Television
by John Logie Baird
An attic in Hastings
John Logie Baird's early television was, frankly, a contraption. Built in an attic in Hastings, it was held together with sealing wax and string. Yet on 2 October 1925 it transmitted the first true television image: the head of a ventriloquist's dummy named Stooky Bill, scanned line by line by a spinning Nipkow disc.
22 Frith Street
Three months later, Baird invited members of the Royal Institution to his rented rooms at 22 Frith Street in London's Soho. They watched, astonished, as moving images appeared on his receiver. Today a blue plaque marks the spot where television was born.
Beaten by Marconi-EMI — but the dream was Scottish
Baird's mechanical system was eventually superseded by all-electronic television, and the BBC adopted the rival Marconi-EMI system in 1937. But the dream — and the demonstration — belong to a Scottish son of a Helensburgh manse.
Related Inventions
The Telephone
Alexander Graham Bell · 1876
The instrument that put a voice on the wire.
The BBC
John Reith · 1922
A Scotsman built the British Broadcasting Corporation.
First Permanent Colour Photograph
James Clerk Maxwell · 1861
Three-colour-separation photography.
Weekly Scottish Innovation Facts
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