What is the History of the Television

A staggering number of households worldwide have a television set. However, a century ago, no one had ever heard of a television. Even by 1947, when the first colour sets were introduced, TVs were in the hands of barely a fraction of a million Americans. How did this revolutionary technology go from a novelty to a household staple so quickly?

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Mechanical Televisions in the 1800s and Early 1900s

Mechanical TVs were around before the invention of the electric one.

The first prototypes of what would become known as TVs appeared in the early 1800s. Mechanically scanning photographs and sending them on screen was part of the process. They were rather basic in comparison to modern electronic TVs.

A revolving disc with perforations in a spiral design was utilised in one of the first mechanical TVs. Two innovators, John Logie Baird of Scotland and Charles Francis Jenkins of the United States, came up with this invention on their own. Both of these tools entered the market in the 1920s.

The first television was a mechanical device created by German inventor Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, who came before the aforementioned pair. That gadget used a spinning metal disc to transmit pictures over cables. Nipkow, however, referred to his invention as a “electronic telescope” rather than a television. There were 18 lines of resolution on the gadget.

Russian Boris Rosing and Englishman A.A. Campbell-Swinton created a brand-new television system in 1907 by combining a cathode ray tube with a mechanical scanning device.

A few years later, their pioneering work will result in the first electrical television in the world.

THE BEGINNING OF COMMERCIAL TELEVISION

The Texaco Star Theater (1948), featuring Milton Berle, and Howdy Doody (1947–60), a children’s show, were both available to viewers in areas where television reception was strong enough by 1949. Two 15-minute newscasts were available: CBS TV News (1948) with Douglas Edwards and NBC’s Camel News Caravan (1948) with John Cameron Swayze (who was required by the tobacco company sponsor to have a burning cigarette always visible when he was on camera). Early television drew heavily from its elder, more established Big Brother, network radio, with shows like Amos ‘n’ Andy (1951) and The Jack Benny Show (1950–1955). New show forms including newscasts, situation comedies, variety shows, and dramas all originated in the radio industry (see radio broadcasting and television programming). NBC and CBS used money from their radio businesses to help launch this new medium. On the other hand, television networks would soon be turning in significant revenues of their own, and network radio would all but vanish, except as a carrier for hourly newscasts. Sometimes it seemed like there wasn’t enough creativity to make use of the graphics that television brought to radio. The temptation, especially on news broadcasts, was to have the anchors just read the news out, as they would have done on the radio. The networks first used newsreel firms, whose footage had been shown in theatres, to provide footage of breaking news events. From around 6,000 in 1946, the number of televisions in use increased to almost 12 million by 1951. By 1955, half of all American households had a black-and-white television set, making it the fastest-adopted consumer product in history.

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The First Electronic Television was invented in 1927

On September 7, 1927, Farnsworth successfully transmitted the first electrical television signal and later that year he applied for a patent for his device. To the press, Farnsworth showed off his system for the first time in September 1928, after months of fine-tuning.

THE RISE OF CABLE

Cable TV, the force that would threaten the dominance of the three main television networks by giving Americans the option of dozens and perhaps hundreds of television channels, started quietly in a few geographically isolated areas. Large antennae installed in strategic locations allowed all subscribers to get the local channels from the next major city. About 640 of these CATV (community antenna TV) systems had been installed in the United States by 1960. It became evident, however, that not just the “television starved” may be interested in more channels and shows. Cable companies in New York City paid to air basketball and ice hockey games played at Madison Square Garden. It was 1971 and New York City had over 80,000 cable customers. Then, beginning in the 1970s, networks emerged that were created with cable distribution in mind, such as Time Inc.’s Home Box Office (HBO) in 1975, Ted Turner’s “superstation,” later renamed WTBS, in 1976, C-SPAN (which broadcasts live from the House of Representatives), ESPN (which focuses on sports), and Nickelodeon (which caters to children), all of which premiered in 1979. The following year, Turner launched Cable News Network (CNN).

INTERNATIONAL GROWTH

Foreign nations’ television histories tend to have divergent trajectories. Some, if not all, of the main networks were often owned by the government rather than private enterprises. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which had previously dominated British radio, has now established and maintained its position as the country’s preeminent television broadcaster. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which is supported by a levy on television sets, has gained acclaim all over the globe for its broadcasts. Some commentators have applauded the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for the seriousness of much of its news and public-affairs programming, which is liberated from many commercial constraints thanks to government financing. The government of France also provided funding to the country’s main television networks, although this was widely seen as a way to influence the networks to favour whatever political party was in power at the time. As the number of channels offered by cable and direct-satellite TV systems grew in the late 1980s and 1990s, the influence of these publicly-funded networks started to dwindle. Almost everyone else in the globe started emulating the U.S. system of commercially funded, privately held television networks.

The First Television Sets in America

New York’s 1939 World’s Fair was the first public display and sale of a consumer television set. The sets were very costly, and there was only one broadcast station in New York.