Early Electronic Television
By the early 1930s it was clear that
mechanical television systems could never produce the picture quality
required for commercial success. Electronic television requires a
cathode ray tube (picture tube) to display the picture, and some sort of
electronic camera tube to capture the image. The cathode ray tube was
the easier of these to develop, but the emergence of electronic
television was delayed for years until a suitable camera tube could be
developed. Though the documentary evidence is slim,
Vladimir Zworykin
, while working for Westinghouse, probably
demonstrated a crude line image on his
Iconoscope
camera tube in 1924 and the image of a cross in
1925.
Philo Farnsworth
,
a young man with no electronics background, produced images on his
Image Dissector
camera tube in 1927. The Image Dissector required too much light to be practical
for television, while the Iconoscope produced acceptable pictures with a
reasonable amount of light.
Scheduled electronic television broadcasting began in England in 1936.
For several years, the BBC had been broadcasting 30 line mechanical TV,
using the Baird system. In 1935, the BBC assembled a committee to
recommend what path it should take. The
committee
recommended that the
BBC sponsor a trial broadcasts by two systems, one by Baird, with 240
lines, and one by EMI with 405 lines. For three months, the systems were
to be alternated on a weekly basis, to determine which was superior.
1935 Popular Mechanics articles
describes the competition.
The Baird system used a mechanical camera for filmed programming, and
Farnsworth image dissector cameras for live programming. EMI used Emitron
(similar to the iconoscope) cameras for all programming. After a short
time it was obvious that the all-electronic EMI system was vastly
superior to the Baird system, and the test was stopped. A few months
later, regularly scheduled programs began using the 405 line EMI system.
Most of the programming was done from studios in
Alexandra Palace
, though the BBC experimented with
remote programming
too.
In the United States,
David Sarnoff
,
President of the RCA Victor company, realized the potential of
television, and poured huge resources into its
development
, even during the lean
years of the depression. RCA introduced electronic television to the U.
S. at the
1939 World's Fair
, and
began
regularly scheduled broadcasting
at the same time.
CBS
and
Don Lee
also
began regularly scheduled programs. Here are some
program schedules
.
RCA initially
marketed
their line of TV
set in New York City, with poor results. They then reduced the price,
and conducted an intensive
test marketing
campaign in Newburgh, NY, where they met with little more success. Though
the television audience grew in 1939, it was still very small, with only
2000 sets in use by April, 1940. Here is a
1943 advertisement by RCA
which gives a timeline of the company's accomplishments.
France began broadcasting from the PTT building in Paris in 1935, and
from the
Eiffel tower
in 1936 using a
180 line
Nipkow disk camera. Later, 455 line pictures were broadcast. In
1942, after the German occupation of France, Germany operated the
station in Paris using their 441 line standard.
Germany
was also active in the
development of electronic TV before the war.
Probably the most advanced pre-1945 receiver, the
E1
Volkfernseher
,
was made in Germany in 1939. There was also some pre-1945 broadcasting in
Italy.
Russia may have also produced TV sets before the war. TV
stations were on the air in
Leningrad
(240 lines) and Moscow (343 lines)
in the late 30s. According to a Russian website, 2000 model
17 TH-1
(7 inch direct view) and 6000 model
TK-1
(9 inch mirror in lid) sets were supposedly manufactured in 1938-40. If this is
true, more pre-1945 sets were made in Russia than in the United States.
However, it is very likely that these production numbers are highly
inflated. In fact, the sets claimed to be Russian made were probably
imported from RCA
in the U.S. in
small quantities.
Many manufacturers introduced sets before the war. Some, like
Zenith
, were reluctant to join the race. Before the war, about 7000
sets were manufactured in the
U.S.
, and
about 19,000 in
Britain
.
World War Two interrupted the development of television. In the U.S. some
broadcasting continued, but the manufacture and sale of sets stopped. In
England, all broadcasting and TV manufacturing ceased until the end of
the war.
American Sets in our
collection
Click on the
Image for More Information
|
Andrea 1-F-5
|
Andrea Kit in Custom Cabinet
|
Andrea KT-E-5
|
Andrea 2-F-12
|
Andrea 8-F-12
|
Bell & Howell Projection
|
DuMont 180
|
DuMont 183X
|
General Electric HM-171
|
General Electric HM-185
|
General Electric HM-225
|
General Electric HM-226
|
General Electric Model 90
|
Meissner 10-1153 Kit
|
Meissner 10-1153 Kit in Factory Cabinet
|
RCA RR-359
|
RCA TT-5
|
RCA TRK-5
|
RCA TRK-9
|
RCA TRK-12
|
RCA 1939 Kit Chassis
|
Sparton 10B
|
Westinghouse WRT-700
|
Westinghouse WRT-701
|
Westinghouse WRT-702
|
Westinghouse WRT-703
|
British Sets in our
collection
Click on the
Image for More Information
|
Baird T-18C *
|
Baird T-23
|
Cossor 54
|
Cossor 137T
|
Cossor 1210
|
Ekco TA201
|
HMV 900
|
HMV 901
|
HMV 902
|
HMV 904
|
HMV 905
|
HMV 907
|
HMV 1800
|
Marconi 702
|
Marconi 705
|
Marconi 707
|
Marconi 709
|
Murphy A58V
|
Pye 815
|
Pye 817
|
RGD 382RG
|
Unidentified Model
|
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