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The inventor of the first mechanical television was the Scottish engineer, innovator, and inventor, John Logie Baird. He demonstrated the first working television on January 26, 1926. Later on, he also developed and demonstrated the color television system and the first electronic color television picture tube.
See the fact file below for more information on the John Logie Baird or alternatively, you can download our 24-page John Logie Baird worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.
Key Facts & Information
GENERAL INFORMATION
- John Logie Baird was born on August 13, 1888, at Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire, Scotland.
- John Logie Baird died on June 14, 1946, aged 57, at Bexhill, Sussex, England.
- John Logie Baird was born Scottish and acquired British citizenship later on.
- John Logie Baird was the youngest of four children of Reverend John Baird, a Church of Scotland minister.
- John’s father was a minister for the St. Bride’s Church, and his mother was Jessie Morrison Inglis, an orphaned niece of a wealthy family from Glasgow.
EDUCATION
- John Logie Baird received his primary education at the Larchfield Academy, now part of the Lomond School in Helensburgh.
- Baird received his secondary and tertiary education at the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College and at the University of Glasgow.
- John took several engineering jobs as an apprentice as a part of his college studies.
- During his college years, John became an agnostic. However, this did not affect his relationship with his father.
- The working conditions in Glasgow during Baird’s time helped form his socialist beliefs, but it also damaged his health.
- Unfortunately, John Logie Baird never finished his degree, as his studies were interrupted by the First World War.
- John never returned to continue his studies, and he was never able to graduate.
- In 1915, at the time of war, John volunteered for service in the British army. Due to his health, he was classified unfit for active duty.
- He took a job instead at the Clyde Valley Electrical Power Company, a role in which he focused on munitions.
THE INVENTION OF TELEVISION
- John Logie Baird was the first person to produce a live, moving, grayscale, television image from reflected light.
- John Baird’s success in television was an achievement where other inventors had failed. Baird had successfully done it by making a better photoelectric cell that improved the signal conditioning from the photocell and the video amplifier.
- John’s invention was, of course, partially the result of previous experiments done by other inventors.
- Arthur Korn built the first successful signal conditioning circuits between 1902 and 1907.
- Korn’s circuit was able to send fax pictures by telephone between countries, and it could operate without electronic amplification.
- Since Korn circuits sent halftone images, this suggested that these circuits could work on the television.
- John Baird experimented with a Nipkow Disk in his early experimentation.
- The Nipkow disk, a mechanical, rotating image scanning device, was invented by Paul Gottlieb Nipkow in 1884.
- It is called the “master television patent” by the television historian, Albert Abramson.
- The disk was developed by Baird and other inventors, as well.
- Baird moved to 22 Linton Crescent, Hastings, located in the south coast of England, in 1923.
- Here, John Baird rented a workshop in the Queen’s Arcade.
- At the workshop he rented, Baird built the prototype for the world’s first television set.
- The items Baird used included an old hatbox, a pair of scissors, darning needles, bicycle light lenses, a used tea chest, sealing wax, and glue.
- Baird demonstrated the semi-analogue television he built in 1924 to the Radio Times. The television system was able to transmit silhouette images in motion.
- In July 1924, John Baird burnt his hand as he received a 1000-volt electric shock, which he survived. However, his landlord asked him to move out.
- The first public demonstration of Baird’s television system was done on March 25, 1925.
- It was a three-week series demonstration at Selfridges department store in London.
- The first grayscale image picture that was transmitted to the television was the head of a ventriloquist dummy nicknamed “Stooky Bill”. It was done on October 2, 1925, at Baird’s laboratory.
- The first human face transmitted on television was the face of an office worker who worked downstairs of Baird’s laboratory. His name was William Edward Taynton, and he was the first person televised.
LATER YEARS AND DEATH
- John Logie Baird moved to 1 Station Road, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, in December 1944. Later on, in 2007, the house was demolished. An apartment building is now located on the site and was named Baird Court.
- On June 14, 1946, John Logie Baird died in his East Sussex home after suffering a stroke in February.
- John Logie Baird’s remains were buried in Helensburgh Cemetery, in Argyll, Scotland. He was buried beside his parents.
John Logie Baird Worksheets
This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the John Logie Baird across 24 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use John Logie Baird worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about the inventor of the first mechanical television was the Scottish engineer, innovator, and inventor, John Logie Baird. He demonstrated the first working television on January 26, 1926. Later on, he also developed and demonstrated the color television system and the first electronic color television picture tube.
Complete List Of Included Worksheets
- John Logie Baird Facts
- Baird’s Biography
- Invention Timeline
- Vocabulary Blanks
- Fact or False
- Picture Narrative
- Television Pioneers
- Scottish Inventors
- My Favorite Shows
- Without Mr. Baird
- Parts of a Television
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