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