Invention of Television

Have you ever thought that the magical machine, which we know today as television, how did it come into existence? How did such an invention happen, which changed the way we live, think and entertain the world? Come, I will take you on that wonderful journey, where science and imagination together wrote the story of television. A story in which, from mechanical discs to electronic screens, many scientists' efforts and years of research are hidden behind it. Some interesting events are hidden in this journey, which made this revolutionary machine an integral part of our lives.

So, let's know the exciting story of the invention of television. In the decades of 1940s and 50s, when television came to us for the first time, it dramatically changed the way we live our lives. The new technique of television has progressed continuously from decade to decade.

In the 1960s, colourful television was introduced. After that, in the 70s, cable television, in the 80s, VCR, and at the end of the 90s, high definition. Whereas, in the 21st century, viewers are not only watching on TV sets, but also on smartphones, laptops and tablets.

It is surprising that all these technological changes are basically an improvement of a fundamental system, which has been working since the 1930s, and whose roots go even before that. The credit of the invention of television cannot be given to just one person. This thought existed when there was no necessary technique to turn it into reality.

Many scientists and engineers made small contributions, which were based on each other, and finally that technique developed, which we know today as TV. The origin of television can be traced back to the 1830s and 40s. When Samuel F. B. Morse developed the telegraph, which was such a system, through which messages could be sent by means of wires, in the form of beeping sounds.

In 1876, as the telephone of Alexander Graham Bell, another important step was taken, which made it possible to send the human voice to a long distance through wires. It was a revolutionary invention. Graham Bell and Thomas Edison both thought about the possibility of such devices, which could send pictures along with sounds.

But in the direction of the development of television technology, another important step was taken by a German researcher. In 1884, Paul Nipkow developed a mechanism to send pictures through wires, He called it an electronic telescope. But it was basically the initial form of mechanical television.

This mechanism later became the foundation of modern television. With cathode ray tubes, television became electronic. In the early 1900s, Russian physicist Boris Rosing and Scottish engineer Alan Archibald Campbell Swinton tried to improve Nipkow's mechanism independently.

They started using cathode ray tubes instead of spinning discs, which was first developed by German physicist Karl Braun. Swinton's mechanism, in which cathode ray tubes were placed in both the camera and receiver, was basically the first full electronic television system. Russian engineer Vladimir Zorokin, who had previously worked as Rosing's assistant, went to America after the Russian Revolution.

In 1923, when Zorokin was working in the Pittsburgh and Westinghouse Manufacturing Company, he entered his first television patent for Inoscope. This was a new technique to use cathode ray tubes to transmit pictures. This mechanism played an important role in the development of modern electronic television.

John Baird and the first television demonstration Meanwhile, Scottish engineer John Baird gave the first real television demonstration in front of 50 scientists in the central part of London in 1927. With this new discovery, Baird founded the Baird Television Development Company and broadcasted the first transatlantic television between London and New York in 1928. He also sent a TV signal to a ship in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.

John Baird is also credited with exhibiting the first colorful and stereoscopic television. In 1929, Zorokin presented his important electronic television system at a meeting of radio engineers. David Sarnoff was also a member of the Radio Corporation of America.

RCA was the largest broadcasting company in America at that time. Sarnoff was born in a poor Jewish family in Minsk, Russia, and he came to New York City as a child. He started his career as a telegraph operator.

On the night of the Titanic accident, Sarnoff was on duty. He later claimed that he had coordinated emergency messages. Although there is no evidence of this, he certainly helped to spread the name of the survivors.

The contribution of scientists such as Baird and Zorokin played an important role in developing television. David Sarnoff was one of the first people to see that, like radio, television is also a means of entertainment and communication. In 1930, when he was appointed president of RCA, he employed Vladimir Zorokin to develop and improve television technology.

Meanwhile, an American inventor, Philo Farnsworth, was working on his own television system. Farnsworth, who grew up on a farm in Utah, had invented the idea of a vacuum tube in the classroom of chemical engineering in Kishora. This tube could divide images into lines and broadcast those lines to convert them into images.

At the age of 21 in 1927, Farnsworth developed the first fully electronic television system Soon he had to deal with a long legal dispute with RCA, in which it was claimed that Zorokin's 1923 patent should be prioritized over Farnsworth's inventions. In 1934, the American Patent Office ruled in Farnsworth's favor. It also had the help of an old high school teacher who had kept an important drawing of the young inventor.

Finally, Sarnoff had to pay Farnsworth a licensing fee of $ 1 million. Although many historians consider Farnsworth to be the creator of true television, he did not make much profit from his invention. He had to face lawsuits on patent appeals again and again by RCA.

Later, Farnsworth did research in many other fields and died in 1971. By the time he died, he was in a lot of debt. Farnsworth's story is the story of an inventor who had changed the technology of television.

But due to major corporate struggles and legal disputes, he did not get the proper credit and profits. BBC started broadcasting the world's first regular television in 1936. David Sarnoff used his company RCA's marketing power to introduce the American public to television at the World Fair in New York City in 1949.

Under RCA's Broadcasting Division National Broadcasting Company, NBC, Sarnoff broadcasted the opening ceremonies of the fair including the speech of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This step was an important turn in the direction of making television an important part of American life. By 1940, only a few hundred television sets were in use in America.

Until then, radio was very popular. More than 80% of American homes had radio. Television use gradually increased and by the mid-1940s, 23 TV stations were operating in America.

And this number was increasing. By the 1950s, television had actually entered the mainstream. As the number of consumers increased, new stations were built and more programs began to be broadcast.

Television travel in India began in 1969 when Doordarshan took a small experimental broadcast in Delhi. This broadcast began with the help of UNESCO and was initially focused on educational and agricultural programs. In 1965, Doordarshan began regular TV broadcasts, but at that time it was limited only to Delhi.

Television spread in the 1970s, especially between 1975 and 1976, when SITE, i.e. Satellite Instructional Television, began. The purpose of this program was to broadcast many programs for education and social improvement in rural India. After this, Doordarshan quickly began to expand to various parts of the country.

In 1982, a major technological change took place in India when colourful TV began on the occasion of Asian Games. This was a big step to increase the popularity of television. With this, television quickly became popular in Indian homes.

In this decade, Doordarshan started broadcasting its popular programs like Ramayana, Mahabharata, Buniyad and Hum Log, which proved to be a milestone in the history of Indian television. In the 1990s, the image of television in India completely changed. In the 1990s, cable TV was introduced and many private channels such as Zee TV, Star Plus, Sony TV took hold of Indian television.

Now viewers had many options for entertainment. With this, news channels also developed rapidly. After the year 2000, digital television began in India.

DTH, i.e. Direct to Home Services, further increased the reach of television in the whole country.