1 00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:07,160 Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 2 00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:14,040 Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 3 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:17,560 Speaker 1: I'm your host, senior writer Jonathan Strickland, and I write 4 00:00:17,560 --> 00:00:20,599 Speaker 1: for how stuff works dot com. That's the company name. 5 00:00:20,960 --> 00:00:23,840 Speaker 1: It is not stuff you should know. It is not 6 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:28,320 Speaker 1: how things work. It is how stuff works. Sometimes I 7 00:00:28,360 --> 00:00:31,360 Speaker 1: feel it's necessary to remind folks about that. Anyway, today 8 00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:33,239 Speaker 1: we're gonna pick up where we left off in our 9 00:00:33,360 --> 00:00:37,000 Speaker 1: last episode with part two on the history of TVs 10 00:00:37,080 --> 00:00:40,040 Speaker 1: and how they work. So if you don't remember our 11 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:42,360 Speaker 1: last episode, we spent a lot of time establishing the 12 00:00:42,400 --> 00:00:46,080 Speaker 1: basic science that the inventors of television depended upon when 13 00:00:46,120 --> 00:00:48,360 Speaker 1: they were making their stuff, and we also looked at 14 00:00:48,360 --> 00:00:51,920 Speaker 1: the curious world of mechanical televisions, which were the first 15 00:00:51,920 --> 00:00:54,760 Speaker 1: attempt to bring movie moving pictures to the average home 16 00:00:55,040 --> 00:00:59,040 Speaker 1: and actually had moving parts inside the TV. But now 17 00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:02,600 Speaker 1: it's time to transition over to electronic televisions and the 18 00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:05,840 Speaker 1: insane drama and betrayals that went along with the launch 19 00:01:06,280 --> 00:01:08,800 Speaker 1: of those electronic televisions. And there are a lot of 20 00:01:08,880 --> 00:01:12,360 Speaker 1: arguments among historians over whom we should credit as the 21 00:01:12,400 --> 00:01:16,840 Speaker 1: inventor of electronic televisions. There are very passionate advocates for 22 00:01:17,040 --> 00:01:20,240 Speaker 1: two primary individuals, although they're not the only ones. There 23 00:01:20,240 --> 00:01:23,760 Speaker 1: are others as well across the world in fact, but 24 00:01:23,959 --> 00:01:26,800 Speaker 1: the two primary ones both had an idea that would 25 00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:31,920 Speaker 1: transform TVs from these mechanical oddities into the electronic mainstays 26 00:01:31,959 --> 00:01:34,200 Speaker 1: and homes around the world. And it really depends upon 27 00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:36,399 Speaker 1: whom you ask as to which one should get the credit. 28 00:01:36,800 --> 00:01:38,759 Speaker 1: And I'm gonna do my best to try and remain 29 00:01:38,840 --> 00:01:41,160 Speaker 1: objective in this, but I do admit I have my 30 00:01:41,200 --> 00:01:43,559 Speaker 1: own opinions on this matter, and they're probably gonna show 31 00:01:43,600 --> 00:01:47,960 Speaker 1: through pretty clearly. So we're gonna pick up our story. 32 00:01:48,200 --> 00:01:51,880 Speaker 1: In Utah, there was a young inventive lad who worked 33 00:01:51,920 --> 00:01:55,760 Speaker 1: on his family's farm, and that lad's name was Filo 34 00:01:56,040 --> 00:02:01,240 Speaker 1: Taylor Farnsworth Filo t. Farnsworth. He was precocious kid. He 35 00:02:01,280 --> 00:02:05,240 Speaker 1: had a keen interest in science and physics and electronics. 36 00:02:05,280 --> 00:02:07,960 Speaker 1: He was born in nineteen o six and according to 37 00:02:08,040 --> 00:02:11,800 Speaker 1: his family, when he was just fourteen years old, and 38 00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:14,840 Speaker 1: at this point I believe they had moved to Idaho, 39 00:02:15,480 --> 00:02:17,600 Speaker 1: he came up with an idea that would lead to 40 00:02:17,600 --> 00:02:22,320 Speaker 1: the invention of the electronic television. So, according to the story, Farnsworth, 41 00:02:22,360 --> 00:02:26,720 Speaker 1: who was already fascinated with the properties of the mysterious electron, 42 00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:30,760 Speaker 1: had been thinking about using electrons to transmit images rather 43 00:02:30,880 --> 00:02:34,359 Speaker 1: than the mechanical methods that were currently in development at 44 00:02:34,400 --> 00:02:37,639 Speaker 1: that time, the ones that depended upon the nip cow discs. 45 00:02:38,080 --> 00:02:39,960 Speaker 1: And if you don't know what a nip cow disc is, 46 00:02:40,240 --> 00:02:42,720 Speaker 1: just listen to part one of this series. I go 47 00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:47,120 Speaker 1: into detail about it. Anyway, Farnsworth thought that if you 48 00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:50,680 Speaker 1: could use electrons to scan and transmit images, you could 49 00:02:50,720 --> 00:02:54,600 Speaker 1: do so much faster, with a higher resolution and a 50 00:02:54,680 --> 00:02:57,960 Speaker 1: higher frame rate than the mechanical method could manage it. 51 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:01,400 Speaker 1: But the question was how would you do that? And 52 00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:04,040 Speaker 1: there's a kind of an interesting story. Don't know if 53 00:03:04,040 --> 00:03:06,160 Speaker 1: it's true or not, but it's how his family told it. 54 00:03:06,520 --> 00:03:11,160 Speaker 1: Farnsworth was pulling a harrow across his family's potato field. 55 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:14,640 Speaker 1: A harrow, by the way, is a heavy frame that 56 00:03:14,840 --> 00:03:18,560 Speaker 1: has times on it, like a fork, and you place 57 00:03:18,639 --> 00:03:20,959 Speaker 1: the frame on the ground so that the times face 58 00:03:21,080 --> 00:03:24,800 Speaker 1: downward into the ground, and you pull it across the ground, 59 00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:29,200 Speaker 1: typically across ground that's already been plowed, and this helps 60 00:03:29,320 --> 00:03:33,480 Speaker 1: break up clods and remove weeds and uh otherwise prepare 61 00:03:33,520 --> 00:03:36,160 Speaker 1: plowed land. It can also help cover seeds that have 62 00:03:36,200 --> 00:03:39,560 Speaker 1: already been planted. So, according to his family, it was 63 00:03:39,600 --> 00:03:42,240 Speaker 1: while Farnsworth was doing this for his farm and he 64 00:03:42,320 --> 00:03:46,480 Speaker 1: was looking at these neat, straight lines across freshly plowed earth, 65 00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:49,760 Speaker 1: they came up with the idea of creating televised images 66 00:03:50,360 --> 00:03:55,160 Speaker 1: line by line with electrons. So the television screen would 67 00:03:55,200 --> 00:04:00,400 Speaker 1: effectively be a stack of horizontal lines, and the electron 68 00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:04,720 Speaker 1: stream would paint the lines in sequence so quickly as 69 00:04:04,760 --> 00:04:08,400 Speaker 1: to seem like an uninterrupted series of moving images to 70 00:04:08,440 --> 00:04:11,560 Speaker 1: the human eye. And this would be somewhere around the 71 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:15,040 Speaker 1: year nineteen twenty when he came up with this idea. 72 00:04:15,520 --> 00:04:18,800 Speaker 1: But there's another inventor who factors into this story, and 73 00:04:18,880 --> 00:04:24,080 Speaker 1: that would be Vladimir Cosmo zorikin Now. Zorakin was born 74 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:27,440 Speaker 1: in Russia in either eighteen eighty eight or eighteen eighty nine, 75 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:31,600 Speaker 1: depending upon the the paperwork you look at. It seems 76 00:04:31,600 --> 00:04:33,840 Speaker 1: that eighty nine is the more accurate one, but I've 77 00:04:33,880 --> 00:04:38,440 Speaker 1: seen both listed. He attended school in Russia and in France. 78 00:04:38,760 --> 00:04:41,440 Speaker 1: He studied science. One of his teachers was a guy 79 00:04:41,520 --> 00:04:44,520 Speaker 1: named Boris Rosing, who in nineteen o seven, filed a 80 00:04:44,560 --> 00:04:48,120 Speaker 1: patent for a television system. They used a mechanical scanning 81 00:04:48,160 --> 00:04:50,640 Speaker 1: method similar to the nip Cow disc we talked about 82 00:04:50,680 --> 00:04:54,440 Speaker 1: in Part one, but it used an electronic receiver that 83 00:04:54,640 --> 00:04:59,320 Speaker 1: used a cathode ray tube to transmit electrons to a screen, 84 00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:03,200 Speaker 1: so it was kind of a hybrid between mechanical and electronic, 85 00:05:03,680 --> 00:05:07,920 Speaker 1: and Rosing demonstrated a version of that technology in nineteen eleven, 86 00:05:08,360 --> 00:05:14,039 Speaker 1: so uh Zorikin was at least aware of that work 87 00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:18,559 Speaker 1: at the time. Now, during World War One, Zorikin joined 88 00:05:18,560 --> 00:05:21,760 Speaker 1: the Russian Signal Signal Corps, and after the war he 89 00:05:21,839 --> 00:05:24,679 Speaker 1: moved to the United States. He got out of Russia 90 00:05:24,800 --> 00:05:27,880 Speaker 1: just as it was experiencing its own civil war. He 91 00:05:27,960 --> 00:05:31,120 Speaker 1: grew up in Czarist Russia, and then there was the 92 00:05:31,160 --> 00:05:35,320 Speaker 1: Great Revolution in Russia. He got out. His family worked 93 00:05:35,320 --> 00:05:38,280 Speaker 1: for the Czar, so he found work as an employee 94 00:05:38,320 --> 00:05:41,480 Speaker 1: of Westinghouse. After settling in the United States, he actually 95 00:05:41,480 --> 00:05:43,919 Speaker 1: traveled back and forth a couple of times, but ultimately 96 00:05:43,920 --> 00:05:47,200 Speaker 1: decided to relocate to the US permanently, so he started 97 00:05:47,240 --> 00:05:50,520 Speaker 1: working for Westinghouse and in nineteen three he filed a 98 00:05:50,560 --> 00:05:54,279 Speaker 1: patent for an electron scanning tube and it would eventually 99 00:05:54,279 --> 00:05:57,480 Speaker 1: be named the or it would eventually be incorporated in 100 00:05:57,560 --> 00:06:01,400 Speaker 1: an invention called the iconoscope that will be important later on. 101 00:06:02,160 --> 00:06:04,799 Speaker 1: So his work and began to work on this idea, 102 00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:07,960 Speaker 1: trying to create a practical application based upon the notion 103 00:06:08,120 --> 00:06:11,440 Speaker 1: of a scan electron scanning tube. But his early efforts 104 00:06:11,480 --> 00:06:16,120 Speaker 1: weren't terribly successful. In fact, his employers at Westinghouse, sensing 105 00:06:16,120 --> 00:06:19,120 Speaker 1: that Zorikin wasn't making much progress, actually told him he 106 00:06:19,120 --> 00:06:23,400 Speaker 1: should work on something else. They were not impressed at all. Meanwhile, 107 00:06:23,440 --> 00:06:26,359 Speaker 1: over in the US, Farnsworth was also trying to build 108 00:06:26,360 --> 00:06:30,240 Speaker 1: a practical electron scanning tube. Now he called his version 109 00:06:30,320 --> 00:06:33,440 Speaker 1: the image dissector. And he wasn't the only person to 110 00:06:33,480 --> 00:06:35,520 Speaker 1: come up with this idea. There was also a German 111 00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:39,359 Speaker 1: scientist named Max Nieckman, and also Rudolph Hell who was 112 00:06:39,400 --> 00:06:42,240 Speaker 1: a student of Deacons, who filed for a patent for 113 00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:45,360 Speaker 1: a similar device in Europe. But it seems Farnsworth, who 114 00:06:45,440 --> 00:06:50,039 Speaker 1: was working completely independently and unaware of that work, was 115 00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:52,800 Speaker 1: the first guy to create a working version of this 116 00:06:52,880 --> 00:06:57,360 Speaker 1: particular technology. The tube was meant to replace the mechanical 117 00:06:57,480 --> 00:07:00,560 Speaker 1: scanners used in nip cal discs, and we be inside 118 00:07:00,560 --> 00:07:02,800 Speaker 1: a camera, so the camera lens would direct light to 119 00:07:02,880 --> 00:07:06,960 Speaker 1: an image dissector, which would focus that light onto some 120 00:07:07,080 --> 00:07:10,800 Speaker 1: photo sensitive material that would create a voltage, inducing current 121 00:07:10,800 --> 00:07:14,240 Speaker 1: to flow through a wire. The current strength was proportional 122 00:07:14,280 --> 00:07:16,920 Speaker 1: to the brightness of the image, so darker stuff generated 123 00:07:16,920 --> 00:07:20,200 Speaker 1: a lower current than brighter stuff, and if you used 124 00:07:20,240 --> 00:07:24,679 Speaker 1: magnetic fields or electrostatic plates, you could then direct that 125 00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:27,800 Speaker 1: that actual flow and the image dissector could scan an 126 00:07:27,800 --> 00:07:31,080 Speaker 1: image many times a second, and then the photo system 127 00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:34,600 Speaker 1: material would convert that light energy into electricity. A receiver 128 00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:37,680 Speaker 1: that was synchronized with the scanner could then take that 129 00:07:37,800 --> 00:07:40,320 Speaker 1: current and apply it to a cathode ray tube, which 130 00:07:40,360 --> 00:07:42,680 Speaker 1: would shoot electrons at the back side of a screen, 131 00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:46,160 Speaker 1: and the synchronization allowed the receiver to project the electrons 132 00:07:46,160 --> 00:07:48,800 Speaker 1: in the appropriate order and at the appropriate level on 133 00:07:48,840 --> 00:07:51,440 Speaker 1: the screen, so that you would get an image, a 134 00:07:51,520 --> 00:07:54,160 Speaker 1: moving image, of whatever it was the camera had been 135 00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:58,400 Speaker 1: looking at. Now. The screen itself is essentially a series 136 00:07:58,440 --> 00:08:01,640 Speaker 1: of horizontal lines. Each line is made up of points, 137 00:08:01,880 --> 00:08:04,720 Speaker 1: which we call pixels, that represent a point of light. 138 00:08:04,920 --> 00:08:08,040 Speaker 1: These are all side by side in those horizontal lines. 139 00:08:08,640 --> 00:08:10,960 Speaker 1: So the backside of a television screen also has a 140 00:08:10,960 --> 00:08:15,120 Speaker 1: phosphorus coding on it, and the coding will fluoresce or 141 00:08:15,240 --> 00:08:17,840 Speaker 1: light up when it is struck by an electron at 142 00:08:17,920 --> 00:08:23,160 Speaker 1: high velocity. So the cathode ray tube sends electrons shooting 143 00:08:23,160 --> 00:08:27,000 Speaker 1: out at this phosphorus coating on the back side of 144 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:30,920 Speaker 1: the screen, and when the electron collides with the phosphorescent atoms, 145 00:08:31,280 --> 00:08:34,080 Speaker 1: it causes them to jump up in energy levels. And 146 00:08:34,080 --> 00:08:37,000 Speaker 1: when the electrons come back down from those excited energy levels, 147 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:40,360 Speaker 1: that's when they give off light when they fluoresce. The 148 00:08:40,400 --> 00:08:42,520 Speaker 1: brightness of the light depends upon the amount of energy 149 00:08:42,559 --> 00:08:46,120 Speaker 1: that hits the the atoms, so it depends on how 150 00:08:46,160 --> 00:08:48,760 Speaker 1: fast those electrons are going, or rather the current that's 151 00:08:48,800 --> 00:08:52,440 Speaker 1: coming from that cathode ray too, So all of that 152 00:08:52,520 --> 00:08:54,800 Speaker 1: is dependent upon how much light came into the camera 153 00:08:54,800 --> 00:08:57,920 Speaker 1: in the first place. It's a really elegant kind of situation, 154 00:08:58,480 --> 00:08:59,959 Speaker 1: and you might wonder, all right, well, how does the 155 00:09:00,040 --> 00:09:03,360 Speaker 1: catholice ray tube actually paint the backside of a television screen? 156 00:09:03,640 --> 00:09:07,080 Speaker 1: And it's all done with magnets. So let's consider the 157 00:09:07,120 --> 00:09:10,679 Speaker 1: anatomy of an old fashioned CRT television set. This is 158 00:09:10,720 --> 00:09:12,199 Speaker 1: what it would look like if you took one apart 159 00:09:12,240 --> 00:09:14,240 Speaker 1: by the way, do not take one apart. If you 160 00:09:14,280 --> 00:09:17,240 Speaker 1: puncture something, you could end up causing a bit of 161 00:09:17,280 --> 00:09:21,120 Speaker 1: an explosion, and it is messy and potentially dangerous, so 162 00:09:21,840 --> 00:09:24,439 Speaker 1: don't do it. You've got capacitors in there too that 163 00:09:24,520 --> 00:09:28,440 Speaker 1: can hold onto a charge. Uh, it's not safe, but 164 00:09:28,480 --> 00:09:30,000 Speaker 1: this is what would happen if you could, you know, 165 00:09:30,080 --> 00:09:33,120 Speaker 1: do an exploded view. So I mentioned that the screen 166 00:09:33,160 --> 00:09:35,880 Speaker 1: represents a series of horizontal lines. We're gonna be a 167 00:09:35,880 --> 00:09:39,400 Speaker 1: bit us centric in this part of the episode, so 168 00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:43,200 Speaker 1: I can just describe our CRT television's work, but just 169 00:09:43,320 --> 00:09:45,520 Speaker 1: know it works the same way in other places. It's 170 00:09:45,559 --> 00:09:50,000 Speaker 1: just the actual number of horizontal lines and frames per 171 00:09:50,040 --> 00:09:52,800 Speaker 1: second are a little different. So in the United States 172 00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:55,440 Speaker 1: with old CRT sets, the screen was a stack of 173 00:09:55,520 --> 00:09:59,600 Speaker 1: five twenty five horizontal lines of pixels, and it's the 174 00:09:59,640 --> 00:10:03,400 Speaker 1: cr te's job, the cathode ray tubes job, to paint 175 00:10:03,480 --> 00:10:06,240 Speaker 1: each of those lines multiple times per second to refresh 176 00:10:06,320 --> 00:10:09,640 Speaker 1: the image on screen and transmit that that sense of movement. 177 00:10:10,160 --> 00:10:13,400 Speaker 1: So you've got your CRT and that's shooting electrons at 178 00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:15,760 Speaker 1: a very tightly controlled beam on the back side of 179 00:10:15,800 --> 00:10:18,800 Speaker 1: the television screen. So how do you steer the electrons 180 00:10:19,920 --> 00:10:24,359 Speaker 1: use magnetic fields because remember, electrons are negatively charged particles, 181 00:10:24,640 --> 00:10:28,720 Speaker 1: so you can push them with similar similar negative charged 182 00:10:28,840 --> 00:10:32,080 Speaker 1: or negative magnetic fields, or you can attract them. You 183 00:10:32,080 --> 00:10:35,240 Speaker 1: can pull them with positive magnetic fields, so you can 184 00:10:35,360 --> 00:10:39,040 Speaker 1: actually change the flow of electrons by applying magnetic fields 185 00:10:39,040 --> 00:10:42,840 Speaker 1: in a very controlled way. Also, the magnetic fields are 186 00:10:42,840 --> 00:10:45,520 Speaker 1: a great band, and you should listen to them, but 187 00:10:45,640 --> 00:10:48,040 Speaker 1: it's kind of tangential to this discussion, so I don't 188 00:10:48,080 --> 00:10:52,240 Speaker 1: know why you brought it up now. Using magnetic fields 189 00:10:52,280 --> 00:10:56,600 Speaker 1: generated by a coil of copper wiring, the television paints 190 00:10:56,679 --> 00:10:59,480 Speaker 1: each line of phosphorescent material on the back side of 191 00:10:59,520 --> 00:11:02,520 Speaker 1: the screen one by one in a row from top 192 00:11:02,559 --> 00:11:06,360 Speaker 1: to bottom, so it goes top left or right down 193 00:11:06,360 --> 00:11:10,800 Speaker 1: to bottom. Uh, And it doesn't line by line. The 194 00:11:10,840 --> 00:11:13,840 Speaker 1: electron beam sweeps across the first horizontal line at a 195 00:11:13,920 --> 00:11:18,000 Speaker 1: blinding speed. It slams electrons into the phosphores to generate 196 00:11:18,040 --> 00:11:20,280 Speaker 1: the light you see on the other side, and there's 197 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:24,080 Speaker 1: also an electron absorbing layer so it catches all those electrons. 198 00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:26,520 Speaker 1: They don't just keep on shooting outside the TV screen 199 00:11:26,559 --> 00:11:31,960 Speaker 1: and getting involved in all your business. They stop at 200 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:35,280 Speaker 1: the screen because of that absorbent layer. Now, the beam 201 00:11:35,320 --> 00:11:38,280 Speaker 1: follows a pattern that's called a raster scan. So this 202 00:11:38,480 --> 00:11:41,040 Speaker 1: is where we paint that first line from left or right, 203 00:11:41,080 --> 00:11:42,520 Speaker 1: and when it gets to the end of the line, 204 00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:45,720 Speaker 1: it jumps back to the beginning of the next line. 205 00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:48,880 Speaker 1: So it doesn't go left to right and then right 206 00:11:48,880 --> 00:11:51,199 Speaker 1: to left. It goes left or right, jumps back down 207 00:11:51,280 --> 00:11:53,000 Speaker 1: to the beginning of the next line. It goes left 208 00:11:53,040 --> 00:11:57,200 Speaker 1: or right again. Sort of more on that in a second. Now, 209 00:11:57,400 --> 00:12:00,280 Speaker 1: that is called the horizontal retrace. When it it's to 210 00:12:00,320 --> 00:12:02,000 Speaker 1: the end of the line and moves to the beginning 211 00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:05,600 Speaker 1: of the next line. Uh, then you've got it going 212 00:12:05,679 --> 00:12:08,520 Speaker 1: all the way down the entire length of the screen 213 00:12:08,960 --> 00:12:12,120 Speaker 1: until it gets to the bottom right corner. At that point, 214 00:12:12,160 --> 00:12:15,360 Speaker 1: the beam switches off and it relocates it to the 215 00:12:15,400 --> 00:12:18,720 Speaker 1: top left part of the screen. That's the vertical retrace. 216 00:12:18,880 --> 00:12:21,000 Speaker 1: It's kind of a diagonal line from bottom right to 217 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:24,960 Speaker 1: top left, so it gets it ready to start painting again. Uh. 218 00:12:25,520 --> 00:12:28,000 Speaker 1: And now I've got to explain that sort of I 219 00:12:28,120 --> 00:12:30,720 Speaker 1: mentioned earlier. You know, I said it it's sort of 220 00:12:30,760 --> 00:12:35,120 Speaker 1: goes to the next line. It's because of interlacing. See 221 00:12:35,120 --> 00:12:40,040 Speaker 1: the whole screen is refreshed sixty times per second. At 222 00:12:40,080 --> 00:12:42,920 Speaker 1: least that's the idea. You want a sixty time per 223 00:12:42,960 --> 00:12:47,600 Speaker 1: second refresh rate. That's not what the earliest electronic televisions did, 224 00:12:47,760 --> 00:12:52,480 Speaker 1: but ultimately that was the goal for us television's uh, 225 00:12:52,760 --> 00:12:56,920 Speaker 1: except that you really are doing thirty frames a second 226 00:12:56,960 --> 00:13:00,600 Speaker 1: because you're alternating lines. So I mentioned there are five 227 00:13:00,960 --> 00:13:03,880 Speaker 1: twenty five of these horizontal lines, and I mentioned that 228 00:13:03,920 --> 00:13:06,720 Speaker 1: the electron beam paints that horizontal line went after together. 229 00:13:06,920 --> 00:13:09,880 Speaker 1: Only it takes a lot of work to paint five 230 00:13:09,920 --> 00:13:15,400 Speaker 1: lines of pixels sixty times every second. And our human 231 00:13:15,480 --> 00:13:19,120 Speaker 1: vision really doesn't need the screen refreshed that frequently to 232 00:13:19,160 --> 00:13:22,120 Speaker 1: experience what seems to be movement to us. You could 233 00:13:22,160 --> 00:13:26,000 Speaker 1: have that and you still have convincing movement. Uh. So 234 00:13:26,520 --> 00:13:30,080 Speaker 1: film works at twenty four frames a second, television works 235 00:13:30,120 --> 00:13:33,600 Speaker 1: at thirty frames, although they're not really frames, it's more 236 00:13:33,640 --> 00:13:38,600 Speaker 1: like fields per second. Uh. But it alternates. It's kind 237 00:13:38,600 --> 00:13:42,839 Speaker 1: of weird. So the first time the electron beam goes down, 238 00:13:43,679 --> 00:13:49,000 Speaker 1: it will paint every other horizontal line, and then the 239 00:13:49,040 --> 00:13:53,559 Speaker 1: second time it will paint all the even numbered pixels 240 00:13:53,640 --> 00:13:56,760 Speaker 1: in a horizontal line. You know what this is gonna 241 00:13:56,880 --> 00:14:00,160 Speaker 1: require a lot more explaining, but before I jump into that, 242 00:14:00,360 --> 00:14:04,000 Speaker 1: let's take a little break right now and thank our sponsors. 243 00:14:11,480 --> 00:14:15,280 Speaker 1: Al Right, So instead of painting the entire screen sixty 244 00:14:15,280 --> 00:14:19,320 Speaker 1: times a second, let's just paint half the screen thirty 245 00:14:19,360 --> 00:14:22,720 Speaker 1: times a second and the other half thirty times a second. 246 00:14:23,200 --> 00:14:25,800 Speaker 1: And then we do that just by alternating the lines. 247 00:14:25,920 --> 00:14:30,440 Speaker 1: That's what interlacing is. So CRT the cathode ray tube 248 00:14:30,440 --> 00:14:33,200 Speaker 1: would shoot electrons at the left top corner on line one. 249 00:14:33,520 --> 00:14:35,040 Speaker 1: At the end of line one, it would go to 250 00:14:35,080 --> 00:14:38,160 Speaker 1: the horizontal retrace. Only instead of starting at line to 251 00:14:38,480 --> 00:14:41,520 Speaker 1: it actually starts on line three. It skips line too. 252 00:14:42,440 --> 00:14:45,040 Speaker 1: It goes down line three, goes down to line five, 253 00:14:45,440 --> 00:14:47,440 Speaker 1: down to line seven, etcetera, until it gets all the 254 00:14:47,440 --> 00:14:52,440 Speaker 1: way down to In theory, not all television broadcasts actually 255 00:14:52,480 --> 00:14:56,400 Speaker 1: used all lines, but that doesn't really matter. It gets 256 00:14:56,400 --> 00:14:57,960 Speaker 1: down to the bottom, it's time for it to go 257 00:14:58,040 --> 00:15:00,640 Speaker 1: to the vertical retrace. Only instead of going back to 258 00:15:00,800 --> 00:15:03,880 Speaker 1: line number one, it actually goes to line number two, 259 00:15:03,960 --> 00:15:06,520 Speaker 1: and it starts to do the same process while all 260 00:15:06,520 --> 00:15:08,520 Speaker 1: the even numbered lines. So it goes to the end 261 00:15:08,520 --> 00:15:12,440 Speaker 1: of line two. Horizontal retrace brings it to line four, 262 00:15:13,280 --> 00:15:15,800 Speaker 1: goes to the end of line four, horizontal retrace brings 263 00:15:15,840 --> 00:15:20,280 Speaker 1: the line six, and it does that through that next sequence. 264 00:15:20,840 --> 00:15:24,680 Speaker 1: It does both of these things thirty times every second 265 00:15:24,920 --> 00:15:29,240 Speaker 1: for each thirty times each for every second that goes by. 266 00:15:29,320 --> 00:15:32,760 Speaker 1: So it's so fast that we don't detect that only 267 00:15:33,240 --> 00:15:36,240 Speaker 1: half the number of horizontal lines are being refreshed at 268 00:15:36,360 --> 00:15:38,640 Speaker 1: any given moment. It's way too fast for us to 269 00:15:38,680 --> 00:15:40,960 Speaker 1: be able to see that with our human eyes and 270 00:15:41,120 --> 00:15:45,320 Speaker 1: human brains. To us, it's just an uninterrupted sequence of 271 00:15:45,360 --> 00:15:48,440 Speaker 1: moving images. This is where we can take advantage of 272 00:15:48,600 --> 00:15:52,200 Speaker 1: human limitations. The technology is able to perform at a 273 00:15:52,280 --> 00:15:56,720 Speaker 1: level beyond what we humans can experience. So that allows 274 00:15:56,760 --> 00:15:59,840 Speaker 1: you to make some shortcuts on the technology side. And 275 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:02,400 Speaker 1: as I said before, it's easier to refresh half the 276 00:16:02,400 --> 00:16:05,480 Speaker 1: screen thirty times a second than a full screen sixty 277 00:16:05,480 --> 00:16:09,000 Speaker 1: times a second. Kind of nifty. Now, eventually you would 278 00:16:09,040 --> 00:16:13,680 Speaker 1: get to progressive scans systems, and progressive scans do every 279 00:16:13,720 --> 00:16:18,000 Speaker 1: single horizontal line every you know, sixty times a second 280 00:16:18,080 --> 00:16:21,080 Speaker 1: or however many times it refreshes. You'll hear about crazy 281 00:16:21,160 --> 00:16:24,040 Speaker 1: refresh rates that like four eight hurts, which means four 282 00:16:24,240 --> 00:16:27,160 Speaker 1: d eight times a second it's refreshing the whole screen. 283 00:16:27,440 --> 00:16:30,840 Speaker 1: But that's way off further into the future. We are 284 00:16:30,880 --> 00:16:34,000 Speaker 1: not covering that in part two. You'll have to wait 285 00:16:34,040 --> 00:16:37,080 Speaker 1: for Part three to get to the high refresh rate stuff. 286 00:16:38,360 --> 00:16:40,200 Speaker 1: So you've got the basic idea of how these electron 287 00:16:40,320 --> 00:16:44,240 Speaker 1: scanning two machines worked. The prototypes that Farnsworth is working 288 00:16:44,640 --> 00:16:47,520 Speaker 1: created were much more primitive than what I just described, 289 00:16:48,120 --> 00:16:52,280 Speaker 1: but they used similar techniques. It was based upon essentially 290 00:16:52,280 --> 00:16:54,840 Speaker 1: the same principle, just it was more limited in what 291 00:16:54,920 --> 00:16:57,960 Speaker 1: it can do. Now let's get to the drama of 292 00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:03,080 Speaker 1: the story, because it gets pretty crazy. So Farnsworth grows up. 293 00:17:03,200 --> 00:17:06,000 Speaker 1: He's had this dream since he was fourteen of a 294 00:17:06,119 --> 00:17:09,960 Speaker 1: method of creating television. He starts to really investigate it 295 00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:12,960 Speaker 1: further as he gets older. He takes charge of his 296 00:17:13,040 --> 00:17:16,000 Speaker 1: family farm after his father passes away. But then he 297 00:17:16,080 --> 00:17:19,040 Speaker 1: ends up meeting and then marrying a woman named Elma 298 00:17:19,320 --> 00:17:23,600 Speaker 1: pem Gardner in nineteen six, and shortly thereafter they moved 299 00:17:23,600 --> 00:17:27,440 Speaker 1: to California. In fact, according to some accounts, as soon 300 00:17:27,480 --> 00:17:30,400 Speaker 1: as they got married they moved to California, and originally 301 00:17:30,480 --> 00:17:33,639 Speaker 1: they moved not too far away from cal Tech because 302 00:17:34,040 --> 00:17:36,720 Speaker 1: Farnsworth was hoping that he would be able to use 303 00:17:36,760 --> 00:17:41,119 Speaker 1: the location to help further his own efforts in developing 304 00:17:41,119 --> 00:17:44,480 Speaker 1: this electronic television idea he had uh some would say 305 00:17:44,480 --> 00:17:47,280 Speaker 1: that he was obsessed at this point, and the following year, 306 00:17:47,320 --> 00:17:52,280 Speaker 1: in nine seven, the two happily married people would relocate 307 00:17:52,359 --> 00:17:56,000 Speaker 1: to San Francisco, and there Farnsworth was able to find 308 00:17:56,000 --> 00:17:59,560 Speaker 1: some funding from investors, which was a tradition that many 309 00:17:59,600 --> 00:18:03,159 Speaker 1: start up follow to this very day. If you have 310 00:18:03,240 --> 00:18:06,320 Speaker 1: a startup in the tech world, chances are you're going 311 00:18:06,359 --> 00:18:09,840 Speaker 1: to San Francisco to take a lot of meetings. That year, 312 00:18:09,960 --> 00:18:13,760 Speaker 1: ninety seven, Farnsworth applied for a patent for his invention. 313 00:18:14,280 --> 00:18:17,399 Speaker 1: The title of the patent was Television System, and in 314 00:18:17,440 --> 00:18:20,440 Speaker 1: it he described his method for capturing, transmitting, and receiving 315 00:18:20,440 --> 00:18:24,000 Speaker 1: moving images. Now, Zorakin had filed his patent back in 316 00:18:24,080 --> 00:18:27,520 Speaker 1: nineteen twenty three, but the U. S. Patent Office still 317 00:18:27,560 --> 00:18:32,320 Speaker 1: had not granted that patent. It was still pending. Moreover, 318 00:18:32,520 --> 00:18:37,320 Speaker 1: z Workin's approach, while similar to Farnsworth's, wasn't exactly the same, 319 00:18:37,680 --> 00:18:40,719 Speaker 1: and Zorakin had had no real success up to that 320 00:18:40,800 --> 00:18:43,320 Speaker 1: point in getting it to work in the real world. 321 00:18:43,359 --> 00:18:46,040 Speaker 1: He could not make a practical demonstration of it. The 322 00:18:46,320 --> 00:18:52,160 Speaker 1: attempts he made were very muddled. Now Farnsworth, by comparison, 323 00:18:52,160 --> 00:18:54,639 Speaker 1: was able to get a system working in ninety seven, 324 00:18:54,960 --> 00:18:58,719 Speaker 1: although that initial demonstration, which really was more just a 325 00:18:58,760 --> 00:19:02,199 Speaker 1: proof of concept, was ry modest. His first transmission was 326 00:19:02,200 --> 00:19:06,280 Speaker 1: a horizontal line. It wasn't exactly the Super Bowl, but 327 00:19:06,760 --> 00:19:10,320 Speaker 1: it did say that he was onto something and he 328 00:19:10,359 --> 00:19:13,879 Speaker 1: could capture, transmit, and playback moving images electronically. So he 329 00:19:13,960 --> 00:19:17,040 Speaker 1: kept at it, and in nineteen he brought some reporters 330 00:19:17,080 --> 00:19:19,760 Speaker 1: over to his laboratory and he held a demonstration that 331 00:19:19,880 --> 00:19:22,280 Speaker 1: was a little bit more impressive. It showed a very 332 00:19:22,320 --> 00:19:27,040 Speaker 1: blurry but clearly moving image on the screen uh and 333 00:19:27,119 --> 00:19:30,679 Speaker 1: it was at a refresh rate of twenty pictures per second, 334 00:19:30,800 --> 00:19:34,520 Speaker 1: so much less advanced than what we would see later on, 335 00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:38,040 Speaker 1: but enough to get the reporters excited, and it showed 336 00:19:38,040 --> 00:19:40,760 Speaker 1: actual motion. So that really got people talking about his methods, 337 00:19:40,760 --> 00:19:43,880 Speaker 1: and in nineteen thirty the U. S. Patent Office granted 338 00:19:43,880 --> 00:19:47,199 Speaker 1: Farnsworth his patent keep in minds workin still did not 339 00:19:47,280 --> 00:19:50,720 Speaker 1: have a patent for his invention. He was still encountering 340 00:19:50,760 --> 00:19:54,120 Speaker 1: problems with his approach, so in nineteen thirty, he decided 341 00:19:54,160 --> 00:19:58,560 Speaker 1: to visit Farnsworth. Farnsworth was known for getting this method 342 00:19:58,600 --> 00:20:01,240 Speaker 1: to work, and his workin was still running into problems, 343 00:20:01,680 --> 00:20:04,639 Speaker 1: so he arranged a visit and he went and visited 344 00:20:04,640 --> 00:20:08,439 Speaker 1: for about three days, according to Farnsworth's wife, and he 345 00:20:08,520 --> 00:20:12,719 Speaker 1: learned all about the methods Farnsworth used to create this 346 00:20:12,840 --> 00:20:17,120 Speaker 1: electronic television, and he even supposedly watched Farnsworth assemble one 347 00:20:17,160 --> 00:20:21,479 Speaker 1: of the scanning tubes. He then returned to Westinghouse and 348 00:20:21,600 --> 00:20:25,960 Speaker 1: attempted to reverse engineer Farnsworth's invention, and he was later 349 00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:28,920 Speaker 1: approached by our CI A and began working for them. 350 00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:32,119 Speaker 1: Uh our Cia had already made an enormous amount of 351 00:20:32,160 --> 00:20:35,880 Speaker 1: money by dominating the radio industry at that point, and 352 00:20:36,520 --> 00:20:39,040 Speaker 1: at the helm of the Radio Corporation of America was 353 00:20:39,040 --> 00:20:41,720 Speaker 1: a guy named David Sarnoff, who I'm going to talk 354 00:20:41,720 --> 00:20:44,719 Speaker 1: a lot about in this episode. He was originally from Russia, 355 00:20:44,840 --> 00:20:47,240 Speaker 1: and Starnoff was the type of guy who if he 356 00:20:47,280 --> 00:20:50,520 Speaker 1: wanted to dominate an industry, he would do so big time. 357 00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:55,120 Speaker 1: He would go in guns figuratively a blazon. He's really 358 00:20:55,119 --> 00:20:57,480 Speaker 1: good at it too, to a point where you might 359 00:20:57,520 --> 00:21:01,560 Speaker 1: call him um Ruthless really start off led our CIA 360 00:21:01,640 --> 00:21:04,119 Speaker 1: through an era of prosperity for the company. During the 361 00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:07,880 Speaker 1: radio days, our CIA had held onto patents that had 362 00:21:07,920 --> 00:21:11,640 Speaker 1: to do with radio components, and they also owned broadcast 363 00:21:11,680 --> 00:21:14,639 Speaker 1: stations and entire networks. Actually, essentially, if you were in 364 00:21:14,640 --> 00:21:18,320 Speaker 1: the business of radio back in those days, you were 365 00:21:18,359 --> 00:21:21,720 Speaker 1: paying our CIA for that privilege. You might be paying 366 00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:25,800 Speaker 1: licensing fees. You might be paying licensing fees just to 367 00:21:25,880 --> 00:21:28,600 Speaker 1: build radios for people to buy, or you might be 368 00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:32,639 Speaker 1: paying fees so that you could broadcast on stations. Pretty 369 00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:34,800 Speaker 1: much anyway that there was a way to make money 370 00:21:34,800 --> 00:21:36,760 Speaker 1: on the radio, some of that money was going to 371 00:21:36,840 --> 00:21:40,879 Speaker 1: our c A at that time. In fact, the company 372 00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:43,800 Speaker 1: even had a basic philosophy which a lot of people 373 00:21:43,800 --> 00:21:45,879 Speaker 1: have alluded to over the years, which was that our 374 00:21:45,960 --> 00:21:49,200 Speaker 1: CIA would not pay licensing fees. R c A was 375 00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:54,360 Speaker 1: the company to whom you paid licensing fees um. They 376 00:21:54,400 --> 00:21:59,119 Speaker 1: also created a major broadcast company INBC. You might have 377 00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:00,879 Speaker 1: heard of it if you're in the United States. It 378 00:22:01,040 --> 00:22:04,879 Speaker 1: is the oldest of the major broadcast networks in the US. UH. 379 00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:07,040 Speaker 1: This was back when our c A was still part 380 00:22:07,040 --> 00:22:10,320 Speaker 1: of General Electric, which eventually it would get spun off 381 00:22:10,320 --> 00:22:13,720 Speaker 1: from General Electric and become its own company. Also, if 382 00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:16,720 Speaker 1: you want to be technical, r c A created ABC 383 00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:21,720 Speaker 1: as well. ABC was originally part of NBC that they 384 00:22:21,760 --> 00:22:25,040 Speaker 1: had created two kind of parallel networks, both of which 385 00:22:25,040 --> 00:22:28,679 Speaker 1: were called NBC at the time. But uh, the government 386 00:22:28,720 --> 00:22:31,240 Speaker 1: stepped in and said, hey, you're muscling in on everybody. 387 00:22:31,240 --> 00:22:33,800 Speaker 1: You've got to break this up. And so eventually they 388 00:22:33,840 --> 00:22:38,440 Speaker 1: spun off part of this network which would later become ABC. 389 00:22:39,320 --> 00:22:41,480 Speaker 1: So in a way, our c A was responsible for 390 00:22:41,560 --> 00:22:45,240 Speaker 1: two of the three major broadcast companies, and you early 391 00:22:45,359 --> 00:22:50,320 Speaker 1: u S Television, and these sort of practices got really serious, 392 00:22:50,400 --> 00:22:54,160 Speaker 1: so serious in fact, that the Department of Justice got interested, 393 00:22:54,240 --> 00:22:57,919 Speaker 1: and on May three, David Sarnov was called before the 394 00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:00,440 Speaker 1: Department of Justice and the d o J was concerned 395 00:23:00,440 --> 00:23:04,360 Speaker 1: that our CIA was using its patent portfolio to suppress competition. 396 00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:07,720 Speaker 1: So this is not a new thing. It might sound 397 00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:10,240 Speaker 1: familiar to anyone who has followed news about patent law 398 00:23:10,280 --> 00:23:13,040 Speaker 1: in general. There's been a lot of stories about companies 399 00:23:13,080 --> 00:23:16,960 Speaker 1: like say Apple and Samsung, using patents to put pressure 400 00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:19,920 Speaker 1: on each other, or you might have heard stories about 401 00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:24,359 Speaker 1: patent trolls. These are entities that hold patents that seem 402 00:23:24,440 --> 00:23:28,560 Speaker 1: to have no intention of actually making anything with the patent. Rather, 403 00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:31,240 Speaker 1: they just sit on the patents that either require people 404 00:23:31,240 --> 00:23:35,200 Speaker 1: to license the patent or they end up just waiting 405 00:23:35,200 --> 00:23:37,960 Speaker 1: for people to try and make something that infringes or 406 00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:40,280 Speaker 1: seems to infringe upon that patent, and then they sue 407 00:23:40,280 --> 00:23:42,840 Speaker 1: them and that's how they make money. There are a 408 00:23:42,840 --> 00:23:47,880 Speaker 1: lot of people who criticize that particular method of business. 409 00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:51,120 Speaker 1: So this court case required our c A to eventually 410 00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:53,600 Speaker 1: make some concessions and to back off a bit on 411 00:23:53,760 --> 00:23:58,080 Speaker 1: its practices, although the company also won a few victories 412 00:23:58,119 --> 00:24:01,000 Speaker 1: during all the legal maneuvers. In also is the court 413 00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:03,560 Speaker 1: case that led to the birth of the modern Federal 414 00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:07,480 Speaker 1: Communications Commission, or FCC. This is the one that replaced 415 00:24:07,480 --> 00:24:12,280 Speaker 1: the Federal Radio Commission Earlier. That same f CC would 416 00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:16,720 Speaker 1: almost immediately force our cia to split ABC off from NBC. 417 00:24:16,880 --> 00:24:21,479 Speaker 1: So our CIA's troubles began with this lawsuit, but they 418 00:24:21,480 --> 00:24:27,280 Speaker 1: didn't end with them. Ah. So Sarnoff, though has working 419 00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:29,880 Speaker 1: as an asset, he went out and he hireds work 420 00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:33,280 Speaker 1: in a way to try and develop television because Sarnoff said, 421 00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:35,920 Speaker 1: we did this thing with radio and made a huge 422 00:24:35,920 --> 00:24:37,800 Speaker 1: amount of money. I think television is going to be 423 00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:40,520 Speaker 1: the next big thing, because it still wasn't a thing yet. 424 00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:43,919 Speaker 1: Not very many people had mechanical TVs and nobody had 425 00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:48,840 Speaker 1: electronic TVs yet, and there was a problem already. Saranoff 426 00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:52,760 Speaker 1: was upset because he saw that Farnsworth was seeing some 427 00:24:52,920 --> 00:24:56,640 Speaker 1: success and his working had not yet met with success, 428 00:24:56,640 --> 00:24:59,720 Speaker 1: even though he had a very similar idea and Farnsworth 429 00:24:59,760 --> 00:25:04,240 Speaker 1: had our They secured a patent in so now there 430 00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:06,760 Speaker 1: was patented information out there, and our CIA does not 431 00:25:06,880 --> 00:25:11,520 Speaker 1: pay licensing fees. That was dead set against his corporate philosophy, 432 00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:15,320 Speaker 1: Sarnoff's corporate philosophy. I should say, I will often equate 433 00:25:15,359 --> 00:25:18,600 Speaker 1: Sarnoff in our Cia in this episode, but it's really 434 00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:21,639 Speaker 1: just to talk about the specific era of our CIA's history. 435 00:25:23,440 --> 00:25:25,600 Speaker 1: And there was another problem, which was that the glory 436 00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:27,520 Speaker 1: days of our CIA were in danger at this time 437 00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:30,119 Speaker 1: because the government's intervention meant the company had to slash 438 00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:34,639 Speaker 1: licensing fees or else be charged with suppressing competition. The 439 00:25:34,680 --> 00:25:39,639 Speaker 1: Great Depression was also having a major impact on the 440 00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:43,320 Speaker 1: consumer electronics field. People didn't have the money to spend 441 00:25:43,359 --> 00:25:47,080 Speaker 1: on luxury items like radios, and that's what the main 442 00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:50,240 Speaker 1: product was for our Cia, so it was it was 443 00:25:50,320 --> 00:25:53,919 Speaker 1: really a difficult time for the company. Our Cia stock 444 00:25:54,040 --> 00:25:58,639 Speaker 1: dropped nine in value. But Starnoff really thought that television 445 00:25:58,720 --> 00:26:03,440 Speaker 1: was the cart that was gonna take him back to success. 446 00:26:03,480 --> 00:26:06,639 Speaker 1: He was gonna hitch his horse to that one, or 447 00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:08,560 Speaker 1: hitch his cart to that horse. I guess I should 448 00:26:08,560 --> 00:26:13,359 Speaker 1: say I go backwards. I put the cart before the horse. Literally, no, 449 00:26:13,600 --> 00:26:19,880 Speaker 1: just figuratively. Literally, it just doesn't work anyway. He thought 450 00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:21,480 Speaker 1: that TV was going to be the next big thing, 451 00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:23,480 Speaker 1: so he really wanted to get ahead of this, and 452 00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:26,760 Speaker 1: the problem was Farnsworth was in the way because Farnsworth 453 00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:29,240 Speaker 1: had filed this patent and our c A does not 454 00:26:29,520 --> 00:26:33,040 Speaker 1: want to pay licensing fees. So in April nineteen thirty one, 455 00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:37,800 Speaker 1: Sarnoff actually paid a visit to Farnsworth's lab. Now, Farnsworth 456 00:26:37,960 --> 00:26:41,280 Speaker 1: wasn't in his lab at the time that Sarnof was there. 457 00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:44,520 Speaker 1: He wasn't in town, but his wife showed Sarnoff around. 458 00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:48,720 Speaker 1: By the end of the visit, Sarnoff said to his 459 00:26:49,359 --> 00:26:53,040 Speaker 1: partners that he felt they could make televisions without infringing 460 00:26:53,080 --> 00:26:56,000 Speaker 1: on Farnsworth's patents. It wouldn't be a problem at all, 461 00:26:56,400 --> 00:26:58,880 Speaker 1: and that our c A was in the clear. However, 462 00:26:59,320 --> 00:27:01,919 Speaker 1: not that law. Long after his visit, he must have 463 00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:04,919 Speaker 1: had second thoughts. He must have either heard something that 464 00:27:05,119 --> 00:27:08,280 Speaker 1: changed his mind, or maybe one of his attorneys said something. 465 00:27:08,640 --> 00:27:12,439 Speaker 1: At any rate, he went to Farnsworth and said, hey, buddy, 466 00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:16,000 Speaker 1: how about I buy your company for one hundred thousand 467 00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:18,520 Speaker 1: dollars and you can come work for me. You can 468 00:27:18,560 --> 00:27:22,040 Speaker 1: be an r c A employee and we'll just buy 469 00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:25,359 Speaker 1: your company. And of course all the intellectual property like 470 00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:28,680 Speaker 1: your patents will own those forever and ever. And people 471 00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:30,600 Speaker 1: who want to make TVs want to pay us a 472 00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:35,080 Speaker 1: licensing fee. Does that sound good to you, buddy? And Uh? 473 00:27:35,400 --> 00:27:38,720 Speaker 1: He probably didn't word it exactly that way, but Farnsworth 474 00:27:39,760 --> 00:27:42,520 Speaker 1: did not. I think the deal was great. I mean, 475 00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:44,480 Speaker 1: a hundred grand was a huge amount of money in 476 00:27:44,560 --> 00:27:47,520 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty one. It's still a good junk of change. 477 00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:50,879 Speaker 1: I'll happily accept a hundred grand from anyone who's willing 478 00:27:50,880 --> 00:27:53,640 Speaker 1: to get rid of it. Uh, I'll take it. I mean, 479 00:27:53,680 --> 00:27:55,920 Speaker 1: assuming it's not like a money launder ring thing. I 480 00:27:55,920 --> 00:27:58,200 Speaker 1: don't want in on that. I got troubles on my own, 481 00:27:58,640 --> 00:28:03,200 Speaker 1: but a hundred thousand dollars, way more money than more 482 00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:05,399 Speaker 1: buying power than why don't we get you today? But 483 00:28:05,480 --> 00:28:08,760 Speaker 1: Farnsworth suspected that his patent was actually worth more than 484 00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:11,720 Speaker 1: a hundred grand and that he can make more money 485 00:28:12,320 --> 00:28:16,680 Speaker 1: licensing his ideas to interest in parties. In fact, that's 486 00:28:16,680 --> 00:28:19,359 Speaker 1: exactly what our Cia wanted to do with his work. 487 00:28:19,760 --> 00:28:22,879 Speaker 1: So Farnsworth's like, I don't really feel like I need 488 00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:25,280 Speaker 1: to go work for you. I can do this on 489 00:28:25,320 --> 00:28:28,840 Speaker 1: my own. So he rejected the offer, which did not 490 00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:32,640 Speaker 1: make David Sarnoff very happy. Farnsworth then attempted to work 491 00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:37,280 Speaker 1: with one of our Sier's competitors, phil Co. No relation 492 00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:39,880 Speaker 1: to Filo T. Farnsworth, but phil Co, which was an 493 00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:43,000 Speaker 1: East Coast company that was also looking at getting into televisions. 494 00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:46,880 Speaker 1: They also created did radios as well. Now, according to 495 00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:51,480 Speaker 1: pem His you know, Farnsworth's wife, our Cia got word 496 00:28:51,760 --> 00:28:54,640 Speaker 1: of Farnsworth's plans that they were able to pick up 497 00:28:54,680 --> 00:29:00,760 Speaker 1: transmissions when Farnsworth was demonstrating his UH technology. Two people 498 00:29:00,800 --> 00:29:04,000 Speaker 1: over at Philco, and once they learned that Farnsworth was 499 00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:06,719 Speaker 1: going to go work with Philco, r c A decided 500 00:29:06,760 --> 00:29:09,520 Speaker 1: to put the screws to Philco. Again, this is according 501 00:29:09,520 --> 00:29:12,640 Speaker 1: to Farnsworth's wife, And so our c A essentially went 502 00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:16,240 Speaker 1: to Philco and said, if you hire this guy, if 503 00:29:16,280 --> 00:29:18,680 Speaker 1: you or rather if you become his customer, if you 504 00:29:18,800 --> 00:29:22,720 Speaker 1: license his technology, we're going to revoke our licenses to 505 00:29:22,800 --> 00:29:24,920 Speaker 1: you to make radios and you won't be able to 506 00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:27,240 Speaker 1: make radios anymore. It would be illegal for you to 507 00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:29,960 Speaker 1: make radios because you would be doing it in violation 508 00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:34,640 Speaker 1: of our intellectual property. And Philco then backed off from 509 00:29:34,680 --> 00:29:40,200 Speaker 1: working with Farnsworth. So that's according to Farnsworth's wife. It 510 00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:44,840 Speaker 1: sounds pretty uh vicious if you ask me, so Farnsworth 511 00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:48,640 Speaker 1: was left without a customer. Now, in nineteen thirty three, 512 00:29:48,720 --> 00:29:51,320 Speaker 1: is Working would file a patent for what was now 513 00:29:51,400 --> 00:29:54,479 Speaker 1: called the r c A Icono scope, and the nineteen 514 00:29:54,520 --> 00:29:58,640 Speaker 1: thirty three patent application included references to the earlier nineteen 515 00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:02,440 Speaker 1: twenty three application, and in nineteen thirty eight he would 516 00:30:02,600 --> 00:30:06,040 Speaker 1: essentially he would eventually get this patent granted to him 517 00:30:06,080 --> 00:30:09,280 Speaker 1: by the U S Patent Office. Sarnough actually used this 518 00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:13,800 Speaker 1: filing as an argument that our c A really invented 519 00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:18,840 Speaker 1: television because it's Workin's original patent application was in nineteen 520 00:30:18,840 --> 00:30:22,800 Speaker 1: twenty three. That was four years before Farnsworth filed his 521 00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:27,040 Speaker 1: patent in nineteen seven. So Starnup saying, look, we've got 522 00:30:27,040 --> 00:30:29,719 Speaker 1: it on file here. Sure it's not a granted patent, 523 00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:33,400 Speaker 1: but the fact that the idea existed before Farnsworth ever 524 00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:36,080 Speaker 1: filed a patent for it tells us that we own 525 00:30:36,160 --> 00:30:39,640 Speaker 1: this idea, not this guy. So the big issue at 526 00:30:39,640 --> 00:30:44,920 Speaker 1: stake was really not paying that licensing fee, and he 527 00:30:44,960 --> 00:30:47,080 Speaker 1: didn't want to have to. Sarno didn't want to pay 528 00:30:47,080 --> 00:30:50,080 Speaker 1: Farnsworth a penny if he could help it. So our 529 00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:54,480 Speaker 1: c A decided to challenge Farnsworth's patents in court in 530 00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:58,520 Speaker 1: one of the ugliest tech lawsuits in history. I'll get 531 00:30:58,560 --> 00:31:02,000 Speaker 1: into that more in just a moment, but let's take 532 00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:12,920 Speaker 1: a quick break to thank our sponsor. Let's get into 533 00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:17,920 Speaker 1: this massive lawsuit that our ci A leveled against Farnsworth. 534 00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:21,200 Speaker 1: So Zorakin really had the backing of our CIA and 535 00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:24,160 Speaker 1: all their lawyers and Sarnof behind him. And at the 536 00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:29,120 Speaker 1: crux of the case was a claim in Farnsworth's patent, 537 00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:33,600 Speaker 1: and that was claim number fifteen, which stated the device 538 00:31:33,720 --> 00:31:38,720 Speaker 1: was designed to display an electrical image. That was the 539 00:31:38,880 --> 00:31:43,280 Speaker 1: term Farnsworth created an electrical image, and it is so 540 00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:48,480 Speaker 1: intrinsic to the way television's work, electronic television's work, that 541 00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:51,440 Speaker 1: there just was no real wiggle room for our CIA. 542 00:31:51,560 --> 00:31:53,640 Speaker 1: There was no way our CIA was going to be 543 00:31:53,720 --> 00:31:57,640 Speaker 1: able to make televisions without paying a license fee to 544 00:31:57,680 --> 00:32:00,640 Speaker 1: Farnsworth because there was no way to it around the 545 00:32:00,680 --> 00:32:04,120 Speaker 1: fact that their devices had to create an electrical image. 546 00:32:04,160 --> 00:32:10,480 Speaker 1: It was pivotal to an electronic television. So they thought, well, 547 00:32:10,480 --> 00:32:13,400 Speaker 1: how can we get around this. Let's undermine the claim, 548 00:32:13,560 --> 00:32:15,400 Speaker 1: and that's where they started to try and make a case, 549 00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:20,680 Speaker 1: Sayings workin that his UH nineteen twenty three patent application 550 00:32:21,400 --> 00:32:24,800 Speaker 1: was for a device that also would create an electrical image, 551 00:32:24,800 --> 00:32:27,240 Speaker 1: and since it was filed in nineteen twenty three, although 552 00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:30,680 Speaker 1: not granted, it still wasn't granted at the time of 553 00:32:30,680 --> 00:32:33,840 Speaker 1: this lawsuit, which began in nineteen thirty one and lasted 554 00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:39,040 Speaker 1: for about four years. UH. Even though it hadn't been 555 00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:43,920 Speaker 1: granted yet, it was a show that this idea was 556 00:32:43,960 --> 00:32:47,800 Speaker 1: around before Farnsworth had filed for it, and that really 557 00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:51,719 Speaker 1: r c A should have ownership of that idea, not Farnsworth. 558 00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:57,120 Speaker 1: But here was the problem. They couldn't prove that Zarikins 559 00:32:57,640 --> 00:33:04,840 Speaker 1: approach would you know, work, and without it working, it 560 00:33:04,880 --> 00:33:07,280 Speaker 1: was hard to make an argument that Zorkin had really 561 00:33:07,320 --> 00:33:10,240 Speaker 1: come up with this idea. Uh. You know, a patent 562 00:33:10,360 --> 00:33:12,920 Speaker 1: is supposed to be for an idea that ultimately can work. 563 00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:16,600 Speaker 1: If it has proven to not be a workable idea, 564 00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:20,720 Speaker 1: then the patent is not supposed to be valid. Now, 565 00:33:20,760 --> 00:33:24,800 Speaker 1: the team cited a supposed nineteen thirty four demonstration towards 566 00:33:24,840 --> 00:33:30,600 Speaker 1: the end of this lawsuit. They said, hey, Workin demonstrated 567 00:33:31,120 --> 00:33:35,760 Speaker 1: that his system works. He built a working version of 568 00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:39,920 Speaker 1: what he had uh proposed back in ninety three. But 569 00:33:39,960 --> 00:33:42,600 Speaker 1: there was no evidence to support this claim. There were 570 00:33:42,600 --> 00:33:45,840 Speaker 1: no eyewitnesses of this demonstration that they could bring up. 571 00:33:45,880 --> 00:33:49,080 Speaker 1: There was there were no lab notes to show what 572 00:33:49,240 --> 00:33:52,880 Speaker 1: had happened or the procedure that's Workin used. Uh. So, 573 00:33:53,360 --> 00:33:57,800 Speaker 1: ultimately they could not prove that the nineteen twenty three 574 00:33:57,880 --> 00:34:01,280 Speaker 1: version of what Zorkin was saying would ever work, and 575 00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:04,920 Speaker 1: that Farnsworth's idea seemed to be the first one to 576 00:34:05,080 --> 00:34:09,319 Speaker 1: actually be viable. So ultimately the Patent Office decided in 577 00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:13,560 Speaker 1: favor of Farnsworth. He won. They are c a could 578 00:34:13,560 --> 00:34:16,040 Speaker 1: not get around the fact that Farnsworth had a patented 579 00:34:16,080 --> 00:34:18,680 Speaker 1: idea that they would have to license if they wanted 580 00:34:18,719 --> 00:34:23,000 Speaker 1: to make televisions. Now, by that time, Farnsworth himself was 581 00:34:23,160 --> 00:34:25,239 Speaker 1: pretty sick of the whole thing, and sick as the 582 00:34:25,280 --> 00:34:28,719 Speaker 1: operative word. He had bleeding ulcers and uh, you know, 583 00:34:28,880 --> 00:34:30,719 Speaker 1: the stress had really gotten to him over the course 584 00:34:30,760 --> 00:34:33,920 Speaker 1: of several years. Uh. David Sarnop once joked that they 585 00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:37,160 Speaker 1: must have spent about fifty million dollars. Our ci A 586 00:34:37,239 --> 00:34:41,120 Speaker 1: must have spent fifty million dollars in this lawsuit just 587 00:34:41,160 --> 00:34:45,239 Speaker 1: to get around licensing fees and to secure them for themselves. 588 00:34:46,160 --> 00:34:50,040 Speaker 1: Um brutal. Right, But things were starting to look up 589 00:34:50,080 --> 00:34:54,080 Speaker 1: for Farnsworth. The television era was poised to take off, 590 00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:59,000 Speaker 1: and then a little thing called World War Two happened. 591 00:35:00,560 --> 00:35:06,520 Speaker 1: Where World War Two obviously changed everything. Priorities changed dramatically. 592 00:35:07,520 --> 00:35:10,319 Speaker 1: Once the United States entered into the war. The US 593 00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:15,440 Speaker 1: government suspended consumer electronics manufacturing and rededicated all those assets 594 00:35:15,480 --> 00:35:20,880 Speaker 1: to wartime production. So Farnsworth, who was now free and 595 00:35:20,960 --> 00:35:26,640 Speaker 1: clear to pursue these working relationships with various television companies 596 00:35:26,920 --> 00:35:31,120 Speaker 1: and to get licensing fees, suddenly found himself without any customers. 597 00:35:31,160 --> 00:35:34,799 Speaker 1: Because consumer electronics was shut down while World War Two 598 00:35:34,840 --> 00:35:40,920 Speaker 1: was going on. When the war ended, Farnsworth had a 599 00:35:41,080 --> 00:35:45,200 Speaker 1: little more than a year before his patents expired. Because 600 00:35:45,239 --> 00:35:49,440 Speaker 1: patents don't last forever. Once they expire, that information is 601 00:35:49,480 --> 00:35:53,200 Speaker 1: public domain. Anyone can invent anything based off a patent 602 00:35:53,320 --> 00:35:56,600 Speaker 1: that has expired and not have not be expected to 603 00:35:56,760 --> 00:36:00,200 Speaker 1: pay licensing fees, assuming that you haven't infringed upon some 604 00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:04,399 Speaker 1: other patent with your new invention. But yeah, that meant 605 00:36:04,400 --> 00:36:07,000 Speaker 1: that once those patents expired, anyone can make an electronic 606 00:36:07,040 --> 00:36:10,080 Speaker 1: television based on Farnsworth's approach and not have to pay 607 00:36:10,080 --> 00:36:14,200 Speaker 1: Farnsworth a penny. He never made the money he should 608 00:36:14,200 --> 00:36:18,000 Speaker 1: have off of his invention, and in fact, when his 609 00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:22,160 Speaker 1: patents expired in nine there were only about six thousand 610 00:36:22,239 --> 00:36:27,640 Speaker 1: television sets in the entire United States. Just a few 611 00:36:27,680 --> 00:36:32,239 Speaker 1: years later that would number in the millions. So they 612 00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:35,560 Speaker 1: were we were literally on the precipice of the electronic 613 00:36:35,719 --> 00:36:41,120 Speaker 1: television age when Farnsworth's patents expired, and he wasn't able 614 00:36:41,160 --> 00:36:46,800 Speaker 1: to become insanely wealthy off of his ideas. Other people 615 00:36:46,880 --> 00:36:49,360 Speaker 1: became insanely wealthy off of his ideas, but he was 616 00:36:49,400 --> 00:36:53,480 Speaker 1: not able to do that he didn't. He didn't just 617 00:36:53,560 --> 00:36:55,600 Speaker 1: give up. He actually went on to work in another 618 00:36:55,840 --> 00:37:03,040 Speaker 1: you know, boring, normal job, nuclear fusion. Yeah, Farnsworth, the 619 00:37:03,040 --> 00:37:06,200 Speaker 1: TV guy went on to work in nuclear fusion. Now, 620 00:37:06,400 --> 00:37:10,600 Speaker 1: his work would not lead to a viable nuclear fusion 621 00:37:11,280 --> 00:37:15,640 Speaker 1: power solution. If it did, our world would be totally different. 622 00:37:15,760 --> 00:37:20,040 Speaker 1: Right now, we're still trying to develop nuclear fusion power 623 00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:26,400 Speaker 1: that is sustainable. We've seen some promising early experiments, but 624 00:37:26,440 --> 00:37:30,680 Speaker 1: nothing that's truly a sustainable nuclear fusion power plant. But 625 00:37:30,880 --> 00:37:33,440 Speaker 1: farns worth work actually meant that we were able to 626 00:37:33,440 --> 00:37:37,360 Speaker 1: create neutrons using his approach, so that was very important 627 00:37:37,400 --> 00:37:41,719 Speaker 1: for other scientific work and experiments. So he still made 628 00:37:41,719 --> 00:37:45,000 Speaker 1: some very significant contributions, even though his patents had expired 629 00:37:45,160 --> 00:37:47,640 Speaker 1: and he wasn't able to really profit off of them 630 00:37:47,680 --> 00:37:51,120 Speaker 1: the way he should have. As for our CIA and Starnoff, 631 00:37:51,160 --> 00:37:53,279 Speaker 1: they continue to throw their weight around, or at least 632 00:37:53,320 --> 00:37:56,799 Speaker 1: attempt to. Uh. The late nineteen forties saw companies like 633 00:37:56,880 --> 00:37:59,400 Speaker 1: our ci A start to look into ways to incorporate 634 00:37:59,440 --> 00:38:02,640 Speaker 1: color in television broadcast. And this is still at the 635 00:38:02,760 --> 00:38:06,760 Speaker 1: very beginning of TV, so black and white was still, 636 00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:09,839 Speaker 1: you know, very important, but they were they already thinking ahead, 637 00:38:09,880 --> 00:38:13,279 Speaker 1: how can we incorporate color into this? But there were 638 00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:16,760 Speaker 1: actually other companies that were also looking at incorporating color 639 00:38:16,840 --> 00:38:21,480 Speaker 1: into television broadcasts. And our CIA had made a huge 640 00:38:21,480 --> 00:38:24,120 Speaker 1: amount of money by defining the standards for radio, so 641 00:38:24,160 --> 00:38:26,080 Speaker 1: what they wanted to do was do the same thing 642 00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:30,359 Speaker 1: but for color TV. If they made their fortune by 643 00:38:30,400 --> 00:38:33,279 Speaker 1: creating a standard in one format, why not do the 644 00:38:33,320 --> 00:38:35,920 Speaker 1: same thing for another format, similar to what they were 645 00:38:35,920 --> 00:38:38,719 Speaker 1: trying to do with just basic television when they tried 646 00:38:38,760 --> 00:38:45,080 Speaker 1: to undermine Farnsworth's work. So to that end, Starnoff decided 647 00:38:45,160 --> 00:38:49,120 Speaker 1: to sue a major competitor to our CIA. That would 648 00:38:49,160 --> 00:38:52,799 Speaker 1: be uh CBS. CBS was working on color television at 649 00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:56,399 Speaker 1: the same time. CBS, by the way, was the one 650 00:38:56,480 --> 00:38:59,000 Speaker 1: major broadcast company that r c A did not have 651 00:38:59,080 --> 00:39:02,879 Speaker 1: a hand in create ing. Now, the lawsuit went all 652 00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:05,279 Speaker 1: the way up to the Supreme Court, and our c 653 00:39:05,480 --> 00:39:08,960 Speaker 1: A once again found itself on the losing side. The 654 00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:12,120 Speaker 1: Supreme Court sided with CBS, saying that the company could 655 00:39:12,120 --> 00:39:16,000 Speaker 1: continue to create its competing standard, So our CIA was 656 00:39:16,040 --> 00:39:19,359 Speaker 1: free to continue working on their standard. CBS was free 657 00:39:19,400 --> 00:39:23,200 Speaker 1: to work on their standard. This didn't define the standard 658 00:39:23,239 --> 00:39:25,160 Speaker 1: because The Supreme Court had nothing to do with that. 659 00:39:25,239 --> 00:39:27,840 Speaker 1: They were just deciding whether or not CBS would be 660 00:39:27,880 --> 00:39:31,719 Speaker 1: allowed to pursue this, and they said yes. So our 661 00:39:31,800 --> 00:39:34,880 Speaker 1: c A was not able to cut it off there. 662 00:39:35,120 --> 00:39:37,200 Speaker 1: But Sarnav had another trick up a sleeve. He had 663 00:39:37,239 --> 00:39:39,600 Speaker 1: his research and development over at our CIA working on 664 00:39:39,880 --> 00:39:45,720 Speaker 1: developing a superior color technology UH for television that would 665 00:39:45,880 --> 00:39:49,359 Speaker 1: be better than cbs is approach, but more importantly, would 666 00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:52,799 Speaker 1: be backwards compatible for old r C A black and 667 00:39:52,840 --> 00:39:56,239 Speaker 1: white television sets, which meant if you owned an r 668 00:39:56,320 --> 00:39:59,200 Speaker 1: C A black and white television set and you were 669 00:39:59,239 --> 00:40:02,120 Speaker 1: tuning into an r C A color broadcast, you could 670 00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:04,760 Speaker 1: still watch it. Now, it wouldn't be in color, because 671 00:40:04,800 --> 00:40:07,120 Speaker 1: nothing's magically going to turn a black and white TV 672 00:40:07,239 --> 00:40:10,960 Speaker 1: into a color TV, but you could actually watch what 673 00:40:11,120 --> 00:40:13,320 Speaker 1: was going on. It would just be in black and white. 674 00:40:14,120 --> 00:40:18,520 Speaker 1: The CBS approach, however, was not backwards compatible. If you 675 00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:21,799 Speaker 1: wanted to watch a CBS color broadcast using an old 676 00:40:21,840 --> 00:40:24,200 Speaker 1: black and white r C A set, you actually had 677 00:40:24,239 --> 00:40:26,480 Speaker 1: to go out and buy a hundred dollar adapter, and 678 00:40:26,520 --> 00:40:29,160 Speaker 1: a hundred dollars was a huge amount of money back then, 679 00:40:29,760 --> 00:40:32,440 Speaker 1: still pretty hefty sum. If you just want an adapter 680 00:40:32,640 --> 00:40:35,920 Speaker 1: for your television and uh and they so r c 681 00:40:36,080 --> 00:40:38,960 Speaker 1: A was saying that, well, by making back ours backwards compatible, 682 00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:43,040 Speaker 1: it's more attractive, right, Like, not everyone has a color set, 683 00:40:43,080 --> 00:40:45,120 Speaker 1: and when color sets hit the market, they're going to 684 00:40:45,200 --> 00:40:48,160 Speaker 1: be incredibly expensive. Most people are gonna stick with their 685 00:40:48,200 --> 00:40:50,520 Speaker 1: black and white sets. So if we make a color 686 00:40:51,040 --> 00:40:55,520 Speaker 1: broadcast strategy that works even with older black and white sets, 687 00:40:56,280 --> 00:41:00,080 Speaker 1: we have an advantage. And they also had already he 688 00:41:00,120 --> 00:41:04,120 Speaker 1: did the market with thousands millions of black and white 689 00:41:04,200 --> 00:41:07,880 Speaker 1: r c A sets, so they knew that the customer 690 00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:10,239 Speaker 1: base was going to be on their side. So even 691 00:41:10,280 --> 00:41:12,840 Speaker 1: if you were to argue that cbs IS approach would 692 00:41:12,840 --> 00:41:17,799 Speaker 1: be superior or cheaper or faster to market, the fact 693 00:41:17,880 --> 00:41:20,600 Speaker 1: that it didn't have that backwards capability was what held 694 00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:25,200 Speaker 1: it back. And sure enough it ended up working. The 695 00:41:25,719 --> 00:41:29,600 Speaker 1: f c C and the National Television Standards Committee decided 696 00:41:29,640 --> 00:41:33,120 Speaker 1: to go with our CIA's standard instead of cbs IS 697 00:41:33,160 --> 00:41:36,919 Speaker 1: standard to be the industry standard. And this was still 698 00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:41,480 Speaker 1: years before anyone had really got into color TV manufacturing. Uh, 699 00:41:41,560 --> 00:41:44,240 Speaker 1: it was all part of the long game. But Starnov 700 00:41:44,280 --> 00:41:46,920 Speaker 1: could see where things were going, and he said we 701 00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:48,520 Speaker 1: got to get ahead of it so that we're the 702 00:41:48,520 --> 00:41:51,080 Speaker 1: ones who defined the standard. That's how we make the 703 00:41:51,120 --> 00:41:54,880 Speaker 1: money because our c A gets paid the licensing fees. 704 00:41:56,080 --> 00:41:59,279 Speaker 1: By night. R c A standard was the way to go, 705 00:42:00,280 --> 00:42:03,600 Speaker 1: and the company collected licensing fees, but the Justice Department 706 00:42:03,640 --> 00:42:06,600 Speaker 1: made sure that our c A stuck to what was 707 00:42:06,680 --> 00:42:12,720 Speaker 1: defined as reasonable prices. So that meant that they couldn't 708 00:42:13,000 --> 00:42:14,759 Speaker 1: do the same thing they had done back in the 709 00:42:14,840 --> 00:42:18,239 Speaker 1: radio days, but they still were collecting lots of licensing fees, 710 00:42:18,280 --> 00:42:20,960 Speaker 1: so it was great for the company. Now, both Starnoff 711 00:42:21,120 --> 00:42:26,160 Speaker 1: and Farnsworth passed away in nineteen seventy one. Z Workin 712 00:42:26,239 --> 00:42:28,759 Speaker 1: actually outlived both of them. He would pass away in 713 00:42:28,880 --> 00:42:33,080 Speaker 1: ninety two in Princeton, New Jersey. And that's the story 714 00:42:33,120 --> 00:42:35,680 Speaker 1: of the first electronic televisions. But there's still more to 715 00:42:35,760 --> 00:42:39,400 Speaker 1: talk about. I mentioned color TVs, but how the heck 716 00:42:39,440 --> 00:42:42,960 Speaker 1: do they work? So I'm gonna wrap up this episode 717 00:42:42,960 --> 00:42:45,040 Speaker 1: with a quick lesson on color TVs, and the next 718 00:42:45,080 --> 00:42:49,080 Speaker 1: episode we'll look at developments and television like l C 719 00:42:49,239 --> 00:42:53,520 Speaker 1: D S, l e D S, plasma screens, high dynamic range, 720 00:42:53,520 --> 00:42:55,640 Speaker 1: and more. But first let's talk about color TVs. So 721 00:42:55,680 --> 00:42:59,280 Speaker 1: the first color TVs which we're using. The CBS method. 722 00:43:00,160 --> 00:43:03,920 Speaker 1: Hearken back to those mechanical television set days. In fact, 723 00:43:04,200 --> 00:43:08,080 Speaker 1: CBS color TVs had a mechanical element to them. They 724 00:43:08,080 --> 00:43:12,280 Speaker 1: had a color wheel. So similar to what John Logie Baird, 725 00:43:12,360 --> 00:43:16,200 Speaker 1: the Scottish inventor who worked on mechanical television sets UH 726 00:43:16,360 --> 00:43:19,359 Speaker 1: twenty years earlier, what he had been doing. He had 727 00:43:19,400 --> 00:43:21,680 Speaker 1: been using a color wheel to create color television. Well, 728 00:43:21,920 --> 00:43:25,000 Speaker 1: CBS wanted to do the same thing. So a cathode 729 00:43:25,080 --> 00:43:28,880 Speaker 1: ray tube would be between the wheel and the screen 730 00:43:29,160 --> 00:43:32,360 Speaker 1: and that would provide the stream of electrons spinning the 731 00:43:32,360 --> 00:43:35,880 Speaker 1: wheel would allow you to get whatever color you needed 732 00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:39,719 Speaker 1: for that particular pixel. And because the wheel could spend 733 00:43:39,800 --> 00:43:42,480 Speaker 1: quite fast, and because our brains will merge different colors 734 00:43:42,480 --> 00:43:45,680 Speaker 1: into new color all on its own, the speed of 735 00:43:45,680 --> 00:43:48,920 Speaker 1: transmission is what did all the work. Our brains just 736 00:43:49,080 --> 00:43:54,640 Speaker 1: would assimilate the information we had to see a color 737 00:43:54,760 --> 00:43:58,320 Speaker 1: that was represented by lots of individual colors being presented 738 00:43:58,360 --> 00:44:01,800 Speaker 1: to us very rapid within the span of a second. 739 00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:04,279 Speaker 1: So in other words, you can get red, green, or 740 00:44:04,280 --> 00:44:06,759 Speaker 1: blue because that's what the color wheel had. Those were 741 00:44:06,800 --> 00:44:09,319 Speaker 1: the primary colors on the color wheel. But if you 742 00:44:09,320 --> 00:44:12,359 Speaker 1: wanted to get purple, then what you're getting is a 743 00:44:12,360 --> 00:44:15,680 Speaker 1: series of red and blue pixels that are presented so 744 00:44:15,880 --> 00:44:20,520 Speaker 1: fast that our brain just ends up combining those into 745 00:44:20,600 --> 00:44:25,879 Speaker 1: a purple pixel. It's super cool. So I love this 746 00:44:26,040 --> 00:44:30,280 Speaker 1: because it again depends upon the limitations of the human 747 00:44:30,320 --> 00:44:34,280 Speaker 1: brain to make the technology work. And uh, it really 748 00:44:34,320 --> 00:44:39,480 Speaker 1: makes me appreciate both the amazing work of the technology 749 00:44:39,600 --> 00:44:44,040 Speaker 1: and also how weird humans are. And I include myself 750 00:44:44,080 --> 00:44:51,640 Speaker 1: there along with you human. So you've got this this 751 00:44:52,000 --> 00:44:56,560 Speaker 1: super fast method of presenting colors that end up sort 752 00:44:56,600 --> 00:44:59,680 Speaker 1: of bleeding into one another to represent whatever the actual 753 00:44:59,719 --> 00:45:03,040 Speaker 1: color needs to be for the picture. Um, and it 754 00:45:03,080 --> 00:45:05,400 Speaker 1: was really nifty, but the mechanical approach didn't end up 755 00:45:05,400 --> 00:45:08,040 Speaker 1: becoming the standard. Again, that was not compatible with the 756 00:45:08,040 --> 00:45:11,960 Speaker 1: old black and white television sets. So instead our c 757 00:45:12,160 --> 00:45:16,120 Speaker 1: A went with an electrical standpoint and used colorful phosphors. 758 00:45:16,640 --> 00:45:19,439 Speaker 1: So the stuff that fluoresces on the back of your 759 00:45:19,480 --> 00:45:21,480 Speaker 1: television screen, so when you're looking at the front of 760 00:45:21,480 --> 00:45:25,319 Speaker 1: the television screen, the opposite side has that phosphorus cover 761 00:45:25,480 --> 00:45:29,799 Speaker 1: coating on it. Well, it would have colorful phosphors, not 762 00:45:29,880 --> 00:45:33,919 Speaker 1: just ones that would shine white or gray. Depending upon 763 00:45:33,960 --> 00:45:36,560 Speaker 1: the amount of electric or the energy of the electron 764 00:45:36,600 --> 00:45:41,600 Speaker 1: hitting it. So a color CRT television has three electron beams, 765 00:45:41,600 --> 00:45:44,640 Speaker 1: not just one, and those beams are called red, green, 766 00:45:44,680 --> 00:45:47,880 Speaker 1: and blue, although the beams themselves don't have any color 767 00:45:47,920 --> 00:45:52,560 Speaker 1: to them because they're electrons, but they're dedicated to red, green, 768 00:45:52,600 --> 00:45:56,840 Speaker 1: and blue phosphors. Uh, the screen itself would have red, green, 769 00:45:56,920 --> 00:45:59,560 Speaker 1: and blue phosphers that would be arranged as dots or 770 00:45:59,719 --> 00:46:03,200 Speaker 1: line on the back of the screen. And each pixel 771 00:46:03,239 --> 00:46:07,200 Speaker 1: has three phosphors right as each pixel has a red component, 772 00:46:07,239 --> 00:46:11,120 Speaker 1: a green component, and a blue component. And between the 773 00:46:11,120 --> 00:46:16,400 Speaker 1: phosphorus coding and the electron beams was a little mesh screen. 774 00:46:17,400 --> 00:46:20,640 Speaker 1: It was actually called the shadow mask, and the holes 775 00:46:20,680 --> 00:46:23,720 Speaker 1: in the shadow mask match up with the phosphorus dots 776 00:46:23,880 --> 00:46:27,680 Speaker 1: or stripes depending upon the actual model of TV. So 777 00:46:27,760 --> 00:46:30,120 Speaker 1: color TV signals are really similar to black and white 778 00:46:30,120 --> 00:46:33,719 Speaker 1: TV signals, but in addition to intensity, it includes a 779 00:46:33,760 --> 00:46:38,400 Speaker 1: component called a chrominance signal, and this involves superimposing a 780 00:46:38,480 --> 00:46:41,400 Speaker 1: special sign wave over the top of the black and 781 00:46:41,480 --> 00:46:45,959 Speaker 1: white television signal. And what kind of special sign wave? 782 00:46:46,200 --> 00:46:52,040 Speaker 1: I hear you ask pipe down? Nobody asked you. But 783 00:46:52,080 --> 00:46:55,160 Speaker 1: if you really have to know it's a three point 784 00:46:55,280 --> 00:46:58,759 Speaker 1: five seven nine five four five mega hurt sign wave. 785 00:46:58,800 --> 00:47:03,360 Speaker 1: Are you happy? No? Sor right? Neither am I? Anyway? 786 00:47:03,640 --> 00:47:07,120 Speaker 1: The chrominance signal indicates which color to display based on 787 00:47:07,160 --> 00:47:09,920 Speaker 1: a phase shift. So if you're looking at a sine 788 00:47:09,920 --> 00:47:13,080 Speaker 1: wave on a graph, a phase shift is shifting it 789 00:47:13,160 --> 00:47:15,200 Speaker 1: to the left or to the right, so it's out 790 00:47:15,239 --> 00:47:19,200 Speaker 1: of phase with its original position. So a shift of 791 00:47:19,239 --> 00:47:23,960 Speaker 1: a degrees would indicate blue, a shift of just fifteen 792 00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:28,719 Speaker 1: degrees would be yellow, and shifting it would tell I'm 793 00:47:28,800 --> 00:47:33,280 Speaker 1: using air quotes the electron beams which color it needed 794 00:47:33,320 --> 00:47:37,560 Speaker 1: to represent, So that shift would give the the electron 795 00:47:37,600 --> 00:47:41,160 Speaker 1: beams the information necessary to replicate whatever color you were 796 00:47:41,200 --> 00:47:45,239 Speaker 1: looking for. And this would give the electron beams the 797 00:47:45,280 --> 00:47:49,680 Speaker 1: ability ability to scan those phosphors in the correct order, 798 00:47:49,760 --> 00:47:53,080 Speaker 1: the correct frequency to generate the color necessary for you 799 00:47:53,160 --> 00:47:56,360 Speaker 1: to perceive it on the screen itself. And again, that 800 00:47:56,480 --> 00:47:59,759 Speaker 1: rapid succession of lines on display and the colors would 801 00:48:00,000 --> 00:48:02,239 Speaker 1: eate that illusion in our minds that we're watching a 802 00:48:02,360 --> 00:48:07,080 Speaker 1: color moving image on a screen. It's really kind of 803 00:48:07,120 --> 00:48:09,799 Speaker 1: incredible that just by using red, green, and blue, you 804 00:48:09,800 --> 00:48:12,880 Speaker 1: could replicate all sorts of colors just depending upon the 805 00:48:12,880 --> 00:48:16,120 Speaker 1: amount of time they're on screen and the frequency that 806 00:48:16,200 --> 00:48:19,240 Speaker 1: you switch back and forth between those three, and that 807 00:48:19,239 --> 00:48:21,440 Speaker 1: that's all you need to create all the different colors 808 00:48:21,480 --> 00:48:25,239 Speaker 1: that we can perceive. Now. The first color television set 809 00:48:25,400 --> 00:48:29,200 Speaker 1: was made by Westinghouse and it cost a whopping one thousand, 810 00:48:29,360 --> 00:48:34,120 Speaker 1: two hundred dollars in March nineteen fifty four. If you 811 00:48:34,120 --> 00:48:37,040 Speaker 1: want to adjust that for inflation, which I did, it 812 00:48:37,120 --> 00:48:41,200 Speaker 1: comes out to almost twelve thousand dollars in today's money, 813 00:48:41,280 --> 00:48:45,879 Speaker 1: which it's pretty expensive. And here's a shocking fact. They 814 00:48:45,920 --> 00:48:47,799 Speaker 1: put out a full page ad in the New York 815 00:48:47,800 --> 00:48:51,000 Speaker 1: Times that sixty New York stores were carrying those sets, 816 00:48:51,440 --> 00:48:56,480 Speaker 1: and they sold zero of them from those stores. Now, 817 00:48:56,520 --> 00:49:00,080 Speaker 1: eventually they were able to move about thirty sets. I 818 00:49:00,120 --> 00:49:02,960 Speaker 1: think they produced about five hundred total in that first run. 819 00:49:03,840 --> 00:49:07,200 Speaker 1: But I guess the only people who were capable of 820 00:49:07,200 --> 00:49:11,040 Speaker 1: buying them were colors starved millionaires. Everyone else couldn't really 821 00:49:11,080 --> 00:49:14,200 Speaker 1: afford such a thing, so they eventually slashed their prices 822 00:49:14,239 --> 00:49:20,120 Speaker 1: down to an affordable one dollars, still a princely some, 823 00:49:20,719 --> 00:49:24,440 Speaker 1: as Chris Palette and I would used to say, most 824 00:49:24,440 --> 00:49:27,719 Speaker 1: of those sets that Westinghouse made were never sold there. 825 00:49:27,960 --> 00:49:30,560 Speaker 1: There was hardly anything to watch in color. Back in 826 00:49:30,640 --> 00:49:33,200 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty four. There were very few color broadcasts and 827 00:49:33,200 --> 00:49:35,439 Speaker 1: it was just so darned expensive, and it also would 828 00:49:35,440 --> 00:49:39,320 Speaker 1: break down fairly easily, so uh never really took off 829 00:49:39,840 --> 00:49:42,880 Speaker 1: at that time. Color television sales were actually really slow 830 00:49:42,960 --> 00:49:47,319 Speaker 1: until about the mid nineteen fifties. Um all the way 831 00:49:47,400 --> 00:49:50,799 Speaker 1: up into the nineteen sixties, it was just not a 832 00:49:50,840 --> 00:49:53,719 Speaker 1: whole lot to move them. But then the combination of 833 00:49:53,760 --> 00:49:56,839 Speaker 1: lower prices and more programming started to create a bit 834 00:49:56,920 --> 00:50:00,200 Speaker 1: of a demand in the early sixties. Oh. One of 835 00:50:00,239 --> 00:50:03,600 Speaker 1: the companies that was instrumental in color television taking off 836 00:50:03,600 --> 00:50:08,080 Speaker 1: in the United States was Disney. In nine, Disney began 837 00:50:08,120 --> 00:50:11,920 Speaker 1: to broadcast The Wonderful World of Color, which was essentially 838 00:50:12,000 --> 00:50:14,799 Speaker 1: an advertisement to go out and buy color televisions when 839 00:50:14,800 --> 00:50:17,040 Speaker 1: you get down to it, because you couldn't really enjoy 840 00:50:17,200 --> 00:50:21,640 Speaker 1: the color broadcast without one. I actually remember watching an 841 00:50:21,640 --> 00:50:24,560 Speaker 1: episode of The Wonderful World of Color where Professor Von 842 00:50:24,680 --> 00:50:28,839 Speaker 1: Drake explained how color television was so much better than 843 00:50:28,880 --> 00:50:31,840 Speaker 1: black and white TV, and did so in a song 844 00:50:32,280 --> 00:50:35,239 Speaker 1: called the Spectrum Song. And if you've never heard the 845 00:50:35,280 --> 00:50:40,480 Speaker 1: spectrum song. You need to look that up because it's amazing. 846 00:50:41,600 --> 00:50:45,399 Speaker 1: I will not sing it now. Keep in mind I'm 847 00:50:45,440 --> 00:50:48,080 Speaker 1: talking about a show I saw as a rerun because 848 00:50:48,120 --> 00:50:51,000 Speaker 1: I'm not that old. I wasn't born in the sixties. 849 00:50:52,040 --> 00:50:56,040 Speaker 1: Stop looking at me that way now. The first year 850 00:50:56,080 --> 00:50:59,680 Speaker 1: to see color television sales outpaced black and white TV 851 00:50:59,840 --> 00:51:05,560 Speaker 1: sa als wasn't until nineteen seventy. So while everyone was 852 00:51:05,600 --> 00:51:08,560 Speaker 1: fighting over the color television standards in the late forties 853 00:51:08,600 --> 00:51:11,480 Speaker 1: and early fifties, it wasn't until nineteen seventy the color 854 00:51:11,560 --> 00:51:15,160 Speaker 1: TVs were actually out selling black and white televisions. The 855 00:51:15,200 --> 00:51:17,640 Speaker 1: technology had been around for more than fifteen years before 856 00:51:17,680 --> 00:51:20,400 Speaker 1: it began to overtake the old black and white sets. Now, 857 00:51:20,400 --> 00:51:22,520 Speaker 1: I want you guys to remember that when I talk 858 00:51:22,600 --> 00:51:26,239 Speaker 1: about h d TV in the future episode, because it's 859 00:51:26,280 --> 00:51:29,040 Speaker 1: a very different story. Some people were thinking, like, how 860 00:51:29,080 --> 00:51:32,279 Speaker 1: long was HDTV around before people started actually using it? 861 00:51:32,680 --> 00:51:35,399 Speaker 1: Not as long as we went from color from black 862 00:51:35,400 --> 00:51:38,799 Speaker 1: and white to color rather, But for now it is 863 00:51:38,840 --> 00:51:41,359 Speaker 1: time to sign off. In the next episode, I'll talk 864 00:51:41,400 --> 00:51:45,480 Speaker 1: more about the display technologies that competed with CRT systems 865 00:51:46,320 --> 00:51:49,600 Speaker 1: and how they work, as well as chat about stuff 866 00:51:49,640 --> 00:51:54,480 Speaker 1: like flat screen TVs or HDR televisions or two K 867 00:51:54,760 --> 00:51:57,840 Speaker 1: and eight K t vs and more. But if you 868 00:51:57,840 --> 00:52:00,200 Speaker 1: guys have any questions or comments and you suggest is 869 00:52:00,239 --> 00:52:03,320 Speaker 1: for future episodes or people I should have on this show, 870 00:52:03,840 --> 00:52:06,400 Speaker 1: please let me know. You can email me. The email 871 00:52:06,440 --> 00:52:08,800 Speaker 1: address for the show is tech stuff at how stuff 872 00:52:08,800 --> 00:52:11,520 Speaker 1: works dot com, or you can drop me a line 873 00:52:11,600 --> 00:52:14,160 Speaker 1: on Facebook or Twitter. The handle for the show at 874 00:52:14,160 --> 00:52:18,520 Speaker 1: both those locations is tech Stuff hs W and I'll 875 00:52:18,520 --> 00:52:26,560 Speaker 1: talk to you again really soon. For more on this 876 00:52:26,719 --> 00:52:29,240 Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics, is it how stuff works 877 00:52:29,239 --> 00:52:39,720 Speaker 1: dot com