The AM Forum

Today marks a special day in the broadcast industry, the 80th Anniversary of Philo T. Farnsworth's demonstration of television by transmitting a single line of video. 

On Sept. 7, 1927, Farnsworth painted a square of glass black and scratched a straight line on the center. In another room,  (his wife's) brother, Cliff Gardner, dropped the slide between the Image Dissector (the camera tube that Farnsworth had invented earlier that year) and a hot, bright, carbon arc lamp. Farnsworth, Pem and one of the investors, George Everson, watched the receiver. They saw the straight-line image and then, as Cliff turned the slide 90 degrees, they saw it move--which is to say they saw the first all-electronic television picture ever transmitted.

We learn in school that Samuel Morse's first telegraph message was "What hath God wrought?" Edison spoke into his phonograph, "Mary had a little lamb." And Don Ameche — I mean, Alexander Graham Bell — shouted for assistance: "Mr. Watson, come here, I need you!" What did Farnsworth exclaim? "There you are," said Phil, "electronic television." Later that evening, he wrote in his laboratory journal: "The received line picture was evident this time."

http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/farnsworth.html
For additional information on this fascinating individual and his "image dissector": http://farnovision.com/farno_videos.html

He's still alive !  aka: William Defoe !!!

Thank GOODNESS for the electronic version for TV. We'd still be looking at weird TV images. Goodbye NTSC. Hello 1080P and beyond.
Fred

It is really great to see Farnsworth get the credit he is due, at least posthumously.  He was a true genius and, perhaps, the last of the great inventors.  "Electronic Television" , as opposed to the mechanical variety that used a spinning disc, was really a fantastic development in the 1920's!!

73,  Jack, W9GT

Right on Fred.

But we also hafta remember Mr. Franklin and his experiments with electricity.
Without it we'd be watching TV by candlelight. :P

I have a televison book that describes the various systems being discussed when the standard was being sorted out around 1930. A 240 line system was fielded. Later on in the mid 30's, more resolution was proposed. Philco even proposed that up to 800 lines should be used which would be fairly high definition. Of course the relationship between bandwidth and lines of resolution was well understood and the NTSC standard of 525 lines interlaced 30 Frames was adopted before the war as a practical measure. Complete backward compatibility was insured when the color standard came out in 1950. Thus our blurry fate was sealed.

Mike WU2D

So then tomorrow is probably the 80th anniversary of the first TVI complaint!

There is a nice biography on Philo, by his wife Pem. She died on April 28, 2006, at 98! The book is called Distant Vision.

Yes, (see my earlier post in the Books section).  The book is Distant Vision : Romance and Discovery on The Invisible Frontier by Elma G. Farnsworth 1990.

This book written by Farnsworth's wife is a personal account of their lives and experiences during and after the time of the development of television.  It is a fantastic view of the trials and tribulations that they suffered and enjoyed.

73,  Jack, W9GT

Professor Farnsworth also invented the smell-o-scope, along with other greats such as:
Fing-longer – A glove with an extended index finger, allowing the wearer to operate machinery from "great" distances
Death Clock – A clock that tells the user how long they have to live when a finger is inserted.
Adolf Hitler Shark – "Oh sure. Everybody's in favor of saving Hitler's brain, but when you put it in the body of a Great White Shark, ooh, suddenly you've gone too far."

...oh wait, im thinking of Hubert J. Farnsworth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Hubert_Farnsworth)