| Philo Farnsworth |
Article Index for Philo |
Website Links For Philo |
Information AboutPhilo Farnsworth |
|
In his later life, Farnsworth also invented a small nuclear fusion device known as a Fusor . HISTORY Many inventors had written about, worked on or built various electro-''mechanical'' television systems prior to Farnsworth's seminal contribution (including Alexander Bain , Paul Nipkow , Aleksandr Stoletov , Karl Ferdinand Braun , Boris Rosing , Herbert E. Ives , and John Logie Baird ). Several inventors also wrote about, devised or built electronic apparatus prior to Farnsworth, including Boris Rosing , Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton , Kalman Tihanyi , Vladimir Zworykin and Kenjiro Takayanagi . Farnsworth made the world's first working television system with electronic scanning of both the pickup and display devices, which he first demonstrated to news media on September 1, 1928, televising a motion picture film; and to the public at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia on August 25, 1934, televising live images. In 1930, after a visit to Farnsworth's laboratory, Vladimir Zworykin copied this apparatus for RCA. The U.S. Patent Office rendered a decision in 1935 that a machine built to Zworykin's electronic television patent design of 1923 would produce largely meaningless shades of darkness and light, and was "an entirely different design" from the one described by RCA witnesses. Priority of invention was awarded to Farnsworth, based on his 1927 patent application, issued in 1930. Key aspects of Farnsworth's 1930 camera and receiver designs remain in use today. EARLY LIFE Farnsworth was born into a Mormon family1 in Beaver, Utah on August 19 , 1906 . His father later moved the family to Rigby, Idaho , where he worked as a Sharecropper . When they moved to their new home, Philo was apparently excited to find it was wired for electrical power, something that was still fairly rare at that point, at least in the countryside. It had electric lighting, and power hoists to lift hay into the barn. Farnsworth converted a washing machine from hand to electric power by winding an armature to construct an electric motor. Collier's Magazine, October 3, 1936 Young Philo developed an early interest in Electronics after his first Telephone conversation with an out-of-state relative and the discovery of a large cache of technology magazines in the attic of the family’s new home. Farnsworth excelled in .2 Philo took violin lessons from Reuben Wilkins in Ucon, Idaho . He enrolled at Brigham Young University in 1923. After a brief stint in the Navy , Farnsworth returned to Idaho to help support his mother. He later moved to the San Francisco Bay area with his bride, Elma “Pem” Gardner Farnsworth ( February 25 , 1908 - April 27 , 2006 ). A local Philanthropist managing a Community Chest agreed to fund Farnsworth's early Television experiments (see below). CAREER In 1926 , Farnsworth formed a research partnership with George Everson in Salt Lake City to develop Farnsworth's television ideas. Farnsworth moved to Los Angeles to carry out research. Within months, he was ready to demonstrate his models and blueprints to a patent attorney who was a national authority on electrophysics. They agreed Farnsworth should apply for patents, which became critical to later disputes with RCA . To that point the development of television relied on mechanical whirling disks to scan the image. Farnsworth's innovation was to recognize that a satisfactory image, using whirling disks, would require a speed that was a mechanical impossibility, and that his own all-electronic system could produce an image for broadcast much more effectively.Collier's Magazine October 3, 1936. On , the system was further improved by elimination of a Motor-generator ; the television system now had no mechanical moving parts. That year, Farnsworth transmitted the first human images using his television system, including a three and a half-inch image of his wife with her eyes closed. In 1930 , Vladimir Zworykin , who had been developing his own all-electronic television system at Westinghouse , in Pittsburgh , since 1923 , was recruited by RCA and visited Farnsworth's laboratory under false pretenses (ostensibly representing Westinghouse as a customer, but actually gathering information for RCA as a competitor). Zworykin was impressed with the performance of the Image Dissector and had his engineers make a working copy of it. In 1931 , David Sarnoff of RCA offered to buy Farnsworth's patents for $100,000, but was refused; in June of that year Farnsworth joined the Philco company and moved his laboratory to Philadelphia , along with his wife and two children. When Farnsworth traveled to England in 1932 while raising money in his legal battles with RCA, he met with John Logie Baird , a Scottish inventor who had developed mechanical-scan cameras, and was seeking to develop electronic television receivers. Baird demonstrated his mechanical system for Farnsworth. According to Farnsworth accounts, Baird explained "the superiority of his system to Farnsworth", but after watching several minutes of Farnsworth's version, he left the room without a word, "having realized the futility of his efforts". Baird had in fact supported a merger with Farnsworth's competitors in the U.K. , the Marconi Company . Marconi had a patent-sharing agreement with RCA, however Baird company directors decided instead to merge with Farnsworth. Baird's company directors paid Farnsworth $50,000 to supply electronic television equipment, and provide access to Farnsworth's television patents. Baird and Farnsworth competed with EMI for forming the standard U.K. television system. EMI however, merged with Marconi in 1934 , gaining access to the RCA patents. After trials of both systems, the BBC committee chose the Marconi-EMI system, which was by then virtually identical to RCA's ( Zworykin 's) system. After sailing to Europe in 1934, Farnsworth also secured an agreement with the Goerz-Bosch-Fernseh interests in Germany.Collier's Magazine October 3, 1936 Philco denied Farnsworth time to travel to Utah to bury his young son Kenny, who died in March 1932 ; this death put a strain on Farnsworth's marriage and may have marked the beginning of his struggle with Depression . Since RCA controlled key patents and manufacture of radio tubes, Philco was reportedly persuaded to sever its relationship with Farnsworth in 1934 . However, the October 3, 1936 edition of Collier's Magazine reported that Philco was Farnsworth's only major licensee in the United States, raising doubts about whether Philco severed its relationship. Farnsworth returned to his lab. By 1936 , Farnsworth's company was transmitting regular entertainment programs experimentally. In addition, Farnsworth, working with University of Pennsylvania biologists, developed a process for passing radio waves through milk to sterilize it. He had also invented a fog-penetrating beam for ships and airplanes.Collier's Magazine October 3, 1936 In 1938, he established the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation in Fort Wayne, Indiana , with E.A. Nicholas as president, and himself as director of research. In 1939 , Farnsworth sold his television patents to RCA Victor for $1 million. The New York World's Fair showcased electronic television sets in April 1939 , and soon afterward, RCA electronic televisions went on sale to the public. Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation was purchased by detection devices, Radar calibration equipment, and an Infrared Telescope . “Philo was a very deep person – tough to engage in conversation because he was always thinking about what he could do next,” says Art Resler, an ITT photographer who documented Farnsworth’s work in pictures.3 One of Farnsworth's most significant contributions at ITT was the PPI Projector, which allowed safe control of air traffic from the ground. This system developed in the 1950s was the forerunner of today’s sophisticated Air Traffic Control systems. In addition to his electronics research, ITT management agreed to nominally fund Farnsworth's controlled Fusion ideas. He and staff members invented and refined a series of fusion reaction tubes called " Fusor s." For scientific reasons unknown to Farnsworth and his staff, the necessary reactions lasted no longer than thirty seconds. In December 1965 , ITT came under pressure from its board of directors to terminate the expensive fusion research and sell the Farnsworth subsidiary. It was only from the urging of President Harold Geneen that the 1966 budget was accepted, permitting ITT's fusion research one additional year. However, the stress associated with this managerial ultimatum threw Farnsworth into relapse. One year later he was terminated and eventually allowed medical retirement.4 In the spring of 1967 , Farnsworth and his family moved back to Utah to continue his fusion research at Brigham Young University , which presented him with an honorary doctorate. The university also offered him office space and an underground concrete bunker location for the project. Realizing the fusion lab was to be dismantled at ITT, Farnsworth invited staff members to accompany him to Salt Lake City as team members in his planned Philo T. Farnsworth Associates (PTFA) organization. By late 1968 the associates began holding regular business meetings and PTFA was underway. However, although a contract with the National Aeronautics And Space Administration was promptly secured and more possibilities were within reach, the financing needed to pay the $24,000 in monthly expenses for equipment rental and salaries was stalled. By Christmas 1970 , PTFA had failed to secure the necessary financing, the Farnsworth's had sold all their own ITT stock and cashed out Philo's Life Insurance policy to maintain organization stability. The Underwriter had failed to provide the financial backing that was to have supported the organization during its critical first year. The banks called-in all outstanding loans. Repossession notices were placed on anything not previously sold and the Internal Revenue Service put a lock on the laboratory door until delinquent taxes were paid. During January 1970, Philo T. Farnsworth Associates disbanded. Farnsworth became seriously ill with Pneumonia and died on 11 March 1971 . Although best known for his development of television, Farnsworth was involved in research in many other areas. He invented the first Electron Microscope and the first Infant Incubator . He was involved in the development of Radar , peacetime uses of Atomic Energy , and the Nuclear Fusion process. At his death, Farnsworth held 300 U.S. and foreign Patents , and '' Scientific American '' Magazine called him one of the ten greatest Mathematicians of his time. INVENTIONS Electronic television Farnsworth worked out the principle of the Image Dissector television camera at age 14, and produced the first working version at age 21. A farm boy, his inspiration for the scanning lines of the Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) came from the back-and-forth motion used to plow a field. During a patent Lawsuit against RCA in 1935, his high school chemistry teacher, Justin Tolman, reproduced a drawing that Farnsworth, when he was just 14, had made on the blackboard at the school. Farnsworth won the suit and was paid royalties but never became wealthy. The Video Camera Tube developed from a combination of the work of Farnsworth and Zworykin, was used in all television cameras until the late 20th century, when alternate technologies such as Charge-coupled Device s started to appear. Farnsworth developed the "image oscillite", a Cathode Ray Tube receiver that could display images captured by the Image Dissector . Fusor The Farnsworth-Hirsch Fusor , or simply fusor, is an apparatus designed by Farnsworth to create Nuclear Fusion . Unlike most controlled fusion systems, which slowly heat a magnetically confined Plasma , the fusor injects high temperature Ion s directly into a reaction chamber, thereby avoiding a considerable amount of complexity. When Farnsworth-Hirsch Fusor was first introduced to the fusion research world in the late 1960s, the Fusor was the first device that could clearly demonstrate it was producing any fusion reactions at all. Hopes at the time were high that it could be quickly developed into a Practical Power Source . However, as with other fusion experiments, development into a power source has proven difficult. Nevertheless, the fusor has since become a practical Neutron source and is produced commercially for this role. APPEARANCES ON TELEVISION Although he was the man responsible for its technology, Farnsworth appeared only once on a television program. In 1957, he was a mystery guest on the TV quiz show '' I've Got A Secret ''. He fielded questions from the panel of celebrities as they unsuccessfully tried to guess his secret ("I invented electronic television."). For stumping the panel, he received $80 and a carton of Winston cigarettes.5 In a 1996 videotaped interview by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences , available on Google video , Elma Farnsworth recounts Phil's change of heart about the value of television, after seeing how it showed man walking on the moon, in real time, to millions of viewers: :Interviewer: The image dissector was used to send shots back from the moon to earth. :Elma Farnsworth: Right. :Interviewer: What did Phil think of that? :Elma Farnsworth: We were watching it, and, when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, Phil turned to me and said, "Pem, this has made it all worthwhile." Before then, he wasn't too sure. MEMORIALS
|
|
|