Television the test of the modern world

One of the world’s first television stations, WRGB, has the honor of being the world’s only continuously operating station since 1926 to the modern day. America’s first commercially produced television sets were based on the mechanical television system – made by John Baird’s television designs.

In 1926, Baird gave the world’s first public demonstration of a television system at Selfridge’s department store in London. He used mechanical rotating disks to scan moving images into electrical impulses, which were transmitted by cable to a screen.

History of the Television. Televisions can be found in billions of homes around the world. But 100 years ago, nobody even knew what a television was. In fact, as late as 1947, only a few thousand Americans owned televisions.

That disk would be turned by a motor in order to make one revolution for every frame of the TV picture. Baird’s early mechanical television had 30 holes and rotated 12.5 times per second. There was a lens in front of the disk to focus light onto the subject.