If you’ve ever watched television — and it would be a rare individual nowadays who hasn’t — make a note that today, August 19, is the birthday of Philo Farnsworth, who invented the first all-electronic television system (including a camera) in the 1930s.
Farnsworth was born in 1906 in Utah, in the US. When he was 12 the family moved from their log cabin to a ranch, where to Philo’s delight he found that the house was wired for electricity and had a generator. The generator was like all the other ones in 1918, which is to say it wasn’t very reliable. But that wasn’t a problem with Philo around; he figured it out in no time and fixed it. Since they had electricity, he even built an electric motor and converted his mother’s manual washing machine to power. Even better, he discovered a stack of technology magazines in the attic of his new house, and submitted a design for a magnetized lock for a car — and won $25 for it. It was his first commercial invention.
By high school he was deeply interested in electronics, and even thinking about building television systems. He sketched out some of his ideas for his science teacher, and one of the sketches even became an exhibit in a patent infringement case years later.
The elder Farnsworth died in 1924 and Philo, as the oldest, took responsibility for the family finances even though he was still in high school. After graduating he applied to the US Naval Academy, earning the second-highest score in the country on the admission test. He joined up, but when he found out that if he invented anything while in the Navy, the government would own the patent. So he invoked a rule that the oldest child in a family could be excused from the military to provide for the family if the father had died. He went back home and enrolled in Brigham Young University. When they said he couldn’t attend their advanced science classes until he passed all the prerequisites, he attended them anyway. He apparently got what he needed before long, because he didn’t finish college.
Instead, he started a radio repair business in Salt Lake City. The business closed, but Farnsworth met two wealthy philanthropists and convinced them to fund his television research. They granted him $6000, which was enough to set up a lab — he moved to Berkeley, California to get started. He applied for his first patents in just a few months, and by 1928 the system was working well enough to hold a press conference and demonstration. His investors had begun to ask when they were going to see some returns, so the first image Farnsworth transmitted was a dollar sign. By 1929 he was transmitting live images of people.
Farnsworth didn’t invent television itself, but his system was the first to be all electronic with no motor-driven spinning disks or the like. RCA was working on a similar system, and there were several battles over patents. Farnsworth prevailed, and RCA paid him royalties. Farnsworth’s company was transmitting scheduled entertainment shows on TV by 1936, and Farnsworth himself moved on to invent a way to sterilize milk using radio waves as well as an early form of radar. And keep in mind, by 1936 he was just 30.
Farnsworth’s company was acquired by International Telephone and Telegraph in 1951, and Farnsworth — who by then was quite wealthy — just set up a new lab in a basement. He continued to work on radar systems, devices to detect submarines, and if you’ve ever seen a depiction of an air traffic control room with airplanes showing up as blips on a circular screen, Farnsworth invented that, too.
He got interested in nuclear fusion and invented the fusor, a tube that actually creates a fusion reaction. The reaction only lasts a short time, but one byproduct is that fusor tubes generate neutrons — they’re still used for that reason, mostly in formulating medical isotopes. ITT cancelled his fusion research because of the expense, so Farnsworth quit and moved back to Salt Lake City, where Brigham Young University gave him an honorary degree and offered him his own lab. Evidently they decided he’d satisfied all the prerequisites. His health deteriorated, though, and he passed away from pneumonia in 1971. He held 300 patents, and invented electronic TV — but only once appeared on TV himself. It was in 1957 on the quiz show I’ve Got a Secret. His secret was, of course, that he had invented TV. But at the time this wasn’t widely recognized, and he stumped the panel, which meant he won the game. His winnings amounted to $80 and a carton of cigarettes (hey, it was 1957). He reportedly was never sure that TV had even been a worthwhile idea, but changed his mind after seeing video — created using his system — from the original moon landing.
