Why Television Was Invented?

You simply cannot believe the number of folk arriving at SheepOverboard wondering "why" television (tv) was invented.

For the record, no-one knows why television was invented - though we can guess. But of all inventions perhaps only television fails the 'why' test.

Prima facie, it was invented so we could watch it (but that's a bit circular). Elsewhere on SheepOverboard we speculate it was invented to taunt the poor.

If, however, you wish to know how it was invented, here is a potted history of TV written by the secretary's ten year old son, Gustav.

No one person can be claimed as the inventor of television. Hundreds of scientists in various parts of the world have added individual ideas over the past one hundred years towards the development of TV as we know it — and advances are still being made.

In 1817, Baron Jons Jakob Berzelius, a Swedish chemist, discovered an element which he called selenium. Little came of his discovery until the 1870’s. It then was discovered that selenium, a non-metallic element, becomes a strong conductor of electricity when it is exposed to light.

Using the photoelectric properties of selenium, Russian engineer Paul Nipkow, working in Germany in 1884, proposed a theoretical television system.

Nipkow scanned his early television subjects by using a rotating disc perforated with holes in a spiral pattern. The light reflected from the subject passed through each hole and fell with varying intensity on selenium cells. The fluctuating voltage produced by the cells changed the brightness of a lamp in the receiver. A second disc, similar to the one used to scan the subject and revolving in step with it, was placed between the lamp and the observer, who thus saw a reproduction of the subject.

Scottish inventor John Logie Baird began experiments in 1923, using the Nipkow disc, combined with optics and vacuum tube amplifiers. Baird gave the first demonstration of his “televisor” to forty selected guests in his London laboratory on January 27th, 1926. The flickering image measured seven inches high by three inches wide, and was composed of thirty narrow strips.

Baird struggled to convince the BBC of television’s potential, and it wasn’t until September 30th, 1929, that the first public telecast was made. The viewing audience was watching fewer than thirty receivers.

In 1928, Baird was working on 'colour' television. He proved the possibility of outside broadcasting in 1931, when he televised the Derby race meeting. The following year, an astounded theatre audience watched the race on Baird’s TV screen, measuring eight feet by ten feet.

The first all-electronic television camera tube, the iconoscope, was invented in 1923 and eventually successfully introduced in 1933 by the American engineer, Vladimir Kosma Zworykin. This all-electronic system, using cathode ray tubes, displaced the mechanical system, and is the basic principle used today.

During the 1930’s, almost identical television advances were made in Britain and the United States, and stations were increasing their regular TV transmissions.

On April 30th, 1939, the first regular commercial television broadcasts were begun in New York.

All television production was suspended during World War II, but experiments continued. In 1941, Baird had developed a six hundred line 'colour' television system, and was working on stereoscopic TV when he died in 1945.

In 1946, after World War II, TV began to burst upon the scene with a speed unforeseen even by the most optimistic leaders of the industry. The novelty of seeing TV pictures in the home caught the public’s fancy and began a revolution in the world of entertainment.

By 1950, television had grown into a major part of show business. Many film and stage stars switched to TV. Television audiences increased. Stations that once telecast a few hours a day sometimes telecast around the clock in the 1960’s.