Television

Television is a system of transmitting video and accompanying sound over radio waves.

History

As with most inventions, there is controversy as to who deserves to be considered "the" inventor.

Early experiments in electromechanical television were conducted by Charles Francis Jenkins in the late 1920s in the United States, building on the work of British inventor John Logie Baird. Jenkins patented the first practical television set and operated the first television broadcasting station in the US, W3XK, in 1928. Jenkins' system was not commercially successful and was abandoned.

Other pioneers in the development of television include Philo Farnsworth and Vladimyr Zworykin. Zworkyin developed a series of electronic television camera tubes, all referred to as "iconoscopes." He worked for and was heavily backed by David Sarnoff and the Radio Corporation of America, and his devices are thus in the direct ancestry of commercial television as we know it.