Philo T. Farnsworth Biography

BIRTH: August 19, 1906 Beaver, Utah, USA

DEATH: March 11, 1971 (aged 64)

Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Philo T. Farnsworth Biography : Inventions & Facts

Philo T. Farnsworth was the American inventor Philo of the first-ever functional electronic television. He was known as the ‘Father of Electronic TV. He made many contributions to the early development of television and communication.

Philo Taylor Farnsworth was born on August 19, 1906, in Beaver, Utah to Lewis Edwin Farnsworth and Serena Amanda Bastian. He had four siblings, and his family lived in a log cabin. From a very young age, he loved mechanical and electrical things. He won prize money for a magazine contest in which he invented a magnetized car lock. He won a national competition for developing a tamper-proof lock. He once even built an electrical appliance for his family home. For his education, he attended Rigby High School. He excelled in physics and chemistry. For higher education, he went to Brigham Young High School and graduated in 1924. After the death of his father, Philo did multiple jobs to support his family. The idea for the television came to him while he was still in school.

Philo completed his studies and joined the United States Naval Academy for a short while. He then met George Everson and Leslie Gorrell. They both liked Philo’s work and offered him a job in their bulk-mailing business. Philo once again shared his idea of the television. He explained the concept of breaking down an image into parallel lines of light to project the image on a screen for people to see. They loved Philo’s television idea and offered to fund his research work. The resulting company was named Everson, Farnsworth & Gorrell, and Philo started to carry out his experiments in his new laboratory.

In 1927, Farnsworth developed the first electronic television transmission. He made a camera tube to send the first picture to a receiver that was kept in another room of the laboratory. And over the years, he made modifications in his techniques. Finally, he carried out the first ever live human images through his television system. Even though Farnsworth was the first person who displayed the transmission of television signals, he had trouble patenting his work. Till the early 1930s, Farnsworth fought legal battles for his inventions with the inventor Vladimir Zworkyin.

In 1931, Farnsworth moved to Philadelphia and joined the Philco Radio Company. The company helped him financially to continue doing his research in the Philadelphia laboratory. Next year, he met another inventor named John Logie Baird, who worked on his TV system but needed help to make it into an electronic TV system.

Farnsworth left the company to travel to Europe. He kept on doing research work. Everyone noticed his talent and skills. He was soon hired by various technology companies and universities. He did many experiments to study infant incubators, radar, atomic energy, and nuclear power. In 1938, he set up his own company and named it Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation. He was the director of research at the agency, and started selling electronic televisions to households. Farnsworth eventually got approved by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). He began to be known as the ‘Father of Electrical Television’. He also obtained the patent for the television.

In 1951, Farnsworth Television and Radio Company was acquired by International Tele phone and Telegraph (ITT). Farnsworth’s major works came out during this time. He worked for long hours in his basement lab which was ‘the cave’ for him. He introduced many concepts like warning signals for defense, radar equipment, submarine detection devices, and an infrared telescope. He created the PPI Projector that was later used as an air traffic control system.

Farnsworth’s significant contributions to science and his technology earned him several awards in his career. He was included in the Walt Disney World’s Inventor’s Circle. In 1999, Farnsworth was mentioned in Time magazine’s The Most Important People of the Century’ list.

Farnsworth got married to Elma Gardner on May 27, 1926. The couple had four sons.

He died on March 11, 1971, after he suffered from pneumonia. He was honored with the Eagle Scout Award posthumously. As a tribute, a statue was built for this American inventor in the National Statuary Hall Collection. He was called one of the ten greatest mathematicians of his time by the Scientific American. In 1983, Farnsworth’s stamp was issued by the United States Postal Service.