How it all began:
The television has had a very long history, and it has consisted of both its ups and downs but simple perseverance as well as a vision is what has made it the machine it is today. The word television has Latin and Greek origins. The 'tele' means 'far' in ancient Greek whilst 'visio' means 'sight' in Latin which can now be clearly seen in the word Television, really smart if I do say so myself.
The TV used to be the dream machine of many inventors in the past who felt the machine would revolutionise the world forever, therefore lots of effort was put into the manufacturing of this machine. The TV was not a simple machine that could be produces by one inventor but rather took the efforts of many people with various ideas to life. During its making inventors had to endure many failed attempts during the 1920's resulting in a series of names to be created for this dream machine. Some were Radiovision, Seeing by Wireless, Distant Electric Vision, Phototelegraphy, The Electric Telescope, Visual Listening, Telectroscopy, Hear-Seeing, Telephonoscope, Audiovision, Radio Movies, The Radio Kinema, Radioscope, Lustreer, Farscope, Optiphone, Microscope; some of these names sound funny as I personally feel 'television' is a perfect name for the device and could not see myself calling it any other.
Inventors that kept the dream alive (Karl Braun, Paul Nipkow and Lee DeForest) |
Now for the revolutionary part, it seems that the spark for the initial idea of a television came in 1873 when a telegraph operator discovered that light affected the electrical resistance of selenium. It was this discovery he realised that with a bit of work he could change light into electricity using a selenium photocell. The next key invention was introduced in 1884 when Paul Nipkow invented a single spiral of holes in it as a method of mechanical scanning for the television. Despite his key findings he was never able to build a working system, which was a shame. However his invention did not go to waste as several other TV pioneers used the Nipkow disc as the basis for their own television systems. The invention of the TV was brought to a halt when there was a problem finding a device to turn an electric current back into light because of the fact a conventional bulb would be unsuitable due to its instability this meant it could not vary its brightness fast enough to produce a TV image. To resolve this problem Georges Claude developed the neon lamp in 1902. Last but certainly not least the final act came in 1906 when Lee De Forest in the USA invented the Amplion; an amplifying triode valve which made it possible to amplify weak video signals created by selenium photocells. A working model of his amplifier took him another six years to develop and nearly ten years would pass before an improved version compatible with the television would be produced, making him a key player in the invention of the TV.
With all the key components invented and improved all that was left at the time was a way for them to amalgamate. Therefore by 1992 inventors all around the world found themselves with the task of building the TV which was a challenge they took on because of the great margin of success they sensed within their reach. Many of these inventors where well equipped with sufficient resources, funds and staff to build the television which is the reason we see many adaptations f the television in this modern day. It is believed the first official inventors of the TV were Philo Farnsworth (an American inventor), John Logie Baird ( a Scottish engineer, who demonstrated the first working television system on 26 January 1926) and Charles Francis Jenkins (an American pioneer of the early cinema and one of the inventors of television).
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How The First Mechanical Television Worked |
Karl Braun, Paul Nipkow and Lee DeForest supported each other and connected to make the first successful mechanical television. Without they great invention and efforts the some may argue the television may not be as advanced as it today but everyone can agree that they played a huge part in the producing the most popular form of media to this date.
Mechanical Television Explained:
My blog so far in a nutshell😄
Since we have seen a great number of changes in the properties of the television over the years from its aesthetics to functions it seems as it we have seen it all but the constant development in technology means different types of televisions are being all the time; giving humans the flexibility to do what ever they want with it.
THEN VS NOW:
Source:1, 2
This post took me about six hours to complete, it was prolonged due to the amount of different sources I looked at which all had the different stories about the origin of the TV like its inventors with the similar aspects like the idea behind the invention of the TV.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I am quite happy with the results of my research as I feel I have covered most of the stories of the origins of the television have been covered in the post, including where the ideas came from and they key inventors who contributed in its invention.
Finding out the concept behind the TV and the people who made it possible was my favourite part of this topic.
What you have done is pretty good Nathan but there is little evidence of how the television industry has developed in more recent times. I think that your main error here is that you have focussed on the history of the television as a product rather than what you were asked to do which was to research the history of the television industry.
ReplyDeleteUp until 1982 audiences only had a choice of 3 terrestrial channels to watch - compare that to the hundreds of channels that are now available to consumers due to the ways in which technology has developed.
Overall, I am pleased with your effort but feel that you missed the real focus of the task!
I have noticed where I went wrong and will improve this post by adding information on the history of the television industry.
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