The

fofular-and

generally

accept-

ed-uersion

of the

history 0f teleuision

giues

the

liott's

shore

o.f

the

credit

to

RCA's

scien-

tist

Vtadirnir Zruorykin.

Most

people

thirtk

the

TV

set

u)as distinctll'

(I?1

obsession

qf

RCA

Chainnan

Dauid

Sorno.f.i, u'ho

had

the

prescience

to

think

that

the

picture

tube

would

obtuscate tahateuer

irnpact radio had

on

Anterican

society.

1n

Va

Farn

mth

Part

II

But

the

storlt

is ctecictectll'more

contplex.

A

Utah. Both

u)ere scientif:ic

boy-wonders;

tittte-knou)n'American

named

Philo

T.

Farnsntorth

e?)e?x

sketched

aplan.for

a teleui-

Fantsu,ortlt

ruos

actually

the

prinmry

deuel-

sion

system

on

a

blackboard

at

age

14.

oper

o.i

this

greot inuention.

Last

ntonth

ute

Zwo'rykin's

aduentures took

hint.tront

Reuo-

chroniclecl

the

childltoocts

qf

Zruorykin

irt

lutionary

Russia

to

RCA's

entploy,

while

I

ByFrank Lovece

'::f,f,

l:::::l

an

att-etectronic

teteuisiort

i

96

Vldeo

systent

 

TV's

founding

fathers

finalfy

meet-

in

the

lab

tion,

he sat

up, spit

some

tobacco

deadeye

into

a

gold

spitoon,

and said,

"It's

a damn

fool idea,

but

somebody ought to

put

some

money

into

it."

After

a

long meeting wrth

Farnsworth

in

which

the

impatient

in-

ventor got

disgusted

with

all

the

legal fol-derol

and

started

to

leave,

the bank

officers

decided

the bank

could

not

risk

the

invest-

ment-but

they could,

with their

own mon-

ey.

The

backers gave

Farnsworth

a

year,

a

total monthly budget

of

$1000-salary

and

all-and

$13,000

for

contingencies.

It

was

fine money

for

1926

but nothing compared

to

the

millions

that

AT&T,

GE,

RCA,Westinghouse,

and

others

were

beginning

to

lay

out. Still:

money to

work

on

TV

On

September

28, Farnsworth

and

the begin.

nings

of

his

affectionately

tagged

"Lab

Gang'itook over

a

bare

second-story loft at

202

Green

Street in

San

Francisco.

Unpopulor

Mechqnics

Farnsworth's

confidence

had

to

have

been

both

bolstered and shaken

by

theFractured

Flickers

progress

of mechanical

TV-the

kind that

used

not

electronic

parts but mechanically powered

discs

with

holes

in

them.

(Imagine

a

movie

camera

as

opposed

to

a video camera.) Here.was

a

technology

a

lot

simpler in most ways

than

electronic television,

yet the

mechani-

cal-TV

inventors

just

couldn't connect the

dots.

The

crowd was getting

impatient

too-science

and

science-fiction

maga-

zines

were at the start

of a

Golden Age,

promising

their

readers

an

electrified

world

of

tomorrow

by

next Thursday or

so.

Followers

of

everything from Scienffic

American

to

Amazing

S

tories

were ready in

1925 for

picture screens next to

their

radiosets. They figured

it

wouldn't

be long

now.

They were

buoyed

by the fact that

the

mechanical-TV

explorers

were far

from

mad

scientists.

Two

of

the most prominent

independents,

C.

Francis Jenkins

in

the

U.S.

andJohn Logie Baird in England,

had

every

official blessing

you

could

want.

So

did

AT&T,

which in

April

1927, under theleadership of

Dr.

Herbert E. Ives,

gave

a

wire-transmission demonstration betweenWashington,

D.C.

and

New York City;

the

star was

then-Secretary

of

Commerce

Herbert Hoover.

From Schenectady,

New

York the

General

Electric

lab under Dr.Ernst F.W.

Alexanderson

began

a

regular,

thrice-weekly telecast

schedule

on

May

10,

1928;

it

was one of

several experimen-

tal

broadcast schemes nationwide

de-

signed

to field-test TV

in

"the

real world.

"

Program content

was

negligible

at

first, buton September

11,

1928

the

Schenectadystation had

the distinction

of broadcasting

the

first TV

drama,

a

talking-heads version

of

the

play The

Queen's Messenger.

The

curious

and

the craftsmanlike

werebuying and building

mechanical

TV

sets.

0enkins

called

his a

"radiovisor.

")

There

was

even something

of

a

cultisli

boom.

But

by

1934 in

the

U.S.

and 1935 in

England (tosay nothing

of the

rest

of the

world),

this

"low

definition" era

faded away. Myriadfactors affected

its

rise

and

fall

and

theswitch

to

electronic

TV,

but the

most

likely

reason

is

a

familiar

one:

there

just

wasn'tanything good

to

watch.

'There You

Are'

Farnsworth wouldn't have had

muchtime to watch anyway.

He

had

a

deadline

tomeet,

and,though he

filed

for

his

first TV

patents on January

7,

1927,

just

a

few

months

after moving

to

the

Green

Street

lab, he

knew he'd still be cutting

it

close.

His year

was almost up

when, on

Sep-

tember

7

,

1927

,

he

wired

an

image

from his

electronic

camera-the

"Image

Dissec-

[61"-16

a

receiver

in

another

room. Ever-son and

a few

engineers

were on

handalong

with

the

Farnsworths.

Everson

laterwrote that the

image was

a

black triangle.

Ehna

Farnsworth remembers it

as

a

simplehorizontal line.

Farnsworth's

own notes

forthat

day

state:

"The

line was

evident

this

time.

Lines

of

various widths

could

be

transmitted,

and any movement

at

right

angles

to

the line

was easily

recognized.

"

The

images

were

crude

but

definitelythere.

As Elma

Farnsworth

recails,

every-

body stood in

mute

shock

until her

husband

broke

the

silence and

said, "There

you

are-electronic

television

"

TV

historian

Albert

Abramson

doubts

that every

component

was

indeed

elec-tronic by this

time;

he

points to aJuly

1929

demonstration which

still

puts

Farnsworth

ahead

of anybody

else-even

Zworykin-

in creating

a

complete all-electronic

televi-sion system.

Yet the

notation

at the

Na-

tional Inventors Hall of

Fame

in

Washing-

ton,

D.

C. gives

Farnsworth credit for pro-

ducing

"the first

all-electronic

TV

system

at

the

age of.20"

(though

he

had

just turned

2I

by

September

7,

1927).

The

State of

California

likewise

accepted

the

Septem-

ber

7

date when

it

declared

the

Green

Street

lab a

state

landmark

in

1981. (Theplaque,

however, erroneously reads thatFarnsworth "patented"

his system

on

that

date. He didn't receive the

patent,

his

first

armboy Farnsworth

didn't

know

any

better

than

to

be

a

visionary.

A

slender

kid

with

an immense forehead and

a

long

thin

nose,

he

went from

a

short hitch in the Navy

to

a

short hitch

atBrigham Young

University,

always

looking

for

enough

money to put

together

a

lab.

In

Utah,

in

those days,

this

was

a

toughdream

toreahze.

He

worked

as

a

janitor,

a

street

sweeper, an

appliance repairman.

Music must

have helped

him keep

going;he

took

up

piano

and

violin,

and

played

with

a

chamber

orchestra

and

a

dance band.

And

along

with

his

dream,

he did

have

his

youth.

He was

only

19

when

he

fell in love

with

Elma

Gardner. As

l9-year-old

dream-

ers do,

he

fell

hard.

She

was a lovely

girl from

Provo-his

"Pemmie"

he

called

her-and

she

wouldbecome

not only

his

wife but

his lab

part-ner.

The woman

and

the

work were inter-twined.

When

Farnsworth's first

big

break

arrived,

in

the form of

$6000

in

backing

from

professional fundraisers

GeorgeEverson

and

Leslie

Gorrell,

he

said fine,

but

before

I

invent

television

I

want

to

marry

Pemmie. Everson had

to

becomehis legal guardian

in California since, at

age

20,

Farnsworth was

still

a minor

and

couldn't

sign contracts.

In

May

1926 he

and

Elrna

were wed,

and

almost immediately

set

up labkeeping

in

a

first-floor

Hollywood apartment.

But

notbefore Farnsworth

told his bride:

"Pem-mie, I

have

to tell you that

there

is

anotherwoman in

my life,

and

her

name

is

Televi-

sion. As

I

see

it,

the only way we

will

have

enough

time together

is

for

you

to

have

a

part

in

my

work."

Elma didn't know

howshe

could,

but

soon

her

husband had

her

spot-welding

and, more important,

draw-

ing

notebook sketches and patent

dia-

grams-which

were

good

to

have aroundwhen the

L.A.

police

came

to

raid

the mys-

terious

apartment one

day,

searching invain

for

a

Prohibition

still.

With

some groundwork

laid,

Farns-worth

secured

a

patent attorney

and

Ever-

son

went

off

to

find more investment

capi-

tal.

Try

to

imagine rasing money

for,

say,

3D-hologram movies today

and

you'llhave

an idea

what he

was up against. When

an

exhausted Everson finally

reached the

archconseryative Crocker National

Bank

in

San

Francisco, the

man he was

supposed

to

see

wasn't

even

in.

Instead

Everson

found another officer,

James

J.

"Daddy"

Fagan,

aboomtown

byproduct

of

the

Gold

Rush days.

Pondering Everson's presenta-

Vldeo

I

 

A

1939-uintage kinescofe

(left)

displays

a

test

pattern

while

a

cathode-ray

oscillograph

(rtqht)

shows the

signal's

waueshape.

of

over

300

foreign

and

U.

S., until

1930.

)

In

any case,

Farnsworth

had

done what

he'd set out

to

do. And rudimentary

as

it

was,

it

seemed good enough

to

the

back-

ers-when

they

saw

it

demonstrated

in

earlyt2S-that

they

decided

to

sell

out

and

take

their profits.

C'est

Ie

77.

Farnsworthsuddenly needed

more

capital, and that

meant

he

needed

publicity.

On September

2

he staged

a

well-received

public demon-

stration. By

September 3 he was

famous.

Wire services picked

up

the

story

and

soon

Farnsworth's

name was all

over the

coun-

try.

It

was

the

beginning

of

a

long

but

tragically impermanent

stay

in the

spot-lieht.

Yet

for

a

time visiting the

22-year-oldgenius

was considered,

especially

by

the

movie

industry,

to

be

an

important

if

notdownright chic excursion.

This

inventioncould, ah,

threaten

movies

after all. Mary

Pickford

and Douglas Fairbanks

were

among

the most famous

visitors, but

loads

of

other

Hollywood and

communications

figures arrived

as well.

In April

1930, one

of those

guests

was

Vladimir Zworykin.

Compony Mon

Zworykin's visit wasn't

a social

call.

Hewas

there at the

behest

of

David

Sarnoff,

the powerful chief of RCA. Zworykin

had

come

a

long way even before he

venturedout

to

California.

By

the time

of this

1930

expedition,Zworyl<rn

had earned

a Ph.D. from

the

University

of

Pittsburgh and had been

a

naturalized

citizen

for

several

years.

Of

course

he

still

was

interested

in

television;in

the interviews with Azar,

speaking

in

a

thick

Russian

accent, he says, "Westing-

house began

to

give in

sirice

I

was all the

time

pushing

television, television, televi-sion. They

said

Zworykin can't talk

aboutanything

else "

At

the

suggestion

of

Westinghouse

lab

director

S.M.

Kintner,

Zworykin

had

sought

an

audience

with

David Sarnoff, thesoon-to-be

president of RCA.

Sarnoff

and

Zworykin had reportedly

met

earlier

in

1927 since

Westinghouse

and

RCA

shared

formal research

ties. This

new

meeting,

however,

has been recounted

over

and

over

as

the moment RCA committed

itself

to electronic television. As the

story

goes,

Sarnoff asked,

how

much

will

it

cost?

Zworyl<tn, pulling

a

number

out

of his

hat,

said

$100,000.

He

turned

outto

have been,by

RCA's estimate,

about

$49,900,000

off

Despite

Sarnoffs

delight

in

retelling

this

story,

his relationship

with

his

fellow

Rus-sian

emigre

was

formal. According

to

theReverend Roger

Albright,

a

Zworykin fam-

ily member who recorded

a series

of

oralmemoirs

for

a

planned

biography,

"Sarnoff

treated him like

a

hired noodnik.

As far

as

I

know

they never

spoke

Russian

together.

That would

have

connoted

a

kind

of

intima-

cy

they

didn't

have.

"

Zworykin

was

a

company man, though,

and

on

relocating to the Camden,

NewJer^-sey area

where RCA

had

its research

lab

at

98

Video

the

time,

he

entered

a

stepped-up

phase

of

his

career. (By

now he'd also become the

father

of his only

children,

daughters Nina

and

Elaine.

But

he

and Tatiana weren'tgetting

along and

would

soon be

separatedand

eventually divorced. About this

time,according

to

a

relative,

Zworyl<tn also

be-

gan an

intimate relationship

with

Dr.

Kath-erine

Polivitsky,

a

friend's

wife

whom

he

would

marry

some 20

years

later after

herhusband passed away.)

The

reason

for

Zworykin's

visit

to

the

Farnsworth

lab seems

a

little

shrouded to-

day.

Certainly Farnsworth

continued

to

need

backing,

and

RCA, which

held

a

virtu-

al

monoply

on

radio

patents,

seemed

a

logi-

calpartner for television. Yet

Elma Farns-

worth

contends

that Zworykin

gave

the

impression

he

was

from

Westinghouse,

not

RCA.

"We

didn't know he

was

connected

with

RCA

at

all.

The word Phil

had

gotten

was

that

the backers wanted

to

sell

and

get out; they

said

they weren't in

the

television

business.

Phil

was supposed to

do

everything

he

could

to this end,

and

we

thought

we

could license Westinghouse.

"

Most other

sources

say

Zworykin's

RCAconnection

wasn't

hidden,

but in his

talks

with Azar, Zworykn

curiously notes

that

"Westinghouse started

to

amend

its

pat-

ents,

and

sent me

there.

I

met

Farns-worth

and

liked him

very

much.

"

Perhaps

the

89-year-oldZworykin

may

have

meantto

say

"RCA"

and

not "Westinghouse,

"

but

until

Zworykin's

papers become

availa-

ble-most of

them

are

locked,

un-catalogued

and

unfiled, in

an

RCA

vault-

there

may be

no way

to

know

for

sure.

In

any

case

Zworykin

spent

three

days

touring the lab,

seeing

everything

in detail.

He

was

widely reported

to

have said ofFarnsworth's

camera

tube,

"This

is

a

beau-

tiful

instrument.

I

wish

that

I

might

have

invented

it.

" Yet perhaps

he

was

just

beingpolite. For

all

its

advantages,

Farnsworth's

image

dissector

did

not

have

storage

capa-

bility

and

therefore

needed large amounts

of light.

Years

later Zworykin

admitted

to

Azar

that "Farnsworth was closer

to

this

thing you're

using

now

than anybody, be-cause

he

used

the

cathode-ray

tube

for

transmission.

But,

"

he

added,

"Farns-

worth

didn't

have

the

mosaic,

he

didn't

have

storage.

Therefore,

fpicture]

defini-

tion

was

very

low....

But he

was

veryproud,

and

he stuck

to

his method.

"

After

three

days

that

included

dinner

at

theFarnsworth

home,

Zworykinleft

to report

to

Sarnoff.Whatever

Zworykin's reservations,

Da-vid Sarnoff

arrived

at

the

Farnsworth

lab

a

few

months

later

and offered

to

buy

thewhole

setup-inventions,

patents,

and

theservices

of Farnsworth

himself-for

a

re-ported

$200,000 in Depression-era green-

backs.

Farnsworth turned

Sarnoff

down

cold.

This ls Wor

That

was

the

start

of

the feud. RCA

had

never

been

turned down before; whenever

some maverick had come

up

with

some

potentially

valuable

or

problematic patent,RCA would simply buy

it-and

the maver-ick

too,

if need

be. From

allreports getting

to RCA, this Farnsworth kid

could be

trou-

ble. In fact,

by mid-1930 Farnsworth

did

nothing less than transmit

the

first

elec-

tronic-TV

broadcast-i.e.,

using

radio

waves,

not wires.

Images

were

sent

overthe

air

to

a

receiver

set

up

at

San

Francis-co's

Merchants

Exchange building about

a

mile

from

the Green Street

lab.

Not

able

to buy out

Farnsworth,

and

not

willing to

take

a

license

from

him-the

in-

dignity -Sarnoff

s

patent lawyers devised

a

plan

to

simply

take Farnsworth's

patent

from him.

The

scheme

would play off

Zworykin's

1923

patent application, whichbecause of various challenges

and amend-

ments

was

still

many years

from

reachingapproval.

If

successful, the plot would take

continued

on

page

135