- cover
- Home
- the old site
- British Association Lecture, Leeds, 1927
- John Logie Baird in America, 1931
- Television in 1932, BBC Annual Report, 1933
- The Wonder of Television, 1933
- Television To-day and To-morrow, 1939
- The Televisor: Successful Test of New Apparatus 1926
- Next We'll See to Paris, 1927
- Transatlantic Television in 1928
- How Stereoscopic Television is Shown, 1928
- Baird's Trip to Trinidad in 1919
- Alice, Who art Thou? An old mystery
- The Man with the Flower in his Mouth, 1930
- Televising the Derby, 1931
- Televising the Derby, 1932
- H.G. Wells and J.L. Baird
- What was Early Television Actually Like?
- 1932 Television Demonstrated in 1952
- Crystal Palace Television Studios
- Television on the West End Stage in 1935
- What did JLB really do in World War II?
- High Definition Colour Television, 1940–1944
- John Logie Baird—the final months, 1945–1946
- Life with an Inventive Father, 1985
- Down the pub with John Logie Baird?
- A Personal Journey, 2000
- The Making of JLB: The Man Who Saw The Future, 2002
- John Logie Baird the innovator
- John Logie Baird and his Contributions to Television
- Print versus Television: from Baird to McLuhan
- SMPTE and IEEE recognitions of JLB's work
- Television at the 1939 New York World's Fair
- Four Key Players in Early Television Development
- Terry-Thomas and the Baird Portable
- University of Strathclyde exhibition, 1990
- Malcolm Baird looks back on 90 years of UK television
- Television—75 years after Alexandra Palace
- The Farnsworth Invention Saga
- Television, Radar and J.L. Baird, 1923–46
- Baird Television Ltd. and Radar
- Television and Me—The Memoirs of John Logie Baird
- Book and Film Reviews
- Other Television Inventors & Links
- BBC television
Three Poems about John Logie Baird
with comments by Malcolm Baird, 26 June 2021
1. Christopher Hassall (1910–1964)
BBC TV “This is Your Life” August 1957
A man of Vision and unyielding Will,
Sickly, discouraged, persevering still,
He was at once both Scientist and seer
—who will not hail this storm-tossed pioneer?
Always exploring, always bent to find
New worlds to conquer with the enquiring mind,
He is with those who dared uncharted seas
In times of old and found the Antipodes.
Obscure his Odyssey, his vessel brought
By other hands his triumph into port,
He shall not go unsung who first set sail
And steered his cockleshell into the gale.
John Logie Baird, because you struck the springs
Of hope and gave the imagination wings,
We celebrate your name and set it down
High in the golden record of renown.
Comment—this florid salute was written in television’s early years as a mass medium—the honeymoon stage! Hassall also wrote the story for the Ivor Novello stage musical, “Glamorous Night” (1935) in which the hero was a television inventor. In the later film version (1937) the hero was a journalist.
2. Robert Greacen (1920–2008)
Curse-
Son of a Scots manse though you were
I've taken the rare scunner against you
You who thieve the golden hours of bairns,
You who bitch up the world's peoples
With crystal images, pitch-black lies
You who have ended civilized conversation
And dished out licences to print banknotes,
May your soul shrink to the size of a midge
And never rest in a couthie kirkyard
But dart across a million wee screens
And be harassed by TV jingles for ever and ever.
For thine's the kingdom of television,
You goddam bloody genius, John Logie Baird!
Comment—The Ulster poet Robert Greacen wrote this poem in about 1990, reflecting the growing disillusionment with television programmesand commercials. JLB is blamed for the uses to which his invention has been put.
3. Andrew Roxburgh McGhie
Associate Director of the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter at the University of Pennsylvania.
An engineer sae bricht
There was an engineer sae bricht
Work'd ilka mornin', noon and nicht
Until, at last, he got it richt
His lifelang mission
Aye, 'twas sic a bonnie sicht
Yon television
He was a lallan lad wha dared
E'en tho' few bawbees could be spared
He fashed and went that extra yaird
Tae gar it rin
Salute we nou John Logie Baird
Oor brawest yin
For he went at it, heid tae heid
'Gainst RCA an' a' that breed
Nae gowk was he. Our trusty steed
Left them ahint
Life changed fore'er thro' his guid deed
As weel we kennt
Nae muckle better could it be
He gie'd it colour and 3-D
Wi' infra-red thro' nicht he'd see
But the worl' him spurns
Let's honour him as oor third B
Alang wi' Bruce and Burns.
Comment—In his spare time, Dr.McGhie is a connoisseur and writer of Scottish poetry. His book entitled "In the Footsteps of the Bard" came out in 2004.