John Logie Baird: Encyclopedia II - John Logie Baird - Television experiments

John Logie Baird - Television experiments

In his first attempts to invent television, Baird experimented with the Nipkow disk and demonstrated that a semi-mechanical analogue television system was possible with the transmission of a static image of a ventriloquist's dummy in London in February 1924. This early system was highly primitive—images were difficult to view and transmitted only in shades of brown. On 30 October 1925 the first moving image was transmitted—the now famous grainy image of a ventriloquists dummy's head. Baird later transmitted the image of a local boy he had paid to take part in his experiments to a crowd of onlookers. Although the development of television was the result of work by many inventors (including Baird, Paul Gottlieb Nipkow and Boris Rosing; see Television: History), Baird is one of its foremost pioneers. He is generally credited with being the first person to produce a discernible image on a television screen, and went on to produce other advances in the field. Hastings, in East Sussex, UK, claims to be the 'Birthplace of Television' as it was there he was living for health reasons when he did much of his research work into his televisor… even blowing up a laboratory in the town centre in the process! Hastings would claim to be the place where television was first actually perfected and demonstrated.

John Logie Baird - First public demonstration

The first public demonstration was in the Selfridges department store in London. The system was also demonstrated to the Royal Institution and a reporter from The Times on January 26, 1926 in the Soho district of London.

John Logie Baird - Broadcasting

In 1927 Baird transmitted a signal over 438 miles of telephone line between London and Glasgow. He then set up the Baird Television Development Company Ltd, which in 1928 made the first transatlantic television transmission from London to Hartsdale, New York and also made the first television programme for the BBC. He televised the first live transmission of the Epsom Derby in 1931.

From 1929 onwards, the BBC broadcasted television programs using the Baird system, alternating the broadcasts with Marconi's broadcasts of electronic scanning system television signals during the 1930s. This setup continued until the company ceased broadcasts with the Baird system, much to Baird's protest, in 1937.

Eventually, due to its many shortcomings, Baird's mechanical television system was replaced by the electronic television system described by A.A. Campbell-Swinton and later developed by Philo T. Farnsworth and Vladimir Zworykin.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Television experiments", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki