television

before television

Jan 1, 1897

German scientist Karl Ferdinand Braun entered history books by inventing the cathode ray tube (CRT) in 1897. This "picture tube," which for years was the only device that could create the images viewers saw, was the basis for the advent of electronic television.

Beginnings

Jan 1, 1907

Early inventors attempted to build either a mechanical television based on Paul Nipkow's rotating disks or an electronic television using a cathode ray tube developed independently in 1907 by English inventor A.A. Campbell-Swinton and Russian scientist Boris Rosing.

transmit images

Jan 1, 1920

In the 1920s, John Logie Baird patented the idea of using arrays of transparent rods to transmit images for television

mechanical

Jun 14, 1923

Charles Francis Jenkins invented a mechanical television system called Radiovision and claimed to have transmitted the earliest moving silhouette images on June 14, 1923.

first image

Jan 1, 1927

In 1927, American Philo Taylor Farnsworth became the first inventor to transmit a television image—a dollar sign—comprising 60 horizontal line.

sound system

Jan 1, 1947

In 1947 Louis W. Parker invented the Intercarrier Sound System to synchronize television sound. His invention is used in all television receivers in the world.

closed caption

Jan 1, 1972

TV closed captions are hidden in the television video signal, invisible without a decoder. They were first demonstrated in 1972 and debuted the following year on the Public Broadcasting Service.