TV is 100 Years Old Today!

[TLS Guy]

100 years ago today John Logie Baird demonstrated a transmitted picture with sound at his workshop at 22 5th street in London's Soho district.

John Logie Baird was from Scotland, but because of poor health moved to Hastings on the South Coast (on the English Channel). He conducted his research there and moved to the London Studio when he was ready to demonstrate his invention.

I remember TVs when the CRTs only had electrostatic plates and no coils. So you had a picture that was a few inches in diameter or a very dim back projected picture that you watched in a totally dark room. I was four years old when I went to a birthday party and the TV had about a 12" bright picture. That was the first TV I saw that had an electromagnetic yoke to bend the electron beam. I remember being astonished. That was 1951.

Then the TV market exploded in 1953, as everyone wanted to watch the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. That is when we had our first TV at the OP. It was Philips made in Holland. There was only one BBC channel in 1953.

 

[lovinthehd]

Why is this more important than the generally accredited Philo Farnsworth event on 9/7/27? (US style dating). I don't follow but always heard about Philo being accredited with the first tv broadcast (or is they key in "broadcast"?).

 

[TLS Guy]

Why is this more important than the generally accredited Philo Farnsworth event on 9/7/27? (US style dating). I don't follow but always heard about Philo being accredited with the first tv broadcast (or is they key in "broadcast"?).

Baird did broadcast it, but just across the room. He was the first to prove that it was possible to broadcast a picture with audio.

 

[lovinthehd]

So why is Philo generally accredited with that? That some sort of evidence of "US" facts?

 

[TLS Guy]

So why is Philo generally accredited with that? That some sort of evidence of "US" facts?

Possibly nationalism. However John Baird is credited with doing the basic research and showing that it was possible to broadcast a picture with TV. His equipment is preserved and on display at the Science Museum in Kensington, next to the Victoria and Albert Museum, where I first say it as a child. The BBC started regular TV broadcast in 1936, but suspended them during WWII. The US started brief experimental broadcasts in 1928, and regular NBC broadcast started in 1938 and RCA in 1939.