Invention of the Television Set

The televison set was invented by not one person but a group of numerous personnel. The principal idea was based on photoconductivity of the element selenium, founded by Willoughby Smith in 1873. All televisions make use of an image which is scanned to produce a representation time signal, which is then reversed and decoded by the human eye.

On 26 January 1926, John Logie Baird demonstrated the first public television, which transmitted live moving images. Several months later, 3 July 1928, Baird demonstrated the first colour television. In 1923, Charles Francis Jenkinde monstrated his own version of a primitive television set.

Strangely enough, colour televisions were patented before black and white televisions were even fully functional. The reason being the fact that inventors knew this was possible and each wanted to claim the idea as their own.

Camarena invented the "Chromoscopic adapter for television equipment", which was a basic transmission mechanism for colour television. It was he who received the patent for colour televisions initially in September 15, 1942 adapted in 1960 and further in 1962.

Exclusively electronic systems relied on research by both Philo Taylor Farnsworth and Vladimir Zworykin, in order to mass distribute television programming evident in the modern world.

The first regular transmissions originated in Germany, 1935, using 180 scan lines to deliver the picture. 2 years later these lines increased to 441 in an effort to improve quality.

The first launch outwith Germany was England, 1936, from Alexandria Place. Baird's system was established but only spanned 4 months, since it contained 240 lines, whereas its successor EMI-Marconi's System A contained 405 lines and delivered a greater quality of picture.

It took almost 20 years for the television to be commonplace in an American household, as in the mid 1950's programming was typical in the majority of homes across the world.

Invention of the Telephone

The first comprehensible telephone conversation was said to have taken place between Bell and his assistant, who was sitting in another room. Bell said, "Come here, Watson, I want you" which Watson successfully heard via the receiver and the invention of the telephone was complete. The Bell Telephone Company (AT&T) was soon established and grew to be the largest telephone company in existence.

The following year, in 1877, the first telephone system was put in place in Hartford, Connecticut, whilst the first exchange which linked two cities, was established between both Boston and New York in 1883. London hosted the first exchange put into practice outside the United States in 1879. The system however proved time consuming, as the exchange was controlled by a large switchboard with a number of operators working manually to divert the calls.

The first automatic exchange was patented by Almon Strowger in 1891 and instilled in 1892, although manual switchboards remained in place until the mid-twentieth century. In 1889, William Gray invented the coin operated telephone, whereas the first rotary dial telephone was produced by Frenchman, Antoine Barnay, in 1923.

The Bell Telephone Company later developed the mobile telephone which was used by New York police cars in 1924. The first commercial mobile service was created in 1946, in St Louis, Missouri but it did not become commonplace until a following four decades. 

Touch tone systems, which used sound tones rather than electrical pulses, were installed in 1941, however the need for central switching made the idea too expensive, yet Bell's company were curious as to the potential of touch tone employment. As electrical circuitry prices fell, the touch tone systems could finally be deployed in common households, which occurred in 1962.

AT&T began experimentation with cells within mobile technology, primarily based on hexagonal geographical regions. As the caller moved from one cell to another, the communication link would remain intact, by automatically switching to the new cell without any form of disruption. This foundation for mobile phone technology was put into place in the United States in 1983.

The invention of the telephone is a hot topic within the inventor circle, and the recognised inventor is somewhat sketchy. Many believe it to be Alexander Graham Bell, whereas others believe it to be Antonio Meucci, Philip Reis or Elisha Gray.

One of the most important and revolutionary inventions which impacts greatly upon modern day communication is the invention of the telephone. The idea behind the telephone is simple, a system which converts sound into a series of electrical impulses of differing frequencies, and then reverses this procedure to re-create the sound, typically a human voice. Sounds simple enough, but it took many years and an array of different inventors to finally succeed with the technology.

As early as 1831, Michael Faraday proved that vibrations of metal could be converted into electrical impulses. This was the basic principle of the telephone, but no one made use of such technology until 1861, when German inventor, Johann Reis, successfully built an apparatus that converted sound to electricity and back again. The apparatus had many flaws, incapable of transmitting many frequencies and therefore was never fully developed.

This idea was elaborated on by two men in the United States, who simultaneously began experimenting and creating what would be known as the telephone. Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell (a Scottish inventor), both worked hard to produce the equipment, and amazingly both filed for a patent within hours of one another, Bell beating his rival by merely two hours on February 14th, 1876.

Despite Gray building the initial diaphragm / electromagnetic receiver two years prior, he was unable to produce a working version of his transmitter until after Bell. Bell worked effortlessly, whereas Gray became disheartened by the exhausting invention process.

Invention of the Light Bulb

The very first electric light was invented as early as 1800 by English inventor, Humphry Davy. Through various experimentations with electricity, he invented a basic electric battery, soon followed by electric light once he realised that carbon glowed, producing light when connected to the battery. This reaction is called an electric arc.



In 1860, Sir Joseph Wilson Swan set about attempting to develop a practical, long-lasting form of electric light. It was he who realised that carbon paper filament worked well, however did burn up relatively quickly. In 1878, his new lamp inventions were showcased in Newcastle, England.


1877 saw American Charles Francis Brush develop a series of carbon arcs in order to illuminate a public square in Ohio, USA. A few streets, some large office buildings and some stores all utilised electric lights, but the extent of usage was not at all common.

Typically credited as the 'inventor of the light bulb', Thomas Alva Edison experimented with thousands upon thousands of alternative filaments to find the best material for a long-lasting, high glow solution. 1879 was the year Edison finally realised that a carbon filament within an oxygen-free bulb glowed, but would not burn up for approximately 40 hours. Later, Edison invented a bulb that would not expire for over 1500 hours.

Lewis Howard Latimer improved upon Edison's bulb with a new carbon filament which he patented in 1881. Latimer was part of Edison's research team, termed "Edison's Pioneers", and in 1882 began to manufacture and distribute his own carbon filaments.

At the turn of the century, in 1903, Willis R. Whitney introduced a 'fix' to the light bulb, so that the inside of the bulb would not darken as the filament began to glow, thus producing more vivid and bright light. William David Coolidge then invented a tungsten version of the traditional filament, which lasted longer than any other filament. This incandescent light bulb revolutionised the way in which we live today.

Invention of the Computer

Charles Babbage, an English mechanical engineer and polymath, originated the concept of a programmable computer. Considered the "father of the computer", he conceptualized and invented the first mechanical computer in the early 19th century.

Personal computers are now commonplace in most homes throughout the world, and are relied on heavily by both individuals and businesses. The invention of the computer is relatively new, emerging into our lives relatively late in the 20th century. The technology to build such intricate and sophisticated systems was simply not available prior to this, though advancements in microelectronics made the vision of a computer a realistic one. The two innovations in electronics which allowed for this were the integrated circuit, which was manufactured in 1959, and the microprocessor, which appeared in 1971. The integrated circuit allowed the internal memory solutions to be shrunken down into manageable components, whereas the microprocessor reduced the size of a central processing unit down to a single chip.

The microprocessor revolutionised electronics as we know it, a small silicon chip which can process thousands of simultaneous calculations, and replace the need for thousands of independent transistors. Developed by Ted Hoff, in California, part of the Intel Corporation, the microprocessor opened up new opportunities for machines, as the processor itself was capable of handling large flows of data, performing logical calculations and almost behaving with intelligence.

The first desktop computer system was manufactured for person use in 1974, courtesy of Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems (MITS). The computer was termed Altair, and retailed for as little as $400. The popularity of the Altair soared to unimaginable heights, everyone appearing keen to sample this new machine. This sparked a whole host of computers being developed by other companies, or by young ambitious entrepreneurs. The first well known and reputable company to produce their own computer was Tandy Corporation, which launched its own model in 1977. This model proved a hit, and became the most popular of the computers on the market at that time for two main reasons. It included a keyboard, to improve input, and also included a cathode ray tube to provide a CTR monitor. It also allowed information to be stored on cassette tapes, and was also programmable.

A couple of engineers, 
Stephen Wozniack and Steven Jobs, then began their own business venture which would become known as Apple Computers. The pair manufactured the Apple I, which was a homemade microprocessor, from Jobs' parents' garage of all places. The Apple I was then marketed to the public and was later sold to electronics enthusiasts and hobbyists. This led to the creation of Apple Computer, Inc., and in April, 1977, the Apple II was launched, the world's first personal computer system. The system was designed exclusively by the Apple team and included a keyboard and most notably colour graphics. The Apple II retailed at $1290.

Apple introduced brand new features to its computer system, expandable memory, disk-drive systems, improved data storage, and the aforementioned colour graphics. Apple Computers became the fastest growing business in American business history, with rival companies being set up as a result of Apple's huge success.

1981 saw IBM introduce their model of microcomputer, generically named the IBM PC. The 16-bit microprocessor prompted cravings for faster and more powerful processors. In the middle of the 1980's, a few more improvements were introduced to the computer world. 32-bit computers were revealed, which allowed for enough power to prove beneficial in a small to medium business environment.

User friendliness was targeted as key for most computer users, and the development or a Graphical User Interface certainly epitomised this. The GUI, replaced the requirement of entering complex commands, and brought in a much simpler 'point and click' strategy. Douglas Engelbart created an "X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System": which effectively became the "mouse", which has obviously has remained a standard with modern day PC's. Voice recognition software now exists to rival mouse input, and computer technology continues to grow at earth shattering speeds, which opens up exciting ideas for the not so distant future of computers.

The invention of the computer was clearly one of the most revolutionary inventions ever to grace the business world.