Early Television

A Bibliographic Guide to 1940

George Shiers

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781135820053
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Exploring the beginnings of the most influential communications medium of all time, this work covers the history of early mechanical and later electronic means of television. It takes a chronological approach to the subject, from its theoretical conception in the late 1800s, through important market experiments just prior to World War II. Coverage is global and multilingual, with material from French, German, Russian, and English sources. Each chapter begins with a historical essay that places the period in context. After 1927, each chapter focuses on a single year. The coverage weaves together the discoveries and developments in all countries, reporting on the work of solitary inventors, as well as research teams. The text ties together annotated citations that make up the bulk of each chapter, and excerpts from important documents or eyewitness accounts. Each chapter also contains a chronology of the advances and breakthroughs during the period covered. The entire work is carefully cross-referenced and an indexed to provide easy access. Chronology. Index.

CHAPTER 1

INVENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES: 1817–1877

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The idea of seeing by electricity did not arise until the end of the period covered in this chapter, but at least ten specific advances in science and technology made during these years were cardinal features in proposals that appeared before the close of the century. The chief stimulus to inventors came from the discovery that metallic selenium is electrically sensitive to light, a remarkable property that opened the way for conversion of optical images into electric currents.

Legacies of this early period that came from scientific research include Faraday's discovery of the magnetic rotation of polarized light (13), Nicol's polarizing prism (3), and Kerr's discovery of electrostatic birefringence (62). Embodied in practical devices, these discoveries were applied for varying, or modulating, the intensity of light in receivers. Other proposals for modulators incorporated the principle of König's manometric flame (38), variable apertures, and Bell's telephone (66). Together these gave inventors a range of approaches utilizing electricity, magnetism, optics, and acoustics. Concerning his discovery of a relation between magnetism and light, Faraday wrote, “This fact will most likely prove exceedingly fertile and of great value…,” a remark that could be applied to the other discoveries in relation to television.

Early electric telegraphs developed during the 1830s employed a code sequence of signals in the transmission of a message. The advantages of recording a message in graphic form, directly readable as a page of type, were perceived in 1843 by Bain (11). This first proposal for an electrochemical copying telegraph was followed by the inventions of Bakewell (15), Caselli (23), Bonelli (31), d'Arlincourt (46), and others. These and other advances in the telegraph art depended on accurate synchronism between moving parts effected by pendulums, clockwork, and various mechanisms, usually incorporating electromagnets. Later rendered practicable by the use of electromagnetic tuning forks, by phonic wheels or synchronous motors, and by some form of distributor (15) or commutator, automatic telegraph instruments of the 1870s embodied these and other techniques that were adopted in some of the earlier proposals for telectroscopes.

The roots of electronic television can be found in the researches into electric discharges in rarefied gases. Beginning with the experiments of Francis Hauksbee (1666–1713) in 1705, more than one hundred investigations were carried out with various forms of exhausted tubes during the eighteenth century. This branch of science attracted the attention of Faraday (6), Abria (12), Gassiot (25), Pliicker (26), De la Rive (35), Hittorf (45), De la Rue (57), Spottiswoode (58), Goldstein (70), and others whose work became the foundation of cathode-ray-tube technology, which led much later to electron physics. These investigations were aided considerably by the skills of glassblowers and particularly by the invention and development of more efficient vacuum pumps, notably those due to Geissler (28), Toepler (33), and Sprengel (39).

The prime researches of Faraday and Joseph Henry (1797–1878) into electromagnetic induction in 1831 soon led to the inception of induction coils by Page (4) and Callan (5). Improved by Ruhmkorff (22) and others, induction coils became essential components in electrotechnology, in the study of electric conduction in rarefied gases, and in numerous schemes for telectroscopes well past the turn of the century. The investigations of Becquerel on the photovoltaic effect (9), of Stokes (19) and others on fluorescence and phosphors, and theories concerning the nature of cathode rays by Varley (48) and other workers with electricity in vacuo were some of the stepping stones to the threshold of electronic science of later years.

Although there had been only sporadic interest in selenium following its discovery by Berzelius in 1817, once Smith (50) announced in 1873 his discovery of selenium's property of photosensitivity, it was studied intensively. By 1877 several men had realized that selenium could be put to use for seeing by electricity, a notion that was promoted by the introduction of the telephone. A survey of the schemes of later years shows how much dependence was placed upon the discoveries and inventions of this period. As the level of physical science and telecommunications was raised, new devices and approaches expanded the field for would-be inventors of telectroscopes and later television systems. Nevertheless, the apparatus and techniques born during this early period remained more or less staples, even into the early decades of the present century: Nicol prisms, induction coils, Kerr cells, manometric flames, telephone actuators, tuning forks, electromagnetic devices, and of course the ubiquitous selenium cell.

TABLE 1 CHRONOLOGY 1817–1877

1817	Berzelius	Discovery of selenium
1829	Nicol	Polarizing prism
1836	Page	Autotransformer
	Callan	Induction coil
	Faraday	Cathode rays
1838	Page	Induction coil
1839	Becquerel	Photovoltaic effect
1843	Bain	Copying telegraph
1845	Faraday	Magneto-optic effect
1847	Caselli	Copying telegraph
1848	Bakewell	Copying telegraph, distributor
1852	Stokes	Fluorescence
1855	Ruhmkorff	Induction coil
	Geissler	Vacuum pump, sealed tubes
1858	Plücker	Cathode rays
1860	Bonelli	Copying telegraph
1862	Toepler	Vacuum pump
1863	De la Rive	Cathode rays
1864	König	Manometric flame
	Maxwell	Electromagnetic theory
1865	Sprengel	Vacuum pump
1869	Hittorf	Cathode rays
	d'Arlincourt	Tuning fork control
1871	Varley	Cathode rays
1873	Smith	Light-sensitivity of selenium
1875	De la Rue, et al.	Cathode rays
	Kerr	Electrostatic birefringence
	Kerr	Magneto-optic effect
1877	Edison	Phonograph

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1817–1877

1 Berzelius, Jöns Jakob (1779–1848). “Lettre de M. Berzelius à M. Berthollet sur deux métaux nouveaux” [Letter from Mr. Berzelius to Mr. Berthollet concerning two new metals]. ANN. CHIM. PHYS. 7 (1817): 199–207.(2)

2 Berzelius, J.J. “Recherches sur un nouveau corps minéral trouvé dans le soufre fabriqué à Fahlun” [Research on a new mineral body found in the sulfur working at Fahlun]. ANN. CHIM. PHYS. 9 (1818): 160–80, 225–67, 337–65. Berzelius, professor of chemistry at Stockholm and secretary of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, isolated a new substance from the sulfuric acid deposits of copper ore at Fahlun. “I then discovered an unknown substance with properties closely resembling those of tellurium. This resemblance induced me to call it Selenium, from the Greek word [Selene] which signifies the moon, while Tellus is the name of our own planet.” (1, 636)

3 Nicol, William (1768–1851). “On a method of so far increasing the divergency of the two rays in calcareous spar that only one image may be seen at a time.” EDINBURGH NEW PHIL. J. 6 (1829): 83, 84. The popular form of Nicol's polarizing prism consists of a block of Iceland spar (calcite) split along a diagonal plane, with the cut surfaces polished and cemented together with Canada balsam, a transparent resin. “Ordinary” (non-polarized) light entering one end face is divided into two rays: the “ordinary ray” strikes the plane of intersection and is reflected to and absorbed by one side of the prism, while the “extraordinary ray” passes through the intersection and emerges at the far end parallel with the original beam. Two crossed Nicols (polarizer, analyzer), with the plane of polarization at right angles, were important elements in many television proposals (127, 167, 181, 213) and were used in several practical electromechanical systems.

4 Page, Charles Grafton (1812–1868). “Method of increasing shocks, and experiments, with Professor Henry's apparatus for obtaining sparks and shocks from the calorimotor.” AM. J. SCI. 31 (1837): 137–41. Letter on the autotransformer, May 12, with postscript on a spur wheel interrupter, June 8. Page was a pioneer inventor of electromechanical apparatus in the United States. (7, 220)

5 Callan, Nicholas Joseph (1799–1864). “On a new galvanic battery.” PHIL. MAG. 9 (Dec. 1836): 472–8. Description of an induction coil and experiments, dated Aug. 23. Also ANN. PHYS. 39 (1836): 407–10. Callan was a priest and professor of natural philosophy at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, near Dublin. (220)

6 Faraday, Michael (1791–1867). “Experimental researches in electricity, 13th Series. Discharges in air and gases at varying pressures; the negative glow, the positive column and the dark space.” PHIL. TRANS. 128 (1838): 125–68. Paper read Mar. 15, 1838. Experiments made June 21, 1836. Further experiments, DIARY, Vol. III, pp. 234–6, Jan. 4, 5; pp. 242–57, Jan. 25, 26; pp. 269–71, Mar. 15, 1838 (3759). Also ANN. PHYS. 48 (1839): 269–86, 424–60, 513–39. EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES, Vol. I (1839), pp. 473–532. (8)

7 Page, C.G. “Magneto-electric and electromagnetic apparatus and experiments.” AM. J. SCI. 35 (1839): 252–68. An illustration shows a prototype induction coil said to have been completed Apr. 1838. (4, 220)

8 Faraday, M. EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES IN ELECTRICITY. Reprinted from PHIL. TRANS., 1831–1838. Vol. I, London: Richard & John Edward Taylor, 1839. Vol. II, 1844, Vol. III, 1855. (6, 13)

9 Becquerel, Alexandre Edmond (1820–1891). “Recherches sur les effets de la radiation chimique de la lumière solaire au moyen des courants électriques” [Research on the effects of chemical radiation of sunlight by means of electrical currents]. C.R. 9 (July 1839): 145–9. Also ANN. PHYS. 54(1841): 18–34.(10)

10 Becquerel, A.E. “Mémoire sur les effets electriques produits sous l'influence des rayons solaires” [Notes on the electrical effects produced under the influence of solar rays]. C.R. 9 (Nov. 1839): 561–7. Also ANN. PHYS. 54 (1841): 35–42. Discovery of a photovoltaic effect whereby a potential difference is generated between a pair of silver electrodes in an electrolyte when one plate is illuminated. Though of scientific importance, electrolytic cells were not of practical use in television developments. (9, 20)

11 Bain, Alexander (1810–1877). “Electric time-pieces and telegraphs.” Br. 9745, May 27, Nov. 27, 1843. The first proposal for a copying telegraph is contained in this composite specification under two sec...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• List of Tables
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Understanding a Century of Television
• User Notes
• Periodical Titles and Abbreviations
• 1 Inventions and Discoveries (1817–1877)
• 2 Seeing by Electricity (1878–1884)
• 3 Era of Telectroscopes (1885–1900)
• 4 Distant Electric Vision (1901–1918)
• 5 Broadcasting and Pictures (1919–1924)
• 6 Images and Promises (1925–1926)
• 7 By Radio and by Wire (1927)
• 8 A Very Good Year (1928)
• 9 Designs for Tomorrow (1929)
• 10 On Stage (1930)
• 11 Big Pictures and Tiny Beams (1931)
• 12 The Derby and All That (1932)
• 13 A Matter for Big Business (1933)
• 14 High Noon of Low Definition (1934)
• 15 Race for Success (1935)
• 16 End of an Era (1936)
• 17 Battle of the Systems (1937)
• 18 International Scene (1938)
• 19 The Video Art (1939)
• 20 Distant View (1940–1995)
• Name Index
• Subject Index