Alan_Smithee_

Alan_Smithee_ t1_iyf96gp wrote

Reply to comment by trailercock in TIL The inventor of the television was a 15 year old farm boy who got the idea for scanning an image in rows from the back and forth motion of plowing a field. by chapstickninja

Nonsense.

Baird based his television on the work of Paul Nipkow, a German scientist who patented his ideas for a complete television system in 1884. Nipkow likewise used a rotating disk with holes in it to scan images, but he never achieved more than the crudest of shadowy pictures. Various inventors worked to develop this idea, and Baird was the first to achieve easily discernible images. In 1928, Baird made the first overseas broadcast from London to New York over phone lines and in the same year demonstrated the first color television.

So many inventors and scientists had been discussing the concept for years.

Farnsworth is credited as developing the first fully electronic system.

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Alan_Smithee_ t1_iyeshto wrote

Reply to comment by Hawkeye_x_Hawkeye in TIL The inventor of the television was a 15 year old farm boy who got the idea for scanning an image in rows from the back and forth motion of plowing a field. by chapstickninja

Not at all.

He didn’t invent television; it was invented by Baird.

He came up with a new and improved approach, which became the standard.

But Farnsworth was himself screwed over by David Sarnoff of RCA.

Amazing how US technological history is so full of tales like that.

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Alan_Smithee_ t1_iyerxp0 wrote

Reply to TIL The inventor of the television was a 15 year old farm boy who got the idea for scanning an image in rows from the back and forth motion of plowing a field. by chapstickninja

He didn’t invent television; he came up with the electronic line scan system that eventually became the standard, but he received very little compensation for it.

He came up with the idea from the furrows after his teacher talked about the issues TV developers were trying to overcome.

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