Philo T. Farnsworth

• Born: August 19, 1906
• Birthplace: Indian Springs (near Beaver), Utah
• Died: March 11, 1971
• Place of death: Salt Lake City, Utah

American electrical engineer

Farnsworth’s all-electronic television system was one of the great technological inventions of modern times. His patents encompassed not only advances in television scanning, imaging, focusing, synchronizing, controls, contrast, and power but also the first simple electron microscope and first infant incubator.

Primary fields: Electronics and electrical engineering; physics

Primary invention: All-electric television

Early Life

Philo Taylor Farnsworth (FI-loh TAY-lur FAHRNZ-wurth) was born to Lewis Edwin and Serena Bastian Farnsworth in the small farming community of Indian Springs, Utah, in 1906. As a young boy, he learned the skills of survival and the importance of hard work from his parents, but he was only an average student in school and showed no signs of genius. When he was twelve, his family moved to a ranch in Rigby, Idaho. There, he found science magazines in the attic of his new home and became enthralled with reading about electricity, magnetism, and the transmission of electromagnetic waves. He was fascinated by inventions, particularly the light bulb and the telephone, and how they worked. While still twelve years old, he built an electric motor and assembled the first electric washing machine that his family ever owned. At thirteen, he won a prize from Science and Invention magazine for inventing a theft-proof automobile ignition switch.

At Rigby High School, Farnsworth distinguished himself in physics and chemistry. He sketched prototypes of electron tubes and other electronic devices. While tilling a potato field back and forth with a horse-drawn harrow at the age of fourteen, he realized that an electron beam might be used to scan images in a similar way, line by line. He frequently thought about the fruition of that idea. He imagined a vacuum tube that could reproduce images electronically by shooting a beam of electrons, line by line, against a light-sensitive screen. It was a dream that he never abandoned. In 1922, he drew a diagram on the chalkboard for Justin Tolman, his chemistry teacher, that illustrated the concept of sending images using electromagnetic waves—the fundamental concept of electronic television. In 1923, Farnsworth left Rigby to attend Brigham Young University in Utah. After he had been there for two years, his father died, and he returned to Idaho to help support his mother.

Life’s Work

During the early 1920’s, many older engineers with significant financial backing were working to develop television. They included Charles Francis Jenkins, Boris Rosing, Kalman Tihanyi, Vladimir Zworykin, and John Logie Baird. The first electromechanical transmission of pictures had been demonstrated by German scientist Paul Nipkow in 1884, followed by the electromechanical transmission of the silhouette image of a toy windmill by Jenkins in the United States in 1925 and the production of the discernible image of a human face with an electromechanical television system developed by Baird in England in 1926. Farnsworth dedicated himself to inventing the first all-electronic television system. He understood the operation of mechanical systems that incorporated whirling disks to scan images, and mirrors to convert light into electrical signals. At best, these systems produced poorly resolved images. To address this problem, Rosing, Tihanyi, Zworykin, and others realized the importance of developing all-electronic systems for television transmission.

After Farnsworth obtained financial backing of $6,000 from George Everson in 1926 to pursue his ideas for electronic television, he and his beloved wife, Elma (“Pem”), moved to San Francisco. There, Farnsworth conducted the necessary research and development for his invention. By late 1926, he had developed models and blueprints for an all-electronic television system and applied for a patent. On September 7, 1927, he transmitted the first all-electronic television image, a straight line, using his newly developed camera vacuum tube, known as the image dissector.

On September 1, 1928, Farnsworth demonstrated his system for the media by transmitting the image of a dollar sign. After continuing to make improvements on his television system, he founded the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation in 1929. That year, his wife became the first human being to appear on television when Farnsworth transmitted her image across his laboratory in San Francisco.

In 1930, Zworykin, who was then working for the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), visited Farnsworth’s laboratory and gathered detailed notes about Farnsworth’s system. Farnsworth was under the impression that the visit was of a friendly, scholarly nature, to discuss the scientific and engineering aspects of television, not one that would lead to competition. In 1931, Farnsworth and his family moved to Philadelphia so he could establish a television department for the Philadelphia Storage Battery Company, which became better known as Philco. Meanwhile, Zworykin used the information that he had gathered about Farnsworth’s television system to develop an improved camera tube, the iconoscope.

After Farnsworth rejected RCA president David Sarnoff’s 1931 offer of $100,000 for his television patents, an ugly court battle ensued between RCA and Farnsworth. RCA contended that a 1923 patent held by Zworykin had priority over any of Farnsworth’s patents. However, RCA failed to produce sufficient evidence that Zworykin had actually produced an operable electronic television transmitter in 1923. Even more damning to RCA’s case was the production by Farnsworth’s high school chemistry teacher of the sketch of an all-electronic system Farnsworth had drawn for him in 1922. In 1935, the U.S. Patent Office awarded priority of the invention of an all-electronic television system to Farnsworth. After transmitting regular entertainment programs experimentally, Farnsworth sold his television patents to RCA Victor for $1 million in 1939.

After World War II, Farnsworth devoted his efforts to perfecting the many electronic devices that he had invented. During the 1950’s, he developed submarine detection devices and an infrared telescope. During the 1960’s, he worked on special applications of television, missile design, and peaceful uses of nuclear energy, particularly nuclear fusion. By 1965, he had developed and patented an array of tubes, called fusors, that could generate thirty-second fusion reactions.

In 1968, Brigham Young University awarded Farnsworth an honorary doctor of science degree for his great scientific achievements. After Farnsworth died three years later, his wife worked hard to ensure that he was recognized for his inventions and that he received his rightful place in history. In 1983, the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp bearing his portrait. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission honored Farnsworth with a marker in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, where Farnsworth had established a television shop in 1933. The marker recognizes Farnsworth as the “inventor of electronic television.” He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1984. Six years later, a bronze statue of him was placed in the Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C., with a simple inscription: “Philo Taylor Farnsworth: Inventor of Television.” The full name of the Emmy Engineering Award that is presented annually to an individual, company, or organization that develops significant improvements or innovations in the transmission, recording, or reception of television is the Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Engineering Award.

Impact

Farnsworth was an independent inventor, an idea person who had the ability to initiate practical concepts and convince investors that his ideas could be implemented. His success came from being a workaholic who thrived on spending time thinking and tinkering in his laboratory. He had a vision of what electronics could do to improve the world and was often so immersed in his inventive work that he would forget to eat. In many ways, his inventive work marked an end to the era of independent inventors. His contributions included the development of radar systems, vacuum tubes, electron microscopes, incubators, nuclear energy, and all-electronic television.

For many decades prior to Farnsworth’s success with television, inventors had sought to devise telecommunication devices that might carry pictures and sounds from distant locations into the homes of the general public. Realizing that inventions were creations of people who dedicated their lives to such advancements and that being an inventor was a noble pursuit, Farnsworth devoted his life to inventions that would benefit the lives of others. Through dedication, persistence, hard work, and courage to stand up against a giant corporation (RCA), Farnsworth succeeded in developing an all-electronic television system, one of the greatest inventions of the twentieth century.

By the early 1980’s, virtually every American household had at least one television set, each of which used at least six of Farnsworth’s patented inventions. Without those six inventions, television would have remained a radio. By then, television was a major resource for entertainment, broadcasting the news, advertising, political campaigns, and education. Farnsworth had invented a medium that changed the world. As the impact and influence of television grew throughout the world, Farnsworth became one of its earliest and most perceptive critics, sometimes wishing that he had not been responsible for its invention, while realizing the great good that it might accomplish.

Bibliography

Godfrey, Donald G. Philo T. Farnsworth: The Father of Television. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2001. Scholarly approach to the life and work of Farnsworth for readers with some technological or engineering background. The focus is on the important role that Farnsworth played in the development of the television technology that is still used today. Illustrations, bibliography, index.

Schatzkin, Paul. The Boy Who Invented Television: A Story of Inspiration, Persistence, and Quiet Passion. Vancouver, B.C.: Tanglewood Books, 2004. Biography that provides details of Farnsworth’s life, his inventive genius, and his challenges in life. Covers the technological developments that Farnsworth made, the funding he received for various television experiments, and his struggle for patent protection. Also explores how isolated inventors such as Farnsworth were fast being replaced by funded corporate laboratories during the 1930’s. Bibliography, index.

Schwartz, Evan I. The Last Lone Inventor: A Tale of Genius, Deceit, and the Birth of Television. New York: HarperCollins, 2002. Engaging account of Farnsworth’s life, his invention of television, the process of creativity and invention, and the conflict between Farnsworth and RCA over patent rights. Bibliography, index.

Stashower, Daniel. The Boy Genius and the Mogul: The Untold Story of Television. New York: Broadway Books, 2002. Recounts details of the intriguing story of Farnsworth, his inventive ability and continued persistence, and his battle with RCA and Sarnoff over television rights. A well-told story that documents some of Farnsworth’s personal struggles that resulted from lack of recognition and led to a mental collapse and many years of bitter disappointment. Illustrations, bibliography, index.