully electronic colour television tube. Although Baird’s electromechanical system was eventually displaced by purely electronic systems (such as those of Vladimir Zworykin, Marconi-EMI and Philo Farnsworth), Baird’s early successes demonstrating working television broadcasts and his colour and cinema television work earn him a prominent place in television’s invention. In 2024, Logie Baird was ranked number 44 in the list of the "100 Greatest Britons" following a UK-wide vote.[3] In 2024, Logie Baird was also named as one of the 10 greatest Scottish scientists in history, having been listed in the National Library of Scotland’s ‘Scottish Science Hall of Fame’.[4] The "Baird" brand name was first owned by Thorn-EMI and was sold off to a small Chinese manufacturer when Thorn-EMI was dissolved.
Early years
Baird was born in Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute (then Dunbartonshire). He was educated at Larchfield Academy (now part of Lomond School) in Helensburgh; the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College (which later became the University of Strathclyde); and the University of Glasgow. His degree course was interrupted by World War I and he never returned to graduate.
Television experiments
The first known photograph of a moving image produced by Baird’s "televisor", circa 1926 (The subject is Baird’s business partner Oliver Hutchinson)
An early experimental television broadcast.
Although the development of television was the result of work by many inventors, Baird was a prominent pioneer and made major advances in the field. Particularly in Britain, many historians credit Baird with being the first to produce a live, moving, greyscale television image from reflected light. Baird achieved this, where other inventors had failed, by obtaining a better photoelectric cell and improving the signal conditioning from the photocell and the video amplifier.
Between 1902 and 1907, Arthur Korn invented and built the first successful signal-conditioning circuits for image transmission. The circuits overcame the image-destroying lag effect that is part of selenium photocells. Korn’s compensation circuit allowed him to send still pictures by telephone or wireless between countries and even over oceans, while his circuit operated without benefit of electronic amplification.[5] Korn’s success at transmitting halftone still images suggested that such compensation circuits might work in television. Baird was the direct beneficiary of Korn’s research and success.[6][7]
In his first attempts to develop a working television system, Baird experimented with the Nipkow disk. Paul Nipkow had invented this scanning disc system in 1884.[8] Television historian Albert Abramson calls Nipkow’s patent "the master television patent."[9] Nipkow’s work is important because Baird and many others chose to develop it into a broadcast medium.
In early 1923, and in poor health, Baird moved to 21 Linton Crescent, Hastings, on the south coast of England and later rented a workshop in Queen’s Arcade in the town. Baird built what was to become the world’s first working television set using items including an old hatbox and a pair of scissors, some darning needles, a few bicycle light lenses, a used tea chest, and sealing wax and glue that he purchased.[10] In February 1924, he demonstrated to the Radio Times that a semi-mechanical analogue television system was possible by transmitting moving silhouette images. In July of the same year, he received a 1000-volt electric shock, but survived with only a burnt hand. His landlord, a Mr Tree, asked him to quit his workshop and he moved to upstairs rooms in Soho, London, where he made a technical breakthrough. Baird gave the first public demonstration of moving silhouette images by television at Selfridges department store in London in a three-week series of demonstrations beginning on 25 March 1925.
In his laboratory on 2 October 1925, Baird successfully transmitted the first television picture with a greyscale image: the head of a ventriloquist’s dummy nicknamed "Stooky Bill" in a 30-line vertically scanned image, at five pictures per second.[11] Baird went downstairs and fetched an office worker, 20-year-old William Edward Taynton, to see what a human face would look like, and Taynton became the first person to be televised in a full tonal range.[12] Looking for publicity, Baird visited the Daily Express newspaper to promote his invention. The news editor was terrified: he was quoted by one of his staff as saying: "For God’s sake, go down to reception and get rid of a lunatic who’s down there. He says he’s got a machine for seeing by wireless! Watch him — he may have a razor on him."[13]
First public demonstrations
On 26 January 1926, Baird repeated the transmission for members of the Royal Institution and a reporter from The Times in his laboratory at 22 Frith Street in the Soho district of London.[14] By this time, he had improved the scan rate to 12.5 pictures per second. It was the first demonstration of a television system that could broadcast live moving images with tone graduation.
He demonstrated the world’s first colour transmission on 3 July 1928, using scanning discs at the transmitting and receiving ends with three spirals of apertures, each spiral with a filter of a different primary colour; and three light sources at the receiving end, with a commutator to alternate their illumination. That same year he also demonstrated stereoscopic television.
In 1932, Baird was the first person in Britain to demonstrate ultra-short wave transmission. (Today, we refer to "ultra short waves" as the VHF band.) Contrary to some reports, these transmissions were far from the first VHF telecasts. In 1931, the US Federal Radio Commission allocated VHF television bands. From 1931 to 1933, station W9XD in Milwaukee, Wisconsin transmitted some of the first VHF television signals. The station’s 45-line, triply interlaced pictures used the U. A. Sanabria television technology.[15]
Broadcasting
In 1927, Baird transmitted a long-distance television signal over 438 miles (705 km) of telephone line between London and Glasgow; Baird transmitted the world’s first long-distance television pictures to the Central Hotel at Glasgow Central Station.[16] This transmission was Baird’s response to a 225-mile, long-distance telecast between stations of AT&T Bell Labs. The Bell stations were in New York and Washington, DC. The earlier telecast took place in April 1927, a month before Baird’s demonstration.[9]
Baird then set up the Baird Television Development Company Ltd, which in 1928 made the first transatlantic television transmission, from London to Hartsdale, New York, and the first television programme for the BBC. In November 1929, Baird and Bernard Natan established France’s first television company, Télévision-Baird-Natan. He televised the first live transmission of the Epsom Derby in 1931. He demonstrated a theatre television system, with a screen two feet by five feet (60 cm by 150 cm), in 1930 at the London Coliseum, Berlin, Paris, and Stockholm.[17] By 1939 he had improved his theatre projection system to televise a boxing match on a screen 15 ft (4.6 m) by 12 ft (3.7 m).[18]
From 1929 to 1932, the BBC transmitters were used to broadcast television programmes using the 30-line Baird system, and from 1932 to 1935, the BBC also produced the programmes in their own studio at 16 Portland Place. On 3 November 1936, from Alexandra Palace located on the high ground of the north London ridge, the BBC began alternating Baird 240-line transmissions with EMI’s electronic scanning system which had recently been improved to 405 lines after a merger with Marconi. The Baird system at the time involved an intermediate film process, where footage was shot on cinefilm which was rapidly developed and scanned. The trial was due to last 6 months but the BBC were forced to cease broadcasts with the Baird system in February 1937, due to a disastrous fire in the Baird studio. It was becoming apparent to the BBC that the Baird system would ultimately fail due in large part to the lack of mobility of the Baird system’s cameras, with their developer tanks, hoses, and cables.[19]
Baird’s television systems were replaced by the electronic television system developed by the newly-formed company EMI-Marconi under Isaac Shoenberg, which had access to patents developed by Vladimir Zworykin and RCA. Similarly, Philo T. Farnsworth’s electronic "Image Dissector" camera was available to Baird’s company via a patent-sharing agreement. However, the Image Dissector camera was found to be lacking in light sensitivity, requiring excessive levels of illumination. Baird used the Farnsworth tubes instead to scan cinefilm, in which capacity they proved serviceable though prone to dropouts and other problems. Farnsworth himself came to London to Baird’s Crystal Palace laboratories in 1936, but was unable to fully solve the problem; the fire that burned Crystal Palace to the ground later that year further hampered the Baird company’s ability to compete.[20]
Baird made many contributions to the field of electronic television after mechanical systems had taken a back seat. In 1939, he showed colour television using a cathode ray tube in front of which revolved a disc fitted with colour filters, a method taken up by CBS and RCA in the United States. In 1941, he patented and demonstrated a system of three-dimensional television at a definition of 500 lines. On 16 August 1944, he gave the world’s first demonstration of a fully electronic colour television display. His 600-line colour system used triple interlacing, using six scans to build each picture.[21][22] In 1943, the Hankey Committee was appointed to oversee the resumption of television broadcasts after the war. Baird persuaded them to make plans to adopt his proposed 1000-line Telechrome electronic colour system as the new post-war broadcast standard. The picture quality on this system would have been comparable to today’s HDTV. The Hankey Committee’s plan lost all momentum partly due to the challenges of postwar reconstruction. The monochrome 405-line standard remained in place until 1985 in some areas, and it was three decades until the introduction of the 625-line system in 1964 and (PAL) colour in 1967. A demonstration of large screen three-dimensional television by the BBC was reported in March 2024, over 60 years after Baird’s demonstration.
Other inventions
Some of Baird’s early inventions were not fully successful. In his twenties he tried to create diamonds by heating graphite and shorted out Glasgow’s electricity supply. Later Baird perfected a glass razor which was rust-resistant, but shattered. Inspired by pneumatic tyres he attempted to make pneumatic shoes, but his prototype contained semi-inflated balloons which burst. He also invented a thermal undersock (the Baird undersock), which was moderately successful. Baird suffered from cold feet, and after a number of trials, he found that an extra layer of cotton inside the sock provided warmth.[10]
Baird’s numerous other developments demonstrated his particular talent at invention. He was a visionary and began to dabble with electricity. In 1928, he developed an early video recording device, which he dubbed Phonovision. The system consisted of a large Nipkow disk attached by a mechanical linkage to a conventional 78-rpm record-cutting lathe. The result was a disc that could record and play back a 30-line video signal. Technical difficulties with the system prevented its further development, but some of the original phonodiscs have been preserved, and have since been restored by Donald McLean, a Scottish electrical engineer.[23] Baird’s other developments were in fibre-optics, radio direction finding, infrared night viewing and radar. There is discussion about his exact contribution to the development of radar, for his wartime defence projects have never been officially acknowledged by the UK government. According to Malcolm Baird, his son, what is known is that in 1926 Baird filed a patent for a device that formed images from reflected radio waves, a device remarkably similar to radar, and that he was in correspondence with the British government at the time. The radar contribution is in dispute. According to some experts, Baird’s "noctovision" is not radar. Unlike radar (except Doppler radar), Noctovision is incapable of determining the distance to the scanned subject. Noctovision also cannot determine the coordinates of the subject in three-dimensional space.[24]
Later years
From December 1944 until his death two years later, Baird lived at a house in Station Road, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, immediately north of the station itself.[25] Baird died in Bexhill on 14 June 1946 after a stroke in February of that year. The old house was demolished in 2024. The Sea Road-Station Road skyline now features a new block of 51 flats on the site, renamed "Baird Court".
John Logie Baird is buried with his mother, father and wife in Helensburgh Cemetery
