Seen this before?

[Steve Anderson]

I just happened to trip across this...

http://www.terramedia.co.uk/documents/b ... evisor.htm

and this..

http://www.bairdtelevision.com/

Thanks Stephen for that one...

and this...

http://www.mztv.com/newframe.asp?conten ... baird.html

also this...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_f ... ogie.shtml

...and lastly this...

http://www.virtualscotland.co.uk/scotla ... -baird.htm

..well, one more...

http://www.tvdawn.com/tvimage.htm

Steve A.

[Viewmaster]

Thanks for those Steve...have you ever seen this record of Betty Bolton on NBTV in the 30's? Weird site as you have to scroll down the page to see the write up and then click again to see m ore of that recording.

http://www.laputanlogic.com/articles/20 ... -6626.html

Albert.

[Klaas Robers]

The Betty Bolton sequence can also be seen at the NBTV.ORG pages:
1. Choose "Web Links"
2. Click on "Don McLean"
Then a page with several moving sequences that Don extracted from the 78rpm records, is shown. One of them is the Bety Bolton scene.

[Steve Anderson]

Now here's a contentious one...

http://www.hawestv.com/mtv_baird_not/mtv_baird_not.htm

..as is the whole site in general!...

http://www.hawestv.com/

I'm making a run for it!!

Steve A.

[Viewmaster]

Now here's a contentious one...

http://www.hawestv.com/mtv_baird_not/mtv_baird_not.htm

..as is the whole site in general!...

http://www.hawestv.com/

I'm making a run for it!!

Steve A.

Better run fast as the site owner is a member of NBTVA and may even be watching your comments on this forum!
Albert.

[Stephen]

Now here's a contentious one...

http://www.hawestv.com/mtv_baird_not/mtv_baird_not.htm

Thanks, Steve. A web page like this gets me going.

Sometimes it gets down to what the term "invention" means. Does it mean the conception of something without any reduction to practise? Is it still an invention if the conception on its face is unworkable without unobvious changes or additions? Most patent offices would say that an invention would have to be able to work as described in the patent or with minimal experimentation of one skilled in the art at the time of filing.

Some will claim that Paul Nipkow is the inventor of television since he acquired a patent for a sequential picture element scanning and transmission system in 1884. It is a very important principle of analysing and reconstructing picture elements, but the system did not work and could not work as described in the patent. Furthermore, it was unworkable with any amount of experimentation of one skilled in the art at the time.

John Logie Baird did accomplish this feat first, and he did it with many unobvious and patented techniques, most of which television signals still use today and some of which overcame the limitations of equipment available at the time. He generated a pulse-amplitude modulated optical signal with an optical chopper that forced the sluggish photocells of the time to respond to individual picture elements and amplified the detected signal with a new video peaking amplifier that sharpened shaped the detected pulses. This allowed true grey scale picture transmission. He developed embedded video synchronising signal generation and detection systems for allowing a video signal to include both picture and synchronisation information so separate channels would not be necessary for picture and sync. All of these patents are in the Patents and Articles section of the forum.

It is interesting that whilst Guglielmo Marconi generally receives credit as the inventor or father of radio unconditionally, John Logie Baird often receives credit for the first to demonstrate "mechanical" television and no more. This is true even though Mr Baird developed high-definition, 3-D and colour television to a high degree throughout his life and in fact demontrated the first colour cathode ray tube, another patented device. Yet Mr Marconi's contribution was limited to damped-wave wireless telegraphy by spark means that was totally unsuitable for radio or television communication as we know it. Continous-wave signal generation and signal modulation techniques were the invention of others.

It seems to me that John Logie Baird is the fundamental inventor or father of television without any sort of conditions. The various "answers" to the questions on the web page are somewhat confusing, in my opinion. For instance, to suggest that Alexander Bain invented synchronisation that would be suited or adaptable for television in 1843 is hard to accept.

[Viewmaster]

[It seems to me that John Logie Baird is the fundamental inventor or father of television without any sort of conditions. The various "answers" to the questions on the web page are somewhat confusing, in my opinion. For instance, to suggest that Alexander Bain invented synchronisation that would be suited or adaptable for television in 1843 is hard to accept.

But Bain did use a synchronised pendulum in his fax system and although not connected directly with TV it was true sync where remote items are kept working together. So who can say whether or not this Bain idea was known to future inventors and so helped them go forward?

Maybe too, Bain got his sync idea for example, from watching children on a see saw.......where remote items move in sync, albeit 180 degree out of phase!

Albert.

[Stephen]

But Bain did use a synchronised pendulum in his fax system and although not connected directly with TV it was true sync where remote items are kept working together. So who can say whether or not this Bain idea was known to future inventors and so helped them go forward?

Mr Bain did demonstrate the first working facsimile system and deserves unconditional recognition as the inventor of facsimile even though it changed much in form from what we use today. I agree that Mr Bain recognised the need for synchronisation in his facsimile system and showed the world that it was possible to remotely synchronise machines in a fashion. However, I would argue that any attempt to use a pendulum system as Mr Bain demonstrated, or for that matter any open-loop harmonic resonance system, for television system synchronisation would have been a fruitless distraction and retarded the progress of any television experimenter.

[Steve Anderson]

Better run fast as the site owner is a member of NBTVA and may even be watching your comments on this forum!
Albert.

I meant contentious in the sense of it stirring things up, which it obviously has! I just lit the fuse and ran! I don't agree or otherwise with the contents of the site as I'm no expert when it comes to history. I would be totally out of my depth.

Steve A.