The Father Of Television

[happyfilmluvguy]

This Sunday, a baby was born in Beaver, Utah, under the name Philo. Throughout life Philo developed an early interest in electronics, starting with a conversation on the telephone and technology magazines. Little did he know what he would eventually become and help create. Though Philo was not the first to experiment such devices as an "image pickup device", but he was the first to perfect it. The invention lives on in every home in the world, even though he died in 1971.

Here's Philo,

and here's what he helped invent. Got one?

 

[MrNewportCustom]

So, this is the man I can thank for the flat screen LCD I'm watching right now.


Lee
_________________________

Thank you, Philo. Your device shows me the world.

 

[Flivver]

Philo T. Farnsworth, the *true* father of cathode ray television.

My first old radio (at age 15) was a 1939 Fansworth AT-50 that belonged to my grandfather. It was made by the Farnsworth Radio&Television Corp in Indiana. Unfortunately, most of the output of this company was radios, not televisions. Mr. Farnsworth came up against the behemoth that was RCA...and lost. Several years ago, PBS did a great program on Farnsworth, and his battle with RCA. This is another unfortunate case of money and power winning out over intellect. Kind of sad.

 

[Bebop]

Philo looks very much like Kelsey Grammar, T.V.'s Frasier.

 

[Fletch]

Hmm...I see him as a young Willem Dafoe, or perhaps a skinny Matt Damon.

Michael Ritchie, the late director, planned a film about Phil for years and finally gave up, claiming there was "no story." That says more about Ritchie than about Farnsworth.

From Modern Mechanix ("Yesterday's Tomorrow, Today!"), a bunch of neat stuff about Farnsworth Television, which, along with tv in general, was "Ready for the Public" for years before the industry was ready to sell it to the public.

 

[Flivver]

Fletch...thanks for posting the article from MI. I had never seen it before.

 

[dhermann1]

Supposedly he got the idea for scanning from watching a farmer plowing his field, back and forth, row by row. I believe a Russian developed the idea almost simultaneously, but Farnsworth developed it more fully.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Useless trivia: the character of Professor Farnsworth on Futurama was named in his honor.