90th anniversary of first TV demo
 

Today is the 90th anniversary of the world's first demonstration of television by JL Baird.

It's celebrated by a google doodle on the the google.co.uk home page.

Later this year it's the 80th anniversary of the world's first regular high definition public TV service. From the BBC's studios at Alexandra Palace, London.

I am well aware of the relevant historical arguments relating to "firsts" in the field of TV.

90 years ago...
 

On this date, in 1926, John Logie Baird made the world's first public demonstration of a working television system. It was the beggining of a new era!

I've already posted on this subject here:

http://videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=266206

Maybe the mods would like to combine the threads.

It is also celebrated on the US Google homepage.

Check out the tribute today at google.com

Darn, its probably going to be harder to get mechanical TV stuff on ebay now for a decent price. The following has been listed three times with no takers now there's already a bid on it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-rare-neon-...wAAOSwYIhWkHdl

It would interesting to see statistics of the google web hits from interested people clicking the "google doodle" to see about mechanical television. I don't know if ETF runs Google Analytics on their web site to see if there was a spike of hits yesterday. I thought about taking my Western Television down to Starbucks with me yesterday morning to celebrate the event but decided not to. I wonder if John Logie Baird was listening in yesterday. I read somewhere that Sir William Crookes thought that Cathode Rays could be used as a medium to contact the other side but then few people seeing the google doodle on the web were using Cathode Ray Tubes. See bottom "Spiritualism" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Crookes

Interesting photo of Jenkins June 16, 1925 moving pictures by radio from Navy Yard Washington DC to Jenkin's lab Washington DC. Anyone know why this doesn't count as before Baird Jan 26, 1926 date.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1925-Press-P...IAAOSwX~dWptZW

Have to do some research, but IIRC, Jenkins was only getting silhouettes originally.

That is correct, I think it was deliberate due to the bandwidth limitations of a standard AM radio channel.

There are various competing claims in the history of TV. Baird certainly achieved silhouettes before he sent pictures with light and shade.

The "World's First TV Service" from Alexandra Palace, London started on 2nd November 1936. This needs to be carefully qualified to make it a true statement.

1: Add "High definition". This excludes the various sub 100 line services that existed before then.

2: Add "Regular". The BBC service had a published schedule.

3: Add "Public". Anyone wth the money could buy a receiver.

It can be argued that the German 180 line service predates the BBC 405 line service. However it was only just about regular and it certainly wasn't public. Sets were only in communal viewing rooms and the homes of a few senior nazis. You can argue as to whether 180 lines was HD by the standards of the time. It's marginal.

I was thinking since Jenkin's transmission was from the Navy Yard to the Jenkin's lab which I thought was in Baltimore MD that it might have been a US Government project The Navy yard today still does a lot of government stuff, so it might have been less publicised. But then if the press did the photo maybe it was public not government.

We typically get about 2500 page views a day. On the day of the day of the doodle we got 14,000. Now we are back to about 2500.

We typically get about $7 a day in ad revenue from Google. On the day of the doodle we got $78. Now we are back to about $7.
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The interest didn't last very long

Before November 2 1936 when the alternate weekly 405/240 line transmissions began, the Baird 30 line system ran with regularity on the BBC Brookmans Park twin medium wave transmitters 356m and 261m (National and Home) in 1929. One transmitter was for vision and the other for sound. Of course such low resolution images as produced by the Baird system only needed minimal bandwidth.

After regular radio broadcasting ceased at about midnight, the transmitters would be handed over to Baird Television. The programs were listed in the BBC Radio Listings Journal "Radio Times" in the early '30's.

A few years ago, Doug McLean restored some of the Baird BBC broadcasts and here is on YouTube a recording of performer Betty Bolton in about 1933/34extracted and restored from a standard 78 RPM disc. I believe the actual images would have looked somewhat better as the BBC transmitter was equalized to over 10kHz for video in 1933 and 78 RPM home recording at that time would be lucky to reach much over 3kHz.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3CFkK5OORw

Baird Television Ltd. made Britain's first television broadcast, on 30 September 1929 (picture only) from its studio in Long Acre, London. Simultaneous transmission of sound and picture was achieved on 30 March 1930, by using the twin BBC new twin transmitter. By late 1930, 30 minutes of morning programs were broadcast Monday to Friday, and 30 minutes at midnight on Tuesdays and Fridays, after BBC radio went off the air. Baird broadcasts via the BBC continued until June 1932.

The BBC began its own regular television programming from the basement of Broadcasting House, London, on 22 August 1932. The studio moved to larger quarters in 16 Portland Place, London, in February 1934, and continued broadcasting the 30-line images, carried by telephone line to the medium wave transmitter at Brookmans Park, until 11 September 1935, by which time advances in the EMI 405 line interlaced all-electronic television system made the electromechanical broadcasts obsolete.

Penthode has pretty accurately summarised the British era of low definition TV transmission. There were also similar experiments in other countries.

Don (not Doug) McLean has also written an excellent book. Restoring Baird's Image". Although out of print, copies are still available at fair prices: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Restoring-Hi.../dp/0852967950

If you don't already have a copy then buy now before it becomes rare and expensive. If you have even the slightest interest in this era then you will enjoy reading this book.