Darlotech Ltd

TELEVISION, the ‘goggle-box’, the creator of the ‘couch potato’, and the addict who held on until the little white spot disappeared, is something we now take for granted, but still an almost essential part of the home environment.

The TV set has become more than a source of entertainment. From our TV we keep in ‘eye-ball’ touch with happenings at home and around the world; we are educated by features on nature, history, literature, music, gardening, and even how to repair our house. We can watch any major sporting event from the comfort of our armchairs. In the past, a General Election saw mass meetings being held in towns and cities where electors were able to question, or heckle the candidates. Today, we watch it all on television and the ‘Party Political Broadcast’ has become the standard method of promoting policies. News does not come with the morning paper, but live pictures are beamed to us from any part of the globe, twenty-four hours a day.

The early development of television was the result of a series of researches into a number of fields. Electricity had been a great discovery, and the new phenomenon of radio still in its infancy, was attracting genuine men of science to probe into its secrets.

Such a man was John Logie Baird, who is credited with the invention of television, but in effect he was the producer rather than the inventor. What he did was to take the bits and pieces of ideas and theories put forward by others, and put them together into one complete unit. George Stephenson did the same when he took Trevithic’s steam locomotive and developed it; his son Robert built it, and then he left it to Timothy Hackworth to make it work.

The theoretical principles on the scanning of pictures, synchronisation and transmission, were already known, but fraught with seemingly insurmountable problems. It was Baird who solved them, and it was he who put the package together and came up with a workable system. The result was primitive and crude, but the seed was sown for others who before him had hesitated, to nurture and grow into one of the major technological advancements of the 20th century.

JOHN LOGIE BAIRD led a very chequered life in his early days. He was born in 1888 at Helensburgh, Scotland, the son of a parish church minister. As a child he suffered from poor health; he missed much of his time at the village school, and it was an affliction which would dominate his future life. Nevertheless, technical things became his hobby. At an early age he spent his time making electrical gadgets, and experimenting on any ‘electrical’ pieces he could lay his hands on.

His technical ambitions and enthusiasm resulted in him securing a place at the University of Glasgow where he specialised in physics and electricity. When war broke out in 1914, he was declared unfit for military service, but took the job of superintendent engineer at the Clyde Valley Electricity Company. It was a vital position as the company provided all the electrical power for the munitions factories and dockyards.

However, after the war, his health had deteriorated so much that he had to give up his position, and abandon his technical career. He then decided to go into business for himself mass producing socks, ‘cool in summer and warm in winter’, which he made himself in his attic. He went on to introduce another product – ‘Osmo Boot Polish’. But further failing health obliged him to sell his business.

He had a little money put aside, and decided he should move to a somewhat healthier country. He then came across a prospectus advertising the ‘perpetual sunshine’ of the West Indies. At once he booked a passage to Trinidad where he set up a business selling British goods to the natives. But the competition from a great number of other European sources made him give up this venture. He moved to a village where he was the only white man, and there in a bamboo hut, he started a jam factory.

But the much advertised healthy climate of the West Indies did nothing for Baird’s delicate condition. He contracted malaria and returned to England leaving the one-hut factory with a friend. He eventually sold the factory for five pounds. In England, Baird tried to make his living by selling Australian honey and French soap, but both enterprises failed.

Totally discouraged and without a source of income, he wrote to his sister seeking her advice on which of two ideas he should take up – a new type of razor blade, or television. She was in no doubt as to which he should pursue.

Baird took his sister’s advice. He rented rooms at No. 8 Queen’s Arcade, Hastings, where he set up his experiments. It was an incredible situation for any inventor. He was in poor health, unable to undertake any strenuous work to support himself, and without money. Furthermore, for the past five years he had been out of touch with any form of scientific and technical research. If ever an inventor’s self-imposed task was doomed to failure, this was it.

Nevertheless, Baird followed his goal. His wash-stand became the base for his apparatus, joined by an old tea-chest. A discarded electric motor which he found on a pile of rubbish behind an electrician’s store, served to rotate the scanning disc which he made out of cardboard. A biscuit tin housed the projection lamp with lenses purchased for four pence each at a bicycle store. A broken army ‘telegraph’ radio, a couple of torch batteries, bits of spare timber, were all held together with glue, sealing wax and string.

It was for many months with such crude ‘hotch-potch’ equipment that Baird conducted his experiments. In the spring of 1924, after two long years, he was able to transmit the shape of a Maltese cross over a distance of three yards. At least it was a start.

The owner of a small wireless shop in London took interest in his experiments and became his business partner. Baird moved to London with his apparatus which he set up in rooms at No. 22 Frith Street, Soho. But these were difficult days, he had little money, his health had still not improved, and his landlord threatened to evict him.

Baird sought financial backers for his invention, but none were interested. Newspaper offices in Fleet Street did not see a story in his efforts, and it would appear that nobody in London was interested in television.

Finally, Baird appealed to his own family and was surprised to learn that his cousin was prepared to buy a five hundred pounds share in the invention. It meant a certain amount of security for Baird just at the point where abandonment of the whole project seemed to be the only option.

Now with enhanced enthusiasm, Baird took new steps in trying to transmit human faces. In October 1925, he used an old ventriloquist’s doll named Bill, and his satisfaction was supreme when the doll suddenly appeared on the screen. With wild abandon, Baird rushed down to the office below, unkempt, wearing only carpet slippers and no socks, he pounced on the first person he could find. The poor office boy was totally confused as he was rushed upstairs by the man people regarded as the mad scientist.

Upstairs, William Taynton was told to sit in front of the equipment whilst Baird went into another room where the pictures were received. Utterly frightened, Taynton sat in front of the machine as instructed whilst back at his receiver, Baird witnessed the boy’s portrait, the first human face to be televised. The boy was given half a crown, and as an extra reward, was able to see Baird himself in front of the screen.

Taynton was then dismissed to go back to his post in the office, no doubt eager to tell everyone of his strange experience. But Baird never forgot the contribution that the young boy had made to his experiments and in later years he was given a post on the staff of the Baird Television Company.

The two main problems which Baird had to solve were, scanning of the scene to be transmitted, and keeping the scan at the transmitter and receiver synchronised. The first was achieved by a method invented by the German scientist Paul Nipkow. He used a round disc with a series of small holes arranged in the form of a spiral near the edge of the disc. This was arranged in front of the object to be scanned, so that it can be turned, while a strong lamp shoots a beam of light through the moving holes onto the object. The arrangement of the holes ensure that with one turn of the disc the whole object is scanned.

While the scanner projects the moving spot of light over the object, a photo-electric cell picks up the reflected light, and according its varying intensity, sends stronger or weaker electrical impulses along a wire.

At the receiving end, another disc with the same arrangement of holes is turning, synchronised with the disc at the transmitter. A special lamp flickers in according with the arriving electrical impulses, throwing its light onto a screen where the brighter or dimmer points of the picture are recomposed into the picture of the transmitted object.

Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, (1860-1940), worked under Professor Helmholtz at Berlin University. Whilst there he developed an interest in the idea of transmitting live pictures from one place to another. He concluded that to transmit an image along a wire, it would need to be scanned into individual components. For this he developed the scanning disc.

The solution for converting the scan into electrical impulses was due to a telegraph engineer at the Valencia Cable Station, who in 1873, discovered that the element selenium used in certain equipment, varied in conductivity with the intensity of light shining upon it. With this element used as a photo-electric cell, he was able to convert his scanned light images into varying electrical impulses.

But whilst mechanical scanning proved the manner in which a picture could be transmitted, it was impractical in reality. When the projected image of the object was thrown onto a screen line by line, it was the persistence of vision of the eye which showed the picture as a whole – provided the photo-cell could respond fast enough to the variations in dim and bright, and the lamp in the receiver could also respond quickly enough to the changing electrical impulses.

Selenium was very slow in its response to changes of light, but researches in Germany found that a potassium hydride-coated cell had not only an improved sensitivity, but also could follow rapid changes of light. However, whilst various types of projection lamps were tried, the receiver end still posed a problem.

It is not known whether Nipkow made a workable system, but his plans for the ‘Electrische Telescop’ were put to paper for which he was given a patent in 1884. As with Baird, interest in all matters electrical were of little importance, and generated little support until the advent of wireless telegraphy, and broadcasting.

The question of synchronisation between the transmitter and receiver was the other key to the success or failure of the system, and better methods had to be found if television was to be developed commercially.

It was Professor Ferdinand Braun (1850-1918), the German physicist, who in 1897 introduced the cathode ray tube. The Braun tube was a glass tube, air-exhausted in which a red-hot cathode emits a thin beam of fast moving electrons. The beam is directed towards a screen at the broad end of the tube which is coated with a layer of fluorescent zinc sulphide. The electron beam striking the screen can be controlled by the input of electrical impulses, and by two pairs of metal plates which create electric fields making the beam move from left to right or from top to bottom.

Ferdinand Braun, born in Fulda, Hessen, studied at the Universities of Marburg and Berlin. He went on to hold posts at most of the major universities in Germany, and finally became Professor of Physics and Director of the Physics Institute of Tubingen which he founded. Whilst he provided the basic component for future television systems, his distinction was sharing the Nobel Prize in 1909 with Gugliemo Marconi for his practical contribution to wireless telegraphy.

Subsequently, several contemporary scientists took up Braun’s discovery. The Russian Boris Rosin suggested its use for transmission of pictures in 1907, but it was the Scottish electrical engineer A. A. Campbell-Swinton (1863-1930), who outlined the principle of a television system which he called ‘distant electric vision’. His system was based on the use of cathode ray tubes in both the receiver and the transmitter.

It was with this equipment, and the assistance of a humble office boy, that Baird was able to be the first to televise the human face. It might be said that the equipment he used was no new discovery, as the theoretical principles of transmitting live pictures, albeit by wire, had been known for over forty years. However, other renowned scientists had hesitated to experiment due to the seemingly un-surmountable difficulties. It was Baird who took the step, in poor health, poor financial circumstances, and without proper equipment, who walked where others had feared to tread, and achieved the realisation of the scientists’ dream.

In January 1926, Baird demonstrated his invention to the members of the Royal Institute of Great Britain witnessed by many distinguished men of science. Whilst the pictures were crude and flickering, they were the first to show pictures of objects in motion. Although the invention was still in its infancy, the experiment was a complete success. Baird had proved the principle of television before his peers, and declared the belief that one day it would turn every home into a moving picture theatre.

The way was now open for Baird to receive the fame and perhaps fortune that he so rightly deserved. Interest in his discovery began to emerge, even from the United States, where another scientist, Jenkins, was already working along similar lines. His invention became known world wide, resulting in scientists in many countries working feverishly in an endeavour to exploit the new discovery.

Baird went on to perfect his invention, and in 1928, he founded the Baird Television Company. In the same year, he succeeded in sending televised pictures across the Atlantic by cable when he transmitted the picture of a pretty London girl to her wireless operator fiance on board the steamship Berengaria.

Various companies began using the Baird system, including the German General Post Office. However, the BBC. were slow to realise the enormous potential of the discovery. In October 1928, after a series of tests, the BBC. rejected the idea of a trial broadcasting service. It was not until February 1935 that the BBC. having changed their position due to public pressure, announced it would start the world’s first public television service this year.

In August 1936, seven thousand people queued at the Radio Exhibition at London’s Olympia to see the first ever talking pictures on television, transmitted from the BBC.’s new studios at Alexandra Palace. Hitherto, only silent pictures had been transmitted, but today for the first time, sound was included. Leslie Mitchell was the BBC’s first and only male announcer, who made his television debut.

Excerpts from new films were shown. There was a superb rendering of ‘Ol’ Man River’ by Paul Robeson from ‘Showboat’ and scenes from ‘Rembrandt’ starring Charles Laughton and Gertrude Lawrence.

Several new sets were on view, expected to cost around one hundred guineas. Sizes ranged from 22 inches by 18 inches, but most were 10 by 8 inches. Most used the cathode ray tube facing the viewer, but in one HMV model, the tube was arranged vertically and the image projected through a mirror onto a flat screen. However, the cost of the cheapest TV set in 1937 was 60 guineas. Bearing in mind that the average weekly wage at that time would be no more than £5, buying a set would be beyond the reach of many a household budget. And it was at a time when most people were reluctant to entertain debt, especially in an unknown venture.

The exhibition however was a success, and the television pictures were received with enthusiasm, following which on 9th February, 1937, regular broadcasts began by the BBC from Alexandra Palace. In 1938, the first FA Cup between Preston North End and Huddersfield was televised. Preston won by one goal to nil. The first film to be shown on television was ‘Man of the Moment’.

Also displayed at the Exhibition was the American Marconi-EMI system in a bid to outdo their Baird rivals. This was an all-electronic system which had been developed by the Russian born inventor Dr. Vladimir Kosma Zworykin. (1889-1982), who had emigrated to the United States in 1919 and become a naturalised citizen.

Instead of using the Nipkow disc for scanning the picture, he used a mosaic ‘target’ plate of minute photo-cells in the TV camera, each responding to one minute point of the object to be transmitted. The scene which appeared on the target was then picked up by a beam of electrons, and then transmitted point by point and line by line. His patent of the ‘Iconoscope’ system eventually formed the basis of the first all-electronic television system. For this reason it is claimed he was the father of modern television.

Before the second world war, about fifty television stations were operating in the United States, half of them working on the Baird system. When the BBC began their service they transmitted both Baird and the Marconi-EMI systems. However they later abandoned the Baird system and chose Marconi-EMI to the great dismay of Baird – the man who had shown the BBC the value of television.

When war was declared on the 3rd of September 1939, the television service was suspended. It was feared that the signal from the London transmitter may be used to guide German bombers to the capital. The service resumed again in 1946, but sadly coinciding with the death on the 14th of June, of John Logie Baird who died in his sleep at his home at Bexhill-on-Sea. He was 58 years of age. His body had finally succumbed to the exhaustion and sacrifice he had endured over the years.

In Britain there were no more than 7,500 TV sets, but this increased to one million within the next five years. In 1949 concern was being expressed over the effect television was beginning to have on the British cinema. The BBC announced the purchase of the Rank Film Studios at Lime Grove, West London, making Rank workers redundant and taking the total number of film workers dismissed this year to 1,500. This was in contrast to BBC’s further plans to open a new Television Centre at White City.

In May 1950, the BBC and sporting representatives agreed on the televising of 100 sporting events each year. In 1952, 35 million viewers across the world watched live pictures from the Nevada Desert of the US testing the most powerful atomic explosion to date. In the same year, the first soap opera ‘The Appleyards’ was screened which was to run for five years.

Outside of the programme times, the BBC transmitted a test signal which enabled viewers to accurately ‘tune-in’ their sets. It was also helpful to TV dealers, repair facilities, etc. The test card consisted of a series of vertical and horizontal lines from which it was possible to check whether the picture was linear in both directions. In the centre circle was a picture of a young girl, Carol Hersey, who earned the distinction of being the most shown face on television.

The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey in June 1953, was beamed by the BBC to millions of homes across the country, and was the first coronation to be seen by millions of people all over the world through the medium of television. Amid the pomp and circumstance of the occasion, people were able to witness live pictures of the Archbishop of Canterbury placing the coronation crown on the Queen’s head and proclaiming her Elizabeth II.

The gold coach was a memorable sight as it made its way through the streets of London watched by thousands lining the route. Everyone who watched the parade on television will remember the huge beaming figure of Queen Salote of Tonga waving vigorously to the crowd from her open carriage despite the pouring rain.

In the evening, a spectacular television variety programme was staged to mark the occasion where the ‘Television Toppers’ dance group stole the show with their chorus-line routine. The whole occasion was indeed a highlight in television history and one which many will remember with great affection.

There is no doubt that the spectacle of the royal occasion encouraged the sale of TV sets, and within a few years the number of sets in Britain had risen to 10.5 million. A few years more and this had risen to 19 million.

But in spite of its tremendous advantages to home entertainment, a television set was still a costly item on the family budget. Most people could not buy one outright. In the 1950’s, a nine or twelve-inch set could be had for about £50. However, this was still more than four weeks’ wages, making hire-purchase the only option. A number of component firms sold TV sets in kit form for home construction, but whilst many amateurs tried their hand, many failed. Cathode Ray tubes were not as reliable as they are today, and if they failed a replacement would cost about £20 or two week’s wages. It was seen prudent therefore by many people to insure their tube against failure. Valves of all shapes and sizes were still in use in TV circuitry until around the early 1960’s when transistors came into mainstream production.

To guarantee a continuous service the safest option was to ‘rent-a-set’, which many people found financially possible. The service was guaranteed, and should the set breakdown, repairs were cost free. The third option was through the Redifussion service. This company had provided a radio service by wire for many years, but had now moved into the television era. It was no doubt the forerunner of present day cable television.

Television was of course still a ‘one station’ service until November 1953, when the government announced the setting up of a commercial television network. A new Public Corporation would license TV companies to provide programmes who would seek to draw their revenue from advertisements. The new independent TV broadcasting starting from stations in London and Birmingham, would come under strict controls allowing no more than six minutes of advertising in each hour. To face the competition, the yearly TV licence fee, which was first introduced in 1946, was increased from £2 to £3.

The new commercial service began transmissions on the 22nd of September 1955 with opening speeches from the Guildhall. The two contractors involved were Associated Rediffusion and the Associated Broadcasting Company. Their programmes included a variety show, drama excerpts hosted by Robert Morley, and a boxing match from Shoreditch. The first advert shown was for Gibb’s ‘S.R.’ toothpaste. The BBC went on air half an hour earlier than usual with ‘The Donald Duck Story’. However, an item which stole their rival’s thunder was the death in a fire of Grace Archer, one of the leading characters in ‘The Archers’ radio series. The BBC said the timing was ‘pure coincidence’. ITV countered a few days later with ‘Double Your Money’, hosted by Hughie Green.

For viewers in the North of England it was 1959 before Tyne-Tees Television began their programmes which were not transmitted 24 hours, but began about lunchtime, and closed around eleven in the evening with the ‘Epilogue’ and the national anthem. The first serial play shown was ‘The Scarf’ with Patrick Troughton. Anglia TV also began in the same year.

In August, 1950, the BBC had successfully transmitted live TV pictures across the channel from Calais. Presenters Richard Dimbleby and Alan Adair hosted a two-hour programme before an audience of 30,000. The transmission was beamed across the channel to Dover then relayed on to London. Reception was reported to be as good as normal programmes.

This broadcast was the forerunner of the ‘Eurovision’ link which was established in 1954. The new network linking Britain with seven European nations (France, West Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Holland and Denmark) was launched by the Pope who hoped the new technology would ‘let nations learn to know each other’.

The linking of the European nations by television was a technical achievement in itself as each country operated on a different system. Britain used 405 lines, France 825 lines, whilst other countries (and America) used 625 lines. However, the technical problems were solved, and a successful network became a workable link whereby the European countries could share programmes. On one occasion in 1958, TV history was made when pictures of the Bastille Day celebrations in Algiers were relayed to the Europe network by an aircraft flying 18,000 feet over the Mediterranean.

In spite of the limited number of channels, television was an addiction to many people. With the aid of ‘outside broadcast’ cameras, news items and special occasions or sports features could be brought to the living room as they happened. In the past the alternative was to visit the cinema and watch a few ‘clips’ on the Gaumont British News a week or so after the event. In December 1957, the Queen made her first Christmas broadcast on television. The BBC estimated that by this time, eight million viewers were watching evening television causing a serious threat to the number of radio listeners who had declined by 3.5 million.

Film was still used for many outside events and broadcast later by means of ‘Telecine’. This was a device which combined the film projector with a television camera. Film was also used in this way to provide ‘inserts’ in a number of TV plays, sit-com’s and soap operas.

Whilst the principle of recording by magnetic tape had been known for many decades, its application to television had a marked effect on the flexibility of programming. Material could be recorded on video tape and suitably edited, be immediately ready for broadcasting, as opposed to film which needed to be developed, edited and printed, etc. Complete programmes could be recorded and easily copied, and sold to other TV companies around the world. Today, every programme is recorded on video even if only to be used for ‘library’ purposes. And where would ‘action replays’ be without video recording.

With video recording, many of the old classic films were given a new lease of life. Films produced in the 1930’s and 40’s had had their day around the various cinema circuits, and then were confined to the archives. Now they could be dusted-off, transferred to video, and by means of television, shown again in millions of homes around the world. What fee would those actors have claimed had they known that their work would be seen by such a massive audience?

A third television channel, BBC2, was opened in April 1964, which was followed three years later by the introduction of regular colour transmissions. It was James Clark Maxwell (1831-1879), the Scottish scientist, who first showed that any colour could be obtained from a combination of the three basic colours, red, blue and green. Baird demonstrated its use in 1941 using different coloured cathode ray tubes. The BBC began experiments with colour in 1955 from their centre at Alexandra Palace. However, the two main problems were the high cost of colour receivers, and the development of a system which would allow existing ‘black and white’ sets to receive the pictures without loss of quality.

Pictures in colour, something we take for granted today, had a great impact on people’s enjoyment of television. The brilliant colour pictures previously only shown on the silver screen could now be enjoyed in the home. The dazzling displays of colour from the Chelsea Flower Show; the lush green of the Wembley turf and distinctive shirts of the Cup Final players; the spectacle of Grand National Day, and the colourful variety and costume drama productions, brought an extra dimension to the appreciation of television as an established media in entertainment and information.

It was another eighteen years, (1982) before a further Channel Four began its service with the quiz-show ‘Countdown’. In 1989, a £25 million Satellite TV (pay to view) service was introduced which doubled the number of TV channels available and eventually gave us the extensive range we have today. Channel Five began in March 1997 with the ‘Spice Girls’. Following this in 1998, digital television began operating. it is intended that by 2012, digital television will have replaced the analogue system.

Whilst the technology employed in present day television transmission and reception has changed with the introduction of the silicon chip, printed circuit boards, etc. the basic principle remains the same. Cable television, albeit by fibre optics, was the first method used by Baird, and the development of digital transmission takes us back to the very early ‘dit-dah’ days of Morse radio transmitters.

Television via satellite has only increased the number of channels available – commercially, and at a price. One advantage is that signals from a satellite can reach remote areas where terrestrial signals might fail; another is its extensive use in global communications.

It is a pity that Baird did not live to witness what should be considered as the ultimate television achievement – the tiny spacecraft ‘Eagle’ touching down on the Moon, and the sight of Neil Armstrong placing man’s first foot on Earth’s satellite. Since then, pictures have been received from Venus and Mars, millions of miles in outer space. That was something of which Baird would have achieved great satisfaction – and rightly so.

Today, the transmission of live pictures is used in so many ways that even the forward thinking Baird could not have imagined. Closed Circuit Television keeps our car parks under surveillance, and it is used in homes and premises to protect against thieves. Television pictures can be received in our car, or on the mobile ‘phone. From cameras no bigger than a shirt button, pictures from mobile ‘phones and cricket stumps, can be flashed instantly around the world by satellite or on the internet. Camcorders are now an everyday item which we take to record our best holiday moments.

And so, when we sit in our cosy armchair in front of our magic screen with a cup of tea in one hand, and the remote control in the other, we should think of the struggles and sacrifices Baird and his contemporaries had to endure so that we could enjoy such a luxury.

What would we do without television? Very badly indeed.

POPULAR PROGRAMMES.

1938 (Jan) First opera broadcast ‘Triston and Isolde.
1955 Double your money with Hughie Green.
1962 (June) Police Five.
1962 (November) That Was The Week That Was.
1963 (July) What’s My Line?
1964 Steptoe and Son. Most popular show. 26 m viewers.
1964 Ready Steady Go. ITV.
1965 Coronoation Street 10th anniversary.
1966 Till Death Us Do Part.
1967 Controversial Cathy Come home.
1967 Ken Dodd Show. Most popular show.
1968 Forsyth saga with Eric Portman.
1969 Civilisation with Kenneth Clark.
1969 (October) Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
1971 Opportunity Knocks. 6.6 m viewers.
1972 (October) Colditz series begins.
1974 (May) 500th anniversary of Z Cars.
1974 Kojak.
1974 Assent of Man. Prof. Bronowski.
1974 Morecambe and Wise show with Glenda Jackson. Most popular comedy duo.
1975 Upstairs Downstairs ends run.
1975 Faulty Towers.
1976 (December) I Claudius began.
1976 (December) Naked Civil Servant began.
1976 Last episode of Dixon of Dock Green after 21 years.
1979 Not The Nine O’Clock News.
1979 Rumpole of the Bailey.
1979 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
1980 Death of a Prince.
1980 Dallas. Who shot JR. revealed. Highest rated for regular TV series with 88.6 million viewers.
1981 Brideshead Revisited.
1981 Smiley’s People.