Since the earliest times, people dreamed of overcoming vast distances with their eyes. They expressed this desire in fairy tales and legends. There are many stories about magic mirrors, magic plates and other fabulous means of transmitting images. But it was not so long ago that it was possible to make this dream a reality - only at the beginning of the 20th century, and when the first TV appeared - it looked like a real miracle. Modern television is already taken for granted, and no one thinks about this invention that turned the world upside down.
Television: how it all began
The first theoretical and practical research on television began in the late 19th century. In 1880, scientists - the American E. Sawyer and the Frenchman Maurice Leblanc, proposed the basic principle of the functioning of television, but the German engineer named Paul Nipkov, who later patented this technology, finalized it. Its main principle was as follows:
each image element was quickly scanned and transmitted sequentially, line by line, and frame by frame. The device, called the Nipkova disk, looked like a rotating disk with a diameter of 50 cm, on which holes were applied. Scanning the image was carried out by means of a light beam, and the subsequent transmission of the signal was carried out on the converter. The very first TV was also equipped with a rotating disk with holes, behind which there was a
neon lamp, but the image acquisition process was carried out in the reverse order. With the help of this simple system, the image was projected onto the screen. It was the first television in the world, the design of which
mechanics lay, so the transfer of high-quality pictures was impossible. In this regard, mechanical television sets did not last long.
When did the first cathode-ray television appear
In 1888, thanks to the German physicist Heinrich Hertz, the world learned about the photoelectric effect. The scientist revealed that light affects electricity, but could not fully explain and reveal the nature of this phenomenon. And only in 1905 did Albert Einstein manage to do this. In 1879, the English scientist William Crookes created a cathode ray tube and discovered substances - phosphors that glow when cathode rays act on them. Thus began the era of electron-beam television devices, which eventually spread throughout the world. In 1936, when the first television set on electronics appeared, the American scientific research laboratory RCA was headed by the Russian scientist Zvorykin, which is why he is considered the founder of modern television. In 1939, RCA demonstrated the first mass-produced television unit, called the RCS TT-5. When the first TV appeared, it was a large and weighty wooden box equipped with only a 5-inch screen. For some time, small-line (mechanical) tele-systems coexisted with electronic ones, but by the end of the forties of the 20th century electronic devices completely replaced them.