Project Report

On

Fascinating facts about the invention

Of the television by Philo T. Farnsworth in 1927.
TELEVISION

By
Pawan Paropte
Class – 8th (A)
 INDEX

1. Profile of Inventor

2. Introduction Of Farnsworth

3. Data collection
 Philo Farnsworth

Farnsworth in 1939

Born
Philo Taylor Farnsworth
August 19, 1906
near Beaver, Utah, U.S.[1]

March 11, 1971 (aged 64)

Died
Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.

Provo City Cemetery,

Resting place
Provo, Utah, U.S.

Nationality American

Inventor of the first electronic television,

Known for
over 300 United States and foreign patents
 Founder of television.
Philo T. Farnsworth

In 1921 the 14-year-old Mormon had an idea while

working on his father's Idaho farm. Mowing hay in rows,
Philo realized an electron beam could scan a picture in
horizontal lines, reproducing the image almost
instantaneously. This would prove to be a critical
breakthrough in Philo Farnsworth's invention of the
television in 1927.
Earlier TV devices had been based on an 1884
invention called the scanning disk, patented by Paul
Nipkow. Riddled with holes, the large disk spun in front of
an object while a photoelectric cell recorded changes in
light. Depending on the electricity transmitted by the
photoelectric cell, an array of light bulbs would glow or
remain dark.
Though Nipkow's mechanical system could not
scan and deliver a clear, live-action image, most would-be
TV inventors still hoped to perfect it.
Not Philo Farnsworth. In 1921 the 14-year-old Mormon
had an idea while working on his father's Idaho farm.
Mowing hay in rows, Philo realized an electron beam
could scan a picture in horizontal lines, reproducing the
image almost instantaneously. It would prove to be a
critical breakthrough. But young Philo was not alone. At
the same time, Russian immigrant Vladimir Zworykin had
also designed a camera that focused an image through a
lens onto an array of photoelectric cells coating the end of
a tube.
The electrical image formed by the cells would
be scanned line-by-line by an electron beam and
transmitted to a cathode-ray tube. Rather than an electron
beam, Farnsworth's image dissector device used an
"anode finger" -- a pencil-sized tube with a small aperture
at the top -- to scan the picture. Magnetic coils sprayed the
electrons emitted from the electrical image left to right
and line by line onto the aperture, where they became
electric current. Both Zworykin's and Philo's devices then
transmitted the current to a cathode-ray tube, which
recreated the image by scanning it onto a fluorescent
surface.
Farnsworth applied for a patent for his image
dissector in 1927. The development of the television
system was plagued by lack of money and by challenges to
Farnsworth's patent from the giant Radio Corporation of
America (RCA). In 1934, the British communications
company British Gaumont bought a license from
Farnsworth to make systems based on his designs. In
1939, the American company RCA did the same. Both
companies had been developing television systems of their
own and recognized Farnsworth as a competitor. World
War II interrupted the development of television.
When television broadcasts became a regular
occurrence after the war, Farnsworth was not involved.
Instead, he devoted his time to trying to perfect the
devices he had designed. David Sarnoff, vice president of
the powerful Radio Corporation of America, later hired
Zworykin to ensure that RCA would control television
technology. Zworykin and Sarnoff visited Farnsworth's
cluttered laboratory, but the Mormon inventor's business
manager scoffed at selling the company -- and
Farnsworth's services -- to RCA for a piddling $100,000. So
Sarnoff haughtily downplayed the importance of Philo's
innovations, saying, "There's nothing here we'll need."
In 1934 RCA demonstrated its "iconoscope," a
camera tube very similar to Farnsworth's image dissector.
RCA claimed it was based on a device Zworykin tried to
patent in 1923 -- even though the Russian had used
Nipkow's old spinning disk design up until the time he
visited Philo's lab.
The patent wars had truly begun -- and Phil, as
the grown-up Farnsworth preferred to be called, was in a
bind. He could not license his inventions while the matter
was in court, and he wrestled with his backers over
control and direction of his own company. The men in
Farnsworth's loyal "lab gang" were fired and rehired
several times during his financial ups and downs, but
retained confidence in Phil. When Farnsworth's financiers
refused his request for a broadcasting studio, the inventor
and a partner built a studio on their own.
Meanwhile back at RCA, Sarnoff had spent
more than $10 million on a major TV R & D effort. At the
1939 New York World's Fair, Sarnoff announced the
launch of commercial television -- though RCA's camera
was inadequate, and the corporation didn't own a single
TV patent. Later that same year, the company was
compelled to pay patent royalties to Farnsworth Radio
and Television.
By the time World War II began, Farnsworth realized that
commercial television's future was in the hands of
businessmen -- not a lone inventor toiling in his lab. With
his patents about to expire, Phil grew depressed, drunk
and addicted to painkillers.
In 1949 he reluctantly agreed to sell off
Farnsworth Radio and Television. Philo T. Farnsworth was
always an outsider, a bright star blazing in the dawn of a
new electronic age. His romance with the electron was a
private affair, a celebration of the spirit of the lone
inventor.
TO LEARN MORE
IRELATED INFORMATION:
Philo Taylor Farnsworth Biography from The Great Idea
Finder
Communication History from The Great Idea Finder
History of Household Items from The Great Idea Finder

ON THE BOOKSHELF:
Brainstorm!: The Stories of Twenty American Kid
Inventors
by Tom Tucker, Richard Loehle / Paperback - 144 pages /
Sunburst (1998)
The stories of twenty ingenious young Americans who
have filed patents with the United States Patent Office,
including Chester Greenwood who invented ear muffs,
Ralph Samuelson, originator of water-skiing, and Vanessa
Hess who created colored car wax.
Popular Patents
by Travis Brown / Paperback - 224 pages / Scarecrow
Press (September 1, 2000)
Eighty stories of America's first inventions. Each includes
a sketch of the invention, a profile of the inventor and a
glimpse of how the invention has found its way into
American culture.
TV's Forgotten Hero: The Story of Philo Farnsworth
by Stephanie Sammartino McPherson / Library Binding
(October 1996) / Carolrhoda Books
Interestingly reconstructing the drama of Farnsworth's
life, McPherson incorporates anecdotes that personalize
the precocious youth and inventive adult. A generous
supply of photographs punctuates a very readable
biography.
Please Stand by: A Prehistory of Television
by Michael Ritchie / Paperback (September 1995) /
Penguin USA (Paper)
A nostalgic look at the earliest days, 1920-1948, of the
medium that would define and change the 20th century.
Presents interviews with television inventors, station
owners, actors, and crews reliving television firsts such as
the first commercial, the first soap opera, and the first
sportscast.
The Last Lone Inventor: A Tale of Genius, Deceit, and the
Birth of Television
by Evan I. Schwartz / Paperback: 352 pages / Perennial
(May 1, 2003)
Vividly written and based on original research, including
interviews with surviving Farnsworth family members,
The Last Lone Inventor tells the story of the struggle
between two utterly mismatched but equally determined
adversaries, one a genius inventor and the other, a
diabolically clever businessman, and how this fight
symbolized a turning point in the culture of innovation.
The Boy Who Invented Television: A Story Of Inspiration,
Persistence, And Quiet Passion
by Paul Schatzkin / Paperback: 296 pages / Tanglewood
Books (September 30, 2004)
Philo T. Farnsworth, age 14, dreamed of trapping light in
an empty jar and transmitting it, one line at a time, on a
magnetically deflected beam of electrons. In 1930,
Farnsworth was awarded the fundamental patents for
modern television.

ON THE SCREEN:
Digi-tech
DVD / 1 Volume Set / 50 Minutes / History Channel / Less
than $25.00
See how the computing capacity of World-War II era
room-sized computers is now surpassed by hand-held
devices; visit Zenith to see a side-by-side comparison of
regular television and HDTV; discover how a Cold War era
NASA program is transforming personal photography, and
get the inside story about MP3s.
Television - Window to the World
DVD / 1 Volume Set / 50 Minutes / History Channel / Less
than $25.00 / Also VHS
Chronicles the incredible story of television, from the
vision of Philo Farnsworth, a Utah farm boy who
developed the first working system in 1925, to the
technological breakthroughs that are transforming the
medium as we head into the 21st century.

ON THE WEB:
The Farnsworth Chronicles
A true and compelling story of the forgotten genius who
invented electronic video.
(URL: www.farnovision.com)
Modern Television
Pilgrimage to the birthplace of Electronic Television.
(URL:
www.moderntv.com/modtvweb/media/birthplace1.htm)
Invention Dimension - Inventor of the Week
Celebrates inventor/innovator role models through
outreach activities and annual awards to inspire a new
generation of American scientists, engineers, and
entrepreneurs. Featured Farnsworth for his invention of
the Electronic Television.
(URL: web.mit.edu/invent/iow/farnsworth.html)
National Inventors Hall of Fame
Located at Inventure Place, the online home of creative
minds. Philo Farnsworth was inducted in 1984 for his
Television System, Patent Number 1,773,980.
(URL: www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/56.html)
Farnsworth Archives
A listing of the patents issued to Philo Farnsworth at this
site dedicated to his memory.
URL:
www.philotfarnsworth.com/philotfarnsworth/PatentList.
htm)
Electrical Engineer - Philo Farnsworth
The key to the television picture tube came to him at 14,
when he was still a farm boy, and he had a working device
at 21.From Time Magazine: 100 Greatest Scientists &
Thinkers Lots of COOKIES.
(URL:
www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/farnswor
th.html)
The American Experience:Big Dreams, Small Screens
Charts the development of TV and the technology behind
it. From the PBS series.
(URL:
www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/technology/bigdream/index.h
tml)
Eye of the World: John Logie Baird and Television
Baird's choice of mechanical scanning as the most effective
way of achieving true television required the use of
spinning discs -- which of financial necessity were made of
hatboxes and mounted on a coffin lid. Article by Adrian R.
Hills.
(URL: www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/FINE/juhde/hills961.htm)
Paul Gottlieb Nipkow
In 1884, university student Paul Nipkow of Germany
proposed and patented the world's first electromechanical
television system.
(URL: www.acmi.net.au/AIC/NIPKOW_BIO.html)
Vladimir Zworkkin
For his fundamental and crucial work in creating the
iconoscope and the kinescope, inventor Vladimir
Zworykin is often described as "the father of television".
(URL:
www.museum.tv/archives/etv/Z/htmlZ/zworykinvla/zw
orykinvla.htm)

DID YOU KNOW?:

• Research tells us that 99% of homes in the US have a
television set. Sixty-nine percent have two or more. And,
33% have three or more! Television is a part of our daily
culture, and serves as a window to the world for many
families and young children.
• Farnsworth also invented the first cold cathode ray
tubes and the first simple electronic microscope.
• It took the telephone 75 years and television 13 years
to acquire 50 million users. It has taken the Internet five
years. Today, more than 500 million people around the
world are connected to the Internet.