American Inventions: the Television

01Television has made it possible for people around the world to share in many different experiences, sports, music shows, films, and more.

02Yet many people would find it difficult to name the inventor of the television.

03They might also be surprised to learn that the inventor came up with the idea when he was just fourteen years old.

04Today, we explore the life of one of the great inventors of twentieth-century America, Philo Taylor Farnsworth.

05Philo Farnsworth was born in August 1906, near Indian Creek in the western state of Utah.

06The house he lived in for the first few years of his life had no electricity.

07But Philo read about electricity and quickly began to experiment with it.

08One night, Philo read a magazine story about the idea of sending pictures and sound through the air.

09The story said some of the world's best scientists were working on the idea.

10It said these scientists were using special machines to try to make a kind of device to send pictures.

11Fourteen-year-old Philo decided these famous scientists were wrong.

12He decided that mechanical devices would never work.

13Philo believed such a device would have to be electronic.

14Philo knew electrons could be made to move very fast.

15All he would have to do was find a way to make electrons do the work.

16Soon, Philo had an idea for such a receiver.

17It would trap light in a container and send the light on a line of electrons.

18Philo called it light in a bottle.

19Several days later, Philo told his teacher about a device that could capture pictures.

20He drew a plan for it and gave it to his teacher.

21Philo's drawing seemed very simple.

22But it still clearly showed the information needed to build a television.

23Philo's teacher was Justin Tolman.

24Many years later, Philo would credit Mr.

25Tolman with guiding his imagination and helping him open the doors of science.

26In September 1927, Philo turned on a device that was the first working television receiver.

27In another room was the first television camera.

28Philo had invented the special camera tube earlier that year.

29While the image produced on the receiver was not very clear, the device worked.

30Within a few months, Philo had found several people who wanted to invest money in his invention.

31In August 1930, the United States government gave Philo patent documents.

32These documents aimed to protect his invention from being copied by others.

33Still, he became involved in legal disputes with a powerful company at the time known as RCA.

34Philo won the disputes but faced many business and financial difficulties in his life.

35He developed more than 100 devices that helped make modern television possible.

36He also developed early radar, invented the first electronic microscope, and worked on developing peaceful uses of atomic energy.

37Philo Farnsworth died in March of 1971.

38He is considered one of the most important inventors of the 20th century.

39I'm John Russell.