Entries categorized as ‘Television History’
George Carlin — 1937-2008
George Carlin, whose routine “Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television” led to a key Supreme Court ruling on obscenity, has died. Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, went into St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon, June 22, 2008, complaining of chest pain and died later that evening. -33-
“Words are all we have, really. We have thoughts, but thoughts are fluid. And then we assign a word to a thought, and then we’re stuck with a word for that thought, so be careful with words.”
- George Carlin
Categories: Green Room · Television History
TV’s Inventor on TV
The only on-air tribute Dr. Philo T. Farnsworth ever received from the industry he helped to create was on a segment of the popular game show “I’ve Got A Secret.”
In 1957, Dr. Farnsworth was interviewed by Host, Garry Moore after his “secret” of “Inventing Electronic Television at the age of 14″ was revealed to the panel of four and the studio audience.
For stumping the panel this great man walked away with the show’s prize – A carton of cigarettes and $80.00 Cash.
In a remarkable prediction Dr. Farnsworth laid out his vision for the future of electronic television. His discussion was not only awe inspiring it was made over fifty years before technology caught up and produced such devices.
His delivery was like the mouse that roared as he explained in a humble, quiet, educated voiced what he envisioned for the future.
2000 Lines Of Resolution!
Dr. Farnsworth said — “In television we are attempting first to make better utilization of the bandwidth[1], because we think we can eventually get in excess of two-thousand lines instead of five hundred and twenty five[2] and do it on even narrower channel if possibly than we are doing present television[3], which will make for a much sharper picture.”
Flat Panel Displays and Memory Storage
Dr. Farnsworth continued — “We believe in a “Picture Frame” type of a picture where the visual display will be just a screen[4] and we hope for a memory so the picture will be just pasted on there[5] and many improvements will result in the camera when you use such devices because there is part of the scene that you can remember and you practically have a memory file of it and will simplify production of it.”[6]
Dr. Farnsworth foresaw all of this in 1957:
- [1]Utilization of less bandwidth
- [2]High Definition Television
- [3]Refined transmission frequencies
- [4]Flat Panel Displays
- [5]Perhaps even a glimpse into digital photography
- [6]Memory storing cameras (Still Store, Instant Replay)
We finally caught up with his vision. -33-
Categories: Green Room · Television History
As you crank up your 500 watt surround sound amplifiers and digitally tuned, 96″, 1080 line, progressive scan, high definition television receiver and sink into your favorite movie or show, think back to September 7, 1927 for just a moment and maybe raise a glass in toast to a driven, young inventor who created one of the greatest devices of our age.
EIGHTY YEARS AGO
It was eighty years ago today that a young scientist and inventor, Philo Taylor Farnsworth transmitted the image of a straight line from one empty tube to another empty tube. The technical wonder named television was born that day . -33-
Categories: Television History
The first posting on Televising The Revolution is a look back and a flash-forward at the same time. It might seem that television has come full circle since its humble beginnings.
Spinning Wheels
Mechanical scanning disc television sets were presented to the public in 1928. This is the earliest reference found on a commercially made television set. Production was low, in the dozens of sets, but the mechanical scanning disc system and later, in 1934, a rotating mirror drum based set ushered in the new era of television.
[1] When color television came into play in the 1950s there was a spinning wheel that “dissected” the colors into Red, Green and Blue components. This was the CBS system known as the RX-40 Converter.
The color wheel that was a major component of the RX-40 converter was mounted in front of a black and white set. When the viewer was watching a program broadcast in Black and White the color wheel would move sideways out of the visual path. Color mode brought the wheel in front of the picture tube to allow for color viewing. As you might imagine, synchronization was a real problem. [Author's Note: Thanks to friend and television historian, Martin for sending information on the RX-40 Converter.]
Fast Forward
Today some projection television systems utilize a technology that contains a spinning wheel. This spinning wheel dissects the colors into Red, Green and Blue, which are the basis of all the colors one sees on the screen. If this sounds familiar, it should. Through a process called “Persistence of Vision” the viewer’s eyes and brain pull everything together to see a full-color, moving image, much the same way the brain processes 24 individual still images per second allowing it to see a full motion picture image when viewing a movie.
What is old is new again
Looking back at the 1928 and 1950 spinning disc systems and then forward to the spinning wheels used in today’s technology an interesting question comes to mind–Has television changed since 1928? We can give that question an enthusiastic yes, but it almost seems that some early ideas might have been ahead of their time, especially if we see remnants of yesterday’s methods in today’s equipment. -33-
Addendum [1]: September 6, 2007 – Edited to add information on the CBS RX-40 Converter.
Categories: Television History
