Philo T Farnsworth, another amazing genius

lardom

I like learning about geniuses of all types. Extraordinary intelligence is a wonderful thing to behold. Philo Farnsworth is one of the great ones. Inventor of TV

LoopyByteloose

Ummm. Actually, there is a counter-claim that a Scot invented TV, John Logie Baird.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_television

But dear old Philo actually transmitted the first video from somewhere near to present day Silicon Valley to a reciever in San Francisco.

Similarly, I was quite surprised to see one of the earliest of jet propulson engines sitting in a Tokyo museam and claimed to be made by Japanese. The Japanese actually built and flew some of the first jet planes - not just the British and Germans.

Genius is often an invention of mass media. Einstien was quoted as say, "If I had known what they were going to do with all my work, I'd have become a cobbler."

Philo was much abused by corporate America. So was Mr. Goodyear, who invented rubber and died broke. It is very tough to be creative, but the truly tough are the rich. After Edison invented the light bulb, he hired all his competitors with his new found wealth, created General Electric, and pattened all their work under his name. So a lot of what he supposedly invented was actually the work of others.

Leon

Baird developed his system in Hastings, a few minutes from where I live. The local museum has one of his Televisors. I think that Baird had the first commercial system, although it was never very successful, and was soon replaced by CRT technology.

LoopyByteloose

There is a tremendous amount of history in the race between Baird and Farnsworth, with RCA trying to cut the throat of anyone that dared to try to get an independent system developed. This all was a precursor to the battles around the personal computer.

Farnsworth's real claim to fame should be the CRT or Cathode Ray Tube. It was an all electronic device that did far more than just provide TV.

And of course, without TV - anti-depressants may never been invented.

Martin_H

My kids know all about the David Sarnoff and Philo T. Farnsworth saga because I've related it to them as a cautionary tale.

prof_braino

Didn't at least three people independently "invent" calculus at roughly the same time? Perhaps when the foundation is present, new discoveries and inventions become imminent, and its just luck as to who stumbles across it first.

Martin_H

prof_braino wrote: »

Didn't at least three people independently "invent" calculus at roughly the same time? Perhaps when the foundation is present, new discoveries and inventions become imminent, and its just luck as to who stumbles across it first.

Newton and Leibniz invented it around the same time, I'm sure who the third may be. Newton claimed he invented it first, but didn't publish until later, today we use Leibniz's notation which is better than Newton's. Newton was a nasty person and involved in a number of disputes besides that one, so who knows who was first.

Update: To elaborate Newton was a major figure in science who made major contributions. His problem was his big ego which caused him to ignore or minimize the influence others had on his work. Robert Hooke (gravity) and Leibniz (calculus) being examples in two of his major areas of contribution. He also treated John Harrison very poorly and tried to prevent him from getting the Longitude prize. Newton didn't understand how Harrison's chronometer worked. Rather than see that as a failing in his understanding, he assumed Harrison was trying to trick people.

lardom

Einstein may have regretted what was done with his insights but he could not avoid being an astounding thinker. He made 'thought' experiments. IMHO, he wouldn't have lasted as a cobbler
He was, in fact, a patent examiner. I think he had one of the 'best seats in the house' with respect to some of the best 'thinkers' of the time.