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Philo T. Farnsworth: The Father of Television
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18058 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
5 / 1990 |
3,164 Words |
| Author
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Corrie Lynne Player
Corrie Lynne Player is a free-lance writer whose husband is
Philo T. Farnsworth's nephew. |
Although most Americans know that Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone and Thomas Edison the electric light bulb, the identity of the creator of the ubiquitous "boob tube" is less familiar.
In fact, the $64 answer is that television should be credited to Philo Farnsworth, who was born on a farm in southern Utah. He developed his idea in 1922, a time when the best minds were experimenting with transmitting pictures through the air via whirling disks and mirrors - a process more related to movies than to today's electronics.
Early Signs of Genius
Some observers have commented that Farnsworth's isolated childhood in Beaver, Utah, and Rigby, Idaho, allowed his genius to flourish uncontaminated buy preconceptions of what could or couldn't be done. Certainly, his hardworking parents' creative abilities spurred his imagination and boosted his confidence in his ideas.
His father, Lewis, and adventurer, who habitually saw opportunity in the next country or across the state, freighted and farmed to support his large family, and never stayed in one place very long. This restlessness and constant search for a better life affected Philo at an early age and continued through his maturity.
His mother, Serena Bastian, although not educated, brought music, literature, and art into her children's lives. She insisted they attend school regularly, even if it meant bone-chilling walks through great snowstorms.
Philo learned to read before going to school and as a youngster built several machines that actually worked. When only 11, he designed a device that turned his mother's hand-cranked washing machine into an automatic. He also entered an automobile key lock in a contest sponsored by Science and Invention; it won the $25 first prize.
One of his more impressive enterprises was rebuilding a Delco electric generator he found resting on his uncle Albert's farm. Without asking anyone, he dismantled it, and when his outraged uncle demanded whether his nephew knew how much that thing cost.
Lewis came to Philo's defense. "Well, it didn't work, did it? Give him a chance. You might be
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