THE INVENTION OF

TELEVISION

Demic Paul
A X- A C

Atelevision set is a device that combines a tuner, display, and

loudspeakers for the purpose of viewingtelevision. Introduced in the late
1920s inmechanicalform, television sets became a popular consumer
product after World War II in electronic form, using cathode ray tubes.
The addition of color to broadcast television after 1953 further increased
the popularity of television sets in the 1960s, and an outdoor antenna
became a common feature of suburban homes.
The ubiquitous television set became the display device for the first
recorded media in the 1970s, such asVHSand laterDVD. It was also the
display device for the first generation ofhome computers(e.g., Timex
Sinclair 1000) andvideo gameconsoles (e.g., Atari) in the 1980s. In the
2010sflat paneltelevision incorporating liquid-crystal displays,
especiallyLED-backlit LCD displays, largely replacedcathode ray
tubesand other displays. Modern flat panel TVs are typically capable of
high-definition display (720p, 1080i, 1080p) and can also play content
from aUSBdevice.

ATARI

Mechanical televisions were

commercially sold from 1928 to 1934 in
the United Kingdom, United States, and
Soviet Union. The earliest commercially
made televisions were radios with the
addition of a television device consisting
of a neon tube behind a mechanically
spinning disk with a spiral of apertures
that produced a red postage-stamp size
image, enlarged to twice that size by a
magnifying glass. The Baird "Televisor"
(sold in 19301933 in the UK) is
considered the first mass-produced
television, selling about a thousand units.

1946

GE-HM171 (1939)

The first commercially

made electronic televisions
with cathode ray tubes
were manufactured by
Telefunken in Germany in
1934, followed by other
makers in France (1936),
Britain (1936), and America
(1938). The cheapest model
with a 12-inch (30 cm)
screen was $445
(equivalent to $7,481 in
2015). An estimated 19,000
electronic televisions were
manufactured in Britain,
and about 1,600 in
Germany, before World War
II. About 7,0008,000
electronic sets were made
in the U.S. before the War
Production Board halted
manufacture in April 1942,
production resuming in

Television usage in the

western world skyrocketed
after World War II with the
lifting of the
manufacturing freeze,
war-related technological
advances, the drop in
television prices caused
by mass production,
increased leisure time,
and additional disposable
income.

While only 0.5% of U.S. households had a television in 1946, 55.7% had
one in 1954, and 90% by 1962. In Britain, there were 15,000 television
households in 1947, 1.4 million in 1952, and 15.1 million by 1968. By
the late 1960s and early 1970s, color television had come into wide use.
In Britain, BBC1, BBC2 and ITV were regularly broadcasting in colour by
1969.

Zenith
(1979)

Zenith
(1981)
During the first decade of the 21st
century, CRT "picture tube" display
technology was almost entirely
supplanted worldwide by flat panel
displays. By the early 2010s, LCD
TVs, which increasingly used LEDbacklit LCD displays, accounted for
the overwhelming majority of
television sets being manufactured.