Philo Farnsworth, 1906-1971: The Father of Television

I'm Phoebe Zimmermann.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell about a man who made possible one of the most important communications devices ever created -- television. His name was Philo Farnsworth.

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On September seventh, nineteen twenty-seven, Philo turned on a device that was the first working television receiver. In another room was the first television camera. Philo had invented the special camera tube earlier that year.

The image produced on the receiver was not very clear, but the device worked. Within a few months, Philo Farnsworth had found several people who wanted to invest money in his invention.

In August, nineteen thirty, the United States government gave Philo patent documents. These would protect his invention from being copied by others.

Very soon, however, several other inventors claimed they had invented a television device. One of these inventors, Vladimir Zworykin, worked for the powerful Radio Corporation of America. The RCA company began legal action against Philo Farnsworth. It said Mister Zworykin had invented his device in the nineteen twenties. The big and powerful RCA claimed that it, not the small Philo Farnsworth Television Company, had the right to produce, develop and market television.

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The legal action between RCA and the Farnsworth company continued for several years. RCA proved that Mister Zworykin did make a mechanical television device. But it could not demonstrate that the device worked.

At the same time, RCA claimed that Mister Farnsworth had produced his television image tube after Mister Zworykin had developed his. When Mister Farnsworth said he had developed the idea much earlier, RCA said it was impossible for a fourteen-year-old boy to produce the idea for a television device. Company representatives said Mister Farnsworth was not even a scientist. He had never finished college.

RCA said Philo Farnsworth should be forced to prove he had invented the television image tube. Philo could not prove he invented it. But his high school teacher could. In court, Justin Tolman produced the drawing that Philo had made for him many years before as a student. At that moment, the legal experts for RCA knew they had lost.

Philo Farnsworth won the legal action and the right to own the invention of television. However, he did not have the money or support to build a television industry. It was the nineteen fifties before television became a major force in American life. Vladimir Zworykin and David Sarnoff, the head of RCA, became the names connected with the new industry.

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Philo Farnsworth continued to invent more than one hundred devices that helped make modern television possible. He also developed early radar, invented the first electronic microscope, and worked on developing peaceful uses of atomic energy. In his last years, Mister Farnsworth became a strong critic of television. He did not like most of the programs shown on television. Yet, as he watched Neil Armstrong's first step on the moon, Mister Farnsworth knew the event clearly showed the power of his invention.

Philo Farnsworth died in March, nineteen seventy-one. Today, a statue of him stands in the United States Capitol. He is considered one of the most important inventors of the twentieth century.

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VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. Listen again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.