History of television

By CaitlinnBrown
  • Period: to

    History of Television

  • Invention of the Pantelegraph

    Invention of the Pantelegraph
    Giovanni Caselli (1815–1891) invents the pantelegraph, which works like an early fax machine, sending still images through wires much like a telephone does with sound (Huurdeman, 2003). Huurdeman, A. (2003). The worldwide history of telecommunications. New York: J. Wiley, pp.149-150.

  • Discovery that images could be transformed to signals

    George May and Willoughby Smith's experiments with selenium allowed for the discovery that images could be transformed into signals so that they could be sent over wires more easily (Oakes, 2001). Oakes, E. (2001). Encyclopedia of world scientists. New York: Facts on File, p.543.

  • Photophone Invented

    On the 3rd June 1880 Alexander Graham Bell transmitted the first wireless telephone message on his new invention, the photophone. Despite only being able to tranfer sound, the photophone inspired the belief that the same could be done with higher quality images (Bellis, 2015a). Bellis, M. (2015a). Alexander Graham Bell's Photophone: An Invention Ahead of Its Time. [online] About.com Money. Available at: http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/photophone.htm [Accessed 21 Aug. 2015].

  • The first mechanical television system patented

    German engineering student Paul Nipkow devised a system of splitting up an image and transmitting it sequentially. This was done using a rotating scanning disk camera that he named the Nipkow Disk (Bellis, 2015b). Bellis, M. (2015b). Paul Nipkow made a television system with only 15 lines of resolution.. [online] About.com Money. Available at: http://inventors.about.com/od/germaninventors/a/Nipkow.htm [Accessed 21 Aug. 2015].

  • The first use of the word "Television"

    In 1900 at the International World Fair in Paris, Russian scientist Constantin Perskyi coined the French word 'télévision' in his paper that he presented to the International Electricity Congress. In his paper he noted advancements such as the Photophone and the Nipkow Disk (Makhrovskiy, 2010). Makhrovskiy, O. (2010). Konstantin Perskiy – Russian electrical engineer, the man who coined the term “television” 110 years ago. Russian Virtual Computer Museum. [online] Computer-museum.ru. Available

  • First demonstration of an image transmitted wirelessly

    First demonstration of an image transmitted wirelessly
    Scottish scientist John Logie Baird became known as the first man to develop a way to transmit objects in motion across a few feet in 1924. Baird later developed this until he was able to transmit images over a larger distance and gave the first public demonstration in January 1926 (BBC, 2014). BBC, (2014). BBC - History - John Logie Baird. [online] Bbc.co.uk. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/baird_logie.shtml [Accessed 22 Aug. 2015].

  • First TV station

    W3XK is regarded as the first ever television station. It was established in July 1928 by Charles Francis Jenkins for the purpose of broadcasting 'radiomovies'. These ran five nights a week up until the early 1930's (Layer, 2014). Layer, H. (2014). Charles Francis Jenkins television station W3XK. [online] Online.sfsu.edu. Available at: http://online.sfsu.edu/hl/cfj/cfj.W3XK.html [Accessed 22 Aug. 2015].

  • Colour TV released commercially

    By 1949 monochrome TV was a commercial success, however in 1951 the first colour television sets proved to be a commercial failure and events such as the Korean War and a prohibition on colour TV sets lead to a hault in their development. Nevertheless, colour television was revisited in 1954, however their small screens and expensive price tags meant they were still not as commercially successful as their monochrome counterparts (Reiman, 2013).

  • Television transmitted from the moon

    Television transmitted from the moon
    Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon were broadcast live on TV for the world to watch.

  • Invention of flatscreen TV's

    Panasonic released the first flatscreen TV, this revolutionised home viewing as it meant televisions could be produced bigger but less space consuming. It also paved the way for LED technology.

  • Australia switches to digital

    All australian television switched from analogue transmission to digital. This meant that after the 10th December 2013 analogue would not longer work to transmit television signals throughout Australia (Broadcast Australia, 2015). Broadcast Australia, (2015). Digital Switchover. [online] Broadcastaustralia.com.au. Available at: http://www.broadcastaustralia.com.au/digital-switchover/whats-the-solution [Accessed 22 Aug. 2015].