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Television is 100 years old today
131–140 of 283 posts
Re: Television is 100 years old today
#132Another important person in creation of the TV technology was Vladimir Zworykin [0]. He developed cathode-ray tube based TV transmission devices that he patented in 1923 and 1925.
Re: Television is 100 years old today
#133On the one hand I look at some tech lifecycles and feel everything moves so slow (cars, energy and train infrastructure etc..). And then I look at other stuff and I cannot phantom that someone who was born 100 years ago saw a TV (or media electronic screen) from conception to modern miracle. As someone in his 20s I can't imagine what I'll see in the next 80 years!
Unfortunately technological progress is not always exponential. An human landed on the moon 56 years ago and people back then thought space travel would be a routine thing today so it'll be interesting to see how things go
I had a look at the Gemini capsule in the Smithsonian a few years ago. I was shocked at how primitive the controls looked.
Re: Television is 100 years old today
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Likewise, a dropped CRT tube was a constant terror for TV manufacturing and repair folks, as it likely would implode and send zillions of razor-sharp fragments airborne.
My high school science teacher used to share anecdotes from his days in electrical repair. He said his coworkers would sometimes toss a television capacitor at each other as a prank. Those capacitors retained enough charge to give the person unlucky enough to catch one a considerable jolt.
Touching one of those caps was a hell of an experience. It was similar in many ways to a squirrel tap with a wrench in the auto shop (for those who didn't do auto shop, a squirrel tap with a wrench is when somebody flicks your nut sack from behind with a wrench. Properly executed it would leave you doubled over out of breath).
Re: Television is 100 years old today
#135Odd we never adapted to it. Video has a strange hypnotic power over most people and messages seem to bypass normal mental defenses.
I'd say we did, you need more and more for the same effect. Here is the first ad ever, for a watch : https://youtu.be/ho2OJfXkvpI For comparison, here is the latest ad for the best selling watch as of today : https://youtu.be/kdMTc5WfnkM
I'm not sure it is valid to use the first ad ever as a basis for comparison. At this time it was a novelty to even have a television – of course an incredibly basic ad would work. And how much do you think they had to pay for an ad on a very new technology? I doubt much.
Re: Television is 100 years old today
#136Re: Television is 100 years old today
#137I saw TV first time in 1957. Finland had no TV transmitters, so programs came from Soviet Estonia. I distinctly remember watching romantic Russian film with a catching tune. Perhaps named "Moscow Lights"? How this is even possible that I remember all this, because I was 4 yrs old? Gemini knows: The Film: In the Days of the Spartakiad (1956/1957) The song "Moscow Nights" was originally written for a documentary film c…
Isn't it wild that you are asking 5th (or so) technological miracle that happened in your life time about the first one you remember?
I actually thought that the "Computer" was some kind of abstract construct in 1971. And "programs" were just a method of expressing algorithms in textual manner. Only when we were allowed to have brief interactions with Teletype, did I believe there was actual machine that understands and executes these complex commands. Mind Blown.
Re: Television is 100 years old today
#138Early television was a hotbed of hacker/hobbyist DIY experimentation much like early radio and early personal computers. The first issue of "Television Magazine" from 1928 (https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=37097) has a remarkably similar vibe to 1970s computer zines (https://archive.org/details/kilobaudmagazine-1977-01/).
For example, page 26 has directions on how to pop by the local chemist to pick up materials to make your own selenium cell (your first imager) and page 29 covers constructing your first Televisor, including helpful tips like "A very suitable tin-plate is ... the same material out of which biscuit tins and similar light tinware is made. It is easily handled and can readily be cut with an ordinary pair of scissors. It is sold in sheets of 22 inches by 30 inches. Any ironmonger will supply these."
Re: Television is 100 years old today
#139I saw TV first time in 1957. Finland had no TV transmitters, so programs came from Soviet Estonia. I distinctly remember watching romantic Russian film with a catching tune. Perhaps named "Moscow Lights"? How this is even possible that I remember all this, because I was 4 yrs old? Gemini knows: The Film: In the Days of the Spartakiad (1956/1957) The song "Moscow Nights" was originally written for a documentary film c…
I easily have many memories from age 4. I think I even remember the first time that I started forming memories. It was a few years before that, I had come out of my room and saw some toys I was playing with the night before. I realized they were at the same spot I left them, which made me realize the world had permanence and my awareness had continuity. I could leave things at a certain spot and they would be there t…
This is a fascinating post but I don't believe it reflects (most) human memory development, which has a pronounced forgetting phase called 'childhood amnesia'. When your kid starts to talk, it's startling what a two-year-old can remember and can tell you about. And it's kinda heartbreaking when they're 4-5 and you realise that those early memories have faded.
Re: Television is 100 years old today
#140CRTs are peak steam punk technology. Analog, electric, kinda dangerous. Just totally mindblowing that we had these things in our living rooms shooting electric beams everywhere. I doubt it's environmentally friendly at all, but I'd love to see some new CRTs being made.
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