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By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor
October 3, 2003
This week, we revisit last week's column and find out who else invented television.
In last week's Surfin', I wrote that Philo T. Farnsworth had invented electronic television. A few days later, Rich Gelber, K2WR, e-mailed me regarding that assertion:
"I have to take issue, slightly, with your description of Philo Farnsworth as 'the' inventor of electronic television.
"The subject, as you're probably aware, is extremely controversial in scientific circles, and the only thing that seems to be certain and universally accepted is that a number of people made significant contributions to the invention of television.
"Vladimir Zworykin invented the iconoscope and kinescope tubes and was working on many of the same concepts at the same time as Farnsworth. Lee DeForest made very important contributions. Finally, not to forget our British friends, John Logie Baird would be regarded by most in the UK and much of the rest of the world as the 'inventor' of television even though his system was partly mechanical (I do note that you used the description 'electronic television.').
 The Wikipedia web site is a free, on-line encyclopedia written collaboratively by its readers. It includes information on another "inventor" of television, Vladimir Zworykin. |
"I am not taking sides in this debate, although I tend to lean more towards the Zworykin camp. I never answer the question 'Who invented television?' with just one name, since (a) we don't really know exactly and (b) the correct answer probably includes several names.
"When you describe anyone, including Farnsworth, as 'the' inventor, you disregard the existence of a serious historical controversy that is simply not resolved and may never be, although there certainly are people who believe exactly what you said."
I thank Rich Gelber, K2WR, for his take on the inventors of television and direct readers to these Web sites for further illumination on this topic:
For information concerning the pioneering days of television, visit to the MZTV Museum of Television and the historytv.net Web sites.
For information concerning Vladimir Zworykin, try the Wikipedia and IEEE History Center Web sites.
One more thing: Philo T. Farnsworth was not the individual behind the Farnsworth method of sending Morse Code. That honor belongs to Donald R. "Russ" Farnsworth, W6TTB. As the ARRL Web site explains:
"The Farnsworth timing came from the late Donald R. 'Russ' Farnsworth, W6TTB, who in the late 1950s asked Bart Bartlett, W6OWP, to help him prepare some tapes for a code course he had developed. Farnsworth's unique method of instruction was to maintain the code speed at a constant 13 WPM throughout the course, but starting with simple text and increasing the complexity of the text material as the course progressed. (excerpt from the April 1988 QST "Correspondence" column). He later went on to create Epsilon Records, which sold a CW learning system on long-playing records."
Until next time, keep on surfin'.
Editor's note:
Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, resides in downtown Wolcott, Connecticut, and has been a QST writer for more than 25 years. Since
getting his ticket in 1969, Stan has sampled nearly every entrée in the Amateur
Radio menu--including a stint as Connecticut Section Manager--but he keeps
coming back to his favorite preoccupations: VHF and packet radio. As a result,
he runs a 2-meter APRS digipeater and weather station (WA1LOU-15) from his
mountaintop location in central Connecticut. A long time advocate of using
computers with Amateur Radio, Stan wrote programs to dupe contests and
calculate antenna bearings back in 1978. Today, he is on the board of directors
of Tucson Amateur Packet Radio (TAPR) and uses his Mac to surf the Internet
searching for that perfect ham radio Web page. Readers may contact Stan Horzepa via e-mail.
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