John Logie Baird - Quick facts

 

 

 

John Logie Baird is remembered as the inventor of mechanical television, radar and fiber optics.

He also invented the noctovisor, an instrument for making objects visible in the dark or through fog by means of infrared light.

On his first attempt he used materials such as a washstand, biscuit tin and cardboard.

He was educated at Larchfield Academy, Helensburgh; the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College; and the University of Glasgow. His degree course was interrupted by World War I and he never returned to graduate.

In July 1924, he received a 1000-volt electric shock but fortunately survived with only a burnt hand.

Baird gave the first public demonstration of moving silhouette images by television at Selfridges department store in London in a three-week series of demonstrations beginning on 25 March 1925.

In his laboratory on 2 October 1925, Baird successfully transmitted the first television picture with a greyscale image: the head of a ventriloquist's dummy nicknamed "Stooky Bill" in a 30-line vertically scanned image, at five pictures per second.

He demonstrated the world's first colour transmission on 3 July 1928, using scanning discs at the transmitting and receiving ends with three spirals of apertures, each spiral with a filter of a different primary colour; and three light sources at the receiving end, with a commutator to alternate their illumination. That same year he also demonstrated stereoscopic television.

Baird was the first in England to demonstrate ultra-short wave transmission. (Today, we refer to "ultra short waves" as the VHF band.)

In 1927, Baird transmitted a long-distance television signal over 438 miles (705 km) of telephone line between London and Glasgow; Baird transmitted the world's first long-distance television pictures to the Central Hotel at Glasgow Central Station.

In November 1929, Baird and Bernard Natan established France's first television company, Télévision-Baird-Natan. He televised the first live transmission of the Epsom Derby in 1931.

On 16 August 1944, he gave the world's first demonstration of a fully electronic colour television display. His 600-line colour system used triple interlacing, using six scans to build each picture