For
historical allocation purpose, the television age started
in 1876 when it was discovered that the resistivity of
a Selenium plate varied with the amount of light falling
on it.
Thus, researchers began trying to develop
means to transmit images by electricity. In this way,
while some of schemes involved the use of a mosaic of
Selenium, others called for scanning the image mechanically
with one or more Selenium points.
However, the development of the first practical television
apparatus was the electrical telescope, patented by Paul
Nipkow in 1884. It consisted basically of the well-known
Nipkow disk that comprised 24 holes equally spaced along
a spiral near the periphery of the disk. (a)
During its operation, the image to be transmitted was
focused on a small area at the disk's periphery, while
the disk was spinning at 600 RPM. Hence the disk rotated,
the sequence of holes scanned the image in a straigh line.
Allocated behind the image area, a lens collected the
sequential light samples focusing them on a Selenium cell,
which consequently produces a succession of currents each
one proportional to the intensity of the light on a different
element of the image. In order to reconstruct the image
at the receiver end, Nipkow proposed to use a magneto-optical
light modulator. In this way to form the image, it was
necessary another identical disk rotating synchronously
with the one located at the transmitter.
Unfortunately, Nipkow invention was restritect only to
theoretical ideas, probably because the technology of
that time would not have permitted him to build such a
kind of television system.
However, his proposal for a mechanical scanning was the
base for several later built television systems, among
them the most notably was the one developed by the Bristish
inventor John Logie Baird.
In 1908, Alan Archibald Campbell-Switon described the
first all-electronic television system as known nowadays
that was based on the cathode-ray tube. |
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(a)
Various type of scanning disks where:
(a) Flat disk with two sets of scanning holes
(b) Flat disK with three sets of scanning holes
(c) Single disk with with two sets of holes arranged to
receive signals from stations employing two differents
numbers of lines per picture
(d) Scanning drum with the holes arranged in spiral form
(e) Flexible scanning belt. Radio Physics Course, 1933 |
(b) Ilustração do princípio
de varredura mecânica originalmente inventado por Paul
Nipkow em 1884. |
b) Illustration of the principle
of mechanical scanning originally invented by Nipkow.
Radio Physics Course, 1933 |
(d) Typical scanner for experimenters
sold in 1930. Radio News<BR>
(e) Primitive American concept of image reproducing apparatus
circa 1925. Radio News |
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