Presented by RCA, one of the pioneers in television technology, this 1939 film shows the new medium being demonstrated at the World’s Fair. These early iconoscope TV systems are shown at the 1:10 mark, and the receiver known as the kinescope shown. Both of these early technologies would be replaced before television arrived in American homes after WWII. Interestingly however, television was used during the war on a variety of guided weapons including the TDR-1 torpedo drone (look it up).
At 2 minutes, the television antenna atop the Empire State Building is seen, capable of broadcasting TV signals to all of New York City to the line of sight.
At 2:57, mobile television units are seen deploying across Manhattan to broadcast a horse race.
At 5:03, studio broadcast of a concert is seen, with the iconoscope further explained, and a control room being used to direct the broadcast.
The Iconoscope was the first practical video camera tube to be used in early television cameras. The iconoscope produced a much stronger signal than earlier mechanical designs, and could be used under any well-lit conditions. This was the first fully electronic system to replace earlier cameras, which used special spotlights or spinning disks to capture light from a single very brightly lit spot.
Some of the principles of this apparatus were described when Vladimir Zworykin filed two patents for a Television system in 1923 and 1925. The German company Telefunken bought the rights from RCA and built the iconoscope camera used for the historical TV transmission at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.
In the United States the Iconoscope was the leading camera tube used for broadcasting from 1936 until 1946, when it was replaced by the image orthicon tube.
The Kinescope was the name given to the cathode ray tube that served as the receiver of the electrical image. This was the tube that decoded the transmitted electrical impulses back into an optical image that could be seen by the television viewer. This is the heart of the television set… the picture tube.
Vladimir Kosmich Zworykin (July 29, 1888 – July 29, 1982)was a Russian inventor, engineer, and pioneer of television technology. Educated in Russia and in France, he spent most of his life in the United States. Zworykin invented a television transmitting and receiving system employing cathode ray tubes. He played a role in the practical development of television from the early thirties, including charge storage-type tubes, infrared image tubes and the electron microscope.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
