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EARLY TELEVISION EXPERIMENTS  --  BAIRD

This section will document laboratory experiments involving television, by the Scottish television pioneer Mr. John Logie Baird.  (Other inventors will be added to the website over time).

 

 

 

 

 

The Graphic Magazine - 28 February 1925

28-Feb-1925; The GRAPHIC Magazine - Pg 315 (114K bytes) (114K)
"A Successful Attempt To See By Wireless"  --  Tells how Mr. J. L. Baird is 'now perfecting' a machine designed to transmit actual [moving] images.  He had successfully demonstrated the transmission of "shadowgraphs" by wireless earlier [in 1925].   Refer to scan below for larger close-up view.

28-Feb-1925 Baird Television; "The Graphic", pg 315 (415K bytes) (CAUTION: 415K bytes file size)

Baird with 1925 Apparatus (Dinsdale Television, 1928) 49Kbytes (49K)
Mr. J. L. Baird with his 1925 apparatus, which was depicted above.

Baird w/Early TV Camera (60K bytes) (60K)
Mr. J. L. Baird with another early television experiment - [Courtesy Thierry Magis, Belgium]

January 23, 1926

On January 23, 1926, John Logie Baird (of Scotland) gave the world's first public demonstration of a mechanical television apparatus to approximately 40 members of the Royal Institution at his laboratory on Frith Street. These were images of living human faces, not outlines or silhouettes, with complete tonal gradations of light and shade. 

1926 Baird "Falkirk Transmitter" (32K bytes)
(32K) The transmitting apparatus actually used for this 1926 demonstration is believed to be this piece of hardware, which was donated by Baird to Mr. Hart, of Hart Radio Supplies, Falkirk Scotland.  Although the transmitter has had some repairs over the years, it is accepted as genuine, or largely genuine.  The receiving end was dismantled and discarded long ago, however the scanning disk was rediscovered in 1999 and sold to the Hastings Museum.

 

1926 Baird "Falkirk" Transmitter - Top (24K bytes) (24K)     1926 Baird "Falkirk" Transmitter - Rear (28K bytes) (28K)    1926 Baird "Falkirk Transmitter" - Plaque (60K bytes) (60K)
Top View, Rear View and the dedication plaque of the "Falkirk Transmitter", showing the September 5, 1926 presentation to Hart Radio Supplies by John Logie Baird.

 

See (50) Baird Laboratory Lecture Slides from the 1920s

 

Early Colour Television

The article below was published in the British "Journal of The Television Society", in September 1941. It not only shows the first photograph ever taken of a television screen in 1926, but also gives an glimpse of Baird's experimental 600-line colour television system, which includes the FIRST photograph of a colour television screen ever published.

What is amazing, is that Baird continued to develop this set in private, in spite of the on-going World War at the time.  This is mentioned as a side comment in the article.  Color television did not arrive in the UK until 1967, through BBC-2, more than a quarter century later. 

1941 Baird Colour Televisor 600-lines (114K bytes) (114K) - "Television in Colour"

1941 Baird 600-line Colour Televisor (268K bytes) (268K) - More information about Baird's colour televisor

1941 Baird Color - Pg 171 (300K bytes) (300K) -- Another article explaining the operation of the Baird Color System

1941 Baird Color TV - Operation (60K bytes) (60K) -- Sketch of the Baird Color System

 

Take time to review Don McLean's informative website:  Early British Television History 

 

 

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