Philo Taylor Farnsworth Was an American inventor in the early 1900’s and considered the father of television for his invention of what is known as the Electric Television. This invention was used in conjunction with Vladimir K. Zworykin’s Cathode Ray Tube which was used in many common electrical appliances up until the past 15 years in which Transistors and Crystal Displays have become the standard for use in electronics. Farnsworth was born August 19, 1906 near what is now known as Beaver, Utah by Mormon couple Lewis Edwin Farnsworth and Serena Amanda Bastian who lived in a log cabin up until a small amount of time after Philo’s Birth. In 1918 Philo and his family moved to Rigby, Idaho. Upon to his family’s relocation to Idaho he was pleased to find out that his new home was wired for electricity by what was known as a Delco generator which allowed for energy for farm equipment and lighting. He quickly self-taught himself and learned personal study in mechanical and electrical technology, he would repair the troublesome delcor generator, and upon finding a burned out electric motor among some items discarded by the previous tenants, proceeding to rewind the armature and convert his mother's hand-powered washing machine into an electric-powered one. Philo developed his early interest in electronics after his first telephone conversation with an out-of-state relative and the discovery of a large cache of technology magazines in the attic of the family’s new home, he won a $25 first prize in a pulp-magazine contest for inventing a magnetized car lock which would be one of his first childhood inventions. He would later attend Rigby High School where he was strong subjects were chemistry and physics and one day while in class He asked his high school science teacher, Justin Tolman, for advice about an electronic television system in which he was thinking of inventing. He gave Tolman the sketches, schematics and diagrams covering several blackboards to show how it might be accomplished electronically. He asked his tolman if he should pursue his ideas, and he was greatly encouraged to do so. One of the drawings he did on a blackboard for his chemistry teacher would be later recalled and reproduced for a patent interference case between Farnsworth and RCA. In 1922 Farnsworth’s family moved to Provo, Utah without Philo, which led to him staying behind in Idaho to work as a Rail worker, so that he could save enough money to attend classes BYU (Brigham Young University). Upon his tenure at BYU which is also located in Provo, he would later move back in with his family and upon his father’s death and be forced to care for his mother 2 sisters and brothers. He would soon enlist in the Naval academy where he scored the country’s 2nd highest score on the naval academy test however due to the fact that the government would own any patents to anything he would invent while a member of the navy, Farnsworth sought that it was best he receive an honorable discharge which led to another return back home to Utah. During this return to Utah, Philo became friends with a man by the name of Cliff Gardner who he would later move to Salt Lake City with to start a Radio Repair Business. Although this radio repair business failed, Farnsworth decided to stay in Salt Lake City where he would earn $6,000 worth of funding for his Television Research and to set up a research Laboratory in Los Angeles where he could carry out all of his experiments. Before this move to Los Angeles he would Marry Elma “Pem” Gardner who was also the sister of his former business partner Cliff Gardner. Not long after relocating to LA, Farnsworth presented his models and drawings to nationally recognized patent attorney who was also an expert on electro physics. Everson and Gorrell thought Farnsworth should apply for patents for his designs, which later proved a crucial decision in his disputes with RCA. Most television systems in use at the time used image scanning devices known as "rasterizers" that used rotating "Nipkow disks" arranged in spiral patterns that swept across an image in a pattern of short arcs that focused the light captured on photosensitive elements, which produced a varying electrical signal corresponding to the changes in light intensity. Philo recognized this mechanical system was limited because an all-electronic scanning system could produce a superior image for transmission to a receiving device. It was September 7, 1927, that Farnsworth's image dissector camera tube would display the first image, which was a simple straight line, to a receiver in another room of his San Francisco laboratory. In a 1985 Interview with his wife Pem remembers Philo breaking the silence of his assistants by saying “There you are, Electric Television” the image was a glass slide which was then backlit by an arc lamp. A bright source of light was needed because of the low light sensitivity of the design and by 1928, Farnsworth had developed a system effective enough to demonstrate for the press. His supporters demanded to know when they would see money in return from the invention, so the first image shown was, fitting as it was a dollar sign. In 1929, the design was further improved by elimination of a Motor-Generator, so the television system now had no mechanical parts. That year, Farnsworth transmitted the first live human images using his television system, including a three and a half-inch image of his wife Pem with her eyes closed because of the blinding light required. In 1930 Vladamir Zworykin, who was developing his own all-electronic television system at in Pittsburgh since 1923 and didn’t have much success, was recruited by RCA to lead the Television development department. Before leaving his old company, Zworykin visited Farnsworth's laboratory and was thoroughly impressed with the performance of the Image Dissector that he reportedly had his team at Westinghouse make several copies of the device for experimentation. Zworykin would later abandoned research on the Image Dissector, and turned his attention to what would become the iconoscope. Which employed the use of photoelectric cells and the Cathode Ray Tube. In 1931, David Sarnoff of RCA offered to buy Farnsworth's patents for $100,000 under the condition that he become an employee of RCA, Farnsworth later refused. In June of that year, Farnsworth joined the Philco Company and moved to Philadelphia with his wife and two kids. RCA soon filed an interference suit against Farnsworth, claiming Zworykin's 1923 patent had priority over Farnsworth's design, aside from the fact it couldn’t present any evidence that Zworykin had actually produced a functioning transmitter tube before 1931. Farnsworth lost two interference claims to Zworykin in 1928, but it was this time that he prevailed and the U.S. Patent Office awarded the invention of the image dissector to Farnsworth. RCA lost a following appeal, but Sarnoff agreed to pay Farnsworth royalties. Zworykin received a patent in 1928 for a color transmission version of his 1923 patent application; he also divided his original application in 1931, receiving a patent in 1935. In 1938, Farnsworth established the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation in Fort Wayne, Indiana with E. A. Nicholas as president and himself as director of research. In 1951 Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation was purchased by International Telephone and Telegraph, during his time at ITT, Farnsworth worked in a basement lab known as “the cave” on Pontiac Street in Fort Wayne. From there he introduced a number of breakthrough concepts, including a defense early warning signal, Submarine detection devices, Radar calibration equipment and an infrared telescope. Along with his electronics research, ITT agreed to fund Farnsworth's Nuclear Fusion research. In Farnsworth’s later years he would return to Utah with his family to Brigham Young University to continue his research, and would also receive an honorary doctorate degree from the university in 1967. After a short bout of depression and due to abusing alcohol He would later die of pneumonia in 1971 at the age of 64, and at the time of his death would hold and be credited for over 300 U.S. Patents. Philo’s wife Elma Gardner "Pem" Farnsworth who lived to be 98 and passed away in 2006 fought for many years after his death to assure his place in history. Farnsworth always gave her equal credit for creating television, saying, and “my wife and I started this TV." Ever since Philo T. Farnsworth’s death we’ve witnessed great strides in the development of televisions. We now have flat screen TV’s that produce sharp life-like images that surpass anything Farnsworth could have ever dreamed of, but it’s all thanks to his early invention that we understood how to do such great things. With so much he’s done for the world of television there’s no wonder why he’s looked on as the father of television.

Works Cited

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo_Farnsworth http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/from_war_to_war/philotfarnsworthsinvention.html http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blfarnsworth.htm
http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/56.html