Television has become a huge part of our
everyday life. It provides entertainment, news,
advertisements and so much more for people of all
ages. The television was not invented by just one
person; many people throughout history contributed
ideas and inventions to make TV what it is today.
Over time people experimented with the
idea of mixing electricity and radio to see what would
happen. This was the starting point and the begin--
The very first mechanical television, invented by
ning of the invention of television. During the late Charles Jenkins in 1923.
1800s, Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, a student in Germany Nipkow’s “electric scope” was the
created the very first device to transmit pictures with first device to transmit pictures, in the
late 1800s.
light. He did this by sending pictures through wires
which rotated on a metal disk. This was called the
“electric scope.” Inspired by Nipkow, an American
inventor called Charles Jenkins invented the first
mechanical television system in 1923. He called this
device “Radiovision,” which he preferred over the
name television. It was known to have poor reception
and a 40 to 48 line picture that tended to be cloudy.
Jenkins publicly performed his first television broad-
cast in Anacostia, Virginia all the way to Washington Philo Taylor Farnsworth’s invention of the
only a couple years after. In 1926, A British inventor very first electrical television.
named John Logie Baird transmitted the first moving
pictures through the same mechanical disks that Baird used reflective light rather than back-
Nipkow had experimented with. This was followed by lighting on his version of the television in 1926.
the very first TV studio which was located at the
Crystal Palace in London. He used transparent
rods and reflected light rather than back-lighting
silhouettes.
Philo Taylor Farnsworth created the first
electronic television system which got rid of the metal
rotating disks. By 1934 all the televisions sets had
been converted to electronic device, which is what we
are still using to this day. Black and white TV was the
standard, with color television showing up much later.
RCA was the founder of color television and had its
first broadcast on December 17, 1953. These progressions in modern television set up
the foundation for the plasma and HDTV screens you see today!
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1939 RCA TRK-9 1974 Sony 19” Color 1981 Zenith Console
Mechanical - working or produced by machinery
Electronic - having or operating with the aid of many If you had your own television channel, what types of
small components, esp. microchips and transistors, that programs would you show? The news, sitcoms, or maybe
control and direct an electric current: concerts... the possibilities are endless! Color this TV set
to show what your channel would be like.
Who was the first person to create mechanical
television? In what year?
Do you think the invention of television was a positive or negative
occurrence? Write one paragraph on how TV has helped or
hurt society today...
Did you know that in 1953 Ray Bradbury, wrote Fahr-
enheit 451, where his world banned books and people
watch "parlor walls" where televisions dominated.
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