"WATCH HIM, HE MAY HAVE A RAZOR!"

FIRST WORKING TELEVISION SYSTEM DEMONSTRATED IN LONDON

London, U.K. (JFK+50)  If you invented something that would revolutionize the world, would you expect someone to call you a "lunatic?"  

Well, a hundred years ago, January 26, 1926, John Logie Baird* demonstrated the first working television system at his workshop located at 22 Frith Street here in London.  About fifty people were invited to witness this revolutionary demonstration.

Earlier, Mr. Baird had gone to the Daily Express to inform them of his work.  He was described as "a lunatic" by the editor who proclaimed... this guy says

 "hes got a machine for seeing by wireless.  

   Watch him, he may have a razor!"

The electrical engineering graduate from the University of Strathclyde, working from two attic rooms he used for a laboratory, was the first person to transmit moving images by television--"a moment that laid the foundations of one of the most influential technologies of the modern era."

*John Logie Baird (1888-1946) was born in Helensburgh, Scotland & graduated from the University of Strathclyde in 1914.  JLB was named as one of the ten greatest Scottish scientists in history.

JFK+50 NOTE

Mr. Baird also invented the first publicly demonstrated color television system.  During his demonstrations, he used a ventriloquist dummy named "Stooky Bill."  His first televised images were far from high definition (30 lines) but human faces could be transmitted & received.

SOURCE

"From Strathclyde to the world, 100 years since television's first demonstration," January 26, 2026, www.strath.ac.uk/

John Logie Baird & Stooky Bill

November 1926

www.AmericanRadioHistory.com

PD

"1ST TO GIVE TELEVISED ADDRESS FROM WHITE HOUSE"

PRESIDENT TRUMAN ADDRESSES NATION ON TELEVISION

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On October 5, 1947, Harry S Truman became the first President of the United States to give a televised address from the White House.  He was not, however, the first president to appear on television.

Franklin D. Roosevelt gave an address on April 30, 1939 that was seen by a very limited audience at the New York World's Fair.

In his address, Mr. Truman asked the American people to cut back on their consumption of grain in order to help Europeans who were running short of food supplies in the post-war era.

The President suggested also that Americans only eat meat on Tuesdays and eggs and poultry on Thursdays.

JFK+50 NOTE

In 1947, when HST's address was televised, there were only 222,000 television sets in the United States comprising less than one-half of one percent of the population.  As of March 1, 1948, there were 10,000 sets in Washington, D.C. and 20 stations nationwide. 

By 1952. there were 24.336,000 television sets in the U.S. comprising 52.9% of the population.  Also, the number of stations had risen to 225.

I was born in 1948 and my family did not have a television set until I was ten years old.  We could only pick up two channels, NBC & CBS affiliates here in Knoxville.  We didn't get a color set until 1968.  The first presidential address we saw on it was LBJ's "I will not seek, nor will I accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president."

SOURCES

"Early Television Museum," www.earlytelevision.org/

"Truman Is A Star On Television," JFK+50, October 5, 2011, www.jfk50.blogspot.com/

President Truman Delivers Farewell Address

United States National Archives

www.picryl.com/

"IMAGE FROM MILES AWAY, EASILY DISTINGUISHABLE"

'RADIO VISION' HAS ARRIVED THANKS TO WASHINGTON SCIENTIST 

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On June 14, 1925, The Sunday Star reports that 'radio vision' has arrived 'for the first time in history.'

This "fantastic dream of science" occurred yesterday here in the Nation's Capital when Washington scientist C. Francis Jenkins* demonstrated his new wireless apparatus depicting moving objects from miles away.

The successful demonstration, or test, was seen by Secretary of the Navy Wilbur and "other high government officials."

The image of a revolving propeller was transmitted from the Jenkins Laboratory located on Connecticut Avenue and seen by the officials who were "miles away."

The image was described as while not "clean-cut," it was "easily distinguishable."

"Charles Francis Jenkins (1867-1934) was born in Dayton, Ohio & educated at Bliss Electrical School.  CFJ was an engineer & pioneer of early cinema & one of the inventors of television, using mechanical rather than electronic technology.  He had over 400 patents for his inventions.

SOURCE

"'Radio Vision' Shown First Time In History by Capital Inventor," The Sunday Star, Washington, D.C., June 14, 1925, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/

Charles Francis Jenkins

July 8 1928

Underwood & Underwood Photo

Library of Congress