Throughout history there have been several individuals who
have achieved fame and in some cases fortune by pursuing ideas they have had
for new products. Some of these inventors have come across their creations by
accident, and some of them saw a problem in their day-to-day lives that
inspired them to create a solution. While there are many famous inventors, it’s
important to remember that not all inventors achieve fame. However, for those
individuals who have created products that fill a long-existing need, notoriety
is one of the possible outcomes.
One of the most famous inventors in history is John Logie
Baird, the Scottish engineer and the inventor of the world’s first practical
television system. Baird also invented the first fully electronic color television
tube. Although his electromechanical system was eventually displaced by purely
electronic systems, Baird’s early successes have earned him a special place in
the invention of the television.
In his first attempts to develop a working television, Baird
experimented with an invention created by Paul Nipkow. The latter had invented
a scanning disk system in 1884, called the Nipkow disk; this has been since
called the “master television patent.” In early 1923, Baird moved to the south
coast of England and rented a workshop in the town of Hastings. He build what
would become the world’s first working television set using an odd collection
of items including an old hat box, a pair of scissors, a few bicycle light
lenses, a used tea chest, sealing wax, and darning needles. In February of the
following year, he demonstrated to the Radio Times that a
semi-mechanical analogue television system was possible by transmitting moving
silhouette images. In July of the same year, he received a 1000-volt electric
shock, though fortunately he survived with only a burned hand as an injury. His
landlord, as a result, asked him to quit his workshop.
In his new laboratory on October 2, 1925, Baird successfully
transmitted the first television picture with a greyscale image: the head of a
ventriloquist’s dummy in a 30-line vertically scanned image, at five pictures
per second was the first image. Baird went downstairs and found an office
worker to see what a human face would look like, and 20-year-old William Edward
Taynton became the first person to be televised in full tonal range.
Understandably excited, Baird visited the Daily Express to promote his
invention; the news editor was terrified and asked his staff to get rid of the
“lunatic.” Baird repeated the transmission weeks later, on January 26, 1926 for
the Royal Institution and a reporter from The Times. By this time Baird
had improved the scan rate to 12.5 frames per second.
He moved on to develop the technology and on July 3, 1928,
Baird demonstrated the world’s first color transmission, using scanning discs
at the transmitting and receiving ends with three spirals containing filters of
a different primary color. Prior to that, he transmitted a long-distance
television signal over 438 miles in 1927. Baird went on to set up the Baird
Television Development Company, which made the first transatlantic television
transmission in 1928 from London to Hartsdale, New York. Baird’s invention
would go on to provide the first program for the BBC, and Baird would also
establish France’s first television company with Bernard Natan.
After mechanical televisions fell out of favor, Baird made
several contributions to the field of electronic televisions. In 1939 he showed
color television using a cathode ray tube with a fitted disk of color filters
and in 1941 he patented and demonstrated a system of three-dimensional television.
He also went on to develop an early video recording device, and helped to
develop the field of fiber-optics, radio, infrared, and radar. Overall, Baird
has been remembered for having a particular talent at invention; not all of his
inventions were successful (he tried to create diamonds by heating graphite in
his 20s and shorted out Glasgow’s electricity supply, for example), but Baird
has achieved legendary status both in the UK and worldwide for the sheer volume
of products and inventions he developed.
If you have an idea for a new invention, there are a number
of different ways to pursue developing the idea. You can follow the traditional
process of patenting your own invention and marketing and licensing it yourself
or you can contact a company that specializes in new product development, who
can take your idea and build prototypes and reach out to businesses that may be
interested in adding your idea to their product line. Inventing is always a
risk, and very few inventions are successful, but working with a reputable
company may be extremely helpful, as the experienced employees of these
companies could have a better understanding of what it takes to make a product
successful.
Do you have an invention idea? Click here to confidentially submit your idea.
