Page 39 - Reading Success B5

Common sense would say that the people behind the greatest inventions would be scientists,
physicists, or anybody who had intensive scientific training. Television, however, was invented by
a 14-year old farm boy named Philo Farnsworth in 1922. He did not know much about electronic
theory.
While he was working at his father’s farm, Philo Farnsworth came upon the idea of image
scanning. It occurred to him that an electronic beam could reproduce an image right away by
horizontally scanning a picture. Philo Farnsworth showed his idea to his science teacher. He
sketched diagrams on the blackboard and called his idea the electronic television. Philo
Farnsworth and his teacher worked on the idea for weeks. Later on in Philo Farnsworth’s life and
career, the work he did with his science teacher would prove to be more useful and important than
the two of them had ever thought.
The grown Philo Farnsworth got into several odd jobs. He had shared his idea of a television
not only to his friend, but also to one of his bosses. His boss, George Everson, was interested in
the idea and gave Philo Farnsworth funding to work on it. He was way ahead of the big electronic
laboratories’ work. Philo Farnsworth, and his friend Cliff, made the first television camera tube,
which they called the “Image Dissector”. They called the picture tube the “Image Oscillite”.
The first successful test on Philo Farnsworth’s television took place in September 1927. He
transmitted the image of a horizontal black line. In 1928, he televised a motion picture film. Philo
Farnsworth and his business partners had legal problems concerning the patent on the television
technology. Big companies like the Radio Corporation of America or RCA wanted to dominate
television just as they dominated radio. RCA hired Russian Vladimir Zworykin, who had been
experimenting on television as well. Vladimir Zworykin was sent to visit Philo Farnsworth’s
laboratory to see what he had been working on. The two had been working on different
technologies to make their own television models work. RCA offered to buy Philo Farnsworth’s
company and his services for 100,000 dollars, but was rejected. Since RCA could not get Philo
Farnsworth under its wing to acquire a patent for the television, RCA made Vladimir Zworykin
reproduce Philo Farnsworth’s work and claim it as his own. Philo Farnsworth called his camera
tube the “Iconoscope”. RCA challenged Philo Farnsworth’s patents. His science teacher was
called to defend him in court by showing how the 14-year old Farnsworth worked on his idea of a
television. The U.S. Patent Office awarded the priority of invention of the television to Philo
Farnsworth.
Philo Farnsworth’s television’s first public demonstration happened in 1935 at the Franklin
Institute in Philadelphia. Many inventors and scientists contributed to the development of Philo
Farnsworth’s design to become what television is now.

Main Idea

What is the main idea of this story?

a. invention of television

b. usefulness of television
c. dangers of watching television

d. necessity of watching television

42_Reading Success B 5