The Race for Television
The idea of TV existed way before it was actually invented. It was the subject of a Tom Swift novel. Cartoonist Albert Robida in France and George Du Maurier in Britain had fun with the idea of television's uses, abuses, and its future effect in the home.

Research was going on in several nations including America, England, Germany, France, Japan, and even the Soviet Union. 

The Inventors of Television
Several inventors over time helped in the creation of the television. Paul Nipkow in Germany invented the Nipkow Disc. The disc rotates in both the camera and the receiver in mechanical television systems. Light passing through the discs created crude television images. This mechanical system was supported by John Logie Baird, Francis Jenkins, & Ernst Alexanderson. 

Other inventors favored an electronic system. Vladimir Zworykin worked at Westinghouse and later RCA. David Sarnoff was head of RCA and was very enthusiastic over the idea of television. He created the first network, NBC.

It was Phil T. Farnsworth who really brought TV from a dream to reality. Farnsworth was a farm boy from Idaho who read Popular Science magazines concerning the potential of mechanical TV. He was into electricity, running the farm's power system. He started thinking about manipulating electrons in a vacuum by a magnetic force which is a basic principle of electronic television. At the young age of 14 years, he got an amazing idea while plowing a field. He looked to see if his field rows were straight. Then he thought "I can scan a picture that way, by taking the dots, the electrons, back and forth as you read a page." He continued to work on his idea of television even after graduating college and getting married. Once, while working at home on the invention, the police thought he was moon shining and almost arrested him. Finally, in 1930 Phil Farnsworth was awarded the patent for electronic television. He worked out a deal with RCA and ended up holding 165 patents. Phil Farnsworth, when he first saw the first man walk on the moon, said "It's been all worthwhile." Sadly he died in 1971.

Television Progress
As TV progressed, prices were high for back then an amazing 57-58 dollars. There was very little on at the time as well. Programming was so bad people could not recognize those on the screen if seen on the street. They looked like a black silhouette. The very first star of television would be Mr. Television himself, Milton Berle, who starred in an experimental TV broadcast in Chicago in 1929, before Phil Farnsworth gained the patent rights. Eventually, a major event got up to a thousand viewers at a time. Boy how times have changed.

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