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Philo Farnsworth

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Philo Taylor Farnsworth (August 19 1906 – March 11 1971) was an American inventor who was the first to demonstrate and patent a working electronic television system. Although many others had worked on and built various electromechanical television systems prior to Farnsworth's seminal contribution (including, in chronological order, Alexander Bain, Paul Nipkow, Alexander Stoletow, Karl Ferdinand Braun, Boris Rosing, John Logie Baird), his purely electronic innovations were copied by Vladimir Zworykin at RCA and developed into the commercial television systems used today. For this reason, many regard Farnsworth as Television's rightful inventor.

Contents

Early life

Farnsworth was born near Beaver, Utah on August 19, 1906. His family were members of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His father later moved the family to Rigby, Idaho, where he worked as a sharecropper. Philo took violin lessons from Reuben Wilkins in Ucon, Idaho. 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. He excelled in chemistry and physics at Rigby High School, and produced sketches and prototypes of electron tubes. He then 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).

In 1926, Farnsworth formed a partnership with George Everson in Salt Lake City to develop Farnsworth’s television ideas. Farnsworth moved to Los Angeles to carry out research.

On September 27, 1927, Farnsworth’s Image Dissector camera tube transmitted its first image, a simple straight line. By 1928, Farnsworth had developed the system sufficiently to hold a demonstration for the press. In 1929, 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 by television system, including a three and a half-inch image of his wife with her eyes closed (possibly due to the bright lighting required).

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. 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/EMI, he met with John Logie Baird, a Scottish inventor. Baird demonstrated his system for Farnsworth. Baird explained the superiority of his system to Farnsworth, but after watching several minutes of cathode ray tube television, he left the room without a word, having realised the futility of his efforts. Baird's financial sponsors gave Farnsworth $50,000 to supply Baird with electronic television equipment. Baird and Farnsworth competed with EMI for forming the standard UK television system, but after long trials of both systems, the BBC went with the EMI system, which was similar to Zworykin's.

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 persuaded to sever its relationship with Farnsworth in 1934.

By 1936, Farnsworth’s company was transmitting regular entertainment programs. In 1939, Farnsworth sold his television patents to RCA Victor for $1 million. The New York World's Fair showcased the television in April 1939, and soon afterward, the first televisions went on sale to the public.

Inventions

Television

Farnsworth worked out the principle of the Image Dissector television camera at age 14, and produced the first working version at age 21. During a patent lawsuit against RCA, his high school chemistry teacher reproduced a drawing 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 devices 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 ions 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.

Memorials

The plaque on Green Street.
Enlarge
The plaque on Green Street.

Philo Farnsworth died from emphysema in 1971 at the age of 64.

Philo's wife, Elma Gardner "Pem" Farnsworth, died on April 27, 2006, at the age of 98. Farnsworth always gave his wife equal credit with himself for creating television, saying "my wife and I started this TV." It was Elma who fought for decades to assure Farnsworth's place in history after his death in 1971.

A plaque honoring Farnsworth as The Genius of Green Street is located on the 202 Green Street location (37.80037N, 122.40251W) of his research laboratory in San Francisco, California.

A statue of Farnsworth represents Utah in the National Statuary Hall Collection, located in the U.S. Capitol building.

The West Wing writer Aaron Sorkin has written a screenplay about Farnsworth's life and work, The Farnsworth Invention. As of December 2005, it is not known whether it will be produced as a play or a movie.

It is almost certain that the character Professor Farnsworth on the popular animated series Futurama was named after him. The character Philo from UHF was certainly named after him, as he works in a television station. Oliver Farnsworth, a character in the Walter Tevis novel The Man Who Fell to Earth was also, in all likelihood, named after him.

A plaque honoring Farnsworth is located near his former home in a historical district in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Farnsworth appears as a character in Glen David Gold's novel Carter Beats the Devil, in which television gets its first application as part of a magician's stage show.

Patents

Misquote

Although Philo T. Farnsworth is sometimes quoted as telling his son Kent, with regard to television.
“There’s nothing on it worthwhile, and we’re not going to watch it in this household, and I don’t want it in your intellectual diet.”
his family's website makes it clear that this is Kent's summation of his father's view, rather than a quote.

Trivia

"If it weren't for Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of television, we'd still be eating frozen radio dinners." Quip on the "Tonight Show" by host Johnny Carson, US comedian & television host (1925 - 2005)

The character Professor Hubert Farnsworth from the animated series "Futurama" is named after him.

References

External links

 

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