"THE STORY OF TELEVISION" 1956 RCA TV DEVELOPMENT DAVID SARNOFF & VLADIMIR ZWORYKIN GG38545

[Music] The signature of every century has been its skyline. The very ancient, the old, the medieval, the modern. Television means metal fingers beckoning the invisible. It means a reaching for sounds and sights no human ear or eye could ever capture unaded. It is an electronic miracle. The dream of television had persisted for centuries. The human eye is a marvelous instrument, perceptive, sensitive, forever tuned to the pulsating wavelengths of light. Yet the eye is hemmed in by horizons. It cannot see over a hillside or beyond the haze of distance. To extend the range of human eyesight, man developed sensitive instruments like binoculars and giant telescopes to probe the immense reaches of space. But always there were barriers. Could man fling pictures to the sky and gather them in at a distant point? This challenge provoked unending experiment and research. And for nearly 30 years, two men, two pioneers, shared this dream of television. Dr. Vladimir Warin, famed inventor, and David Sarnoff, RCA board chairman. Together, they created, developed, and introduced America's first all electronic television system. After years of improvement in transmitters and receivers, the circuit was complete. How does it work? This marvel we all enjoy. The lens of the television camera acts like the iris of the human eye. It gathers in the light rays and focuses them on a mosaic of light sensitive material that is built into the picture tube. The light sensitive material converts the light into electrical impulses. The reaction varying with the strength of the light. The optic nerve of the camera picture tube is the electron beam controlled by electromagnets. The beam scans the picture which is on the plate in rapid sweeping motions from side to side, from top to bottom. When the beam hits the image, it loses varying amounts of electrons and then bounces back to the opposite end of the picture tube where it is amplified millions of times. It is led off to the transmitter in the form of electric current. The signals are broadcast as radio impulses into space. Heart of the receiving set is the kinoscope. Here the action is reversed. The stream of electrons synchronized perfectly with those of the camera tube literally paints the picture information on a chemically treated screen line by line. The glow is bright when the beam is strong, less bright when it is weak. Thus, the picture is reassembled. In 1931, a top the Empire State Building, there was erected the transmitting antenna for experimental station W2XBS. In the beginning, the best that could be transmitted was a crude signal of 60 scanning lines. But the technicians and scientists soon doubled, tripled, and tripled again this number to achieve an increasingly better image. In 1937, television stroed out of the studio with mobile vans. From now on, there was to be new vision for the world. A man could sit at home, yet his eyes could scan the countryside. This was a new dimension in communications. Distance reduced to microwaves. All barriers could be erased. 1939, television made its official public debut. The New York World's Fair, whose theme, the world of tomorrow, became the world of today. [Music] The TV cameras focused on Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the first president ever televised. The King and Queen of England. The first baseball game ever televised. August 1939. The National Political Conventions of 1940. Another milestone for television. Still in the trial and error stage, television began studying its own future as a tremendous new medium of entertainment. The first programs were simple, unpretentious, proving grounds for technicians, cameramen, directors, writers, and performers. Slowly, creative minds began to give form and substance to this lively art of television. [Music] 1941, America entered World War II. It was the beginning of a 4-year blackout for commercial TV. Research went forward at war tempo, but directed towards military advances, electronic scientists and engineers developed radar, sonar for submarine detection, and sniper scopes that made it possible to see a target in darkness. [Music] In 1945, war was over. After four years of unparalleled effort and sacrifice, the American public was hungry for the rewards of peace and television with its promise of endless hours of enjoyment and edification was part of that peacetime dream. RCA, the leading producer of television sets and television tubes, led the way by opening its blueprints to licensed competitors. This was the shot in the arm the industry needed. Television came of age. Television cameramen, lighting experts, set designers, writers, and directors were experimenting, studying, and learning the new techniques of the new medium. Programming was better, more varied, more enterprising. 1949, another television first. As President Truman was inaugurated, the event was carried over a 16 city television network extending from Washington north to Boston and west to St. Louis. Television was moving with giant strides. In less than half a dozen years, a flip of a switch in master control could send the television image from coast to coast. Television had become a dynamic industry, employing more than a million people. In little more than a wink of time, television had entered our homes, our lives, imprinting new silhouettes on our skyline. And all this was just the beginning. There was still another dream to be realized, still another dimension to be added. that of color. [Music] To achieve color, scientists brought into focus the principles of radio, of optics, electronics, photography, and chemistry so that they all might work together to make color television practical. Thus, they created the compatible color television system. They did it with one of the historic inventions of our times, thericolor television tube. The lens of the color television camera collects light rays in full color from the scene being televised. Within the camera, an ingenious system of mirrors breaks down the light rays into television's three primary colors, blue, green, and red. They are focused through the lens system to the special camera tubes provided for each primary color, and the primary color signal thus produced are simultaneously processed for transmission. By the miracle of compatibility, color programs can be seen on standard black and white sets without any change or adjustment. Color receivers, which can also pick up standard black and white broadcasts, decode the color information and apply the picture in all its vivid beauty to thericolor tube. The world of color transforms the commonplace into the beautiful. With it, the men of television had captured a paintbrush. Viewers at home could see distant scenes in all their vivid coloration. The Tournament of Roses in Pasadena provided the first coast to coast telecast in color. But again, this was just a milestone. A colorful future is still ahead of us. With the added dimension of color, television programming probed new horizons. Once again, technicians and artists accepted the challenge. Entirely new adventures and entertainment could now unfold before the people of America. More and more stations are becoming equipped to broadcast color every day. For without color, you are missing half the show. Mobile units began transmitting color telecasts from the bright outdoors. New sparkle and new buoyancy could be added to the enjoyment of the great sports events. The World Series of 1955 was another TV milestone, the first to be televised in natural color. [Music] The same year, the first Davis Cup matches were televised in color on the court of Forest Hills. King football always one of the finest of sports in the finest of seasons. Now this autuminal pageantry can be enjoyed as it should in the glory of its natural color. [Music] [Applause] The future of our television story encompasses the entire earth. Into every one of our living rooms can come a human eye view of the world with the immediacy and speed of light itself. Color and international color TV. Natural color from everywhere and transmitted across the widest oceans and the highest mountains. More and more programs in color every day of the year. [Music] [Applause] With ease and suress of tuning, with everinccreasing simplicity of operation, with sets and tubes as dependable as any ever made, the American family will share the color and the motion of the world all around it. television. Truly the miracle that has put its signature on our century. [Music]