# History trivia: Philo T. Farnsworth and the television



## littlemissattitude (Sep 8, 2003)

On September 7, 1927, in San Francisco, California, Philo T. Farnsworth transmitted the first television image from one location to another.  When he did so, he brought to fruition the idea that had first occurred to him at the age of 14.  It is said that the idea came to him while he was tilling a potato field in his native Utah.

Where would we be without him?  Do you think he did us all a favor?  Or would we be better off without television?

For more information on Philo T. Farnsworth, see:

http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/farnsworth03.html


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## Brian G Turner (Sep 8, 2003)

Now that is possibly quite odd - over here in the UK we are taught that John Logie Baird was the inventor of television.

For example:



> John Logie Baird is the Scottish inventor who obtained the world's first real television picture in his laboratory in October, 1925, and demonstrated it to the British public on January 26, 1926. The image obtained was a small 30-line vertically-scanned red and black image, but it was television. Mechanical television based on Baird's systems dominated international television for the next few years into the early 30's



Or is this splitting hairs?

You have heard of Baird over there, haven't you?


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## littlemissattitude (Sep 8, 2003)

No, actually.  At least I haven't.

There were apparently several claims of precedence over the invention of television broadcasting.  The article I posted the link to talks about a huge fight between Farnsworth and RCA over who should actually be granted the patent here in the States.  Or, actually, RCA did most of the arguing, but due to documentation (Farnsworth had made drawings very early that matched his invention as it eventually worked almost exactly)Farnsoworth was granted the patent.

This is actually a fairly common occurrence, I think.  I've read many accounts of different individuals coming up with the same idea or innovation completely independently at about the same time.


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## dwndrgn (Sep 8, 2003)

Shows how uneducated I am - haven't heard of either of them.  'course now I'll have to do some research...


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## Brian G Turner (Sep 8, 2003)

What I found interesting was the dates - Baird still beats Farnsworth by a year, according to the site I spuriously quoted from.

Interesting - although I'd heard of spats over who did which what thing where first, I never realised there was contention over the TV.

I learned something!


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