Wow - absolutely fascinating read covering development of mechanical scanning TV (which turned out dead end) and FAX transmission. So many names, so many ideas. To put this in context, in just a few years there came a revolutionary breakthroughs of CRT, iconoscope, and electronic scanning, which made TV a common household appliance. In 1927, the Farnsworth-Zvorykin saga didn't yet start...
The fax machine was before the telegraph.
Farnsworth live to see the landing on the moon in color TV
Dave
Farnsworth live to see the landing on the moon in color TV
Dave
Last edited:
The idea of mechanical TV was first developed by Paul Nipkow in 1884 ( ! ) and outlined in his patent No.30105 issued by the Imperial German Patent Office in Berlin, titled "Elektrisches Teleskop) - Electric Telescope.
"The purpose of the apparatus described herein is to make an object situated at one location visible at another arbitary location".
https://www.dpma.de/docs/dpma/veroeffentlichungen/de30105a_nipkow1884elektrischesteleskop.pdf
Key scanning element was the "Nipkow Disk".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nipkow_disk
Nipkow died in 1940 and it is reported that he was very disappointed when he saw an actual TV transmission 1935 in Berlin with 180 scan lines (electro mechanical Nipkow Disk transmitter but electronic Cathode Ray Tube receiver).
"The purpose of the apparatus described herein is to make an object situated at one location visible at another arbitary location".
https://www.dpma.de/docs/dpma/veroeffentlichungen/de30105a_nipkow1884elektrischesteleskop.pdf
Key scanning element was the "Nipkow Disk".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nipkow_disk
Nipkow died in 1940 and it is reported that he was very disappointed when he saw an actual TV transmission 1935 in Berlin with 180 scan lines (electro mechanical Nipkow Disk transmitter but electronic Cathode Ray Tube receiver).
Last edited:
The mechanic Television would be a fun project.
Today we have phototransistor and could use 30 to 60 phototransistor on a rotating disk giving far better images. Then using 30 to 60 LEDS on rotating disk for display.
Back in 1920s they used a rotating disk and carbon lap for camera and photo cells was where light would have been. In time they would used rotating photo cell that would vastly improved the camera. In the 1930s they still doing trial and error development.
They could use a rotating disk using photo cell tubes or maybe someone did and I have not rear About. With tech it could been about 100 lines the disk would been over 6 foot [2 meters] in diameter. Giving far better image withe today's phototransistor about a 8" [200mm] diameter
Dave
Today we have phototransistor and could use 30 to 60 phototransistor on a rotating disk giving far better images. Then using 30 to 60 LEDS on rotating disk for display.
Back in 1920s they used a rotating disk and carbon lap for camera and photo cells was where light would have been. In time they would used rotating photo cell that would vastly improved the camera. In the 1930s they still doing trial and error development.
They could use a rotating disk using photo cell tubes or maybe someone did and I have not rear About. With tech it could been about 100 lines the disk would been over 6 foot [2 meters] in diameter. Giving far better image withe today's phototransistor about a 8" [200mm] diameter
Dave
Kind of reminds me of a form of mechanical scanned TV I saw when I was working for Mullard in the early 60's. It was called the banana tube. It was a long glass cylinder with
an electron gun at one end and a long strip of aluminium with three strips of colour phosphors printed on it on the bottom . Around the cylinder was a rotating drum with three lenses.
Behind all this was a curved screen.
When the drum was rotated and the phosphor strip scanned a picture was projected onto the screen. It gave a surprisingly good picture and I think the intended application was for some
kind of projection TV. However it was abandoned because of the noise the rotating drum made in spite of all attempts to silence it.
an electron gun at one end and a long strip of aluminium with three strips of colour phosphors printed on it on the bottom . Around the cylinder was a rotating drum with three lenses.
Behind all this was a curved screen.
When the drum was rotated and the phosphor strip scanned a picture was projected onto the screen. It gave a surprisingly good picture and I think the intended application was for some
kind of projection TV. However it was abandoned because of the noise the rotating drum made in spite of all attempts to silence it.
