Electro-mechanical Television

[peter scott]

I just came across this patent application in Wireless World Aug 1928. The scanning is performed by deflecting the photosenitive element supported on two orthongal flat spring blades contained in a glass envelope. A similar arrangement in the receiver has a single point electroluminescent point bombarded from an electron gun. Well at least the ion burn would be uniform across the image!

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Wire...gazine.htm

Peter

[ppppenguin]

Back then it was far from obvious how TV was going to be made to work effectively. Baird, Jenkins and other had demonstrated systems using nipkow discs and mirror drums but they were always going to be a dead end. Campbell Swinton's papers had foreseen how Zworykin and others would use CRTs and camera tubes but in 1928 it must have been far from obvious that they were the only true path.

Another idea that was out of the mainstream was Scophony. One early idea, a matrix of separate bulbs, re-emerged decades later as the Sony Jumbotron and then again as billboard size LED displays.