What is Digg?54 Comments
- serra, on 10/12/2007, -2/+37Is this who they named the professor on Futurama after? :)
- Chakz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22Condolences.
- Chakz, on 10/12/2007, -3/+23Yes
- brian6String, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14You can read about the controversy over who invented television here http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae408.cfm
- barcode, on 10/12/2007, -6/+14Are you sure Al Gore didn't invent the Television?
- norbiu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9She's not even on IMDb
This is her husband's page: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0267905/
Spouse
Elma Gardner (27 May 1926 - 11 March 1971) (his death) 4 children
Elma Gardner does not exist on IMDb. - CedanticPunt, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9More 1984-esque rewriting of history?
- cheesedog12345, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Actually, Karl Braun figured out the CRT thing, and Boris Rosing developed a primitive television system using CRT long before Farnsworth. But neither Braun's nore Rosing's innovations led to the modern television, Farnsworth's did. Even the modern LCD or Plasma screen TV would be impossible without Farnsworth's insights. Rosing's device still utilized a Nipkow's spinning discs.
- ironbear, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@sctld, the Image Dissector (which is pretty much a scanning photomultiplier tube) became obsolete fairly fast, and we don't see it in use today. In spite of the brilliant electron multiplier concept which makes the tube usable, it's simply not at all sensitive to light.
Mind you, Farnsworth's a hero of mine and it's great to see him get a lot more credit as a main developer of TV. He was involved in patent litigation with RCA, which borrowed some of his excellent ideas, including the electron multiplier which made tubes like their Image Orthicon sensitive enough to operate by starlight. They ended up paying. There are few tube-based cameras in use these days, so the inventor of modern TV may very well be Bell Labs, inventor of the CCD imager* (further developed by RCA). There are hours of really great interviews with Pem ('Elma Farnsworth') on Google Video, BTW.
*http://www.lucent.com/press/0196/960103.bla.html - tomson, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Baird had a local boy stand in for his broadcast.
- The_Decryptor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I like the fact that it doesn't say that, and you either made it up, or misread the quote.
- mediocreguy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Good news everyone!!
Er..actually I guess it's not. - cheesedog12345, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Sorry, wrong. The USPTO did award patents to Zworykin, but when RCA tried to invalidate Farnsworth's patents, the office found in favor of Farnsworth, and declared him, not RCA and Zworykin, the inventor of television. RCA subsequently licensed Farnsworth's patents, but it was after more than a decade of court battles (instigated by RCA against Farnsworth), and the licensing fees never allowed Farnsworth to climb out of near-destitution.
- wadelindsey, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Oh, so those are the shows *you* are watching these days huh? Great point....
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Can't find a Wikipedia article on her either. Husband:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo_Farnsworth - tigertiger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I think you're confused. That was video, and it killed the radio star, not the TV star.
- cheesedog12345, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Sorry dude, but Baird was preceeded by both Paul Nipkow and Paul Rosing, so the Brits didn't get there first, either.
Add to that the fact that the Baird design never led to the mass produced modern TV (it used spinning discs to reproduce images, for pete's sake!).
Also, note that Baird eventually teamed up with Farnsworth, licensing Philo's patents to try to beat RCA to the british market, and you have a nearly explicit admission by Baird himself that Farnsworth is the father of the modern television.
That's not to say that Baird, Nipkow, or Rosing did bad work or were worthless. Certainly, Farnsworth built on some of their ideas. But it was Farnsworth design that finally allowed a *purely electronic* version of television (like every TV manufactured since then) to be developed. - sctld, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3It doesn't actually say when she appeared on television, but according to wikipedia, it can be deduced that it was some time in 1927, most likely before September 7th. Unfortunately, by September 7th, 1927, many people had appeared on television, including William Taynton on October 2nd 1925, others at the demonstration of the Baird system on January 26th, 1926 to the Royal Institution. In fact, in 1927, the Baird system had successfully transmitted television via telephone wires (a predecessor of the internet, hé), and thirteen days after Farnsworth's demonstration, the Baird system could be recorded onto 78rpm records. The next year was the first broadcast over the Atlantic (Baird system), and the first colour television (Baird system).
So why is it that we only see the Farnsworth/Rosing system today? The Baird system was mechanical. Its televisions were large, its cameras were more or less stationary. Although the Baird system was there first and achieved much more much earlier than the Farnsworth/Rosing system did, the Farnsworth/Rosing system was technically superior, and Farnsworth's Image Dissector is possibly the greatest invention of the last century.
Pem was definitely not the first person on television. She was, however, the first person on fully electronic television, and should receive credit as such. - stalinvlad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Are you sure Bell Labs invented the CCD?
I thought it was Sony or some other Jap firm... - cheesedog12345, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Actually, there were lots of others working on television systems, and some patents granted even before Philo was born.
*BUT*, Farnsworth *IS* the Father of Modern Television. His insights created the first purely electronic television system. All those other systems, by Baird, Nipkow, et al were electromechanical, using spinning discs and other hoky devices to create, transmit, or reproduce pictures, and were thus never able to provide very many frames per second, nor able to work reliably for long periods of time, nor produce decent pictures. - stalinvlad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Oh FFS being a Brit it makes me shudder to hear this J.L.Baird tosh
The YANKS WON, the BBC chose the RCA SYSTEM, like what a choice!
You think Baird did it 'cus 1. His spinning wheel is easy to explain
2 Being a Haggish cruncher he qulifies as Almost Englishman
3 They let the real facts out fast and when your not expecting them in the average TV doc. - addisonj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Woot! i spent the first years of my life in Rigby, Idaho, the birthplace of the TV. Moved away when i was 8 years old, which was a good thing since Rigby might be the most boring place around
- AnGryTreE, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3As I recall the first electronically transmitted image was accomplished in Russia (but I could be wrong) and much of the pioneering work done by Germans. The first regular TV broadcasts were in Germany and the content was beamed to public houses for people to watch. The first CRT scanner was invented by a German as well.
German, Paul Nipkow developed a rotating-disc technology to transmit pictures over wire in 1884 called the Nipkow disk. It was Farnsworth aparently who concieved the modern form of TV broadcasting as early as 1927. So, who was first depends on the criteria.
More importantly, we Canadians pioneered Hockey Night In Canada - surely the greatest example of our civilized world. - Rikushix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Bountiful, Utah? Dear god, I hope that isn't the same place as Bountiful, BC. Damn Mormons.
- grayapple, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Two versions of the TV were made, one by an American man and a Scottish one, The scottish dude was called John Logie Baird - http://www.acmi.net.au/AIC/BAIRD_TAYLOR.html
- sigmaman2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Jeez, this is starting to sound like the Newton vs. Leibniz argument over calculus. To me, it doesn't matter who invented it first. What matters more is who invented it BEST. In other words, whose original designs have stood up longer to the test of time.
- tomson, on 10/12/2007, -7/+8The might be forgetting the ground breaking work in television by John Logie Baird. Farnsworth was primarily credited with the invention of the cathode ray tube.
- gamabunta, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6Fitting since T.V. itself has died in the past few years.
- treelovinhippie, on 10/12/2007, -9/+10Philo T Farnsworth was the inventor of the electronic television, but it was John Logie Baird who invented the first television (in mechanical form)... so technically Elma wouldn't have been the first person to ever appear on TV.
- waldo21, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Yeah, right.... just like everyone in Brazil says Santos Dumont invented the airplane, and the Wright brothers are a bunch of fakes.
- What I think it all really comes down to is that knowledge is universal, and odds are that more than one person are think of and working on the same thing. Just look at the telephone etc. a lot of people were working on the concept, but only a few key figures, who were able to get to the patent office or newspaer first, end up getting credit. - agentgray, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Wonka Vision is what we really need.
- peter303, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I wonder what she thought about the direction TV evolved?
- LinuxGalore, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5Actually your all wrong, and the patent office will back me up.
The CRT was invented by Vladimir Zworykin in 1929.
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blzworykin.htm
John Logie Baird. Farnsworth was behind the first moving TV picture
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blbaird.htm.
I remember years ago reading a really well written article in a Electronics magazine were instead of looking at the people who stood up and said they invented the TV, they went and "looked at filed patents" for the technologies behind the modern TV. The biggest sup rise is the big names didn't actually make a big showing many of the names are totally unheard of but were very important in the process of creating the TV.
This also shows a a stark truth most people ignore. big things don't get invented by one person but many people chipping away at ignorance one problem at a time.
The complete history of the TV can be found here.
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bltelevision.htm - Agret, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5The revival of Family Guy, LOST, Stargate SG-1, Jeremiah, Stargate Atlantis, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica. Hardly dead.
- CosmicJustice, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5Another player of the times was John Logie Baird, a Scottish engineer and entrepreneur who 'achieved his first transmissions of simple face shapes in 1924 using mechanical television. On March 25, 1925, Baird held his first public demonstration of 'television' at the London department store Selfridges on Oxford Street in London. In this demonstration, he had not yet obtained adequate half-tones in the moving pictures, and only silhouettes were visible.' - MZTV
- dandyhighwayman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1This is probably what killed her. Just took a while...
- technomom, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Is Bountiful, UT related to Bountiful, BC in any way? Bountiful, BC is known for its Fundamentalist Mormon and polygamist population.
JoAnn - tigertiger, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2What, that you live somewhere?
You're right, that is crazy stuff. What a wacky world we live in! - greatromance, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4Haha I live in Bountiful... Crazy stuff
- miken32, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Given that one is in Utah, and one is in BC, no they aren't the same place. Same crazy people, perhaps, but not the same place.
- lenford12345, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Rosing's system was also mechanical, at least in the camera/transmitter. Farnsworth's was purely electronic, end to end. So to call modern television the "Rosing/Farnsworth" design is a bit of a stretch. Might as well call it the "Nipkow/Baird/Rosing/Farnsworth" design, and hell, throw Marconi in there too because he figured out the audio part...
And electronic television is what everyone thinks of when they think of 'television.' When you say 'television', does anyone ever ask, "oh, do you mean the kind with the spinning discs or the kind without the spinning discs?" No. So Pem was the first person on "television." - dougmc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0`As I recall the first electronically transmitted image was accomplished in Russia' ...
Well, that depends on how you define `electronically transmitted image'. My dad has a book called `The Boy Mechanic' that has instructions for making something that sort of works like a fax machine, transmitting an image wrapped around a drum to a similar device, and I think the date on that device was the late 1800s.
It was pretty clever (considering the date) but pretty simple as well. It may also be approximately what you were talking about, though I thought the original idea was older than 1884. It was basically just a logical extension of the telegraph ... - jonnyfive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Maybe it has something to do with her death? Maybe being on TV is bad for you. X-rays or something!
- UberNick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@The_Decryptor
From TFA:
"I know that God exists. I know that I have never invented anything. I have been a medium by which these things were given to the culture as fast as the culture could earn them. I give all the credit to God."
1) In a book about inventing TV saying "I know I have never invented anything...I give all the credit to God," --> she was saying it was god who really invented TV.
2) "I have been a medium by which these things were given to the culture as fast as the culture could earn them." --> TV invention given to her by god to give to culture. Done "as fast as the culture could earn them."
Put 1 and 2 together --> she says god invented TV, then passed knowlege to her once her culture had 'earned' it. So did I make that up or misread it? - Clearz, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I heard it was Chuck Noris
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Well, Elma, it's been real.
- hiro, on 10/12/2007, -15/+13Yep, the television was invented in the UK so this headline is bogus
- cwoolf34, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Is it a he or she people? I see both in the comments. Sad non-the-less
- tropicalsean, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0It is a women named Pem I believe.
- UberNick, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3I like how she says invented tv, then passed that knowlege to her once the cultured had 'earned' it.
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