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VOICE ONE:
I’m Phoebe Zimmermann.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA SpecialEnglish. Today we tell about a man who made possible one of the mostimportant communications devices ever created — television. Hisname was Philo Farnsworth.
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VOICE ONE:
In nineteen-sixty-nine, American astronaut Neil Armstrong climbeddown the side of the space vehicle that had taken him to the moon.
As his foot touched the surface of the moon, pictures of theevent were sent back to televisions on Earth. The pictures were notvery good. It was hard to see astronaut Armstrong clearly. Thesurface of the moon was extremely bright. And the moon landervehicle created a very dark, black shadow. But the quality of thetelevision pictures was not important.
Every man, woman and child who saw the television picturesunderstood they were watching an important event. They were watchinghistory take place as it was happening many hundreds of thousands ofkilometers away.
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For a few minutes, the poor quality television pictures capturedthe imagination of millions of people throughout the world. Expertsbelieve about six-hundred-million people around the world watched asNeil Armstrong stepped from the space vehicle to the surface of themoon.
In the years since then, people around the world have shared inmany events. Television has made it possible for people in distantplaces to share a single experience.
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A television system changes light and sound waves from a movingpicture into electronic signals that travel through the air. Thesignals are changed back into sound and pictures in a televisionreceiver.
Scientists in Britain, Germany, France, Japan, the former SovietUnion and the United States all made important discoveries that ledto the development of modern television. Yet it was a young boyliving on an American farm who was the first person to invent anddesign what became television. He first thought of the idea of anelectronic television when he was only fourteen years old. His namewas Philo Taylor Farnsworth.
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Philo Farnsworth was born on August Nineteenth, Nineteen Oh-Six,near Indian Creek in the western state of Utah. The house he livedin for the first few years of his life had no electric power. ButPhilo read about electricity. He was very excited when his familymoved to a new house in Idaho that had electric power. He quicklybegan to experiment with electricity. He built an electric motorwhen he was twelve. Then he built the first electric washing machinefor clothes that his family had ever owned.
Philo Farnsworth attended a very small school near his family’sfarm. He did very well in school. He asked his teacher for specialhelp in science. The teacher began helping Philo learn a great dealmore than most young students could understand.
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One night, Philo read a magazine story about the idea of sendingpictures and sound through the air. Anyone with a device that couldreceive this electronic information could watch the pictures. Themagazine story said some of the world’s best scientists were workingon the idea. It said these scientists were using special machines totry to make a kind of device to send pictures. The story made Philothink.
Fourteen-year-old Philo decided these famous scientists werewrong. He decided that mechanical devices would never work. Theycould never be made to move fast enough to clearly capture andreproduce an electronic picture sent through the air.
Philo decided that such a device would have to be electronic, notmechanical. Philo knew electrons could be made to move extremelyfast. All he would have to do was find a way to make electrons dothe work.
Very quickly Philo had an idea for such a receiver. It would traplight in a container and send the light on a line of electrons.Philo called it “light in a bottle.”
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Several days later, Philo told his teacher about a device thatcould capture pictures. He drew a plan for it that he gave histeacher. Philo’s drawing seems very simple. But it still clearlyshows the information needed to build a television. In fact, alltelevision equipment today still uses Philo’s early idea. Philo’steacher was Justin Tolman. Many years later Philo would say MisterTolman guided his imagination and opened the doors of science forhim.
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VOICE ONE:
Philo Farnsworth had to solve several problems before he couldproduce a working television system. One was that he was onlyfourteen years old. He knew no one would listen to a child. In fact,experts say that probably only ten scientists in the world at thattime could have understood his idea.
Philo also had no money to develop his ideas. His idea for aworking television would have to wait. After only two years of highschool, Philo entered Brigham Young University in Utah. But he didnot finish his education. He was forced to leave school when hisfather died.
Philo did not give up his idea for creating a television. Hebegan serious work on it when he moved to San Francisco, Californiaa few years later. He was twenty-one years old.
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On September Seventh, Nineteen-Twenty-Seven, Philo turned on adevice that was the first working television receiver. In anotherroom was the first television camera. Philo had invented the specialcamera tube earlier that year.
The image produced on the receiver was not very clear, but thedevice worked. Within a few months, Philo Farnsworth had foundseveral people who wanted to invest money in his invention.
In August, Nineteen-Thirty, the United States government gavePhilo patent documents. These would protect his invention from beingcopied by others.
Very soon, however, several other inventors claimed they hadinvented a television device. One of these inventors, VladimirZworykin, worked for the powerful Radio Corporation of America. TheR-C-A company began legal action against Philo Farnsworth. It saidMister Zworykin had invented his device in the Nineteen-Twenties.The big and powerful R-C-A claimed that it, not the small PhiloFarnsworth Television Company, had the right to produce, develop andmarket television.
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The legal action between R.C.A and the Farnsworth companycontinued for several years. R.C.A. proved that Mister Zworykin didmake a mechanical television device. But it could not demonstratethat the device worked.
At the same time, R.C.A. claimed that Mister Farnsworth hadproduced his television image tube after Mister Zworykin haddeveloped his. When Mister Farnsworth said he had developed the ideamuch earlier, R.C.A. said it was impossible for a fourteen-year-oldboy to produce the idea for a television device. Companyrepresentatives said Mister Farnsworth was not even a scientist. Hehad never finished college.
R.C.A. said Philo Farnsworth should be forced to prove he hadinvented the television image tube. Philo could not prove heinvented it. But his high school teacher could. In court, JustinTolman produced the drawing that Philo had made for him many yearsbefore as a student. At that moment, the legal experts for R.C.A.knew they had lost.
Philo Farnsworth won the legal action and the right to own theinvention of television. However, he did not have the money orsupport to build a television industry. It was the Nineteen-Fiftiesbefore television became a major force in American life. VladimirZworykin and David Sarnoff, the head of R.C.A., became the namesconnected with the new industry.
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Philo Farnsworth continued to invent more than one-hundreddevices that helped make modern television possible. He alsodeveloped early radar, invented the first electronic microscope, andworked on developing peaceful uses of atomic energy. In his lastyears, Mister Farnsworth became a strong critic of television. Hedid not like most of the programs shown on television. Yet, as hewatched Neil Armstrong’s first step on the moon, Mister Farnsworthknew the event clearly showed the power of his invention.
Philo Farnsworth died in March, Nineteen-Seventy-One. Today, astatue of him stands in the United States Capitol. He is consideredone of the most important inventors of the twentieth century.
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VOICE ONE:
This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced byLawan Davis. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week for People in Americain VOA Special English.