Two part series, very interesting viewing and well worth the hour. Incredible to say the least, that the idea came to him when he was 14. Def a David vs Goliath story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMwEhrRmIVE Part 1


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtKjZRxAJBU Part 2

Thank you for posting this. Enjoyed the program.

It would have been better for Farnsworth's fragile health & security if he would have taken the RCA payoff ($1.5 million in today's money?) and job offer in RCA Labs for his patents. That's a good offer in the Great Depression, but he was one stubborn Mormon boy!

The potential payoff of having a patent for an electronic system with linear scanning (Zworykin hadn't thought of using sawtooth scanning at the time) and a reasonably performing imaging device (RCA didn't have anything even close to the image dissector at that point) was well in excess of what RCA (read David Sarnoff) wanted to pay. If it weren't for WW2, he would have been one of the only ones to have almighty RCA paying patent royalties. Having to pay royalties was something that Sarnoff found untenable.

After the courts awarded Farnsworth priority on his patents, Snaroff relunctantly DID pay royalty and licensing rights to Farnsworth. Snaroff could not go forward until he did so.

I recommend the book "The Last Lone Inventor- A Tale Of Genius, Deceit, And The Birth Of Television". It gives an in-depth account of the rivalry between Farnsworth and Sarnoff.