John Logie Baird is someone whose name is virtually unknown to most Americans. He was a gifted Scotsman who managed to perfect the world’s first working television system. Baird announced his invention while living in Great Britain in 1924 and a year later provided a well-publicized public demonstration of his mechanical television system at a famous London department store. The general public, both in the United States and in Europe, was just beginning to appreciate how radio was fast becoming an important part of their everyday lives. Now they learned that someone had perfected a way that both sound as well as pictures could be sent directly into their homes. In 1927, Baird was able to transmit television signals clear across the Atlantic Ocean from London to New York. Only 25 years before, Guglielmo Marconi sent coded wireless messages across the same ocean, which at the time, was universally hailed as a technological milestone that would literally change the world. The following year, John Baird publicly demonstrated the world’s first means of transmitting color television images. He also invented stereoscopic television and perfected a method of recording television programs on disks. Using infrared imaging techniques he developed a means that made it possible for television cameras to "see in the dark." Calling his invention "Noctovision", his basic methods were improved upon by others who perfected what we commonly refer to today as radar. Before perfecting his television inventions, Baird was a cunning and creative entrepreneur and engineer who worked on a number of unusual and occasionally successful business ventures. Although you may never had heard his name before, Baird’s story deserves to be told.

John Logie Baird: The Man Who Invented Television

By Bob Greenlee

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2010 Bob Greenlee
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4490-7457-9

Chapter One

SPRING STRUGGLED TO produce only a modest appearance in London throughout the entire month of April in 1925. On a particularly noteworthy and important day, thick gray clouds combined with just above freezing temperatures and a stiff and chilling breeze that forced many pedestrians to pull up their coat collars and bend slightly into the wind as they hurried about the damp streets of the city.

A slightly built mid 30-year old man wearing a tattered woolen coat made his way through a crowd of his fellow Londoners as he mentally prepared himself for one of the most important days of his life. The man reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a tattered handkerchief; paused, and delivered a hearty cough into it. He then proceeded to aggressively wipe his nose before moving on.

Just ahead the man noticed a small crowd had gathered near a window display at Selfridges Department Store on London's fashionable Oxford Street. Selfridges was an institution known throughout Great Britain for stocking a large variety of quality merchandise along with offering the public a constantly changing inventory of cutting-edge wares. Something of interest caught the attention of passers by who stared with curiosity and competed for a better view of the window display. The disheveled man now rushed through the doors of the department store and quickly disappeared into the crowd.

Just two months before Gordon Selfridge, Jr., son of the founder of England's venerable retailing institution, contacted this man and made all the arrangements and necessary preparations for this important day. April marked the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary month when the family's retail store first opened its doors to the public. Every April since that grand opening Selfridges scheduled a noteworthy event that for the founder and his son symbolized both a personal celebration as well as a means of creating greater consumer interest in their store with the hope of generating additional customer traffic.

A week prior to this important day Selfridges placed a display ad in all the local newspapers announcing a demonstration of an entirely new technology that Gordon Selfridge, Jr. believed would capture the interest and imagination of his customers. Promotional flyers were also printed and widely distributed throughout the city. In part the advertising material said: "Presenting the First Public Demonstration of Television. Television is to light what telephony is to sound-it means the instantaneous transmission of a picture, so that the observer at the receiving end can see, to all intents and purposes, what is cinematographic view of what is happening at the sending end." The ad concluded its visionary claims by suggesting: "For many years experiments have been conducted with this end in view; the apparatus that is here being demonstrated is the first to be successful." The ad and flyers announced that a demonstration would be presented in the store's "Electrical Section" on the first floor. The circular included a disclaimer of sorts which stated that: "We should perhaps explain that we are in no way financially interested in this remarkable invention; the demonstrations are taking place here only because we know that our friends will be interested in something that should rank with the greatest inventions of the Century."

The mere idea of sending and receiving visual images by wireless was remarkable because radio itself was still in its infancy and was just beginning to make an impact in England and the rest of the world. The British Broadcasting Corporation had been established just two years before and although radio kits and finished sets were widely available not all people could either afford them or had the skills necessary to assemble the kits. Now they were being asked to comprehend how another remarkable new invention might provide them with both sight and sound. Few could imagine how the development of yet another new medium might so profoundly affect their lives. And yet Gordon Selfridge, Jr., a businessman with a superb reputation was claiming that pictures could now be seen using the same mysterious and amazing new radio technology.

The disheveled man who entered the store swept by the gathering crowds and went straight to his crudely assembled display in the Electrical Section. Once there he checked over assorted components and switched on a series of lamps and motors and prepared to meet the curious onlookers and answered their many questions. The man to whom the entire world would soon recognize as the inventor, leading expert, and aggressive advocate for the entirely new medium of television was Scottish born John Logie Baird. This remarkable man along with his vision, perseverance, and hard work would quickly consume the interest of people the world over. They would soon learn that television was but one product of his infinitely imaginative and inventive mind. Remarkably Baird did not come from a well-funded educational institution or from any of the growing number of corporate interests who were currently exploiting worldwide interest in the new medium of radio but rather from a man of modest means. Like Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and the Wright Brothers, Baird was a lone inventor ready to make claim to future fame and fortune.

Men of vision and daring were always well regarded by the public and Baird was one who possessed a dream that the common man would one day have an ability to both hear and see the great entertainers of the day along with being able to witness the important or tragic events of the day. There is little doubt that television would transform the way we would view our world, obtain our collective wisdom about events of the day, or be entertained by its nearly endless variety of programs.

This was all first made possible by John Logie Baird-a man who would help usher in a new era of instantaneous communication utilizing both sight and sound.

Chapter Two

Every act of progress the world has ever known first began with a dreamer. After him came the scientist or the statesman, the expert or the technician. But first, came the dreamer. -Rabbi Maurice Davis

ABOUT 25 MILES NORTHWEST of Glasgow Scotland where the mouth of the idyllic River Gareloch merges with the Clyde estuary is the seaside town of Helensburgh. At the end of the Eighteenth Century Sir James Colquhoun had more or less incorporated this new town onto a small fishing village and would honor the place by naming Helensburgh after his wife. Colquhoun's descendents had inhabited the region for centuries and managed to keep it relatively free from conflict even successfully holding a number of marauding Scottish clans at bay including those of the notorious Rob Roy.

Colquhoun had a vision of building the small village of Helensburgh into a town that would intercept the Scottish Highlands wool and flax trade before it could reach the emerging industrial centers of nearby Glasgow. The new trade and economic center was envisioned to be a place that would provide good jobs as well as housing for the weavers, linen and wool-bonnet makers, and other crafts. It addition, he wanted the town to be a comfortable place for artisans and other craftspeople along with encouraging the development of a vibrant commercial and industrial core. Not all of his plans were fully realized as rapid industrialization would soon change the nearby towns of Dumbarton and Glasgow. Helensburgh managed to develop rather leisurely and over time it became a neat, stylish, and prosperous city.

Just east of the town is Loch Lomond and to the north rise the Argyllshire Mountains in the foothills of the famous Scottish Highlands. The city itself was laid out in a grid system and provided wide and tree-lined thoroughfares where a number of grand homes and spectacular gardens grew. A combination of shipbuilders, lawyers, engineers, and even whisky barons came to discover an astonishing and appealing quality of life in Helensburgh. Today it remains a leisurely place where visitors come to retreat from the hectic nearby centers of industrialized progress.

Over time a number of handsome mansions were built and some have suggested that the town is more reminiscent of a comfortable English village than other Scottish cities. Many of the town's historic villas have been well maintained and even fully restored over the years. Today they retain a view of the opposite bank of the Firth of Clyde River that gazes upon the industrial waterfronts of Greenock and where the towering shipyard cranes of Port Glasgow can be seen in the distance.

It was to this enchanting place that in July 1869, the Reverend John Baird, Senior received his calling and became the minister of Helensburgh's Presbyterian West Parish Church. Clergyman Baird was just 27 years old and single and from his own diary there emerges a portrait of both an intelligent and thoughtful man. Self-taught in both German and French Reverend Baird attended Andersonian College as well as Glasgow University. During the time he was diligently pursuing a conventional academic schedule he independently elected to take elocution lessons. He was able to afford the extra classes by tutoring a few of his fellow students at night and also by working in a local hardware store in Glasgow. Baird had received his Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1864 and two years later was granted an M.A. degree.

Being a self-motivated and gifted student it was first believed that he might pursue becoming a medical doctor. But his innate intellectual curiosity was aroused just after enrolling in college and because he was a voracious reader he ultimately wrote a letter to his parents and confessed: "I feel my mind quite at rest now as I have chosen the only profession which in reality I could have liked and I would not have felt content with any other." When questioned by his parents about his decision to abandon obtaining a medical degree Baird said that there was only one thing to do with bright boys in those days and that was to put them into the ministry. Besides, he declared: "The great ambition of every Scottish family in the middle classes was to see their son wagging his head in the pulpit."

The Baird's of Scotland were mainly farmers who were both earnest and hard working. Family members claimed that their descendents were derived from the Kings of Ireland which may or may not be the case but it is known that their name came from the Anglicized word for a singer-poet-or a "bard." Many in the clan identify brothers and sisters who displayed both musical and artistic abilities along with having deep ties to the land. As a clan the Baird's migrated from the west to the east coast of Scotland and in many areas in between. The Baird name today is as common in Edinburgh as would be Smith or Jones in England or the United States.

The Reverend Baird is said to have inherited many of his father's traits and possessed a rough but deep sense of humor along with a Horatio Alger attitude concerning how one should pull ones' self up by his own bootstraps. As an example of his well-deserved reputation for possessing a fully developed and wry sense of humor Reverend Baird tolerated, but certainly did not condone, the concept of marriage by necessity. Although quite a common occurrence, even in Victorian times, Baird was once called upon to marry a couple in a state of distress as well as obvious need. Uncomfortable with the circumstances, but forever committed to duty, Reverend Baird arrived at the church in order to perform a hastily prepared marriage ceremony at least a half-hour late and was immediately and decisively chastised by the bridegroom who admonished both clearly and loudly: "You're late." The minister replied: "Yes, I am, I should think about six months late" while he glanced at the robust and protruding midsection of the intended groom's blushing bride.

The new minister's call to service along with his youthful enthusiasm coincided with the growing needs of Helensburgh's parish. At the time Reverend Baird arrived his modest congregation found itself housed in a temporary "tin tabernacle" and it would be the new minister's responsibility to build a more formidable monument to God. Under his leadership the congregation grew and many of the faithful were persuaded to dig deeply in their pockets when it came time to fund the building of a new temple. Baird measured up to his first challenge and shepherded the construction of a handsome gray stone church whose lofty steeple became the pride of the newly minted minister and his faithful Presbyterian congregation.

In addition to facilitating the construction of a new church, and building a solid foundation of new parishioners, Baird pursued his own scholarly interests. He found time to explore Germanic culture where both theology and philosophy combine to provide scholarly insight as well as analytical discipline. He even delved into other less orthodox religions of the east including the teachings of Mohammed and Krishna.

The minister's good looks along with his natural wit and a propensity for finding humor in everyday life offered him a variety of social opportunities. Unmarried and not getting younger, Reverend Baird took advantage of these social occasions and in time identified one particular young lady as a possible lifetime mate. Her name was Jessie Morrison Inglis and at the time they met she was in her early 20's and was living with an Uncle in nearby Glasgow.

Jessie's father, George Inglis, was the son of a Glasgow innkeeper and contractor and was the youngest of three sons and a daughter. His older male siblings pursued careers in business and founded a major shipbuilding firm in the nearby city of Clyde. George had a more creative streak and avoided family entanglements because he wasn't interested in commercial pursuits. Instead he became apprenticed to a copper engraver that satisfied his artistic talents while his brothers became industrial barons. They managed to build considerable wealth as well as status in the community while George led the life of a struggling artist and subsisted on the occasional sale of both his paintings and fine engravings.

Being a somewhat dashing and roguish figure George possessed a fine set of mutton-chop whiskers and caught his share of wandering female eyes. He soon became enamored of a young lady by the name of Jane Caroline Robertson. It is said she was both beautiful and flirtatious and it appears the two developed a deep romantic relationship. Not much is known about her although it was later discovered that she was, in fact, a French Creole girl from the West Indies. They were married in 1850 and had four children although two of them died at a very young age.

Although Jane had a husband and children she continued to have other romantic inclinations and ultimately ran off with a fellow West Indian mulatto. The embarrassed Inglis family put the lid on any further conversation about the entire affair and although George felt deserted and embarrassed by the situation he promptly moved from Scotland to Southampton, England. It was there that one of his daughters, Sarah, met with a tragic accident and drowned when she fell from a breakwater. Despondent, George passed away a few years later from pneumonia at the age of 55. The wife of the Italian consul in Glasgow adopted his youngest daughter Mary Jane while Jessie Inglis was sent to live with her father's brother John who was one of the wealthy Scottish shipbuilders. In 1873 Jessie received a letter addressed to "my darling daughter" which was signed by a person identifying herself as Helen Dodd who lived in the West Indies. The letter most likely came from her mother but the letter went unanswered as she had no desire to develop a relationship with her wayward mother.

Although their backgrounds were very dissimilar, Reverend Baird took stock of Jessie Inglis and the couple quickly grew fond of each other. He proposed marriage to her in 1876 and they were married soon after. Reverend Baird's family was concerned about his choice of mates especially because the family was not taken with Jessie having grown up with her Uncle in an environment of apparent wealth and privilege. Jessie told others of her having taken many trips by private carriage through the Highlands as well as steam-powered yachting voyages. It wasn't a lifestyle the Baird family could relate to although she remained a simple and well-grounded young lady and ultimately won the approval of the entire family.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from John Logie Baird: The Man Who Invented Televisionby Bob Greenlee Copyright © 2010 by Bob Greenlee. Excerpted by permission.
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