Electronic Television
Television Begins
Concurrent with the start of radio
broadcasting, a young Russian immigrant named Vladimir Zworykin was
developing a system of transmitting sound and pictures—television. Early
conceptions of television focused on a mechanical scanning system with
motors and large rotating disks. This type of television generally
produced a picture only about one inch square. It was heavy, bulky
equipment and certainly not practical for home use. Zworykin, a
Swissvale resident and co-worker of Conrad’s at Westinghouse, developed
an electronic scanning television system using his inventions, the
iconoscope and kinescope, the forerunners of today’s television camera
and picture tubes. In 1929, Zworykin demonstrated his all-electronic
television system here in Pittsburgh, a full 10 years before it was
introduced to the public at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.
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