Blog #6 EOTO

    The first television was invented in 1925 by a man named John Logie Baird. This type of television was called the mechanical television. Mechanical televisions used wires that sent images through holes in a rotating disk to create an image that appeared to be moving. Every time the disk rotated, it made one frame of the image. The disk would rotate about 12 to 13 times per second. 

    This first form of television was very primitive but it is what started the chain of events that would eventually lead to televisions like we have today. The mechanical television was innovative at the time, but was quickly overshadowed by another type of television that came just a few years later. 

    In 1927, Philo Farnsworth invented the first electronic television. Instead of mechanical parts, this television used a Cathode Ray Tube as the way to create images. This tube would fire electrons that attracted to positively charged anodes that were on the screen. The screen would be painted with phosphor to make it emit light when exposed to radiant energy, and the electrons would be painted across the screen, line by line, to make an image. This process allowed for much more complex applications of the television and became the standard instead of the mechanical version. 

    The invention of the television was a massive part of modern history because of all the applications that it had for business, entertainment, and more. One of the most fought over markets right now is that of streaming services and all of that started with the popularity of Netflix. Netflix would be nothing if there was no television to play all of those movies and shows on. Billions of dollars are made each year off of new movies and shows that come out, and these business practices are only made possible because the television is such an important invention in our lives. 

    The television also opened the door for information spreading to the masses. It became so much easier to get the news out to people every single day once a broadcast station was set up to broadcast to every television in the area. People would no longer have to rely on print or word of mouth. They could simply just turn on the television in the living room and be fed information. Radio worked similarly but the advantage of the television was that people got an image to go along with what they were hearing.