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Philo Farnsworth

File:Philo_T_Farnsworth.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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Philo Farnsworth

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Also known as פילו ט. פרנסוורת', פילו טיילור פרנסוורת'

American inventor (1906–1971)

Person · Open Library

Born
1900
Works
2

Top works

  • Adaptation processes in public school systems
  • Adaptation processes in public school systems as illustrated by a study of five selected innovations in educational service in New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
4
Total plays
9

<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Philo+Farnsworth">Read more on Last.fm</a>

via Last.fm · Philo Farnsworth

Quotes

  • This has made it all worthwhile. (The live televised first step by Neil Armstrong on the moon.)
  • There’s nothing on it worthwhile, and we’re not going to watch it in this household, and I don’t want it in your intellectual diet. (to his son, on television)
  • The damned thing works! (telegram, on the first successful television broadcast)
  • If it weren’t for Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of television, we’d still be eating frozen radio dinners.
  • I wish there was a knob on the TV so you could turn up the intelligence. They got one marked “brightness” but it don’t work, does it?
  • I find television to be very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go in the other room and read a book.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

Born
( 1906-08-19 ) August 19, 1906, Beaver, Utah , U.S.
Died
( 1971-03-11 ) March 11, 1971 (aged 64), Holladay, Utah , U.S.
Resting place
Provo City Cemetery, Provo, Utah , U.S.
Occupation
Scientist
Employers
Philco Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation International Telephone and Telegraph
Known for
Inventor of the first fully electronic television; over 169 United States and foreign patents
Spouse
Elma "Pem" Gardner (1908–2006)
Children
4 sons
Relatives
Agnes Ann Farnsworth (sister)

via Wikipedia infobox

~35 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Philo Taylor Farnsworth (August 19, 1906 – March 11, 1971) was an American inventor who was granted the first patent for the television by the United States government. He also invented a video camera tube and the image dissector. He sold a fully functioning television system—complete with receiver and camera—which he produced commercially through the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation from 1938 to 1951, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

In later life, Farnsworth invented a small nuclear fusion device, the Farnsworth Fusor, employing inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC). Like many fusion devices, it was not a practical device for generating nuclear power, although it provides a viable source of neutrons. The design of this device has been the inspiration for other fusion approaches, including the Polywell reactor concept. Farnsworth held 300 patents, mostly in radio and television.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Philo Farnsworth” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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