The history of television

Although the word ¿television¿ has come to be associated in the public mind with the broadcasting of entertainment by means of radio, such a limitation seems unacceptable and illogical in dealing with the history of the subject. The authors have therefore interpreted their task as one involving a broad historical review of the various methods whereby visual phenomena may be reproduced at a distance but without regard to the method of transmission or to the time occupied in transmission. In consequence of this interpretation, the earlier part of the paper deals with a number of proposals which aimed at providing a reproduction on paper of the original image in a form which, to-day, we should associate more with the practice of phototelegraphy than with modern television. Since all practical systems of either photo-telegraphy or television involve some form of scanning, it will be realized that both arts have a common ancestry.