The development of television played a significant role in all socio-political events of the 20th century and directly contributed to general scientific and technological progress. The enormous contribution of researchers to the creation of new ways to quickly transmit high-quality images led to the creation of modern computers and mobile communications.
Now almost every phone can be used to communicate via video with minimal image delay. However, just a hundred years ago, researchers’ statements about their successes could raise doubts about their mental adequacy.
It is difficult to say who created the first television in the world. The invention of television was made possible by a series of successful studies carried out in the 19th and 20th centuries. Based on these studies, various image transmission systems have been developed.
Prerequisites for the emergence of television
The purpose of the first devices for transmitting images was purely practical. Such devices became famous only when the device was used by the police to transmit the portrait of a criminal.
It is impossible to determine exactly in what year the first television was created and the process of technology development was launched. Science fiction writers begin to anticipate its appearance long before the release of the first working models. It was possible to achieve the result only thanks to the huge number of discoveries and inventions being carried out simultaneously in the world.
In 1880, scientist Porfiry Bakhmetyev proposed a promising technology for transmitting images over distances. It was proposed to decompose the picture into its component elements and send it to the receiver in the form of separate signals; and then, using a special device, put it together.
The first television may have been created in 1884. Then Paul Nipkow invented a device for scanning an image and then displaying it on a screen.
The so-called “Nipkow disk” is covered with holes arranged in a spiral on the surface. The lens transmitted light through them - only one point, using one lamp. This was enough for Nipkov's device. The accelerated rotation of the disk caused the spots of light to merge into a solid image. This technology works due to the inertial feature of human eye perception, the ability to combine the residual glow perceived by the gaze into a single picture.
The disk had a significant drawback - it provided too small an image. In order for the first televisions to create a picture with an area no larger than the surface of a matchbox, a “Nipkow disk” was required, reaching 40 centimeters in diameter.
This technology has not become widespread and has not entered the ordinary lives of citizens. It was not until 1924 that the eccentric scientist John Lougie Baird introduced the public to his working model of the first mechanical television, built using a Nipkow disk.
The system provided an image at a speed of 5 frames per second, in 30 columns. The researcher was inspired and invested efforts in further development of the project. In the following years, the frame rate was increased and color image transmission technology was added. Baird was the one who invented the television in its mechanical variation and made significant contributions to other areas of research.
Who first invented television
It seems that televisions have always been used, but this is absolutely not the case. In its modern form, the device appeared not so long ago, and the first device was hardly similar to its existing analogues.
Now it is difficult to say when the first television appeared that could be used today. But the era of the “moving picture” began in 1884. At this time, Paul Nipkow invented an amazing device capable of showing a dynamic image.
Paul Nipkow (1860-1940) – German technician and inventor. Became the founder of the first television systems.
In 1884, the public saw a device that, even with great stretch, can hardly be called a television. But if the Nipkow Disk had not appeared, it is unlikely that anyone would have begun to think about the development of television technology.
The next stage in the development of this type of technology was in 1895. Then another German physicist, Karl Braun, introduced the world's first kinescope. But his project would have remained unnoticed if Brown’s student Max Dieckmann had not filed a patent for the device in 1906. The resulting kinescope became the prototype of the modern television, and a similar image transmission mechanism is still used in some households.
The first television receiver had a very small screen. Only 3x3 cm. A small square contained a picture that moved at a frequency of 10 frames per second.
The first televisions were mechanical models, operating independently of electricity. And the era of electronic TV receivers began in 1907, when Russian physicist Boris Rosing figured out to insert a cathode ray tube into the device, which transmitted an image. But in its modern form, television was patented only in 1923 by Vladimir Zvorykin, who left for the USA from the newly formed USSR.
Vladimir Zvorykin is considered by most researchers to be the inventor of the world's first television.
Televisions went into mass production in 1929. Visionette brand devices cost $100, and only a narrow circle of citizens could afford them. The German company Telefunken made a special contribution to the development of television. Devices with a diagonal of 30 centimeters appeared on the shelves in the late 1930s. But their cost reached $500.
Before the start of World War II, over 20 thousand TV receivers appeared. Televisions were in greatest demand in the UK, where 19 thousand models were produced. After the war, the development of technology did not stop there, and the vector of development was directed towards color TV.
Invention and use of CRT
To understand how television works, it’s worth starting with the ELP. An electron gun is a special spotlight that sends beams of electrons to a receiving device. An electron gun scans a photosensitive target. The target accumulates electrical charges received from the image projected onto it.
The use of electron guns to transmit images played a major role in the development of television.
IMPORTANT! A cathode is an electrode, a conductor of electricity, included in the design of an electron gun. A photocathode is a negatively charged cathode. A photocathode is made using light-sensitive compounds that conduct electricity well. When a photon, or quantum of light, hits the photocathode, electrons are released. The operating principle is based on the external photoelectric effect, the discovery of which is attributed to Heinrich Hertz. A photocathode differs from a conventional cathode in its high quantum yield of photoelectrons per absorbed photon.
In the 50s of the 19th century, cathode rays were discovered. These electron beams propagate light from the cathode emitter by accelerating the transfer of electrons to the phosphors.
Phosphors are special substances that have the ability to absorb and emit light. Phosphors react to light not because of the heat that accompanies it, but by reacting to absorbed electronic energy. The technique of interaction of cathode radiation with phosphors subsequently began to be actively used in electron beam devices. Phosphors are applied from the inside to a transparent tube. The tube receives energy from the cathode emitter and begins to glow. This technology was used to create different types of television tubes and other types of cathode ray devices.
The most famous and popular cathode-ray device is the kinescope.
Until the 90s of the last century, this cathode ray tube was widely used in the production of projectors, televisions and monitors. The kinescope converts the received electrical signals into light. It has an electromagnetic type of deflection. The beam, when it lands on a phosphor-coated surface, causes a glow and forms part of the final image.
Who invented television?
In 1894-1918 and 1924-31 he worked at the St. Petersburg (Leningrad) Institute of Technology, in 1931-33 - at the Arkhangelsk Forestry Institute.
Rosing's scientific interests covered magnetism, electricity, and radio engineering. In 1892, he first introduced the concept of a molecular field in ferromagnets, which determines its spontaneous magnetization. Published a number of works on quantum physics, electrodynamics, and the photoelectric effect.
Since 1897, he began research on image transmission over a distance. He came to the conclusion that it would be possible to transmit images only using a cathode ray tube, which had been known since the end of the 19th century, as well as using the external photoelectric effect discovered by A.G. Stoletov.
Invented the first electronic system for creating television images in 1907. In it, for the first time, he used a cathode ray tube with a fluorescent screen to reproduce an image in the receiving device and a special inertia-free photocell in the transmitting device. In the same year, Rosing received a patent (privilege) in Russia for the method of “electrical transmission of images,” which secured him the right of primacy.
B. L. Rosing on the Russian postage stamp 2021 (DFA [ITC “Marka”] No. 2471) Photo: ru.wikipedia.org
The inventor used a photocell as a converter of a light image into electric current. He used an optical system similar to a photographic one. And the “sweep” was obtained using rotating mirrors. Thanks to them, the picture was produced line by line, after which it was converted into electric current.
The resulting currents were fed to Brown's cathode ray tube, causing the screen to glow at different brightnesses using a modulator electrode. In order to see the same image on the screen as in the transmitting device, Rosing built an electromagnetic scanning device - coils that deflect the electron beam in the Brown tube. The number of scan lines was only 12 (in most modern TVs - 625, and on monitors - up to several thousand).
In 1911, Rosing was the first to transmit images over a distance, demonstrating this using the example of simple geometric shapes. The use of a cathode ray tube marked the transition from optical-mechanical to electronic television systems.
By 1912, Rosing had developed all the basic elements of modern black and white television tubes. His work became known in many countries around the world, and the patent was recognized in the USA, Germany and Great Britain.
Cover of the book by Boris Rosing Photo: ru.wikipedia.org
In subsequent years, Rosing made a number of improvements to transmitting and receiving devices, tube designs, and proposed new methods for modulating the electron beam. Created more than 120 different circuits and systems for television devices.
On April 20, 1933, Boris Lvovich Rosing died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Tags: image transmission, Boris Rosing, cathode ray tube, television, inventor
How things were in the Soviet Union
In 1933, the Kozitsky plant launched production of serial B-2 televisions. The Leningrad-made product had a wooden case and a screen size of 4x3.
On the body there were regulators that controlled the pulse frequency, amplitude and motor. The built-in motor set the rotation of the Nipkow disk. This model was a relatively small-sized attachment to a radio receiver. Sound reception could only occur when connecting another device for receiving radio waves, configured to operate at a different frequency.
The first televisions in the USSR, B-2, sold out quickly, despite the significant price of 235 rubles. Models were often asked to be assembled on their own from a purchased set of parts.
The development of electronic televisions in the USSR began in the 30s. In parallel with Zvorykin, a patent application for a kinescope was submitted by Soviet citizen Semyon Kataev.
Kataev's electromagnetic tubes had a magnetic focusing principle. The design of such a tube was simpler because the focus system was located outside the device. The focus on such tubes was transmitted using magnetic coils. Only by the 1970s did tubes with electrostatic focusing compare in quality of results with Kataev tubes. The qualitative lag was due to the fact that tubes with magnetic focusing, unlike tubes with electrostatic focusing, used all the current coming from the cathode.
In 1936, the supericonoscope device, or Shmakov-Timofeev tube, saw the light of day. The two researchers after whom the device is named invented a special design for the device. The tube used an electro-optical method to transfer the image from the photocad to the target. The so-called “secondary emission” caused metals to actively release electrons during the intensive bombardment of their surface by the primary stream of particles. This technology made it possible to accumulate charge and project electrons onto a target.
The supericonoscope was so effective and popular that British and German companies wanted to produce similar products. They applied for a patent, but the Soviet Committee for Inventions refused.
First TV
Scottish engineer John Lougie Baird invented the first working television in 1924, using whatever he could get his hands on: cardboard, a bicycle lamp and wax. Baird's first invention could convey the outline of an image just over a meter away.
In 1925, he demonstrated his invention to the public by successfully transmitting an image of a ventriloquist's dummy. He showed his invention in department stores.
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When did television become color?
When did color televisions appear? The beginning of three-part television broadcasting can be dated to 1900. The idea was proposed by engineer Alexander Polumordvinov. And in 1925, the Soviet inventor of Armenian origin Hovhannes Adamyan received a patent for a three-component television system using a Nipkin disk.
In this system, green color was obtained by matrixing directly on the TV. Signals were received of two types: red and blue. The idea was adopted by the Americans and on its basis, by 1940, a convenient and practical television system appeared.
After World War II, Americans began to dynamically develop color television intended for civilian needs. The first color TVs produced very dark images and their prices were astronomical. Color was achieved by combining three picture tubes in one device. In each of them, the phosphor glowed in a separate color.
To create a working model of a color TV and its components, Baird used a kinescope with three electron guns and a mosaic phosphor.
His system was called "Telechrome". Electrons from each spotlight went to a layer with a phosphor of a separate color.
The American company RCA made a great contribution to the development of television. American developments in this area have supported many scientists. In the 1950s, RCA contributed to the creation of the following technologies:
- Deltoid technology. The most effective way to direct beams of electrons turned out to be the “shadow grating,” an invention of Werner Flehig. Also called a “shadow mask,” the technology is still widespread today. The metal mesh made of invar has round holes that transmit light. The smaller the distance between elements of the same color, the greater the resolution of the device.
- In addition, the aperture grille has become widespread. Light is applied to a phosphor arranged in thin vertical stripes.
IMPORTANT! The first color TV in the USSR to become widespread was Rubin-401. Was released in 1967. Before him, color televisions were very rare and were not produced in series.
Mechanical Television
The earliest experimental television systems (in the early 1920s and 1930s) were based on mechanical scanning devices, such as a rotating mirror or a rotating disk with holes in it.
In 1925, Scottish engineer John Logie Baird demonstrated the first experimental mechanical television. He founded the Baird Television Development Company, which established the first transatlantic television transmission (between New York and London) in 1928.
John Logie Baird demonstrates his mechanical television system in New York | 1931 | Wikimedia
Baird's role in the practical introduction of broadcast television for home entertainment and his early technological successes earned him an important place in television history. In 2015 he was inducted into the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame.
Another inventor who played a major role in the invention of mechanical scanning televisions was Charles Francis Jenkins. He was an American pioneer of early cinema.
Charles Francis Jenkins
The first commercial television license in the United States was granted to one of his businesses, Charles Jenkins Laboratories. Jenkins has received more than 400 patents for his inventions related to television and film.
But since mechanical televisions never produced good quality pictures, they were replaced by electronic scanning technology by the late 1930s.
Progress does not stand still
The basis of the most common modern TVs:
- Liquid crystal matrix. Liquid crystals were discovered at the end of the 19th century. Crystals fill the gap in a package of glass or polymer panels.
- Plasma matrix. Cells filled with gas. Located between glass surfaces facing each other.
Holographic television is currently being developed. But there is still a long way to go before work on this project is completed and the final versions of the projectors are widely distributed.
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