This is the best documentary I have seen on the history of TV. I recorded this show when it was first broadcast onto VHS tape, which I still have, and have watched it many times. I am happy to see it now on UA-cam so it can be enjoyed by a wider audience.
I come back to watch this every six months or so. Despite there being probably millions of videos on UA-cam, this one holds my concentration better than any other. Thank you Mr. Lehman.
My father always remembered the first thing he saw on television. It was on one of those pre-war sets in 1938; the set was in a department store with a long line of people waiting to look at it. He saw a hedgehog, pointing to the left.
Extremely interesting. It was my Father (name can be supplied) who machined the prototype mechanical discs for Logie Baird. I remember him saying that the precision required was a huge challenge. My Father had a set at home before the war. He made his own set for the family after the war. I have the manual for the "Televisor".
Just interacting because I can. My grandfather had a TV before the war. My dad told me about watching Micky Mouse in "Steamboat Willy." I grew up adoring the BBC which, like so many others, I now find repellant. The warning about TV as propaganda was well-made.
I read a long time ago that during the World's Fair when TV was introduced people said it would never catch on because no one is going to sit in front of a box for hours
That was really good. Specially noted is the last few lines talking about how "in 10 years we will be interacting with our television instead of enjoying it passively". For 1994 that's actually amazingly precient, youtube launched in Feb 2005 and we've been interacting with it ever since.
Have you ever read The Machine Stops By EM Forster it's a short story but it fortells PCs and the social media generations in 1928! One of the best things I read in school back in 90 xD
It didn't even take that long. UA-cam wasn't anything new, they just had a bigger advertising budget than other video sharing sites. The internet was arguably better before everything got consolidated under a handful of mega-corporations. Anyway, Windows 98 is when things started really taking off for the internet and "interactive television". A few different companies tried to open a market for dedicated interactive television devices earlier in the '90s, but they were simply a browser in a box that you connected to a TV. Nobody bought them, becasuse any Intel 386 based desktop computer was far superior.
@@Nommicus NIkola Tesla described smartphones pretty accurately 2 years earlier. "When wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. Not only this, but through television and telephony we shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of thousands of miles; and the instruments through which we shall be able to do this will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket."
When this documentary was made, basic internet and the WWW already existed. The first browsers (Mosaic and Netscape Navigator) are from around that date. I saw a demonstration in the US I believe in 1995. You Tube is relatively new, it was launched twenty years later.
I have just learned of Michael's passing! In Summer 1995 (a pre-arranged visit), I met him at his shop in Edinburgh. From there, we went to a few places full of TV's and then to his home in Musselburgh. I had an amazing day and one I will never forget.
I doubt if anyone who ever met Michael could ever forget the encounter! His knowledge, passion, counsel, and great humanity is at the heart of Tv is King, and he is sorely missed.
I thoroughly enjoyed this documentary and, while there are still excellent documentaries being made, there's a sense of formality and precision from the 1990s that seems to have been lost. What an excellent presenter and authority on his subject Michael Bennett-Levy was, and I am sorry to learn that we have lost him.
A most excellent piece. I thought I knew a fair bit about early television but this documentary enlightened me even more, especially about the German contribution to the emerging technology.
Thank goodness you made this programme when you did Mr Leman. So many of these lovely people have now gone, but their recordings will be around until mankind destroys itself. I don't know what it is about the story of television, but I find it endlessly riveting. It is the sort of fast moving history that instantly satisfies curiosity with advancement and improvement in short order. Thank you SO much for this.
Much appreciated. I had the good fortune to be taught that if you don’t have a voice, you don’t have a history. Documenting these remarkable people and securing their testimonies was essential. It was also a privilege.
You have assured yourself a place in history for having the foresight to collate and collect this absolutely pivotal part of mankind's evolution. Whilst very few people seem to give this device and its history the attention it deserves I think interest will slowly grow, and a couple of generations down the line we will see it becoming a school or college education subject. For me, a 65 year old chap remembering the very latest televisions coming into the home since as far back as I can recall - about 62 years - any television from the CRT era is infinitely more interesting than anything from the turn of the millennium onwards. Wouldn't you love to see Baird's colour television? Already so many of the lovely people who starred in TV's development have passed away that you just managed to capture them for posterity in the nick of time, vitally discussing this subject. I'm just starting to read Logie-Baird's wonderful book Television And Me, and am already getting a clearer picture of the person that was JLB. I have watched your documentary quite a few times and do wonder if our wonderful British songstress Petula Clark has ever been a 'looker-in' at it?
That was an awesome documentary. When our TV broke in the 80's we had to watch a 12 inch green screen monitor for a few months until we could get a new TV. Whenever you looked away from it, everything looked pink. LOL.
This is a marvellous documentary, with its grand sweep of politics, history and technology. The Marconi EMI standard of 405 lines was used from the very beginnings of BBC TV and continued until the mid-80s, long after the current 625 line system had been introduced. In 1982 I was lucky enough to see working a pre-war EMI set and was able to watch live broadcast TV on it. This is rather a special experience which can never be repeated! The set was a table top HMV 905, and I was astonished at how neat and compact it was.
36:17 “If concentration of ownership of the television channels goes into lesser and lesser hands, then the dangers that confront us and democracy are frightening.” It’s happened. He predicted it back in 1994.
My grandparents lived in Kingsbury in North West London. My grandfather pointed out a concrete base and a nearby house in Kingsbury's Roe Green Park where John Logie Baird had worked on television. I researched this and found out that in 1929 two 25-metre high masts were erected here and the first international transmission from Berlin to London was received here. Today the house is the Kingsbury Veterans' Club. And the concrete base of one of the masts is still there today and it did have a plaque to commemorate Baird's work here which was moved to the Veterans' Club after damage by vandals.
In 1961, living next door to us in Dunedin NZ was a family who had brought their TV set over from Sydney. One day, through some atmospheric fluke,, they were able to see--and called us over to see it-- a programme from Hobart in Tasmania. The sound was awful, the picture snowy---but there it was......the electric television.
Viewers might be interested to hear that in 2021 John Logie Baird was commemorated on a wonderful new coin from The Royal Mint, issued to mark the 95th birthday of HM Queen Elizabeth II.
Henry Sutton of Ballarat invented what he called Telephane using a mechanical method of transmitting a picture before John Logie Baird was out of short pants. He also invented the all in one telephone receiver hand piece, the first portable radio, improved method of reproducing photos for newspapers, and pumps for mining etc. A forgotten genius.
There’s mention only 2 countries which broadcasted in 30’s, but on 1 of October 1931 in Moscow (USSR) launched regular tv broadcasting (1/2 hour everyday)
God bless and rest the souls of the women who had children after the blitz & the totality of WW2. Courage and determination from the greatest generation.
An excellent documentary about early television, for those inclined to turn on CCs, sometimes on this video and others on YT, the translation is hilarious ... at 5:16, the closed captions read 'the first mammal to actually demonstrate television'.
Bennett-Levy's entire collection went to auction at Bonham's in London in September 2009 and he and his wife moved to France to restore a chateau. He died in 2016, I think.
The JLB 'Lyric' set from 1946 went for £19,200. And that's in late '09, AFTER the crash, when everything was plummeting. But there were hundreds of lots of related papers and archives which looks like an institution bought the entire thing and assigned £1800 per lot. 100's of lots. 758 in total, and one can fix all the roofs of every chateau in the Loire. Each of the top 50 sales went for over £4,000, with 3 gorgeous Marconi mirror-lid averaging £5,000. Most expensive item was an RCA-built secret radar airplane thingummy that went for £36,000, probably for its state secrets. On reflection, considering premiums and the hovering, impoverished banks of the period, UK taxes, French taxes... he probably got a tenth of what it was worth.
The 'Green Ray Television Wonder' is a coin-operated fortune-teller, designed by Granville Bradshaw in 1931. It hasn't really anything to do with Television; it was simply using the 'buzz-word' of the day. Delightful bit of hokum, though.
This is one of the coolest things I've ever watched. Lol. The history here is just fantastic. My Dad used to go to one of the local TV stations in Oklahoma City when they'd broadcast a kids show on Saturday mornings. That was in the 1950s. He told me that his first color TV set was an old wooden RCA TV, circa 1964ish?
Baird system filmed the moon landing first step on the moon. Imagine live tv from a battlefield, no wonder they were worried. Narrators last comments were spot on in 95.
A bit disappointing was that there was not a word mentioned about the television development in the USSR, but it started regular broadcasting in 1934! And though not everyday and only for few hours but it was real broadcasting and TVsets were manufactured and sold, though in really small amount
Oh the Green Ray - when I was 10 yrs old I tried this out at a seaside amusement arcade. It read my mind and issued a report on a small card. I believed it all as you do at that age.....
Michael's closing comments about TV becoming interactive illustrate both his passion and enthusiasm for his subject. It's very satisfying to know that he lived long enough to see his prophecy come true.
Michael often said to me: "If you want to win a race, make sure you are the only one in it". He was always ahead of us all with his unique clarity of thinking, and purpose of mission. I just wish he was still here to get the credit he deserves and remember with the greatest fondness and pride the adventure we had making "Tv is King".
The television will probably one day merge with the personal computer. So that you will be able to watch live broadcasts on personal computers, smart phones and tablets.
Many thanks for your note, 'JLB' was an inevitable direct result of what was begun with' Tv is King'. You might be interested to know that we are working behind the scenes towards making all of the historic interviews filmed for both 'Tv is King' and 'JLB - The Man Who Saw the Future' available for all interested viewers and in the public domain. This amounts to over 30 hours of filmed interviews specially shot in the US, UK, and Germany between 1994-2004 and in many cases these interviews are the only recorded testimony of those who really knew and worked closely with JL Baird. We hope to be able to update viewers with more news on this project in the coming weeks.
@@LEMANPRODUCTIONSARCHIVE That would be very interesting! Stuff like that of course first and foremost needs to be archived (I hope the BBC will take it, if they didn't already do so when the finished programmes were delivered) but if interested outsiders like myself get to see those rushes that's a real bonus. :-)
I wouldn't say TV is King but it is a good babysitter sometimes as long as a parent stays in the house while the kids watch TV but it keeps the child occupied while the parent can do things around the house
I went to work in a radio and tv repair company in 1950. I was schooled in the old method (apprenticed) and did everything, putting up aerials and aligning them with an ex aircraft compass, to eventually repairing radio and T V sets (as they were called). I also saw an HMV radio/TV like the tall one shown and was not allowed to go inside the cabinet because the EHT, possibly between 1500 and 2500 volts, was from a Mains transformer therefore could be lethal, l don’t know to this day if this true. But l did get burn from a Philips projection EHT carelessly placed on the workbench, it stayed with me for years like a corn on my finger.
You all seem to have forgotten about the contributions of Philo T. Farnsworth. Who developed and demonstrated the first all electronic television system in 1927. the principles of which were subsequently stolen by RCA in America. His electronic scanning system was the foundation of all television till the introduction of digital electronics. Many companies and individuals were working on the concept. while it was novel to many non technical people. It was something of a holy Grail at the time. I don't wish to denigrate the contributions of the many people and companies who made television successful. Any new technology goes through various versions till the technology has matured sufficiently to be practical and affordable. In this case it was the migration from mechanical systems to fully electronic that made it a practical device.
Alexander Bain demonstrated a facsimile system using line by line scanning in 1846. Major inventions usually turn out to be very important small steps.
I would suggest that you check that date and the claim attaching. Also, along the lines of your not desiring to withhold credit where it is due, as I wrote to another here only moments ago: "John L. Baird was THE FIRST to demonstrate (reduce to practice) the transmission and wireless reception of moving images, which were of a living human face. Why do so many desire to relieve him of this key distinction? It is simple: Reich's Little Man ever-at-work in all of us. With every such try, we become only smaller."
I believe that John Logie Baird's All Electronic Colour Video Display was called The Telechrome and he demonstrated a two primary colour version of it but sadly died before his ideas for a true full colour version could be realised.
In 2008,the last unit of traditional CRT Tv was produced by LG,a Korean company and it was expected by 2025,CRT TV was no longer available in the market
Mechanical television sounded exiting stuff with that disc whizzing round. I saw a Baird Televisor when I visited the Edinburgh Museum and tried to look at the back to see inside, I've seen circuits for a receiver but not his transmitter. It would be interesting to make both as an experiment and transmit across the room to myself. G4GHB.
With modern technology, mechanical tv could now really be a thing. Probably your hard drive is spinning a comparable speed almost silently - and I bet an optical scanning disc could run as quiet and smoothly. Maybe it'll re-emerge in 3D TV.
The same thing that Gutenberg would've thought about the "Penny Dreadful" novels of the 19th century (and later). In other words: You can create the medium but you have no control over what is conveyed within it.
Sadly I'm told it is only apocryphal that the first piece of British TV broadcast after the war was the remainder of the Mickey Mouse cartoon that had been so rudely interrupted in 1939. It would have been a wonderful story for many generations to come. I feel strongly that a series of documentaries precisely along the lines of this one should be made as soon as possible.
Common misconception. The BBC actually finished airing the Mickey Mouse cartoon. It was then a series of test images before broadcasting ceased until the end of WWII. They just repeated the cartoon in it's entirety in 1946.
Fun fact about this program: this was the very first thing shown on the Canadian channel Bravo, owned by Bell Media (now known as CTV Drama Channel), because it was originally a channel based around the arts from around the world before it switched to being a channel showing drama movies and shows.
Nice presentation, No one person truly invented TV, they all benefited from a prior discovery and technology. The mechanical implementation TV was out of date by the mid century introduction of electronic TV. Philo Farnsworth was never truly given due credit for his work. As far as "inventions" are concerned, I was stunned to learn the facsimile (fax) machine was invented and used I believe in the 1850s! That was a true invention by any standard. Pioneer is a better word than inventor, kudos to the presenters for saying this early on in this presentation.
Science predicted television in 1910 or earlier when Braun had his catode ray tube. A scanning beam was predicted but they knew they needed some sort of amplification, i e amplifiers which they expected would be coming in the future
I enjoy reading radio and television history, and it seems that inventors spent half their time inventing and the other half suing each other for patent infringement!
The local newspaper in Wellington New Zealand has a description of the (fax) machine in the edition dated 5th December 1874. It begins with: "A novel application of the telegraph has been devised in France-the transmitting copies of maps and diagrams."
Here in the U.S. circa '31, the American Television Corporation offered one of the most attractive television cases ever. Uncharacteristically as compared with others which were essentially hideous, it was most successfully modeled after cathedral styles of radios, and was just a perfect thing visually. It contained a spinning disc of advanced configuration, and was displayed to great acceptance in New York City. Although illustrations in-line exist, I've never seen an actual example. These SHOULD be recreated and made available to ownership for any having interest. +:+
I've heard that those early broadcasts used a few AM station slots grouped together and featured "Felix The Cat". Years ago, I found an old hobbyist magazine from about 1936 in one of the labs at school and the lead story was about the way Europe was getting further and further ahead of the USA in TV implementation. I guess the war changed the course of that, but it would have been interesting to know how TV would have evolved if WWII had been averted.
Interesting production with some significant new material, especially the sections on pre-war German TV, and the section with Ardenne on Baird being shown an electronic flying spot scanner (yet preferring his mechanical approach) was quite fascinating. I did, however, find the inference (not actually stated, but inferred) by the University gentleman that the Crystal Palace fire might have been arranged to ensure that none of Baird Television Ltd's work was able to be shared with the Germans as being rather unlikely: the studios were destroyed but not the transmitters and a small studio in the water tower, and the cathode ray tube plant in the grounds was untouched, and in any event the most advanced examples of BTL's work were, by the time of the fire, installed at Alexandra Palace in the BBC facility, in the studio next door to Marconi-EMI's. Bennett-Levy's suggestion that Baird himself was personally making TV sets just prior to the war is surely a little odd: he had effectively been removed from Baird Television Limited and banished to his home laboratory down the street by that time because the Board felt he was too focused on mechanical television when the future was evidently electronic. Even Baird's (rather impressive) colour system (tested from the water tower at the Crystal Palace after the fire) was based on rotating colour wheels (and became the basis for the CBS colour system in the US). However, apart from these little niggles, a very useful addition to the available material on the fascinating history of Television. Thanks for the effort!
I agree with your comments, JLB had bankrupted his company in 1931, BTL was bought out by Gaumont British and Baird was kept on (with a handsome salary) as non-executive board member and shunted away from the works.
Really excellent documentary. Very revealing about the Crystal Palace fire. I did wonder if it had something to do with Baird's studios and all that high voltage. The explanation here is plausible but is there any real evidence?
An interesting point .I do recall the late Gerald ( Gerry ) Wells , a life-long London resident , undoubtedly a founder in creating the interest in pioneering radio and television technology , mentioned that the Palace had been allowed to fall into an appalling state of disrepair , through lack of finance and visitors ceasing to visit it , soon after the turn of the century and many attempts had been made to sell it.His thoughts were that the very primitive , deteriorating early cloth braided electrical wiring most likely had caused the disastrous fire .
Though Baird was a pioneer of television he used other peoples inventions such as the Nipkow disc to produce his own version of television. However, his mechanical system was never adopted by any broadcaster. Only the fully electronic television system was adopted. The originator of that system was the American Philo T. Farnsworth whose electronic system was later developed by RCA in the US and Marconi-EMI in the UK whose 405 line system was adopted by the BBC.
Note that in the first television broadcasts, the people were not looking into the camera lens. The reason is that in film, actors never may look into the camera lens. This is the principal difference between film and television till this day. In direct film you don't look at the camera, in direct television, like the News, the anchors must look at the camera lens.
Today in the Philippines,Television viewership are declining thanks to the internet such as UA-cam and video streaming sites and during the pandemic there's a educational channel dedicated to students but thanks to problems there is no person interested it and forced to stopped watching television indefinitely
I've seen television in the Philippines... Far, far, too many commercials as I remember. You could never really get into anything... Too many constant interruptions...
@@trevordance5181 Yes my friend very long tv commercials and I hate commercials even I’m a fine arts student, major in visual communication are not interested in advertising so instead are art-owned
@@darwinqpenaflorida3797 Living in the UK, the BBC is commercial free on all it's tv and radio stations. Stations that do air commercials here are strictly controlled in the amount of advertising they can transmit... Usually between six and eight minutes an hour I think.
Philo Farnsworth an American, made the first electronic television. It was first successfully demonstrated in San Francisco on Sept. 7, 1927. The system was designed by Philo Taylor Farnsworth, a 21-year-old inventor who had lived in a house without electricity until he was 14. Color TV was in vented in the USA. Farnsworth also invented the cold cathode tube.
Interesting to know that British Television was being developed by one man, John Baird Logie. In the U.S. there was DeForest, Farnsworth, Zworykin & Sarnoff to deal with.
Of course today the all empowering technology the world depends on is the internet, but without television technology, next to computer technology, it wouldn’t have been possible
Interesting, but it's well-documented that the first successful transmission of electronic television was by Philo T. Farnsworth in the 1920s. Clearly several people were at work on this, but he should have been mentioned here.
Philo does get proper credit in the follow up film 'JLB', where his visit to London to work with JL Baird is explored and described by eyewitness's. He was hired by Baird to jointly develop and improve his image dissector camera which was used at the Berlin Olympics. Whilst they may have lost out to the RCA/EMI conglomerate to supply a 'live' electronic system for the BBC, their perfection of the flying spot telecine re-wrote broadcast history. collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8085577/melted-farnsworth-image-dissector-television-camera-tube-image-dissector-tube-television-camera-tube
In 1994, Mr. Michael Bennett-Levy of the BBC, presenting here, forgot to mention that in August 1969 the whole world was witnessing LIVE the landing of the first man on the moon and, on January 22, 2021, was watching live the landing of the third rover on the planet Mars.
Also, I must add: KUDOS to the presenters of this documentary; so well-done and usefully informative as it is. It would be nice, even at this late dater from it's original creation, if there were to be made available a companion book -- one full of photos and explanations plus, charts illustrative of all the key events leading to television's near-final perfecting. Too, the splendid highlighted collecting fellow here, should be bronzed and set up in some square upon his demise, sometime far into the future. (Like L.G. Baird's? Or, might he have one even?) All-in-all, on all points -- a fine addition to the legend and lore that was and is, Tele-Vision's birth and evolution.
Many thanks for your kind note. An accompanying book by Michael, also titled "Tv is King", can still be found: www.amazon.co.uk/TV-King-Michael-Bennett-Levy/dp/0952105713
@@LEMANPRODUCTIONSARCHIVE Ha! Just now found this of yours. You're welcomed. It is a pleasure to bestow compliments onto worthiness. AND thanks very much for the link. Sounds like just the thing!
He didn't even mention the internet and World Wide Web and everything humanity has developed in them and continues to do so. But then no TV, no internet.
The documentary was made in the early 90s. The internet was not that popular yet to be named as a popular and daily use technology... But indeed, without television (by whose technology monitors and computer screens could be created as output devices to display information and user interactivity) computer technology as we know it would not exist and neither would the internet.
In several places the narrator looks at the greenish color of the screen when the set is off and then declares that the German pictures were green and black instead of white and black. This is not necessarily the case, as some white emitting phosphors can have a greenish cast. So, what is the evidence that the German sets actually had green pictures? Also, at one point he says the Americans had yellow pictures. This is definitely wrong. Early CRTs made with P1 (Willemite) (radar or oscilloscope screeen) phosphor did produce green pictures, but this was replaced by various formulations of P4 (white-producing) phosphor, many of which had a greenish color when turned off.
The German CTR´s where black and white. In some Museums here, the mentioned sets are displayed now and sometimes the where switched on. When the CRT comes on, you seee the "snowstorm" in black and white. No green, no yellow.
Does anyone the title is the video which shows the testing of British colour TV using the US NTSC system? I've seen it, but I don't know where. Please can anyone help.
Really enjoyed that thanks. I had a comment in the replys a while ago but thought people may want to hear about The Machine Stops By EM Forster it's a short story but it fortells of PCs and the social media generations back in 1928! Talk about Prescience... One of the best things I read in school back in 90 , we had a supply teacher who got rid of sons and lovers for that and Z for Zaccaria! Brilliant xD
Russian engineer Vladimir Zorikin* was hired by RCA to develope a practical color TV set which could transmit b&w programs as well. *wrong spelling. CBS had a color TV set but could not handle black and white programs!
There are films of pre-war productions. (TV was shown at the world's fair in New York in the 1930's.) The only way to record show was to also film it. There is a small film of a beautiful Greer Garson in regency costume in Pride and Predjudice. There is film of a nightclub in London and of course the London stage show Me and My Girl. Due to sunspots a radio station in New York could pick up the audio of the BBC. Westinghouse heard about this and using one of their televisions tried to tune in. They did, there is actual film of this TV with the BBC show, no audio a lot of snow but one of the two female commentators the BBC had was recognisable. When the BBC started up again after the war it started with one of these two woman arriving in a taxi at the place of broadcast.
The amount of commercial interruptions makes this "unwatchable." I tried watching for 38 minutes, but was interrupted 6 times. You would think that Educational content would NOT be monetized.
it would have been very interesting to know what Baird and Marconi would have thought of our 4k/8k hdr oled digital tv's especially the rollable ones made by LG.
I have a 10 y/o LG 55"HD that can show 3D movies; my player was damaged and I decided not to bother with it. Disks are too expensive for seen childish movies!
I have been interested in this topic almost all my life especially the last 25 years. It is interesting how good TV was in Germany in the 1930’s. There used to be a very interesting documentary on this called “ TVunder the Swastika “ on UA-cam but it was taken off. There are only some clips from it.
The massive fire that burnt out the Crystal Palace and Baird's death were deliberate. I believe that he was killed because his genius presented an expensive threat to RCA and to various German interests. RCA was delighted to pick up where Baird left off when he died, and threw their considerable wealth into it. Like most money making ideas in the world, if Americans couldn't have it all for themselves then they worked out a plan to exploit it by fair means or foul. My American relatives happily accept this and almost see it as normal business practice. How do you think so many American businesses rule our lives? Pick any company in the world and you will probably find the overall owner of the company is a giant American corporation. Ordinary Americans know little of this, but benefit enormously from the huge amount of money coming into America from businesses throughout the world. Isn't it shocking therefore that to this day a person can be bankrupted in this enterprising country due simply to a bout of ill health?
This is the best documentary I have seen on the history of TV. I recorded this show when it was first broadcast onto VHS tape, which I still have, and have watched it many times. I am happy to see it now on UA-cam so it can be enjoyed by a wider audience.
Thank you for your kind comments. Much appreciated.
I come back to watch this every six months or so. Despite there being probably millions of videos on UA-cam, this one holds my concentration better than any other. Thank you Mr. Lehman.
My father always remembered the first thing he saw on television. It was on one of those pre-war sets in 1938; the set was in a department store with a long line of people waiting to look at it. He saw a hedgehog, pointing to the left.
Extremely interesting. It was my Father (name can be supplied) who machined the prototype mechanical discs for Logie Baird. I remember him saying that the precision required was a huge challenge. My Father had a set at home before the war. He made his own set for the family after the war. I have the manual for the "Televisor".
Just interacting because I can. My grandfather had a TV before the war. My dad told me about watching Micky Mouse in "Steamboat Willy." I grew up adoring the BBC which, like so many others, I now find repellant. The warning about TV as propaganda was well-made.
I read a long time ago that during the World's Fair when TV was introduced people said it would never catch on because no one is going to sit in front of a box for hours
Very funny !
That was really good. Specially noted is the last few lines talking about how "in 10 years we will be interacting with our television instead of enjoying it passively". For 1994 that's actually amazingly precient, youtube launched in Feb 2005 and we've been interacting with it ever since.
Have you ever read The Machine Stops By EM Forster it's a short story but it fortells PCs and the social media generations in 1928!
One of the best things I read in school back in 90 xD
It didn't even take that long. UA-cam wasn't anything new, they just had a bigger advertising budget than other video sharing sites. The internet was arguably better before everything got consolidated under a handful of mega-corporations. Anyway, Windows 98 is when things started really taking off for the internet and "interactive television". A few different companies tried to open a market for dedicated interactive television devices earlier in the '90s, but they were simply a browser in a box that you connected to a TV. Nobody bought them, becasuse any Intel 386 based desktop computer was far superior.
@@Nommicus NIkola Tesla described smartphones pretty accurately 2 years earlier.
"When wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. Not only this, but through television and telephony we shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of thousands of miles; and the instruments through which we shall be able to do this will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket."
When this documentary was made, basic internet and the WWW already existed. The first browsers (Mosaic and Netscape Navigator) are from around that date. I saw a demonstration in the US I believe in 1995. You Tube is relatively new, it was launched twenty years later.
And a bunch of other video hosting services, though none has the scope of You Tube.
Bravo! From here in the States we say thank you for an excellent documentary! Best of luck!
I have just learned of Michael's passing! In Summer 1995 (a pre-arranged visit), I met him at his shop in Edinburgh. From there, we went to a few places full of TV's and then to his home in Musselburgh. I had an amazing day and one I will never forget.
I doubt if anyone who ever met Michael could ever forget the encounter! His knowledge, passion, counsel, and great humanity is at the heart of Tv is King, and he is sorely missed.
@@LEMANPRODUCTIONSARCHIVE I agree with all that you said. Could not have put it better myself!!!
@@SuperRecordman
seems that his collection has been flogged off. Gone, probably to the USA.
www.bonhams.com/auctions/17616/
I thoroughly enjoyed this documentary and, while there are still excellent documentaries being made, there's a sense of formality and precision from the 1990s that seems to have been lost.
What an excellent presenter and authority on his subject Michael Bennett-Levy was, and I am sorry to learn that we have lost him.
Excellent documentary, brought to light new facts and new perspectives on Baird. Thanks for making and uploading to You Tube,👍
A most excellent piece. I thought I knew a fair bit about early television but this documentary enlightened me even more, especially about the German contribution to the emerging technology.
I expect that was greatly downplayed at that time in history.
Thank goodness you made this programme when you did Mr Leman. So many of these lovely people have now gone, but their recordings will be around until mankind destroys itself. I don't know what it is about the story of television, but I find it endlessly riveting. It is the sort of fast moving history that instantly satisfies curiosity with advancement and improvement in short order. Thank you SO much for this.
Much appreciated. I had the good fortune to be taught that if you don’t have a voice, you don’t have a history. Documenting these remarkable people and securing their testimonies was essential. It was also a privilege.
You have assured yourself a place in history for having the foresight to collate and collect this absolutely pivotal part of mankind's evolution. Whilst very few people seem to give this device and its history the attention it deserves I think interest will slowly grow, and a couple of generations down the line we will see it becoming a school or college education subject. For me, a 65 year old chap remembering the very latest televisions coming into the home since as far back as I can recall - about 62 years - any television from the CRT era is infinitely more interesting than anything from the turn of the millennium onwards. Wouldn't you love to see Baird's colour television?
Already so many of the lovely people who starred in TV's development have passed away that you just managed to capture them for posterity in the nick of time, vitally discussing this subject. I'm just starting to read Logie-Baird's wonderful book Television And Me, and am already getting a clearer picture of the person that was JLB.
I have watched your documentary quite a few times and do wonder if our wonderful British songstress Petula Clark has ever been a 'looker-in' at it?
That was an awesome documentary. When our TV broke in the 80's we had to watch a 12 inch green screen monitor for a few months until we could get a new TV. Whenever you looked away from it, everything looked pink. LOL.
This is a marvellous documentary, with its grand sweep of politics, history and technology.
The Marconi EMI standard of 405 lines was used from the very beginnings of BBC TV and continued until the mid-80s, long after the current 625 line system had been introduced. In 1982 I was lucky enough to see working a pre-war EMI set and was able to watch live broadcast TV on it. This is rather a special experience which can never be repeated! The set was a table top HMV 905, and I was astonished at how neat and compact it was.
Thinking about the small size of TV screens of the day, if I watched 405 line on this 1080 monitor, it still would be a small screen ;)
36:17 “If concentration of ownership of the television channels goes into lesser and lesser hands, then the dangers that confront us and democracy are frightening.” It’s happened. He predicted it back in 1994.
Yes, but he meant to say "fewer and fewer hands".
Was NBC in the USA the first broadcaster to transmit colour TV across the country?
My grandparents lived in Kingsbury in North West London. My grandfather pointed out a concrete base and a nearby house in Kingsbury's Roe Green Park where John Logie Baird had worked on television.
I researched this and found out that in 1929 two 25-metre high masts were erected here and the first international transmission from Berlin to London was received here.
Today the house is the Kingsbury Veterans' Club. And the concrete base of one of the masts is still there today and it did have a plaque to commemorate Baird's work here which was moved to the Veterans' Club after damage by vandals.
In 1961, living next door to us in Dunedin NZ was a family who had brought their TV set over from Sydney. One day, through some atmospheric fluke,, they were able to see--and called us over to see it-- a programme from Hobart in Tasmania. The sound was awful, the picture snowy---but there it was......the electric television.
Great Documentary ,Thank you for upload
Brilliant documentary..thanks for a 1st class job..
Much appreciated!
Thanks. Wonderful documentary. I worked for Philco TV manufacturer in the 1960s. TV always fascinated me.
Many thanks, much appreciated!
Viewers might be interested to hear that in 2021 John Logie Baird was commemorated on a wonderful new coin from The Royal Mint, issued to mark the 95th birthday of HM Queen Elizabeth II.
Viewers? Lookers-in. (20:45)
@@albertlanger2339 Please note the search bar at the top of your set.
;)
Well, I guess they couldn't put the queen on both sides :))
Henry Sutton of Ballarat invented what he called Telephane using a mechanical method of transmitting a picture before John Logie Baird was out of short pants. He also invented the all in one telephone receiver hand piece, the first portable radio, improved method of reproducing photos for newspapers, and pumps for mining etc.
A forgotten genius.
@@blueycarlton The section of history that is not fiction is probably pure propaganda !
It gets very sketchy what to believe.
There’s mention only 2 countries which broadcasted in 30’s, but on 1 of October 1931 in Moscow (USSR) launched regular tv broadcasting (1/2 hour everyday)
Fascinating! But who was viewing?
@@richardlinks8575 Those who owned “B-2” sets (not many in fact) also there was a bunch of radio enthusiasts who created some DIY projects!
Анатолий Симаков Much thanks!
Until watching this, I wasn't aware Germany was dabbling with TV. Now the Russians as well ! What system was the Russians - cathode ray tube ?
@@AnSim78 wait really Anatoly? People who were radio guys had that kind of skill back then to make a set themselves? Fascinating
God bless and rest the souls of the women who had children after the blitz & the totality of WW2. Courage and determination from the greatest generation.
Brilliant. Fascinating documentary.
Adele Dixon had a remarkable voice.
At the end, the guys prediction on how interactive TV could become was accurate. Fantastic documentary
I'm off to watch a live youttube stream now, interacting with the people presenting the entertainment.
An excellent documentary about early television, for those inclined to turn on CCs, sometimes on this video and others on YT, the translation is hilarious ... at 5:16, the closed captions read 'the first mammal to actually demonstrate television'.
Great documentary and great channel too well done and thanks for the download ✌️💓😀
Fascinating documentary
36:15 Rather profound that statement nowadays...
Its a bit of a leap to imply that Crystal Palace was burnt down deliberately to give the impression Baird laboratories were out of action.
Good documentary, thanks
Wonderful
Fascinating thanks for sharing
My parents used to take me to the Temperance Cafe in Falkirk when I was a child ; I am now 64
Sounds like a place worth visiting.
Bennett-Levy's entire collection went to auction at Bonham's in London in September 2009 and he and his wife moved to France to restore a chateau. He died in 2016, I think.
How much did he get? cant find online🤔
The JLB 'Lyric' set from 1946 went for £19,200. And that's in late '09, AFTER the crash, when everything was plummeting. But there were hundreds of lots of related papers and archives which looks like an institution bought the entire thing and assigned £1800 per lot. 100's of lots. 758 in total, and one can fix all the roofs of every chateau in the Loire. Each of the top 50 sales went for over £4,000, with 3 gorgeous Marconi mirror-lid averaging £5,000. Most expensive item was an RCA-built secret radar airplane thingummy that went for £36,000, probably for its state secrets. On reflection, considering premiums and the hovering, impoverished banks of the period, UK taxes, French taxes... he probably got a tenth of what it was worth.
He was a dealer, not an historian or museum curator.
Thank you algorithm, so very interesting!!! The intersection of technology and world war 2 is infinitely fascinating
Fascinating film. Remarkable and educational "
There’s a Perspex version of the Baird mirrored TV set in the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne
This was truly superb and well researched- great upload and totally fascinating!
Much appreciated. It was a huge research effort and it took a lot of time... but worth it.
The 'Green Ray Television Wonder' is a coin-operated fortune-teller, designed by Granville Bradshaw in 1931.
It hasn't really anything to do with Television; it was simply using the 'buzz-word' of the day.
Delightful bit of hokum, though.
I remember one of thoseon the pier at Aberystwyth .... except the bulb had gone !
It spat out a card with your fortune on it as I remember.
I have a tv viewer since 1938 when I was 7 years old ,the programmes have just gone down hill. Ended up in the TV industry on transmision however.
he missed interactive television by 20yrs, but he was, indeed, correct.
This is one of the coolest things I've ever watched. Lol. The history here is just fantastic. My Dad used to go to one of the local TV stations in Oklahoma City when they'd broadcast a kids show on Saturday mornings. That was in the 1950s. He told me that his first color TV set was an old wooden RCA TV, circa 1964ish?
Much appreciated!
When color TV started, most manufacturers used the CTC5 RCA chassis which was installed in different cabinets; some CRT screens were 21" round.
Very enjoyable !
Baird system filmed the moon landing first step on the moon.
Imagine live tv from a battlefield, no wonder they were worried.
Narrators last comments were spot on in 95.
Further research on my part i see many "inventors" as is always the case led to the camera system on the moon. Baird was one of many.
The Baird system went to the scrap yard in 1937 how come it filmed the moon landing?
A bit disappointing was that there was not a word mentioned about the television development in the USSR, but it started regular broadcasting in 1934! And though not everyday and only for few hours but it was real broadcasting and TVsets were manufactured and sold, though in really small amount
A very puzzling case, solved brilliantly by Poirot. The thinking and reasoning are truly remarkable.
Oh the Green Ray - when I was 10 yrs old I tried this out at a seaside amusement arcade. It read my mind and issued a report on a small card. I believed it all as you do at that age.....
Somewhere I have one of those original cards stashed away and will endeavour to find it....!
BRAVO!!
Michael's closing comments about TV becoming interactive illustrate both his passion and enthusiasm for his subject. It's very satisfying to know that he lived long enough to see his prophecy come true.
Michael often said to me: "If you want to win a race, make sure you are the only one in it". He was always ahead of us all with his unique clarity of thinking, and purpose of mission. I just wish he was still here to get the credit he deserves and remember with the greatest fondness and pride the adventure we had making "Tv is King".
The television will probably one day merge with the personal computer. So that you will be able to watch live broadcasts on personal computers, smart phones and tablets.
Baird's Television was a threat , commercially, to radio in the 20's. Just as later Armstrong's FM was a threat to established AM.
Excellent.
This is an amazing commentary on politics as well as TV!
Excellent documentary
An interesting companion piece to your JLB film.
Many thanks for your note, 'JLB' was an inevitable direct result of what was begun with' Tv is King'. You might be interested to know that we are working behind the scenes towards making all of the historic interviews filmed for both 'Tv is King' and 'JLB - The Man Who Saw the Future' available for all interested viewers and in the public domain. This amounts to over 30 hours of filmed interviews specially shot in the US, UK, and Germany between 1994-2004 and in many cases these interviews are the only recorded testimony of those who really knew and worked closely with JL Baird. We hope to be able to update viewers with more news on this project in the coming weeks.
@@LEMANPRODUCTIONSARCHIVE That would be very interesting! Stuff like that of course first and foremost needs to be archived (I hope the BBC will take it, if they didn't already do so when the finished programmes were delivered) but if interested outsiders like myself get to see those rushes that's a real bonus. :-)
I think everyone should watch more TV..it makes you smart
I wouldn't say TV is King but it is a good babysitter sometimes as long as a parent stays in the house while the kids watch TV but it keeps the child occupied while the parent can do things around the house
Great work
Thankyou!
I went to work in a radio and tv repair company in 1950. I was schooled in the old method (apprenticed) and did everything, putting up aerials and aligning them with an ex aircraft compass, to eventually repairing radio and T V sets (as they were called). I also saw an HMV radio/TV like the tall one shown and was not allowed to go inside the cabinet because the EHT, possibly between 1500 and 2500 volts, was from a Mains transformer therefore could be lethal, l don’t know to this day if this true. But l did get burn from a Philips projection EHT carelessly placed on the workbench, it stayed with me for years like a corn on my finger.
You all seem to have forgotten about the contributions of Philo T. Farnsworth. Who developed and demonstrated the first all electronic television system in 1927. the principles of which were subsequently stolen by RCA in America. His electronic scanning system was the foundation of all television till the introduction of digital electronics. Many companies and individuals were working on the concept. while it was novel to many non technical people. It was something of a holy Grail at the time. I don't wish to denigrate the contributions of the many people and companies who made television successful. Any new technology goes through various versions till the technology has matured sufficiently to be practical and affordable. In this case it was the migration from mechanical systems to fully electronic that made it a practical device.
Alexander Bain demonstrated a facsimile system using line by line scanning in 1846. Major inventions usually turn out to be very important small steps.
I would suggest that you check that date and the claim attaching.
Also, along the lines of your not desiring to withhold credit where it is due, as I wrote to another here only moments ago:
"John L. Baird was THE FIRST to demonstrate (reduce to practice) the transmission and wireless reception of moving images, which were of a living human face. Why do so many desire to relieve him of this key distinction?
It is simple: Reich's Little Man ever-at-work in all of us. With every such try, we become only smaller."
Baird used Farnsworth cameras in the end as th film system was so slow. But his flying spot system went on for years in telecine cameras.
Oh to be living in those times and to be employed in the burgeoning television industry. Fascinating!
I believe that John Logie Baird's All Electronic Colour Video Display was called The Telechrome and he demonstrated a two primary colour version of it but sadly died before his ideas for a true full colour version could be realised.
In 2008,the last unit of traditional CRT Tv was produced by LG,a Korean company and it was expected by 2025,CRT TV was no longer available in the market
It’s been of the market for 13 years now. 2010/2009 was the last time you could buy a CRT TV new in the store
Mechanical television sounded exiting stuff with that disc whizzing round. I saw a Baird Televisor when I visited the Edinburgh Museum and tried to look at the back to see inside, I've seen circuits for a receiver but not his transmitter. It would be interesting to make both as an experiment and transmit across the room to myself.
G4GHB.
With modern technology, mechanical tv could now really be a thing. Probably your hard drive is spinning a comparable speed almost silently - and I bet an optical scanning disc could run as quiet and smoothly. Maybe it'll re-emerge in 3D TV.
What would Baird say about the content of the UK TV grandees nowadays?
He, like most TV pioneers, would probably turn in his grave if he saw the mindless tosh his medium is disseminating these days...
The same thing that Gutenberg would've thought about the "Penny Dreadful" novels of the 19th century (and later).
In other words: You can create the medium but you have no control over what is conveyed within it.
Sadly I'm told it is only apocryphal that the first piece of British TV broadcast after the war was the remainder of the Mickey Mouse cartoon that had been so rudely interrupted in 1939. It would have been a wonderful story for many generations to come.
I feel strongly that a series of documentaries precisely along the lines of this one should be made as soon as possible.
Common misconception. The BBC actually finished airing the Mickey Mouse cartoon. It was then a series of test images before broadcasting ceased until the end of WWII. They just repeated the cartoon in it's entirety in 1946.
Fun fact about this program: this was the very first thing shown on the Canadian channel Bravo, owned by Bell Media (now known as CTV Drama Channel), because it was originally a channel based around the arts from around the world before it switched to being a channel showing drama movies and shows.
True!!
there is a very interesting museum in USA ‘’early television museum “ they have many pre second world war TV
Nice presentation, No one person truly invented TV, they all benefited from a prior discovery and technology. The mechanical implementation TV was out of date by the mid century introduction of electronic TV. Philo Farnsworth was never truly given due credit for his work.
As far as "inventions" are concerned, I was stunned to learn the facsimile (fax) machine was invented and used I believe in the 1850s! That was a true invention by any standard.
Pioneer is a better word than inventor, kudos to the presenters for saying this early on in this presentation.
Science predicted television in 1910 or earlier when Braun had his catode ray tube. A scanning beam was predicted but they knew they needed some sort of amplification, i e amplifiers which they expected would be coming in the future
I enjoy reading radio and television history, and it seems that inventors spent half their time inventing and the other half suing each other for patent infringement!
The local newspaper in Wellington New Zealand has a description of the (fax) machine in the edition dated 5th December 1874. It begins with: "A novel application of the telegraph has been devised in France-the transmitting copies of maps and diagrams."
Here in the U.S. circa '31, the American Television Corporation offered one of the most attractive television cases ever. Uncharacteristically as compared with others which were essentially hideous, it was most successfully modeled after cathedral styles of radios, and was just a perfect thing visually. It contained a spinning disc of advanced configuration, and was displayed to great acceptance in New York City. Although illustrations in-line exist, I've never seen an actual example. These SHOULD be recreated and made available to ownership for any having interest.
+:+
I've heard that those early broadcasts used a few AM station slots grouped together and featured "Felix The Cat". Years ago, I found an old hobbyist magazine from about 1936 in one of the labs at school and the lead story was about the way Europe was getting further and further ahead of the USA in TV implementation. I guess the war changed the course of that, but it would have been interesting to know how TV would have evolved if WWII had been averted.
Interesting production with some significant new material, especially the sections on pre-war German TV, and the section with Ardenne on Baird being shown an electronic flying spot scanner (yet preferring his mechanical approach) was quite fascinating. I did, however, find the inference (not actually stated, but inferred) by the University gentleman that the Crystal Palace fire might have been arranged to ensure that none of Baird Television Ltd's work was able to be shared with the Germans as being rather unlikely: the studios were destroyed but not the transmitters and a small studio in the water tower, and the cathode ray tube plant in the grounds was untouched, and in any event the most advanced examples of BTL's work were, by the time of the fire, installed at Alexandra Palace in the BBC facility, in the studio next door to Marconi-EMI's. Bennett-Levy's suggestion that Baird himself was personally making TV sets just prior to the war is surely a little odd: he had effectively been removed from Baird Television Limited and banished to his home laboratory down the street by that time because the Board felt he was too focused on mechanical television when the future was evidently electronic. Even Baird's (rather impressive) colour system (tested from the water tower at the Crystal Palace after the fire) was based on rotating colour wheels (and became the basis for the CBS colour system in the US). However, apart from these little niggles, a very useful addition to the available material on the fascinating history of Television. Thanks for the effort!
I agree with your comments, JLB had bankrupted his company in 1931, BTL was bought out by Gaumont British and Baird was kept on (with a handsome salary) as non-executive board member and shunted away from the works.
Really excellent documentary. Very revealing about the Crystal Palace fire. I did wonder if it had something to do with Baird's studios and all that high voltage. The explanation here is plausible but is there any real evidence?
An interesting point .I do recall the late Gerald ( Gerry ) Wells , a life-long London resident , undoubtedly a founder in creating the interest in pioneering radio and television technology , mentioned that the Palace had been allowed to fall into an appalling state of disrepair , through lack of finance and visitors ceasing to visit it , soon after the turn of the century and many attempts had been made to sell it.His thoughts were that the very primitive , deteriorating early cloth braided electrical wiring most likely had caused the disastrous fire .
@@Roger.Coleman1949 perhaps that plus the heavy load the Baird equipment placed on it
Though Baird was a pioneer of television he used other peoples inventions such as the Nipkow disc to produce his own version of television. However, his mechanical system was never adopted by any broadcaster. Only the fully electronic television system was adopted. The originator of that system was the American Philo T. Farnsworth whose electronic system was later developed by RCA in the US and Marconi-EMI in the UK whose 405 line system was adopted by the BBC.
Note that in the first television broadcasts, the people were not looking into the camera lens. The reason is that in film, actors never may look into the camera lens. This is the principal difference between film and television till this day. In direct film you don't look at the camera, in direct television, like the News, the anchors must look at the camera lens.
Rock & Roll is King, the song say's so
Today in the Philippines,Television viewership are declining thanks to the internet such as UA-cam and video streaming sites and during the pandemic there's a educational channel dedicated to students but thanks to problems there is no person interested it and forced to stopped watching television indefinitely
I've seen television in the Philippines... Far, far, too many commercials as I remember. You could never really get into anything... Too many constant interruptions...
@@trevordance5181 Yes my friend very long tv commercials and I hate commercials even I’m a fine arts student, major in visual communication are not interested in advertising so instead are art-owned
@@darwinqpenaflorida3797 Living in the UK, the BBC is commercial free on all it's tv and radio stations. Stations that do air commercials here are strictly controlled in the amount of advertising they can transmit... Usually between six and eight minutes an hour I think.
@@trevordance5181 ah I see my friend
mechanical TV is as bizarre as the early airplane inventors thinking that flight required airplanes with feathers and flapping wings
Philo Farnsworth an American, made the first electronic television. It was first successfully demonstrated in San Francisco on Sept. 7, 1927. The system was designed by Philo Taylor Farnsworth, a 21-year-old inventor who had lived in a house without electricity until he was 14. Color TV was in vented in the USA. Farnsworth also invented the cold cathode tube.
Interesting to know that British Television was being developed by one man, John Baird Logie.
In the U.S. there was DeForest, Farnsworth, Zworykin & Sarnoff to deal with.
Of course today the all empowering technology the world depends on is the internet, but without television technology, next to computer technology, it wouldn’t have been possible
And without radio we wouldn't have television or computer technology
@@KidTonyGaming Or any other electronics.
Interesting, but it's well-documented that the first successful transmission of electronic television was by Philo T. Farnsworth in the 1920s. Clearly several people were at work on this, but he should have been mentioned here.
Philo does get proper credit in the follow up film 'JLB', where his visit to London to work with JL Baird is explored and described by eyewitness's. He was hired by Baird to jointly develop and improve his image dissector camera which was used at the Berlin Olympics. Whilst they may have lost out to the RCA/EMI conglomerate to supply a 'live' electronic system for the BBC, their perfection of the flying spot telecine re-wrote broadcast history.
collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8085577/melted-farnsworth-image-dissector-television-camera-tube-image-dissector-tube-television-camera-tube
In 1994, Mr. Michael Bennett-Levy of the BBC, presenting here, forgot to mention that in August 1969 the whole world was witnessing LIVE the landing of the first man on the moon and, on January 22, 2021, was watching live the landing of the third rover on the planet Mars.
Also, I must add: KUDOS to the presenters of this documentary; so well-done and usefully informative as it is.
It would be nice, even at this late dater from it's original creation, if there were to be made available a companion book -- one full of photos and explanations plus, charts illustrative of all the key events leading to television's near-final perfecting.
Too, the splendid highlighted collecting fellow here, should be bronzed and set up in some square upon his demise, sometime far into the future. (Like L.G. Baird's? Or, might he have one even?)
All-in-all, on all points -- a fine addition to the legend and lore that was and is, Tele-Vision's birth and evolution.
Many thanks for your kind note. An accompanying book by Michael, also titled "Tv is King", can still be found:
www.amazon.co.uk/TV-King-Michael-Bennett-Levy/dp/0952105713
😊
Brilliant channel
@@LEMANPRODUCTIONSARCHIVE Ha! Just now found this of yours.
You're welcomed. It is a pleasure to bestow compliments onto worthiness.
AND thanks very much for the link. Sounds like just the thing!
He didn't even mention the internet and World Wide Web and everything humanity has developed in them and continues to do so. But then no TV, no internet.
The documentary was made in the early 90s. The internet was not that popular yet to be named as a popular and daily use technology... But indeed, without television (by whose technology monitors and computer screens could be created as output devices to display information and user interactivity) computer technology as we know it would not exist and neither would the internet.
In several places the narrator looks at the greenish color of the screen when the set is off and then declares that the German pictures were green and black instead of white and black. This is not necessarily the case, as some white emitting phosphors can have a greenish cast. So, what is the evidence that the German sets actually had green pictures? Also, at one point he says the Americans had yellow pictures. This is definitely wrong. Early CRTs made with P1 (Willemite) (radar or oscilloscope screeen) phosphor did produce green pictures, but this was replaced by various formulations of P4 (white-producing) phosphor, many of which had a greenish color when turned off.
The German CTR´s where black and white. In some Museums here, the mentioned sets are displayed now and sometimes the where switched on. When the CRT comes on, you seee the "snowstorm" in black and white. No green, no yellow.
1994........meanwhile....... Computer with Internet in infant stage...."Hold my beer bro....I m coming.."
Does anyone the title is the video which shows the testing of British colour TV using the US NTSC system? I've seen it, but I don't know where. Please can anyone help.
Really enjoyed that thanks.
I had a comment in the replys a while ago but thought people may want to hear about The Machine Stops By EM Forster it's a short story but it fortells of PCs and the social media generations back in 1928!
Talk about Prescience...
One of the best things I read in school back in 90 , we had a supply teacher who got rid of sons and lovers for that and Z for Zaccaria! Brilliant xD
Russian engineer Vladimir Zorikin* was hired by RCA to develope a practical color TV set which could transmit b&w programs as well. *wrong spelling. CBS had a color TV set but could not handle black and white programs!
There are films of pre-war productions. (TV was shown at the world's fair in New York in the 1930's.) The only way to record show was to also film it. There is a small film of a beautiful Greer Garson in regency costume in Pride and Predjudice. There is film of a nightclub in London and of course the London stage show Me and My Girl. Due to sunspots a radio station in New York could pick up the audio of the BBC. Westinghouse heard about this and using one of their televisions tried to tune in. They did, there is actual film of this TV with the BBC show, no audio a lot of snow but one of the two female commentators the BBC had was recognisable. When the BBC started up again after the war it started with one of these two woman arriving in a taxi at the place of broadcast.
The amount of commercial interruptions makes this "unwatchable." I tried watching for 38 minutes, but was interrupted 6 times. You would think that Educational content would NOT be monetized.
Get Ad Block, or pay for YT Premium, saves your sanity!
Hard to believe that some people STILL don't know about the free adblock download for computers!
or scroll to the last ten seconds, play till end and then start over...all ads (the little yellow dots) will have disappeared.
@@jebstewart666 SAGE advice come from the wise.
@@jamesmiller4184 thanks! not sure if it still works as i got tired of doing that and got an adblocker, ha!
20:34 It is not well known that J. Logie Baird is the namesake of the cartoon bear Yogi Bear.
it would have been very interesting to know what Baird and Marconi would have thought of our 4k/8k hdr oled digital tv's especially the rollable ones made by LG.
They're probably not TVs - just VDUs.
Is there an I.C. now with a co-ax RF socket on the top of it ? ;)
I have a 10 y/o LG 55"HD that can show 3D movies; my player was damaged and I decided not to bother with it. Disks are too expensive for seen childish movies!
@@bobboscarato1313 then watch adult movies then.
@@millomweb usual yes. It’s marketed as a telly and would have a DVB/DTV box inside even if you you the streaming smart apps and HDMI these days.
They would unamused
I have been interested in this topic almost all my life especially the last 25 years. It is interesting how good TV was in Germany in the 1930’s. There used to be a very interesting documentary on this called “ TVunder the Swastika “ on UA-cam but it was taken off. There are only some clips from it.
I’ve got it scheduled to be published on my channel on 5th May.
The massive fire that burnt out the Crystal Palace and Baird's death were deliberate. I believe that he was killed because his genius presented an expensive threat to RCA and to various German interests. RCA was delighted to pick up where Baird left off when he died, and threw their considerable wealth into it. Like most money making ideas in the world, if Americans couldn't have it all for themselves then they worked out a plan to exploit it by fair means or foul. My American relatives happily accept this and almost see it as normal business practice. How do you think so many American businesses rule our lives? Pick any company in the world and you will probably find the overall owner of the company is a giant American corporation. Ordinary Americans know little of this, but benefit enormously from the huge amount of money coming into America from businesses throughout the world. Isn't it shocking therefore that to this day a person can be bankrupted in this enterprising country due simply to a bout of ill health?
The first tv was built in 1884 way ahead of it,s time. Farnsworth Zenith came later I,m sure Telsa or Muntz, Marconi played a part
All live broadcast then...... only for a few hours a day