History of Television - MMC

John Logie Baird

Scottish engineer credited as one of the inventors of television who transmitted the first grayscale image in 1925 using mechanical scanning

First Public Demonstration of TV

John Logie Baird in 1925 London using mechanical scanning

America’s First Transmission (1928)

Station W2XB (later WRGB) in New York broadcasted experimental TV including Felix the Cat test image

BBC’s First Transmission (1930)

Began experimental broadcasts in 1930 and started regular public broadcasts in 1936 for the London area

Impact of BBC’s Early Work

Set a global standard and gave the public its first real experience of television

World War II and Television

1939–1945 halted TV production and broadcasting

Television During the War

Used for propaganda and wartime news with limited audiences

Post-War Television

Production resumed and popularity surged during the economic boom of the 1950s

Mechanical Scanning

Early TV method using rotating disks and light to transmit images

First Television Stations

WRGB in the US and BBC in the UK pioneered regular broadcasts

Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT)

Early display technology projecting electrons onto a fluorescent screen to form images

Summary of Black and White Era

Television grew from experiments to living rooms

First Colour Television Introduction

1950s broadcasts added richer detail and realism

CBS Colour Demonstration (1951)

One of the first public colour TV demos in the US

Baird’s Colour TV Experiments

1930s mechanical scanning with rotating filters

Peter Goldmark’s CBS Colour System (1940)

Electromechanical system using spinning color wheel

Early Colour Programs (1950s)

Included news

Government Support for Colour TV

US government encouraged development for cultural influence

Compact Colour Televisions

Late 1960s smaller and affordable sets made color TV accessible to households

1970s Surge in Colour Popularity

Color became industry standard

Electromechanical Systems

Early systems combining mechanical and electronic parts for color broadcasting

Color Wheel Mechanism

Spinning wheel used to filter colors

Summary of Colour Era

Colour TV transformed viewing with richer visuals