Before “true television”: investigating john logie baird’s 1925 original television apparatus [scanning our past]

Abstract

During the spring of 1925, John Logie Baird gave a series of public demonstrations in Selfridges department store in London's Oxford Street that showed how television might eventually be realized. Though only capable of showing simple shapes, his demonstration system was notable in having the subject conventionally floodlit, and the televised image reproduced on a separate, wirelessly connected, display [1].The Selfridges demonstrations were overshadowed some months later on January 26, 1926, when Baird first showed recognizable televised images in light and shade to invited members of the Royal Institution at his offices in Frith Street, London. Although little has survived from the Frith Street demonstration, the mechanics and optics of the earlier machine (Baird's "original television apparatus") from the time of the Selfridges This month's history article presents the results of an extensive investigation of relevant documentation as well as a forensic-level analysis of John Logie Baird 's original, 1924-1925, television apparatus. event form one of the few artifacts of Baird's early work that we can study today. 1 Its significance and authenticity have been questioned over the years. The generally accepted view has been that the machine could not have worked as described. Reasons why have not previously been studied in detail.