Who Invented the Television?

Television is not the Truth. Television is god-damned amusement park. Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, sideshow freaks, lion tamers and football players. ~ Paddy Chayevsky

Yes, some call it the idiot box; many blame it for their kids' poor performance at school, and yet every night when the clock strikes prime time, at least of the members of most of the families are glued to their television sets. It entertains you, informs you, educates you, no matter what you call it is a useful invention, one that has had power enough to influence our lifestyles. Ever wondered who invented the television?

Who invented the Television anyway??

Well the answer might give rise to a heated debate. Yes, the invention of television cannot be accredited to a single person, but to a number of people who have in their respective ways contributed to the invention of a television. Although it is known that a Scottish inventor, John Logie Baird, was the first one to publicly demonstrate television on 26 January 1926, in his laboratory at Soho district of London, it was an American engineer Philo Farnsworth who researched the television picture transmission and developed the dissector tube, which is the basic element of all current electronic televisions. Finally it was Philo Farnsworth who became the first inventor to transmit a television image in 1927.

Well... confused? Well let us just have a look at all the inventions that contributed to the emergence of the Television.

Henry - Faraday's Electromagnetism
In 1831, Joseph Henry's and Michael Faraday's work in the field of electromagnetism opened the gates for electronic communication.

Caselli's Pantelegraph
In the year 1862 Abbe Giovanna Caselli invented a 'pantelegraph' that enabled transmission of still images over the wire.

May and Smith's invention
In the year 1873 two scientists May and Smith experimented with selenium and light, to find out a method to transform images into electronic signals.

Carey's Selenium Camera
By the year 1876, civil servant in Boston by the name George Carey was thinking about complete television systems. In 1877 Carey proposed the model of a selenium camera that would enable people to see via the means of electricity.

Goldstein's Cathode Rays
Eugen Goldstein coined the term cathode rays that referred to the light emitted while an electric current passed through a vacuum tube.

Telectroscopes
During the late 1870's, many scientists and engineers like Paiva, Figuier, and Senlecq were suggesting alternative designs for telectroscopes.

Bell's Photophone
Many inventors like Bell and Edison proposed their theories and ideas 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. One scientist by the name of George Carey also built a simple system with light-sensitive cells. A scientist called Sheldon Bidwell also experimented with telephotography and photophone.

Electric Telescope
In the year 1884, Paul Nipkow successfully sent images over wires with the help of a rotating metal disk technology. He called it 'electric telescope' with eighteen lines of resolution.

Perskyi's Television
In 1900, during the first International Congress of Electricity, a Russian scientist Constantin Perskyi introduced the term 'television.'

First Mechanical Television System
In 1906, Lee de Forest invented the 'Audion' vacuum tube that had the ability to amplify signals. Boris Rosing combined Nipkow's disk and a cathode ray tube and built the first working mechanical TV system.

Electronic Scanning Methods of Reproducing Images
In 1907 Campbell Swinton and Boris Rosing independently suggested the use of cathode ray tubes to transmit images and developed electronic scanning methods of reproducing images.

Zworykin's Iconoscope
In th year 1923 Vladimir Zworykin patented his invention called the iconscope which was a TV camera tube. The iconscope, became the foundation for further advances in television development. He later developed the kinescope that enabled picture display.

Jenkin and Baird
During 1924 to 1925 American Charles Jenkins and John Baird from Scotland, separately demonstrated the mechanical transmissions of images over wire circuit. Baird became the first person to transmit moving silhouette images using a mechanical system based on Nipkow's disk. At the same time, Vladimir Zworykin patented a color television system. In th year 1926 John Baird operated a thirty lines of resolution system at the speed of 5 frames per second.