John Logie Baird (August 13 1888 – June 14 1946) was a Scottish engineer, who is best known as the inventor of the first working electromechanical television system.

Baird was born in Helensburgh, Argyll, Scotland, and educated at Larchfield School (now part of Lomond School), Helensburgh; the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College (which later became the University of Strathclyde); and the University of Glasgow. His degree course was interrupted by World War I and he never graduated.

In his first attempts to invent television, Baird experimented with the Nipkow disk and demonstrated that a semi-mechanical analogue television system was possible with the transmission of a static image of a ventriloquist's dummy in London in February 1924. This early system was highly primitive—images were difficult to view and transmitted only in shades of brown. On October 30, 1925 the first moving image was transmitted—the now famous grainy image of a ventriloquists dummy's head. Baird later transmitted the image of a local boy he had paid to take part in his experiments to a crowd of onlookers. Although the development of television was the result of work by many inventors (including Baird, Paul Gottlieb Nipkow and Boris Rosing; see Television: History), Baird is one of its foremost pioneers. He is generally credited with being the first person to produce a discernible television image, and went on to produce other advances in the field. Hastings, in East Sussex, UK, claims to be the 'Birthplace of Television' as it was there he was living for health reasons when he did much of his research work into his televisor. Hastings would claim to be the place where electro-mechanical television was first actually perfected and demonstrated.

From December 1944 until his death in 1946, Baird lived at a house in Station Road, Bexhill On Sea - immediately north of the Station itself. Currently named "Baird Court" Rother District Council gave permission for this property to be demolished and the land used for a modern block of flats in 2006, despite the efforts of many local residents who believed that this property should be listed and preserved due to its historical importance.

The first public demonstration of moving silhouette images was in the Selfridges department store in London in 1925. The first true television system (with gradations of light and shade) was demonstrated to the Royal Institution and a reporter from The Times on January 26, 1926 in the Soho district of London (at 22 Frith Street).

On 30 October, 1925, John Logie Baird had been successful in transmitting his first true television picture in the laboratory: the head of a ventriloquist's dummy. Looking for publicity he visited the Daily Express newspaper to promote his invention. The news editor was terrified. Later he was quoted by one of his staff as saying:" For God's sake, go down to reception and get rid of a lunatic who's down there. He says he's got a machine for seeing by wireless! Watch him-- he may have a razor on him." [1]

In 1927 Baird transmitted a long-distance television signal over 438 miles of telephone line between London and Glasgow. He then set up the Baird Television Development Company Ltd, which in 1928 made the first transatlantic television transmission from London to Hartsdale, New York and also made the first television programme for the BBC. He televised the first live transmission of the Epsom Derby in 1931.

From 1929-1935, the BBC broadcast television programs using the 30-line Baird system. In late 1936 the BBC began alternating Baird 240-line intermediate film transmissions with EMI-Marconi's electronic scanning system which had recently been improved to 405-lines. The BBC ceased broadcasts with the Baird system in early 1937.

Baird's television systems were therefore replaced by an electronic television system developed by EMI-Marconi under Isaac Shoenberg, similar to the system described by A.A. Campbell-Swinton, improved by Kalman Tihanyi in 1926, and initially developed by Vladimir Zworykin and RCA. Philo T. Farnsworth's electronic Image Dissector camera was available to Baird's company via a patent-sharing agreement, however it was found to be lacking in light sensitivity.

Baird's numerous other developments demonstrate his particular talent at invention. He developed, in 1928, a primitive video recording device, which he dubbed Phonovision. The system consisted of a Phonodisc, which was a 78rpm record that could play a 30 line video signal. His other developments were in fibre-optics, radio direction finding, infrared night viewing and radar. There still remain, however, questions about his exact contributions to the development of radar, for his wartime defence projects have never been officially acknowledged by the British government. According to Malcolm Baird, his son, what is known is that in 1926 Baird filed a patent for a device that formed images from reflected radio waves, a device remarkably similar to radar, and that he was in correspondence with the British government at the time. Much of the information regarding Baird's work in this area is just beginning to emerge.

Baird made many other contributions to the field of television before and after his mechanical system fell into disfavour. In 1928 he demonstrated the first colour television and true stereoscopic television. In 1932 he was the first to demonstrate ultra-short wave transmission. In 1941 he demonstrated a 600 line HDTV colour system, and during 1944 he tried to persuade British authorities to adopt his 1000+ line Telechrome electronic colour system as the new post-war broadcast standard. He also demonstrated a big screen television system at the London Coliseum, Berlin, Paris and Stockholm.

Some of Baird's early inventions were not up to standard. In his twenties he tried to create diamonds by heating graphite and shorted out Glasgow's electricity supply. Not long afterwards Baird perfected a glass razor; it was completely rust resistant, but it shattered. Inspired by pneumatic tyres he had a go at pneumatic shoes, but his prototype contained semi-inflated balloons which burst. He also invented a thermal undersock, which was actually a mild success.

Baird died in Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, England in 1946 after suffering a stroke in February of that year.

There is a working model of the Baird televisor in the London Science Museum.

• Logie Awards — Australian television
• University of Strathclyde

• McArthur, Tom, and Peter Waddell , The Secret Life of John Logie Baird. London: Hutchinson, 1986. ISBN 0091587204.
• Rowland, John, The Television Man: The Story of John Logie Baird. New York: Roy Publishers, 1967.
• Tiltman, Ronald Frank, Baird of Television. New York: Arno Press, 1974. (Reprint of 1933 ed.) ISBN 0405060610.

• The Baird Television Website
• Baird on DigitalCentury.com
• Mechanical TV: Baird Television
• Baird bio on BBC site
• How to build a Baird televisor - also contains many detailed references to Baird's history
• John Logie Baird - Gizmohighway Technology Guide
• Narrow Bandwidth Television Association
• Phonovision

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