How Television Was Invented

On 2 November 1936 the BBC opened its television service at Alexandra Palace in London, with two rival systems taking turns. This film explains the problem they solved, sending a whole picture down one wire, and how it was cracked: selenium that turns light into current, Nipkow's spinning disc, Baird's 30-line televisor of 1926, Braun's cathode-ray tube, Campbell-Swinton's plan, Farnsworth's image dissector and the storage camera tubes, how a raster, interlacing and sync pulses build a picture, the contest of 1936, colour with the shadow mask, and how television came to Thailand in 1955.

A picture, one line at a time

Ninety years of the BBC’s television service, and the idea that made it work.

Read the full story as text · อ่านภาษาไทย

This interactive 3D film needs JavaScript. PlanetPast home