Who Is He????

Who knows who invented T.V.? I know for sure I didn’t. Philo Taylor Farnsworth is known for being the first person to demonstrate and patent a working electronic television system. How come you don’t know his name then? Because Vladimir Zworykin is the one who is credited with creating the first TV and was backed by RCA. Vladimir visited Farnsworth and basically stole his idea for the T.V. Since Vladimir was backed by RCA he had more power than Farnsworth. RCA went public with the TV, therefore gaining credit for it. But, after many lawsuits Farnsworth was awarded priority for the invention and RCA agreed to pay Farnsworth royalties (Time).

Farnsworth, a young Morman boy, had his vision to create what is now called television while working in the fields. “He [Farnsworth] wanted to send pictures over the air, like sound over radio. As the story goes, he had a vision in a potato field. He looked down at the tracks left by his disc harrow and imagined tiny electrons creating a similar picture, line by line (Farnsworth).” After undertaking the daunting task of trying to invent a device that would turn an image into a stream of electrons and a television tube that could turn a stream of electrons back into a picture, Farnsworth had a lot of work ahead of him. He had many setbacks and was constantly looking for people to finance his experiments, so that he could continue his work. Some bankers finally backed him with $25,000. Philo promised them a picture within a year. It took him a little longer than planned, but “the bankers were so eager to see some return for their money, that Phil decided to play a trick on them. So, he invited them to the lab and got them in the room where the broadcast would be received. And they had drawn on a piece of paper, a dollar sign. And as they were sitting, eager to receive this picture, on came this dollar sign, and this was his way of telling them that they would get their money back. And so, that was when this Mr. Gorrell, who was one of the backers, said, "The damn thing works!" (Farnsworth).”

Farnsworth’s battle with RCA demonstrates the powerful vs. powerless topic we’ve discussed in our sociology class. Basically the powerful people (the big guys) were RCA, while the powerless (the little guy) was Farnsworth. Farnsworth, the little guy, was only a farm boy from Utah who did not have extensive resources. RCA was powerful and wealthy, therefore, proving the fact that the dominate group always comes out on top. Farnsworth fought a good fight, but no matter how hard he fought, he was very likely to loose. Since the powerful people write history, acting as our gatekeepers, it is no wonder that many people have no idea who Philo T. Farnsworth is.

"Philo T. Farnsworth was always an outsider, a bright star blazing in the dawn of a new electronic age. His romance with the electron was a private affair, a celebration of the spirit of the lone inventor." -PBS