6.2 SMALL SCREEN A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SMALL SCREEN A long delivery The desire to transmit images was stimulated both by the ability to carry sound on the telephone, invented in 1876, and by advances in photography and cinematography. Television took a long time to reach maturity, as it required the technology to broadcast as well as receive images, along with the cooperation of government and commercial interests to coordinate the supply of programming. Therefore, the small screen has many fathers, because it wasn’t invented by one person only. The birth P. Nipkow – first design: disk with 24 holes through it in the shape of a spiral which was in a light source to produce a pattern of images on a photosensitive cell. K.F. Braun – invention of the cathode ray tube. B. Rosing (Russia) – building of a mechanical scanner and a cathode-ray-tube receiver which his student Zworkyn, having emigrated to America, transformed into the Kinescope. J.L. Baird – first “low-definition” television and broadcasting experiments with British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) radio transmitters. 1884: patented spun 1897: 1907: 1929: 1 MORE In 1927, Baird transmitted a signal over 705 km of telephone line between London and Glasgow. 1 World War II In England and Germany television broadcasting was run by companies affiliated with the government. British broadcasting switched from Baird’s mechanical system to an all-electronic system in 1936, but stopped broadcasting entirely in 1939 after the of WW II. For a time during the war, the German government made use of television for propaganda purposes , while in the United States, television was promoted for commercial interests and in Europe, full-scale commercial television broadcasting only began in 1947. outbreak 1 DO What sporting event did the Germans broadcast in 1936? 1 Modern Television Though the War stopped the expansion of television, the intensive research into electronic systems during the period led to of technology. Work on radar screens, for example, benefited cathode-ray tube design, and circuits able to operate at higher frequencies were developed. Also, two radical innovations were further going to change the history of television: the arrival of colour and the introduction of digital technology. enhancements 2 MORE All-electronic colour was introduced in the U.S. in 1953 but high prices and the scarcity of colour programming greatly slowed its acceptance in the marketplace. The first national colour broadcast occurred on January 1, 1954 with the Tournament of Roses Parade. 2