In 1925, the Scottish inventor John Logie Baird broadcast, for the first time, the moving image of a human face: the boy of the William Taynton office, who said the experience in an interview with the BBC, 40 years later
Scientists worked on television inventions since 1850. But it took an independent inventor, using bicycle headlights, wood remains and biscuits cans so that it became reality.
John Logie Baird (1888-1946) was a standard inventor who had hit the relative success until he had his great discovery.
Son of priest, Baird has faced health problems in most of his life. Therefore, doctors declared him unsuitable for serving in the First World War (1914-1918).
He then started working in an electricity company, maintaining an intense business line in parallel.
Inspired by history The producer of diamondsFrom his idol, the science fiction writer Hg Wells (1866-1946), Baird tried to produce artificial diamonds from carbon, with an intense electricity consumption. But only what he has achieved was to overturn part of the energy contribution of the city of Glasgow, in the United Kingdom.
His disastrous attempt to find a domestic healing for hemorrhoids also made a sample of that type of activity that in the future would have received the warning of television presenters: “Do not try to do it at home”.
Also with these failures, Baird has achieved some commercial success.
In 1923, using the capital obtained by selling its soap and water companies, it rented modest structures in Hasting, on the southern coast of England.
Maritime Air made its weakened lungs, but the work environment was a nightmare, in terms of health and safety.
Baird has created a laboratory to start his television experiments. He built his improvised device, using waste materials, like an old tea box equipped with an engine.
At the center of the Baird system, there was a large album that turned at high speed, to scan the images, after the line, using in intense photo drivers and lighting. These signs have been transmitted and reconstructed to produce moving figures.
One day he managed to convey a silhouette. It was there that the dream of decades, to create television, finally entered the scene.
Baird was burned with an electric shock in his laboratory in a hurry. With this, it is time to move on to the brilliant London lights.
The inventor rented an apartment upwards a commercial establishment in 22 Frith Street, in the SOHO district. There he established a new laboratory.
His mechanical device has emitted so much warmth that people had difficulty enduring their intensity. Therefore, Baird had to use a Ventriloquist doll for his experiments, which he baptized Stooky bill.
But on October 2, 1925, Baird, then 37, obtained an human cavatta and made an incredible discovery.
William Taynton, a 20 -year -old boy, worked on the ground floor of Baird’s fortune laboratory. He told the BBC, 40 years later, as everything happened:
“Mr. Baird ran down, taken by enthusiasm and almost dragged me out of the office in order to go to his small laboratory.”
“I think it was so excited at that moment that the words did not come out. It almost grabbed me and wanted me to get up the stairs as soon as possible.”
Taynton said that when he came across the decreed state of Baird’s laboratory, he wanted to return down the stairs.
First of all, he had to find a way through the suspended wires of the ceiling that spread all over the floor.
“The device he wore at that moment was a swamp,” said Taynton.
“Yes, he had a record of cards, with bicycle headlights and other things, all types, old batteries and very old engines he used to make the record turn.”
Baird puts Taynton in front of his transmitter. As a human being, he could offer the necessary movements, which was impossible for the courageous bill.
Taynton said he was afraid when he started hearing the warmth of the lamps. But Baird assured him that he had nothing to worry about.
“He disappeared and went down to the reception point to see if he could see the image,” said Taynton. “I was positioned, but I could only stay there for just over a minute, because of the terrible warmth of those lamps, and I left.”
To compensate for his work, Baird put half a crown (two Xelin and six pence) in the hands of Taynton – “the first cache of television” – and convinced him to return to his position.
To capture some movement, Baird asked him to show his language and make fun expressions. Taynton’s panic increased more and more and shouted, saying it was “roasted in life”.
“He shouted back,” he manages a few seconds, William, a few seconds, if you can. “
“And so I did it, and I was really standing for the maximum time, until I supported it and I left the terrible heat. It was very uncomfortable,” Taynton said to the BBC.
“And with this, Mr. Baird came to run from the reception point, with his arms raised and said:” I saw you, William, I saw you! I finally took the television the first real image of television. “
In homes around the world
Taynton had no idea what television was.
Baird therefore suggested to reverse the roles. Taynton was happy to leave “because he seemed so enthusiastic and a little crazy at that moment”.
He looked through a small tunnel and looked “a small image of about 5 x 8 cm”.
“Suddenly, Baird’s face appeared on the screen,” said Taynton. “You could see your eyes close, the mouth and the movements he made.”
“But it was not fine. There was no definition; you only saw the shadow and all those lines run down. But it was an image and moved.”
“It was Baird’s main result. He had achieved a real television image.”
Still dominated by excitement, Baird asked Taynton what he thought of his creation.
“I was sincere with him and I replied” I don’t think, Mr. Baird. It is very rudimentary. I managed to see your face, but there was no definition or something from there. “He said no, that was the beginning.
“He said: ‘This is the first television. You will find it in all homes, across the country and in reality all over the world.”
On January 26 of the following year, Baird made the first public demonstration of television in the world. Finally, his pioneering machine was overcome by technology developed by companies with more resources, but had opened the way for everything that would arrive later.
In 1951, five years after Baird’s death at the age of 57, Taynton returned to the building in 22 Frith Streets in London for the inauguration of a commemorative blue sign.
The then president of the United Kingdom television company, Robert Renwick (1904-1973), told those present that “although this ceremonial plaque is in the heart of London, its true inheritance is located in the forest of the antennas that spread throughout the country”.
A few years after Taynton remembered his important role in the history of television, people around the world were blocked on their devices to watch the man’s landing on the moon.
Science fiction had become a true science.
Read a Original version of this relationshipincluding the video of William Taynton’s interview in 1965, on the website BBC culture.
Source: Terra
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