History of Television

  • "Telephonoscope" Sketch

    "Telephonoscope" Sketch
    A sketch of a television was made in 1878 called the “Telephonoscope.” At the time, it was completely fiction, and was popularised through literal fictional depictions. However, at the same time, it showed actual scientific theories. The idea of transmitting images electrically that the television now uses was inspired by the Fax Machine in early 1843, which transmitted images over wires.
  • Herbert Hoover Picture Transfer

    Herbert Hoover Picture Transfer
    An American inventor, Charles Jenkin was able to transmit pictures of Herbert Hoover across America, showcasing the future for television.
  • Greyscale Image on Television

    Greyscale Image on Television
    On October 2nd, 1925, another groundbreaking milestone was accomplished. John Logee Baird transformed silhouettes of his early model of a TV into a device that could transmit images of the same color (monochromatic)
  • Herbert Hoover Video Call

    Herbert Hoover Video Call
    The President of American Telephone spoke through America in which they were able to see each others face. This was important to television as it shows face-to-face recognition, and the ability to carry sound.
  • Fully Electric Image Pickup Device

    Fully Electric Image Pickup Device
    On September 7, 1927, Philo Taylor Farnsworth made history through demonstration of a fully functional all-electronic image pickup device, which is known as the “image dissector.” It used a vacuum tube that could reproduce images electronically by shooting a beam of electrons to every line against a light-sensitive screen. It could be classified as a T.V, but it was more like a video camera tube.
  • First Television System

    First Television System
    On November 8th, 1928, the federal radio commission issued their first television station
  • Regular T.V Transmissions

    Regular T.V Transmissions
    BBC began to regularly stream television.
  • Television Introduced to the World

    Television Introduced to the World
    At the Worlds Fair in 1939, an exhibition to showcase achievements of nations, the 1st Presidential speech was shown on a television.
  • Color T.V First Sightings

    Color T.V First Sightings
    Peter Goldmark introduced a color television system. While small, being on 343 lines, it marked a new version of television.
  • T.V's Get Sold

    T.V's Get Sold
    In 1948, televisions became mainstream, and about 1 million homes in the U.S had televisions.
  • First Television Remote

    First Television Remote
    On January 1st, 1956, the first television remote was created by Robert Alder, named "The Lazy Bones"
  • Ampex Videotape

    Ampex Videotape
    Ampex developed and introduced the first videotape system, which allowed you to record and watch television everywhere around the globe.
  • TV Satellite

    TV Satellite
    ATT launched their first TV satellite on July 10th, 1962, which allowed people from everywhere around the world.
  • Black and White to Color

    Black and White to Color
    By November 8th, 1967, mostly all television companies changed from black and white to color.
  • S-VHS Release

    S-VHS Release
    S-VHS was introduced in 1977, showcasing new resolution and allowing television to have higher quality videos.
  • First Music Video Produced Aired on T.V

    First Music Video Produced Aired on T.V
    The first music video, "Video Killed the Radio Star" was aired on T.V and was said to be the birth of the modern music video era, a huge jump for television.
  • Television Growth

    Television Growth
    By the end of 1988, about 98% of US households had access to a television set.
  • Closed Captioning

    Closed Captioning
    Closed Captioning became so popular and useful to the point where every TV set required it.
  • DVDs go on Sale

    DVDs go on Sale
    DVD and DVD players went on sale.
  • HD Televisions

    HD Televisions
    HD Televisions started to go on sale.
  • Fully Digital TVs Replace Analog

    Fully Digital TVs Replace Analog
    By this date, every analog TV went black, and digital TVs were the only TVs that worked.
  • Smart TVs

    Smart TVs
    Companies like Samsung started to introduce Smart Televisions which allowed you to access the internet, apps, and allow information on your computer to transmit to a television.