| Recently I was reading a list of inventors of | | | | At the age of 15 Farnsworth understood the |
| important inventions that affect our lives every | | | | Theory of Relativity probably better than his high |
| day. I glanced down the list quickly looking for the | | | | school teacher who had tutored him in an audited |
| inventor I knew most about because he once | | | | senior chemistry class. This teacher would testify |
| lived in this area. To my astonishment he was not | | | | years later in a patent interference case. |
| on the list, in fact, the item he invented was not | | | | Phil said that the idea of TV came to him on an |
| on the list. This really surprised me because most | | | | Idaho potato field. As he tilled the plants behind a |
| everyone now days has at least one or two of | | | | horse drawn harrow going back and forth and |
| these in their homes. | | | | back and forth. You can just see his inventive |
| So let me introduce you to the inventor of TV, | | | | mind working over time while he was doing this |
| Philo T. Farnsworth. When Phil T. Farnsworth first | | | | monotonous task. Realizing at length that an |
| talked about transmitting pictures through the air | | | | electron beam could scan images the same way. |
| to a little box, the people in the small town of | | | | Row by row or line by line as if reading the book. |
| Rigby, Idaho probably thought he had lost his | | | | With only two years of high school complete he |
| marbles. Well, time has proved that he didn't loose | | | | applied to Brigham Young University and was |
| his marbles, but he did spread this idea all over | | | | accepted despite his youth and the lack of a high |
| the place. | | | | school diploma. Here he researched television |
| With the introduction of TV into our world we | | | | picture transmission. In 1926 at the ripe old age of |
| were all just happy to have one of these magical | | | | 20 he co founded Crooker Research Laboratories, |
| boxers in our living room. No one thought they | | | | later to be renamed Farnsworth Television Inc in |
| would ever be lucky enough to have two or | | | | 1929. |
| event better yet, be able to take one where | | | | In 1927 he transmitted a television image of 60 |
| ever they went. | | | | horizontal lines. He filed for his first television |
| Phil T. Farnsworth got the key to the TV tube | | | | patent # 1,773,980 in the year 1927. |
| when he was 14 and a farm boy. By the age of | | | | He continued to invent all of his life. One hundred |
| 21 he had a working device. His parents wanted | | | | sixty five different items he invented included |
| him to be a violinist, but he was more interested | | | | amplifiers, vacuum tubes, electrical scanners, |
| in experimenting with electricity. His mother's first | | | | electron multipliers and photoelectric materials and |
| electric washing machine was built by him. | | | | equipment for converting an optical image into an |
| He was born in a log cabin in 1906 in a small town | | | | electrical signal. He came a long was from that |
| in Utah. He rode his horse to school. When he was | | | | first electric washing machine for his mom to the |
| 15 he was living in the small town of Rigby, Idaho. | | | | magic box, called television, for the world. |