In my books I like to have a timeline from the past into the present and on to the
future.
Television has a fascinating history beginning with the German Paul Nipkow getting
a patent in 1884 covering how to mechanically scan a picture. After a lifetime working
for Deutsche Bundesbahn (the German Railroad) as a retiree he saw his invention become
reality fifty years later at an exhibition in Berlin. By then he was more than 80
years old. Nipkow was really ahead of his time. Chapter 1 covers history from Nipkow
through the first electronic television systems into the late analog systems of the
1980s.
The chapter includes 11 illustrations, 4 of which are in the color insert.
Mechanical television was a product of a mechanical era and produced the first electrical
video signal. The worst problem was keeping the receiving and the transmitting discs
synchronized with each other.
© Lars-Ingemar Lundström, All rights reserved.
