How Television Invented Philo Farnsworth

[Winky Dink]

The Idaho Statesmanis celebrating its sesquicentennial by reprinting old articles. KIDO was Idaho's first TV station, and its inaugural broadcast was in July, 1953.

[Celt]

Cool.

[NoPegs]

Blasphemer!


Zworykin is the Father of Television!!!



Sorry for the slightly interruption of an otherwise quality thread, its just one of those impulses I have. (I'm willing to bet most of us here are familiar with all 3 "fathers" of television, Zworykin, Farnsworth, and Baird and mentally distribute the credit appropriately.)


Same kind of thing happens when someone tries to credit Edison for inventing something... The thieving rat-bastard that he was, I'll give him credit for inventing the concept of an intellectual property generating think-tank. Commoditization of the process of invention/innovation is the only thing he ever actually achieved fully by his own hands. Everything else was just changing the existing recipe a bit and flooding the market so nobody else even bothered to compete. The irony is that things would have been quite different had Zworykin been in one of Edison's labs instead of Westinghouse. The possible forks are: 1. Edison reacts exactly the same way Westinghouse did, because he already had a sizeable income from the film industry, but he would have buried all the reasearch much harder than Westinghouse did. 2. Edison recognizes the potential of TV, and goes all-hands-on-deck to thoroughly own the entire concept of TV while burying any connection to Zworykin, and suddenly we're living in a world where TV became a thing in about 1932 instead of the 40s, although I'm sure we'd have had something worse than NTSC for the first few decades because Edison's playbook goes: First you sell them a TV today, then you can sell them the better TV when you finally get around to working out the kinks...

[peter scott]

Originally Posted by NoPegs

Blasphemer!


Zworykin is the Father of Television!!!

Perhaps that should be A. A. Campbell-Swinton was the father of television?

http://www.scottpeter.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Emitron.htm

Peter

[NoPegs]

Originally Posted by peter scott

Perhaps that should be A. A. Campbell-Swinton was the father of television?

http://www.scottpeter.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Emitron.htm

Peter

http://www.scottpeter.pwp.blueyonder...ton%201911.JPG

A new challenger has entered the arena, it seems. I'm glad to have learned something new today!

[rld-tv01]

How about Paul Nipkow or before him the guy who heard about the Selenium changing colors from sunlight in the rail way telegraph office and thought he could transmit pictures using it.

[NoPegs]

Originally Posted by rld-tv01

How about Paul Nipkow or before him the guy who heard about the Selenium changing colors from sunlight in the rail way telegraph office and thought he could transmit pictures using it.

Both contributed to the overall march of technology, but neither of them could put forward a complete end-to-end system in the same manner that Zworykin/Farnsworth did. Baird did a good job of trying, but he made more money selling socks than moving images.

We're basically dissecting the semantics of "Who do we credit for inventing the wheel because we need to put them on the list of Fathers of the Automobile?"


I'll dangle an additional tidbit here along the same vein:

James Watt didn't invent the steam engine. Newcomen invented version 1.0 of what we would identify as a steam engine today. It worked, poorly. Mr Watt saw potential, and made it work the way it was probably intended to operate. This is one of the things that engineers just do. Make it better, make it cheaper, make it stronger. Hope that society as a whole will give you credit if you deserve it. Do it because it needs to be done sooner rather than later. Doing it to save all the drowning Welshmen in the tin mines is also solid motivation.

[rld-tv01]

Who invented the steam engine? Watt. Who? Watt. Who? Watt. Who?

[Winky Dink]

This is the Videokarma version of a political/religious discussion. You have to understand the Idahodian's viewpoint--Idaho hasn't got anything else to claim in this arena. I once described Philo as the "inventor of electronic television" in this forum, but that was tongue-in-cheek. Of course the technology couldn't have advanced without the contributions of everyone from Nipkow to John Hartman (who invented the transistor).

And none of this could be accomplished until Benjamin Franklin invented electricity.

[NoPegs]

Originally Posted by Winky Dink

You have to understand the Idahodian's viewpoint--Idaho hasn't got anything else to claim in this arena.

Wow. Yeah, I think that right there can explain everything. The only currently relevant interesting claim I can find for Idaho is: "The world's largest factory for barrel cheese, the raw product for processed cheese is located in Gooding, Idaho." Obviously Potatoes, but that's like Maple Syrup + Canada, totally worn out. Surely there must be other great things about Idaho, pretty big place, it can't all be boring agribusiness, can it?

[earlyfilm]

Originally Posted by NoPegs

. . . . . all 3 "fathers" of television, Zworykin, Farnsworth, and Baird . . . . . . .

The four pioneers of television, in chronological order, were Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, Arthur Korn, Charles Francis Jenkins, and John Logie Baird.

You just can't call anyone using some of this new fangled electronic sweeping stuff a pioneer. . . .

. . . and Korn would be better known, if he just had a middle name, like the others.

[Winky Dink]

Idaho's biggest draw is that you can ride a motorcycle without a helmet. After that, you can base-jump off a bridge in Twin Falls. But most significant is:





Seriously, if you're traveling through Idaho you shouldn't miss the Potato Exposition in Blackfoot--"Free 'taters to out-of-staters." The last time I was in Blackfoot I lied about my residency to get a free baked potato.

I'm campaigning to have our license plate logo changed from "Famous Potatoes" to "You're Not the Boss of Me!" My second choice is "Birthplace of Television."

[nasadowsk]

EBR-I in Arco Idaho is a neat trip, too...

[mstaton]

The biggest industry here is actually cattle, probably followed by potatoes, corn wheat, sugar beats, mint, onions, alfalfa(says spanky) .....We pretty much grow anything.

[Winky Dink]

I shouldn't joke so much about the Gem State lest my fellow Idahoans take offense. Some day I'll make a pilgrimage to Rigby and visit the museum. In the meantime, there are lots of old barns, attics, and sheds that may be harboring some gem of vintage electronics.