The History of TV Technology: Pioneers

John Logie Baird -- 1888-1946

A Scottish inventor, almost always in frail health and short of money, Baird was amazingly successful in building a working mechanical television system in late 1920s England. He had a vision which propelled him where more learned men would not go, and he held onto mechanical television longer than most (until about 1935). During the late 1930s and early 1940s he demonstrated high-resolution and color television systems, and during WWII was rumored to have done secret radar work.

Philo Taylor Farnsworth -- 1906-1971

A mostly self-educated inventor (like Baird), the Utah-born Farnsworth also had a vision he would not abandon -- of all-electronic television. His Image Dissector was the first workable electronic camera tube (1927). His struggles, first against the proponents of mechanical TV and then RCA's electronic behemoth, are inspiring and fascinating.

Vladymir Kosma Zworykin -- 1889-1982

A well-born Russian student of physicist Boris Rosing, Dr. Zworykin spent the most productive years of his life working in the US for Westinghouse and then RCA. He filed a patent for an all-electronic television system in 1923. His development of the Kinescope (picture tube), and invention of the Iconoscope (1931) and other TV camera pickup tubes, made electronic television practical. A central figure in television engineering.

Allen Balcom Du Mont -- 1901-1965

American engineer (Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute, 1924) who developed practical cathode-ray tubes (CRTs), the foundation of electronic television. After working on mechanical television for De Forest Radio Company (which had acquired C.F. Jenkins' company), he left to form his own firm in 1931. Dr. Du Mont was particularly interested in large-screen picture tubes, and marketed a 14-inch TV receiver in the US in 1938, when most others had 3 to 10 inch screens. He founded and operated his own TV network from 1947 to 1955. Looking for more info!

Paul Nipkow -- 1860-1940

The man who arguably started it all. In 1884 this German scientist invented the scanning disk which was the basis for almost all (mechanical) television systems for the next 50 years. Looking for more info!

Charles Francis Jenkins -- 1867-1934

A wealthy and prolific inventor, this American scientist invented the motion picture projector, and founded the SMPTE. His mechanical television system ("RadioMovies") was simple, cheap to produce, and the most popular in the US well into the early 1930s. Looking for more info!

Ulises A. Sanabria -- 1906-1969

A Chicagoan whose company, Western Television, produced mechanical TV equipment in the early 1930s. His sets featured interlaced scanning (45 lines in 3 fields) to reduce flicker. Later, he did research leading to infrared sniperscopes, and produced and sold electronic television sets after WWII. Looking for more info!

Kenjiro Takayanagi

This Japanese engineer, a contemporary of Zworykin & Farnsworth, demonstrated an electronic television system at the Hamamatsu Technical College in May 1928. He is considered the father of Japanese television. Looking for more info!

Manfred Von Ardenne -- 1907-?

German television scientist and inventor of the electronic flying-spot scanning technique (1930), using a CRT as the source. Looking for more info!

Dénes von Mihály

Hungarian who published the first book exclusively about television, in Germany in 1923, and developed his own mechanical receiver design, the "Telehor." Looking for more info!

Earl "Madman" Muntz -- ?-1987

A flamboyant California entrepreneur and inventor (the 4-track tape player), Muntz produced very inexpensive television sets in the early 1950s, by the simple expedient of removing all parts that weren't absolutely necessary.


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Updated December 29, 1997