The first television in the world appeared in what. First color TV

The word television comes from the Greek tele (far) and the Latin visio (vision). In our country, television has come a long way in development - from mechanical to electronic and digital. It can be argued that no other media has such a rich and rapidly developing history.

Today it is difficult to imagine that it was possible to watch an image not on the screen of a conventional kinescope, but on a rotating metal disk with holes through which the light fell on a photocell installed opposite, which turned it into electrical signals. The image decomposition occurred due to the rotation of the disk. The rapid rotation of the disk allowed the viewer to see the whole picture. The birth of television begins with this simple optical-mechanical device for progressive scanning, invented by the German student Paul Nipkow.

Paul Julius Gottlieb Nipkow (1860-1940)

Inventors who contributed to the development of television

The history of television is a history of research, invention, and technical experimentation. Television does not have one inventor. From the very beginning, the development of ideas for electrical image transmission was international. By the beginning of the 20th century. At least two dozen projects were put forward, including five in Russia, under the names “telephotographer”, “electric telescope”, “telephoto”, etc.

Thus, the project of the world's first television system for transmitting images over a distance was proposed in 1880 by a Russian scientist, Professor Porfiry Ivanovich Bakhmetyev.

Porfiry Ivanovich Bakhmetyev (1860-1913)

The scheme he proposed later formed the basis of television. To transmit an image over a distance, as the scientist believed, it must first be decomposed into individual elements, then the elements are sequentially transmitted and reassembled into a single whole. Bakhmetyev called such a possible television system a “telephotographer.” It was not possible to practically implement it at that time; there was no material and technical base.

In 1900, the talented experimenter Alexander Apollonovich Polumordvinov developed the first optical-mechanical system for transmitting color images, called “telephoto”. The system became a major technological discovery. The inventor received the privilege, and the color rendering principle he developed is still used today.

Alexander Apollonovich Polumordvinov (1874-1941)

In 1907, professor at the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology Boris Lvovich Rosing, whom the whole world considers the founder electronic television, after many years of experience, patented the method of “electric telescopy,” that is, transmitting images over a distance using a cathode ray tube. Rosing's experiments were a continuation of the technology of decomposing a television image into a number of elements with transmission through communication channels and again recreating them by the receiving system. Rosing saw the only correct way to implement television in the use of electronic devices, and this problem, he believed, could only be solved with the help of an electron beam. This bold conclusion was made by the scientist at a time when electronics itself was in its infancy. Rosing's ideas were developed in the developments of his student Vladimir Zvorykin, who emigrated to America in 1919 and became there the “inventor of American electronic television.”

Boris Lvovich Rosing (1869-1933)

However, even earlier, at the end of the 19th century, the German inventor Paul Nipkow came up with the basis for mechanical television. As a student, in 1883-1884 he created a system whose idea was to use a disk with holes to separate the image into individual elements.

Legend has it that the first victim of his experiments was a coffee table in which Nipkov drilled many holes arranged in an Archimedes spiral. Nipkow's next victim was his modest savings, which he used to buy a patent, which he received a year later, on January 15, 1885. This patent for an "electric telescope" (later known as the Nipkow disk), which would later be widely used in mechanical television, made Nipkow was famous, and the disc was an important element of the so-called mechanical television for several decades (in our country, for example, until the early 1940s). But, having received a patent for the invention, the young researcher was never able to develop his device, and after 15 years the patent was revoked due to lack of interest in the invention. By this time, Paul Nipkow was already working as a designer at the Berlin Institute and was no longer interested in the topic of image transmission.

Nipkow disk

It would be another two decades before this invention would be in demand. Scientists and inventors in England, Germany, Russia, and America intensively worked to improve equipment for transmitting moving images. To implement the idea of ​​image transmission, not only a scanning mechanism was needed, which was the Paul Nipkow disk, but also a converter of light energy into electrical energy. A light-sensitive device-sensor appeared in 1888 thanks to the work of Moscow University scientist Alexander Grigorievich Stoletov, who proved through laboratory experiments the possibility of converting light energy into electrical energy. Based on this discovery of Stoletov, at the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology, Boris Lvovich Rosing would subsequently make developments that would allow him to be called the founder of electronic television.

Alexander Grigorievich Stoletov (1839-1896)

It is interesting that Paul Nipkow first saw the practical application of his invention 40 years later, in 1928, at one of the international exhibitions of radio engineering achievements in Berlin. “Finally, I can be calm,” he shared his impressions of watching mechanical TV. I saw a shimmering surface on which something was moving, although it was impossible to distinguish what exactly.”

The construction of the transmitting device and receiver (with a Nipkow disk) was actively carried out at the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute in Moscow. The created system produced an image divided into 30 lines (1200 elements). Professor P.V. Shmakov recalls the first days of the device’s operation: “The matchbox screen and the transmission that we managed to catch was a dancing couple. She is in white, he is in black. She waved her handkerchief goodbye, and he lit a cigarette. Smoke was visible. That's all. It was simple, nothing fantastic, but the transmission covered a thousand-kilometer space, it was a small victory of man over space, and this alone made my chest burst” (Uzilevsky V. The Legend of the Crystal Egg. Leningrad: Lenizdat, 1965).

First experimental television broadcast

Experimental television broadcasting with a mechanical scanning system of 30 lines started in 1929-1931. in leading countries of the world almost simultaneously. The 30 line format, created in Germany, has become the de facto international standard.

The Pravda newspaper published the following message on April 30, 1931: “Tomorrow, for the first time in the USSR, an experimental transmission of television (far vision) by radio will be carried out. From the shortwave transmitter RVEI-1 of the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute (Moscow), an image of a living person and photographs will be transmitted at a wavelength of 56.6 meters "(Pravda. 1931. April 30). This first public television broadcast showed laboratory employees (moving images!) and photographic portraits - without sound,"mute".

After a number of experimental television communication sessions, it was decided to conduct test television broadcasts. For this purpose, equipment was transferred from the laboratory of the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute to the building of the Moscow radio broadcasting center on Nikolskaya, 7, from where it was possible to supply a signal to broadcast radio transmitters and where a small studio was equipped. First trial The broadcast took place on the night of October 1, 1931 through the radio station of the Moscow Council of Trade Unions. It is not known how many televisions received it at that moment, but contemporaries claimed that there were at least ten of them. The broadcasts became regular. The content of these programs was not specially prepared; it was an amateur performance. And they had to perform in a dark studio, which was illuminated by a “running beam” created by the light of a powerful film lamp, covered with a rotating Nipkow disk.

The first domestic TV show

Information about the first broadcast television program on October 1, 1931 appeared in central newspapers and this date is considered official date the beginning of domestic television broadcasting.

Broadcasts addressed to radio viewers, as those who received television broadcasts were then called, were conducted on the basis of a fixed program. True, there were very few televisions. The screen size did not exceed the size of a matchbox. According to current concepts, television technology of the early 1930s. looks extremely modest, but it was then, in 1931, that television became a practical reality and this is the invaluable merit of the pioneers.

The country's first set of television equipment, through which broadcasts were broadcast from the control room of the Moscow Broadcasting Center, was created by the outstanding scientist Pavel Vasilyevich Shmakov. By the way, he came up with the idea of ​​using an airplane as a repeater, flying between signal transmission and reception points. This idea of ​​the scientist was developed during the World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow in 1957 and at the meeting of the first cosmonaut of the Planet, Yuri Gagarin, in 1961.

Pavel Vasilievich Shmakov (1885-1982)

Mechanical television quickly became widespread and became available to everyone. The broadcasts were received by radio amateurs in Tomsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Odessa, Smolensk, Leningrad, Kyiv, and Kharkov.

Thanks to the fact that television in our country began as mechanical, the idea of ​​“vision at a distance” was able to spread much faster and wider than electronic television would have allowed.

Since mechanical television transmissions conducted on medium and long waves, they can be received everywhere, and the television center in Moscow could cover almost the entire territory of the USSR. Electronic television transmissions can only be carried out on ultrashort waves, which propagate only within the line of sight from the transmitter antenna to the receiver antenna. Therefore, if Soviet television began as electronic television, only residents of Moscow and its suburbs would be interested in it. Of course, such a limited coverage area of ​​the television center would not have allowed the widespread dissemination of the idea of ​​television. Interest in television, awakened by the first experimental broadcasts, stimulated the growth of public need for it.

In order to cover the vast territory of the country with television broadcasting, it was necessary either to build a sufficient number of program television centers, or to connect cities and villages with a network of cable or radio relay lines. The development of Soviet television in the 1950s. went the first route.

Mechanical television had one significant drawback - it was very low quality Images. On such a small screen it couldn’t have been any different. To enlarge the screen to the size of an average photograph (9 x 12 cm), the disk in the television camera had to be more than two meters in diameter. For about 20 years, electronic and mechanical television competed with each other, and only by the beginning of the 1940s. the latter was forced to give way to a more advanced and promising system.

In most developed countries, experimental television transmissions through electronic TV systems, which eventually pushed mechanical television aside, began between 1936 and 1940.

Mechanical television transmissions from Moscow ceased in December 1938 with the launch of a new television center on Shabolovka, based on electronic principles.

Ninety years ago, television turned from laboratory experiments into public entertainment: public viewings began, and the first industrial televisions appeared. In less than a century, televisions have come a long way from simple boxes with rotating disks to the most complex electronic systems with plasma, liquid crystals and lasers.

How did television develop and who had a hand in creating the “cinema killer”? In a new series of articles, 42.TUT.BY recalls the vibrant history of television.

"Pantelegraph" and "Nipkow disk"

The first work in the field of transmitting images over a distance appeared about one and a half hundred years ago: in 1862, the Italian Giovanni Caselli developed the “Pantelegraph”, which made it possible to transmit images over wires. True, the picture was static, and the original had to be on a copper plate.

Until the photoconductivity of selenium and the external photoelectric effect were discovered, it was not possible to transmit an image without special preparation. And in 1884, the German Paul Nipkow made an important invention: a disk with holes arranged in a spiral. The disk is called “Nipkow disk”.

If we place some well-lit object behind the disk and spin this same disk, then due to the rapid rotation of the holes on its surface we will see the object clearly. You can build the following analogy: if you quickly run along a fence with many cracks, then at high speed the cracks will merge and we will see what is behind the fence.

And if, instead of a person, a photocell watches the disk, then we already have a system that scans the image. Now we connect it with the same device with a Nipkow disk, only instead of a photocell we use a light source (lamp) - and then, being on the other side of the disk, we will see how the same image is restored.

In order for the image to be clear and the path of the disk holes not to resemble an arc, the disk itself had to be made as large as possible and covered with a large number of tiny holes, and the frame size should be as small as possible.

Then the frame itself looks not like a segment of a circle, but like a rectangle, and the trajectory of the holes is almost straight. One hole - one line of “scanning”. There are known systems in which there were more than 400 holes. But the most common standard was 30 lines, and the image size was barely larger than a postage stamp.

It is interesting that Paul Nipkow had virtually no interest in the implementation of his invention and television in general, and the issued patent was revoked after 15 years due to a lack of interest in the new product.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the first television receivers began to appear. The creative search of inventors followed unbeaten paths, and their systems were strikingly different from one another. Back in 1900, Russian inventor Alexander Polumordvinov developed the “telephot” - the world’s first color television system with a Nipkow disk. Russian emigrant Hovhannes Adamyan also works with color in Germany.

In 1923, the American Charles Jenkins transmitted a moving silhouette image, almost simultaneously the Scotsman John Baird also broadcast silhouettes, and two years later, in 1925, he demonstrated for the first time a television broadcast of halftone moving objects.

It's funny that when Baird arrived at the Daily Express, the editor sent the staff downstairs to get rid of a lunatic who claimed to be able to see on the radio, and that the lunatic might be armed.

Baird uses a Nipkow disk in his design. For several years, he has been developing a color television, organizing broadcasts between cities and even across the ocean, and conducting live television broadcasts of horse races. The number of lines grows from 5 to 30, and subsequently Baird will even develop 1000-line television (which, however, will remain an experiment).

This is what the picture looked like on Baird's first TV. Photo from BairdTelevision.com

The world's first mass-produced televisions

The bright but short era of mechanical television begins. Television companies appear in France, the USA, and Germany.

In 1929, the American company Western Television produced the world's first serial television - the Visionette with a Nipkow disk with a diameter of 17 inches (43 cm). In total, about 300 TVs of this model were produced.

The device itself cost $88.25, and you had to buy the housing separately (another $20), the audio receiver ($85), and the neon lamp.

In today's money (taking into account inflation), such a kit would cost about $3,000. Yes, at first television was entertainment for the rich.

Baird's television (it was called Televisor) was produced in Great Britain in 1930-1933, about a thousand units were produced in total.

The first televisions in the USSR

In the Soviet Union, the first experimental television broadcasts took place in 1931, and regular ones only at the end of 1934. The German television standard was used: 30 lines, frequency 12.5 frames per second (the Nipkow disk must rotate at a speed of 750 rpm), aspect ratio 4:3. The broadcasts were carried out for half an hour a night from even to odd numbers.

At first, in our country, television amateurism was also an expensive pleasure: a TV set of the “B-2” brand (1933−1936) cost 235 rubles. In this case, the TV had to be connected to one radio receiver in order to simply watch programs, and to another one in order to simultaneously listen to sound.

The magazine "Radiofront" popularized the television movement in the country and published circuit diagrams of televisions for self-assembly; The editorial board of the magazine developed several models of simple television receivers. A set of parts for assembling a TV model “TRF-1” cost only 13 rubles - for this amount you could subscribe to the magazine for a year.

Just 100 years ago, humanity had no idea what a television was. Society managed to get along without this device. A lot has changed since then. Today, TV technology is the basis of everyday leisure.

Who invented television? A very difficult question. There are several points of view regarding the creator of the world's first TV. Foreign sources indicate that the idea of ​​the invention belongs to the German technician Paul Nipkow. Domestic publications refute this position. Because they insist that the first TV device appeared in the USSR.

Now let’s try to understand this situation in order to understand whose side is right. We will also analyze when the first televisions appeared, as well as what they were like.

Perhaps the key prerequisite is the radio, which was invented shortly before the advent of the first television. Who invented radio? There is also no clarity on this issue. Some believe that this device was invented by A.S. Popov. Foreign sources defend the position that the idea of ​​the invention belonged to several researchers at once. Tesla, Marconi, Branly - you've probably heard these names before.

The invention of the television has an identical problem. It is very difficult to say who exactly is the “founding father”. Despite all the disputes and contradictions between the USSR and the West, Paul Nipkow should definitely be noted. A German technician came up with a disk that was named after him. This unusual device was invented in the second half of the 19th century. Radio signal and mechanical scanning are the catalysts for the creation of the first mechanical TV in 1928.

Few people know that using the Nipkow disk, the picture was read line by line and then transmitted to the receiver screen. The ambitious Scottish researcher John Baird showed the world the first TV device that worked on this principle in the late 20s of the 20th century. This project attracted public attention. So Baird tried to implement it.

Scottish company Baird for a long time held a leading position in the manufacture of mechanical television receivers. The trend continued until the early 1930s. There was no sound, but the picture was quite clear.

The history of the development of the television shows that the very concept of the receiver was invented in Germany, but it was the Scottish researcher John Baird who was able to implement this idea.

Who created the first electronic TV

The era of technical revolution has begun. World-renowned scientists were part of a team of specialists to accelerate this progress. This applied to all spheres of human life. The television sphere was no exception to the rule. Mechanical TVs quickly became a relic of the past. Researchers began working on creating a device capable of transmitting not only images, but also sound.

Who invented the first cathode ray tube TV? There is no clear answer to this question. In different countries, active work was carried out on the creation of such a device. The contribution of scientists from socialist countries should be highlighted separately. In 1907, B. Rosing received a patent for the creation of the very first CRT television. However, the idea itself was not invented by him.

The one who invented the first electronic television took old discoveries as a basis. Back in the 19th century, the German researcher Heinrich Hertz discovered the effect of light on electricity. This is how the photoelectric effect was invented.

The German deserves credit for making such a discovery. However, he was never able to justify why the photoelectric effect was needed and in what capacity it should be used. Literally a year later, Alexander Stoletov gave all the explanations. The researcher tried to create something like modern solar cells. This is how the “electric eye” appeared. Many scientists have tried to explain the specifics of this phenomenon. Among them is Albert Einstein.

Other discoveries also had a colossal impact. In 1879, physicist William Crookes from Great Britain invented phosphors - substances that begin to glow when exposed to a cathode ray. Karl Brown tried to create a prototype of the kinescope. It was thanks to the concept of the kinescope, invented by Brown, that B. Rosing, whom we mentioned earlier, was subsequently able to prove the theory of image acquisition. In 1933, TV with a kinescope appeared. V. Zvorykin invented the first TV, he is Rosing’s protégé.

It is Zvorykin who is considered by everyone to be the creator of TV with a cathode ray tube. First sample of this device was collected at a laboratory center in the USA, owned by Zvorykin. He himself was an emigrant who left his homeland after the Socialist Revolution. Already in 1939, mass production of TV equipment was launched.

The discoveries listed above led to the active popularization of televisions around the world. At first they began to be sold in Western Europe, but soon the devices appeared in the USSR. At first, image transmission was carried out in optical-mechanical scanning. Progress was not long in coming. Image quality was soon improved, leading to the transition to CRT technology.

When did television appear in the USSR?

Serial production started in 1939. The technology began to appear in the countries that were part of the Soviet Union. The production of TV equipment was carried out by the Comintern plant, located in Leningrad. The devices worked on the principle of a Nipkow disk. The console was equipped with a three-centimeter screen. This entire structure was connected to a radio receiver. By changing radio frequencies it was possible to tune programs that were broadcast in Europe.

When the television was invented, a consultation of the editors of the Radiofront magazine took place in the Soviet Union. Journalists actively worked with the technicians. As a result, instructions appeared on the pages of the magazine, following which each user could independently assemble a TV.

Regular television broadcasts in Russia, then the USSR, were launched only in 1938. The scientists of the Leningrad Center had experience in this field, so it was they who were entrusted with the implementation of such a difficult project. In Moscow, television programs began to air after 6 months. The television centers in these cities used different decomposition standards. Therefore, special equipment was used.

To receive a television signal broadcast by the Leningrad Center, it was necessary to use a special device “VRK” - the abbreviation stands for All-Union Radio Committee. The device was equipped with a special screen - 130x175 millimeters. The kinescope operated due to the operation of 24 lamps.

The operation was based on the fact that there was a decomposition into 240 lines. In the 30s of the 20th century, 20 copies of the VRK devices were produced. The equipment was installed in pioneer houses and palaces of culture. The devices were intended for collective viewing.

Television broadcasting from the Moscow center was carried out with a breakdown into 343 lines. Such a signal could be received by TK-1 devices. This is a more complex technique, equipped with 33 lamps. During 1938, over 200 televisions were produced. By 1941, production turnover increased 10 times.

All these achievements did not stop the development of engineering. Experts tried to create a device with a simplified operating principle. At the Radist plant, which was located in Leningrad, the launch of the 17TN-1 series of televisions began in 1940. The main feature of this model is its versatility. The devices reproduced signals from Moscow and Leningrad television stations. The production process has been started. However, the war soon began. A total of 2000 copies were produced.

“ATP-1” is a clear example of a simplified TV model. The abbreviation stands for Subscriber Television Receiver No. 1. This is the prototype of modern cable TV. The Aleksandrovsky plant was engaged in the production of such devices.

How the first televisions worked

Previously, we established that the basis for the creation of the first television was the Nipkow disk. We determined in which country TV devices first appeared, and also found out who initiated the launch of mass production of the invented device. Only the operating principle of mechanical televisions remained unattended. This is exactly what we will talk about now.

To understand how a mechanical TV looked and worked, you need to understand the operating principle of a Nipkow disk. This is a rotating opaque disk. The diameter of the figure is no more than 50 centimeters. There are holes along the Archimedes spiral. Sometimes this disk is also called an electric telescope.

The light beam scanned the image. Subsequently, the television signal was transmitted to a special converter. One photocell was sufficient for scanning. How many holes were there? There are devices with different numbers of holes. Sometimes their number reached 200 pieces.

The whole process was carried out in reverse order. To display the image on the screen, engineers used a Nipkow disk. Behind the holes was a neon lamp. Thus, the image was projected onto a television screen. The speed was sufficient, but the picture was transmitted line by line. The person could see the image.

The first mechanical televisions can also be called projection televisions. The picture quality was poor. Only silhouettes could be seen on the screen. The Nipkow disk became the basis of these devices. Used before the advent of the first CRT televisions.

Who invented color television

All the TV models considered assumed display on the screen black and white image. Experts continued to work on improving the device.

Under what circumstances and when did color TV appear? The idea of ​​creating such a device first appeared during the period of popularity of projection receivers. Hovhannes Adamyan is considered one of the inventors of color television. The technician managed to make two-color TV back in 1908.

John Logie Baird made a significant contribution to the development of color TV. The creator of mechanical TV in the 20s of the XX century assembled a color device capable of transmitting a picture in three shades: blue, red, green. John equipped the TV with three filters.

However, all this is nothing more than attempts. A real breakthrough in the development of the TV industry occurred after the end of World War 2. All efforts and financial resources were directed towards production. This became a catalyst for progress.

The discovery took place in the USA. The researchers resorted to using decimeter wave technology to broadcast the picture. In 1940, American scientists presented new equipment called Triniscope. The device used 3 kinescopes with different colors from the glow of the phosphor. Each kinescope was responsible for reproducing a specific color.

As for the USSR, similar developments began to appear here in the 50s of the last century. Already in 1952, one of the central television channels conducted a color broadcast.

Since about 1970, televisions began to appear not only in cultural centers, but also in the homes of ordinary people. However, this applies to a greater extent to the USA and Europe. In socialist countries, color television sets remained in short supply for quite a long time. Only in the early 80s could anyone afford to purchase such devices.

As you can see, TV technology has a very complicated and interesting history. It started back in the 19th century. Scientists all over the world worked on the development of televisions.

Note.

You will be surprised, but history plasma TVs begins exactly half a century ago. The invention of a new television can be considered the merit of professors at the American University of Illinois, Donald Bitzer and Gene Slottow, who created the first prototype of a plasma television.

This happened in July 1964. Later, Robert Wilson, a graduate student at the same university, joined the work of the two inventors. But plasma TVs did not begin to develop successfully immediately, but only after digital technologies had already appeared in the world.

Research on plasma properties is what the inventors of the new TV were working on at that time. An alternative replacement for cathode-ray television, the construction principle of which was based on a ray tube, was plasma television. The constantly flickering image conveyed video frames well, but much worse conveyed computer graphics.

It was Donald Bitzer who became the founder of the new project, and Robert Wilson and Gene Slottow helped him. As a result of their work, they managed to create the first ever model of a plasma TV with a single cell. Analogues of this invention in our time have millions of such cells. Television companies after 1964 decided to use plasma televisions as a possible replacement for cathode ray tube televisions.

The invention of 1999 is a plasma TV, which had a 60-inch diagonal screen. Designed for Panasonic and Matsushita. It combined the resolution and size required for HDTV, making TVs thinner. “Plasma” did not gain its popularity immediately; quite a lot of time was spent on their implementation. Today, plasma TVs account for no more than 7% of the market. The advent of liquid crystal monitors gave a new direction for the creation of televisions, which for “plasma” excluded any subsequent commercial development.

“Television makes us more educated. When I see the TV on, I go into next room and start reading" , - said the famous American comedian Groucho Marx. Even at the dawn of television, in the 30s of the 20th century, many experts expressed doubts about this type of leisure: they say , modern people will not sit and look into the “box”. How wrong they were, because watching TV became the main thing pre escort for millions of inhabitants of the Earth. Find out who invented the television and when the first models appeared in the USSR.

Who invented the first mechanical television

Attempts to create a television began in the middle of the 19th century. The efforts of many scientists of that time were unsuccessful, but numerous experiments led to important discoveries. At the beginning of the 20th century, everything needed to create a TV was available:

• the photoconductivity of selenium was discovered;
• the idea of ​​an element-by-element image transmission method has been proven;
• a photocell and a light distributor were created;
• The Nipkow disk is invented - a device that scans an image.

Scottish engineer John Baird was the first among numerous inventors to achieve success. In 1925, he invented the world's first mechanical television. The achievement was not easy: during the experiments, Baird was almost killed by high voltage.

At first, the invention was treated with caution and even irony. However, everything changed after the device was officially recognized on top level in 1926. By 1930, thousands of devices were produced. And regular television broadcasting appeared a year earlier.

Electronic TV: who invented it?

All leading countries of the world were engaged in the development of electronic televisions soon after the invention of mechanical television. The pioneers in this area are the Germans. Already in 1928, the German company Telefunken presented at an exhibition in Berlin a prototype working using the projection method.

In 1934, Telefunken employees released the world's first electronic television. Sales started at an unprecedented price of $445, which is equivalent to today's $7.5 thousand.

Soon the industries of France, the USA and the USSR followed German manufacturers. By the beginning of World War II, Soviet industry had even managed to surpass the Germans, producing more than two thousand electronic televisions.

The first TV in the USSR

Soviet industry did not stand still and soon offered its own analogue of the TV. In April 1932, the first mechanical TV “B-2” was completed at the Leningrad plant.

The rapid development was facilitated by the ambitious plans of the Communist Party, as well as the fact that many of the developments were made by Russian scientists. The B-2 TV was not an independent device: it was an attachment for a radio receiver with a miniature screen measuring 3 by 4 cm.

To see anything, a huge magnifying glass was placed in front of the TV, which, of course, affected the quality of the image. In 1933, the B-2 model began to be produced for the mass consumer. In total, the Leningrad plant produced 3 thousand copies.

In the USSR, regular television broadcasting began in 1938. In pre-war times, Soviet citizens could view programs from three channels. The first truly mass-produced television, KVN-49, began production in 1949. It was sold for an amount equivalent to two average salaries. The television was not reliable, so citizens deciphered the abbreviation KVN with the phrase: “Bought - Turned on - Doesn’t work.”

Having relied on mechanical televisions, Soviet engineers initially lagged behind Western manufacturers. Over time, the situation changed: in 1990, the USSR ranked fourth in the world in terms of the number of televisions produced.

Interesting fact: for Stalin’s 70th birthday, he was given a Moskvich-T1 TV. And it was the first model to support 625 line resolution. It is not known whether the leader of the people liked to watch TV, but he definitely forbade showing himself.

There was a special order instructing operators to turn off the camera or point the lens at the audience when Stalin appeared on the podium. All existing video recordings were made with the permission of the KGB and were never broadcast live: the intelligence services believed that no one should know where the head of state was now.

Who created color television

The development of color image transmission began with the advent of mechanical television. Many attempts by inventors ended in failure due to limitations mechanical method playback The real breakthrough came only after the end of World War II.

In the 1940s, color broadcasting of the CBS standard began in the United States, but there were no compact televisions that supported color images. Hardware additions to black-and-white TVs have begun to appear on the market, allowing them to receive color images.

Manufacturers of black and white TVs did not like this. Having big influence in the government, they initiated a ban on the production of this kind of upgrades. Under the pretext of a lack of resources for the Korean War, the US Congress imposed a ban on the production of color adapters and on any attempts to create a color television. It got to the point where the distribution of any color technology became a criminal offense.

Adopted in the USA in 1953 new standard color television, developed by RCA. Immediately after the ban was lifted, in April 1954, the same company released the first mass-produced color TV model - the CT-100, which became legendary among US citizens.

Modern TVs support ultra-high definition standards: many models reproduce images in 4K and 8K resolution. Television is losing its position to the Internet. The main audience of television remains pensioners and people of the older generation, accustomed to learning news from the “box”.

Young people give preference to Internet resources: they choose the content themselves, and there is less advertising there. Even manufacturers position televisions as home theaters, and not as stations for watching television channels. Not only is the format for presenting information outdated, but the quality of the content has also decreased.

One sociologist said: “Television allows us to enjoy the company of people we would not allow into our homes.” Perhaps television, like radio in its time, will change somewhat, leaving its own, albeit small, audience.