BAIRD TELEVISOR ARCHIVE
BAIRD TELEVISOR TV

“John Logie Baird was a Helensburgh man and a Scottish pioneer who helped change the world, and with his ties to the University of Glasgow I think it is only right and proper that this important collection should be coming to the university, and hopefully it will help inspire future pioneering engineers.” It needs to be shared for future generations. The donor, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: “ charts such an important period of modern engineering history, so I felt it could not, and should not, leave these shores to move abroad. The recording and radio log books, used by assistant Benjamin Clapp, contain the world’s first-known use of the acronym TV. The purchase of the collection was made possible with the financial support of a businessman from Baird’s hometown of Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute, who wished to remain anonymous.

BAIRD TELEVISOR ARCHIVE

The materials, which include a disc featuring what has been described as one of the world’s earliest surviving video recordings, are now stored at the University of Glasgow along with much of the Scottish inventor’s other work.Īn asking price of £78,750 was put on the “treasure trove” archive and an export bar was placed on the lot to see if any British buyers would step in. In September last year, an anonymous donor stepped in to prevent a recording of Baird’s first transmission of transatlantic television pictures being sold to private collectors overseas.

BAIRD TELEVISOR TV

He says he’s got a machine for seeing by wireless!”įollowing his demonstration in 1926, he developed colour TV and brought out the world’s first mass produced television set in 1929. The news editor at the time said: “For God’s sake, go down to reception and get rid of a lunatic who’s down there. Still, that was better than the reaction of the Daily Express newspaper who, when Baird approached them with the invention in 1925, kicked him out.

“It has yet to be seen to what extent further developments will carry Mr Baird’s system towards practical use,” they wrote. “The image as transmitted was faint and often blurred, but substantiated a claim that through the ‘televisor,’ as Mr Baird has named his apparatus, it is possible to transmit and reproduce instantly the details of movement, and such things as the play of expression on the face,” wrote the reporter from the Times after the demonstration.Īs innovative as the demonstration had been, the journalist wasn’t convinced that it would take off. The historic 1926 public display took place on January 26, in a lab in Soho in front of members from the Royal Institution and a journalist from the Times.Īlthough the pictures were small, measuring just 3.5 by 2 inches, the process was revolutionary.

Within two years this flicker was the face of a woman who was in a different room.

Baird televisor