This site is about John Logie Baird (1888-1946), the Scotsman who was the first person in the world to demonstrate a working television system. On January 26th, 1926, a viable television system was demonstrated using mechanical picture scanning with electronic amplification at the transmitter and at the receiver. It could be sent by radio or over ordinary telephone lines, leading to the historic trans-Atlantic transmissions of television from London to New York in February, 1928.
This site provides information not only on Baird and his life's work, but also on other pioneers of television and the development of the television industry to the present day. The What's New section is on recent events, anniversaries, publications etc. concerning Baird. The Contents list gives access to a gallery of longer articles, some of which go back to the early 1920s. At the end of Contents are the Links to information about other prominent figures in the history of television and excellent other websites on television history.
Updates are made to the site every few months by its creators Iain L. Baird and Malcolm H.I. Baird who are, respectively, the grandson and the son of J.L. Baird.
CONTENTS
What's new at Bairdtelevision.com?
(Last updated January 1st, 2012)
Obituary: Professor Russell Burns
We regret to announce the death of Professor Russell Burns who died on 4 November 2-11 at the age of 83.
Professor Burns graduated in 1948 with a first class honours degree in physics. Following post-graduate research he joined the Royal Naval Scientific Service. Subsequently he held various appointments in higher education in the UK and abroad and retired in 1989. He has been researching and writing on the history of electrical engineering for more than 40 years. Russell Burns was editor of the major work Radar Development to 1945, and author of the three comprehensive and well-researched IEE histories -
Communications: the Formative Years;
Television: the Formative Years;
Colour TV: the Formative Years;
He also wrote John Logie Baird, TV Pioneer, and The Life and Times of A D Blumlein, amid many other books, and well over 50 papers on radio, radar and TV history. Before his death he had completed a new book Lindemann, Churchill and Science at War which has yet to be published.
Professor Burns, an IET Fellow, has received the Kraszna-Krausz Prize, the IET SET Divisional Premium in 1993 and shared the Maxwell Premium in 1994. He was past chairman of the IET's History of Technology professional Group, Archives Committee, and the Science, Education and Technology Divisional Board.
Many of the older members of the DEHS will remember the excellent talk on the Proximity Fuze that he gave in the late 1990s to what was then CHiDE. He will be greatly missed.
This obituary by Keith Thrower appeared in the December 2011 issue of Transmission Lines, the newsletter of the Defence Electronic History Society, and it is reproduced here by permission of the DEHS.
Ally Pally 75th Anniversary Celebration, Oct. 22nd at the National Media Museum, Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK (formerly the NMPFT)
November 2nd, 2011 marked the 75th anniversary of the BBC's world-beating "high definition" television service. The special event was held on October 22 at the National Media Museum in Bradford, including several participants making the journey up from London, as well as Wales and Scotland. The seminar included a showing of the historic film "Television Comes to London" and a panel discussion with in-depth presentations on the history by Don McLean and John Trenouth, and hosted by Iain Baird, Curator of Broadcast Culture.
Malcolm Baird has written a 3000-word retrospect which will be published in the spring 2012 issue of the British Vintage Wireless Society Bulletin. The article formed the basis of a short editorial in Scotland's leading mass circulation newspaper The Daily Record, on November 2.
Antony Kamm, co-author of John Logie Baird: a life (2002), died on February 11th 2011 at his home in Dollar, Scotland, after a short illness.
Antony Kamm, 1931-2011
Malcolm Baird writes:
During my 43-year career as a researcher and teacher in chemical engineering I had little spare time to follow up on many details of my father's life. This situation changed in 1999 when I began my collaboration with Antony and we were commissioned by the National Museum of Scotland to write a biography of John Logie Baird. This was not the first one to have been written, but earlier books had tended to focus on particular facets of his life such as his technical work or his family history. Even his own memoirs, while full of highly readable anecdotes, were short on detail.
Antony and I set out to cover all facets of my father's remarkable life in a balanced way. This included the response to early television which changed from the scepticism and wonder of the early 1920s to the keen competition between big companies a decade later. In so doing we were struck by the huge differences between life and social attitudes in the early 20th century and those of today. Also we shone some much-needed light on speculative stories that had begun to occupy the gaps of information around John Logie Baird.
Antony brought to the project his experience in the publishing industry and his wide-ranging expertise as an historical writer. He found and interpreted previously unconsidered sources such as company records, and BBC and newspaper archives. For my part, I trawled through old family papers and diaries; our collaboration has led me to catalogue these papers in some sort of order. I was particularly impressed by the work Antony put in on my father's scrawled notebook covering the little-known years in London between his return from Trinidad in 1920 and his arrival at Hastings in early 1923.
Antony was a fine example of the English (Oxford-educated) gentleman, always patient and courteous, with a touch of humour, even during our occasional disagreements. It was a privilege to have known him and worked with him.
The John Logie Baird Awards 2011
The John Logie Baird Awards for Scottish Innovation, organized by the GO Group, are to be presented at a gala dinner at the Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow on March 11, 2011. Further details can be found at http://www.johnlogiebairdawards.co.uk
The Grand Central Hotel (formerly known as the Central Hotel) has a strong historical connection with John Logie Baird. In 1927 he sent television images from his company office in London a distance of over 400 miles to a receiver set up in one of the rooms at the hotel. The signals travelled using ordinary telephone lines. Iain Baird attended the dinner and gave a short audio-visual presentation.
John Logie Baird film project
An untitled film drama on John Logie Baird, first announced in October 2008, is still at the financial development stage. Details are to be found online at http://www.fireflycontent.com/slate-1 and on the Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB or IMDBPro).
Three new books
d the corrected edition is expected to be available in early April 2010. A detailed review by Malcolm Baird has been added to the Gallery of this website.[this picture of Dr. Brown by courtesy of Helensburgh Heritage Trust]
(2) In 1932, Baird Television Ltd. was rescued from financial difficulties when it was taken over by a major UK film company, the Gaumont British Picture Co. Its leader, Isidore Ostrer, believed that television was an opportunity for the film industry, rather than a threat. He foresaw that large-screen television of a news or sporting event could be shown to cinema audiences as well as conventional feature films. A new book entitled The Ostrers and Gaumont British has been written by Isidore's nephew Nigel Ostrer and it is reviewed by Malcolm Baird in the Gallery above...
(3) The Master Switch is a detailed economic history of major electronic media (including television) by Prof. Tim Wu of Columbia University. A review by Malcolm Baird appears in the Gallery.
Re-enactments of first television play and the first interactive television in the UK
We regret that the re-enactment events originally planned by Phil Ellis (artist and University of Plymouth lecturer) for July 14th and 28th 2010 were postponed. Efforts are being made towards this event happening in 2011. Any details will be announced on this website.
60-line television pictures in colour from France
It is easy for modern critics to scoff at the quality of low-definition television pictures as produced by mechanical means in the 1920s. Readers will be pleasantly surprised by the quality of the 60-line colour pictures recently produced by the replica mechanical system of Roger Dupouy who lives in Clermont Ferrand, in France. The scanning lines are much less obvious in a colour picture than in black and white. Roger has also held exhibitions of early mechanical equipment, see poster on right. Please refer to the website http://la-radiovision.fr/a-gallerie7b.htm
Anniversaries in 2012:
80th: 2012 marks the 80th birthday of BBC television. Even to this day, the 1936 launch of the BBC high definition television service based at Alexandra Palace is usually misidentified as the birth of BBC television. BBC television actually began on a smaller scale, with regular broadcasts using the low definition Baird system. Marking the change, the making of programmes was transferred from the Baird Studios at 133 Long Acre to BBC premises in the sub-basement of Broadcasting House. Much that was learned by the BBC in the low-definition programme-making aided in making the later high-definition programmes better. The Baird company made the first British television programmes beginning in September 1929, using BBC transmitter equipment.
Large Screen 3D TV from Sky and the BBC after 64 years
In March 2008 a Scotland vs. England rugby match was shown on large-screen 3D television at the old Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, West London. As reported in the sports section of The Times of March 11 2008, the viewing audience wore special glasses to get the 3D effect. More recently, The Daily Mail of December 19 2008 reported that Sky Television will soon be introducing 3D programmes. Since then there has been a gradual campaign to build up consumer interest in 3D television.
This technology was first developed and patented by John Logie Baird in World War II at his private laboratory in London, while the German bombs were falling. A full-page description of Baird's 3D television appeared in the Illustrated London News on May 9th 1942. In his 1944 testimony to Lord Hankey's commission on postwar television development, Baird had recommended the early use of 3D technology in broadcast programmes. Baird's recommendation has been followed after nearly 70 years, which seems like quite a long time to wait.
Recent books on people in J.L. Baird's circle
John Logie Baird was a public figure during the second half of his life and his circle included many interesting people who were also public figures. Several of these are mentioned in recently published books which are noted below.
Kew Edwin Shelley (1894-1964)
Mr. Shelley was a London barrister who helped Baird to form a new television company in 1944 and later became co-executor of his estate. Shelley was a paternal grandson of Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee (1844-1906) who had been the first president of the Indian National Congress. In 1921 Shelley had changed his surname from Bonnerjee by deed poll. His background is detailed in Family History, by Janaki Agnes Penelope Majumdar (edited by Antoinette Burton, published 2003, Oxford University Press). In her memoir, written in 1935, Mrs.Majumdar provides a personal account of two distinguished anglophile Indian families.
William Le Queux (1869-1927)
Le Queux was a phenomenally successful spy story writer of the early 20th century and his writings are said to have led to the formation of MI5. He was living in Hastings while Baird was doing his early television experiments and he gave moral (but not financial) encouragement. A detailed biography, William Le Queux, Master of Mystery, has been written by Chris Patrick and Stephen Baister and privately published by them in 2007.
John C.W. Reith, (1889-1971)
Sir John Reith was Director General of the BBC while Baird and his company were trying to convince the BBC to broadcast television. In a new memoir entitled My father, Reith of the BBC,(2006, St.Andrew Press, Edinburgh), Marista Leishman provides a unique view of her father's prickly and eccentric personality, against the backdrop of his public achievements and eventual elevation to the peerage. This book confirms that Reith did not like television, though his personal relationship with Baird was not as bad as has sometimes been alleged.
Leonard Frank Plugge (1889-1981)
Mr. Plugge was a pioneer of commercial radio broadcasting to the UK in the 1920s and 1930s, when such programmes were transmitted from continental Europe for legal reasons. He first met Baird in the Hastings days and they met frequently in London during World War II, when Plugge was an M.P. and chairman of the Parliamentary Scientific Committee. A biography of Plugge entitled: And the World Listened -- Leonard Frank Plugge, by Keith Wallis, (Kelly Books, UK) appeared in March 2008 and a review is given on this website. (see above)
Isidore Ostrer (1889-1975)
This book, published in 2010, is the subject of a news item (above) and it has been reviewed by Malcolm Baird in the Gallery.
Many books and articles have been written about John Logie Baird, but few poems have appeared. A recent Scottish poem "An Engineer Sae Bricht", shown in the Gallery, is by Andrew Roxburgh McGhie, Associate Director of the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter at the University of Pennsylvania.
John Logie Baird: a life
hardback * c. 450 pages * 70 b/w illustrations
...a meticulously researched story based on first hand interviews and quoting many new documentary sources, some of which have only recently become available. At long last we have a book that sounds and feels like the truth about the man who was the first in the world to demonstrate working television (Michael Bennett-Levy, 2002)...click here for the rest of the review
"Kamm and Baird, the latter the inventor's son, paint a strikingly clear portrait of the inventor who started it all." (Russell A Potter, The Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television (US) 2004)
Read the full text of the JLB promotional brochure here
Television and Me: The Memoirs of John Logie Baird
paperback * c. 160 pages * heavily illustrated
The autobiography of John Logie Baird. A new version of his memoirs, only published previously as a specialist monograph, are written with blunt candour and caustic wit. His memoirs cover the wild escapades of his early business career and the dramatic pioneering days of his scientific work.
"Television and Me" was named Critic's choice, Scottish book of the year 2004.
Excerpt: Baird's Story is Pick of the Best
(Scottish Daily Mail, Jan. 7th, 2005) by Tom Kyle
So the appearance in the spring of the little-known and almost unpublished, autobiography of the most influential Scot who ever lived was the most significant publishing event of the year. Television and Me: The Memoirs of John Logie Baird ... was living proof that the best books need not always be the most lavish or expensive.
Baird tells his own story - from his Helensburgh boyhood to the great and precarious days when the first television pictures were transmitted, to his ultimate betrayal by the BBC - with a caustic turn of phrase and a self-deprecating wit.
His memoir is a fabulous distillation of all the joy and bitterness, hurt and humour of an extraordinary man. I said at the time I doubted there would be a better written, more interesting or more important book published in 2004. I see no reason to revise that opinion now.
The Scots Magazine, September 2004
"...Baird was not given the recognition which was his by right during his lifetime."
As of 2011, "Television and Me" is out of print at the Edinburgh publishers, Birlinn Press. However, copies can be ordered via Amazon.
Copyright Bairdtelevision.com, 1998-2011. All rights reserved.
Who invented television, Inventor, Invention, Pioneer, Inventor of Television was, John Logie Baird, Inventor of color television, Inventor of colour television, Inventor of HDTV, 1000 lines, 600 lines, Malcolm Baird, Iain Baird, television, TV, antique, vintage, history, history of television, historic, historical, radio with pictures, radio-vision, tele-vision, seeing by wireless, radiovisor, radiovision, facsimilie, TV, television limited, cinema television, cintel, rank, Scophony, cinema, canadian television, practical television, televisor, radiovisor, Baird, John, Logie, Malcolm, Iain, Farnsworth, Charles Francis Jenkins, Vladimir Zworykin, David Sarnoff, Ives, D'Albe, Manfred Von Ardenne, Lee DeForest, Paul Nipkow, Isaac Schoenberg, Kalman Tihanyi, Francois C. P. Henrouteau, Kenjiro Takayanagi, Boris Rosing, Denes Von Mihaly, McLuhan, neon tube, scanning, mechanical, telechrome, Noctovision, Phonovision, Noctovisor, Phonovisor, John, Logie, Malcolm, Iain, Baird broadcasting, Baird transmitter, Baird receiver, Television, Televisor, Telechrome, Television lens disc, mirror drum, flying spot, Emitron