The first device that could be called a “television system” according to these definitions was created by John Logie Baird. The Scottish engineer in his mechanical television set used a rotating “Nipkow disk,” a mechanical device for capturing images and converting them into electrical signals. These signals, sent by radio waves, were picked up by a receiving device. His own discs would rotate in the same way, illuminated by neon light, to create a copy of the original images.
Baird’s first public demonstration of his mechanical television system took place somewhat prophetically in a London department store back in 1925 . He had no idea that television systems would be thoroughly intertwined with consumerism throughout history.
The evolution of the mechanical television system proceeded apace, and within three years Baird’s invention could be broadcast from London to New York. By 1928, the world’s first television station opened under the name W2XCW. It transmitted 24 lines vertically at 20 frames per second.
Of course, the first device we would call a television today used electron beam tubes (CRTs). These convex glass devices shared images shot live on camera, and the resolution for the time was incredible.
This modern electronic television had two fathers who worked simultaneously and often against each other. They were Philo Farnsworth and Vladimir Zworykin.
Who invented the first television?
Traditionally, a self-taught Idaho boy named Philo Farnsworth is considered the inventor of the first television. But another man, Vladimir Zworykin, also deserves some credit. In fact, Farnsworth could not have completed his invention without Zworykin’s help.
How the first electronic television camera appeared
Philo Farnsworth claimed to have designed the first electronic television receiver when he was only 14 years old . Despite these personal statements, history shows that Farnsworth, just 21 years old, designed and built a working “image dissector” in his small town apartment.
The image dissector “captured images” in a way not too different from the way our modern digital cameras work today. His tube, which captured 8,000 individual dots, could convert the image into electrical waves without the need for a mechanical device. This marvelous invention led Farnsworth to create the first fully electronic television system.