The history of radio technology is clearly understood. There is little doubt as to who did what technically, and who did what to whom. Television has a much muddier picture, because there were many people working independently on its creation.
Edwin Armstrong made AM radio practical and he invented FM radio. Philo Farnsworth invented purely electronic (as distinct from mechanical) television. Both men were destroyed by David Sarnoff, a founder of RCA and its longtime chairman. More about “General” Sarnoff later.
AT&T — the original Ma Bell — had one of the labs that was trying to come up with a working TV system. In April, 1927, two months before my late mother was born, AT&T demonstrated mechanical television with 50 lines of resolution. Click here to read a bit about it, and see a simulation of how the picture may have looked. The photo above is of Edna Mae Horner, “one good-looking girl with fluffy hair,” who appeared on camera during the demonstration.
I’m still some years away from jumping to HDTV. Waiting to see how LCD improves, compared to plasma. Or maybe some other technology will come up fast. Whatever I get, it will be 1080p. Meanwhile, I’m at the opposite end of the of the video spectrum, capturing 320×240 video and scaling it up to 400×300 for this blog!
Edna looks lovely and sensible, as they might say in those days. Yeesh, to think what we have for TV now — PLASMA screens, HDTV, etc., etc. Is there anything even MORE advanced coming out? Like 3-D virtual reality?