Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and we've had some scientist episodes
Speaker 1: lately and we're going to have another. YEP. If any
Speaker 1: of our listeners watch Futurama, you will recognize the name Farnsworth.
Speaker 1: But unless you listen to the creator's commentary tracks on
Speaker 1: the show DVD releases, or you are a fan of
Speaker 1: television history, you might not know that the crotchety mad
Speaker 1: scientist on the show is actually named for a real
Speaker 1: scientists of the twentieth century who was a Utah farm
Speaker 1: boy that actually kind of changed the way humans see
Speaker 1: the world. You know, who might recognize the name and
Speaker 1: the connection. Who people who watch Warehouse their teen Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: which I don't watch. I have that point of they
Speaker 1: have these Farnsworth devices that are totally based on this technology,
Speaker 1: and there is even it's a little well at this
Speaker 1: point's got some age on. It hasn't been updated in
Speaker 1: a while. Free iOS app that makes sure iPhone into
Speaker 1: a Farnsworth device. Interesting, and the scientists were talking about
Speaker 1: today is Filo T. Farnsworth, And he was interested in
Speaker 1: science almost from birth. He was inventing things as early
Speaker 1: as grade school. But his real claim to fame in
Speaker 1: terms of technology is uh in television. He also has
Speaker 1: become something of an icon representing the little guy because
Speaker 1: he went up against a big business in a patent
Speaker 1: lawsuit and kind of a David versus Goliath situation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: which ends both happily and sadly. Yeah, it does. It
Speaker 1: doesn't have quite as satisfying and ending as the David
Speaker 1: and Goliath story. Yeah, we'll talk about that a little later.
Speaker 1: He will. He's a fascinating, fascinating and so insightful at
Speaker 1: such an early age that it kind of blows my mind. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I also feel compelled to mention right out of
Speaker 1: the gate that a lot of the history with him
Speaker 1: is all based on verbal accounts that various people have given,
Speaker 1: so there's some variation, like sometimes even his age will change,
Speaker 1: you know, in two different versions of the story, even
Speaker 1: though they're close and will account for most of those.
Speaker 1: But it would really becombersome to be like, well, this
Speaker 1: person said he was, you know, it was this year.
Speaker 1: This person said it was this year. If they're close,
Speaker 1: I don't always like break out and go, No, this
Speaker 1: was two different accounts that they were assume there might
Speaker 1: be some age range changes by you know, we're dealing
Speaker 1: with an oral account, yes, since all oral history coming
Speaker 1: from multiple people for much of the earlier part. So
Speaker 1: he was born, we know, in Utah in August of
Speaker 1: nineteen o six. He was born in August nineteen His
Speaker 1: name was Philo Taylor Farnsworth and uh. He was born
Speaker 1: in a log cabin that was actually built by his grandfather,
Speaker 1: who was Mormon pioneer. So he was part of a
Speaker 1: Utah family that had really come over with the Mormon
Speaker 1: tradition as they came to kind of settle the area.
Speaker 1: When he was twelve, the family moved to Franklin, Idaho,
Speaker 1: and his first sort of scientific triumph happened when he
Speaker 1: was thirteen. He entered a National Science contest which was
Speaker 1: sponsored by Science and Invention magazine, and he won it.
Speaker 1: And his idea was a tamper proof lock for a
Speaker 1: Model T ignition switch. Apparently at the time there really
Speaker 1: wasn't like a way to lock a Model T all
Speaker 1: the keys were basically the same for the ignition from
Speaker 1: car to car to car. So he had figured out
Speaker 1: a way to make one key for one car. Somehow
Speaker 1: the idea of of a model te theft ring brought
Speaker 1: on by non secure ignitions, which is it's really funny
Speaker 1: to me. During high school, he converted all of his
Speaker 1: family's home appliances to electric power, which is pretty impressive
Speaker 1: considering that they had not had electricity in their home
Speaker 1: until he was fourteen. Yeah, and he allegedly learned all
Speaker 1: of this. Uh. The sort of apocryphal story is that
Speaker 1: he found electrical manuals and like technical diagrams in the
Speaker 1: house that they had moved into at some point that
Speaker 1: the previous owner had left behind, and he just studied
Speaker 1: those and learned how electricals worked. As a kid, you know,
Speaker 1: I can see an adult doing that, like having kind
Speaker 1: of the focus of mine to like break it down.
Speaker 1: That's what happens on Orange is the New Black? Is
Speaker 1: this what happens? Uh? And then when he was uh
Speaker 1: sixteen or thirteen or fourteen or fifteen, depending on who
Speaker 1: you talked to. Uh, some accounts say it was nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty one. There's actually a television appearance that Farnsworth made
Speaker 1: where he says it's ninety two, but we know it's
Speaker 1: right around fifteen or sixteen. Uh, he sketched out a
Speaker 1: concept for a vacuum tube and he showed it to
Speaker 1: his high school chemistry. Chemistry teacher, Justin Tollman and farms
Speaker 1: Worth had detailed this idea that by controlling the speed
Speaker 1: and direction of electrons, he could turn electricity into pictures
Speaker 1: using the vacuum tube. The idea was that the tube
Speaker 1: would shoot electrons toward a screen and project an image.
Speaker 1: And this was all theoretical. He hadn't, of course, been
Speaker 1: able to test any of this. He was just thinking
Speaker 1: through how he thought it would work. He had kind
Speaker 1: of made it up in his head and drawn it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And according to legend, he got the idea from the
Speaker 1: parallel plowing rows on the family farm, thinking that an
Speaker 1: electron beam could do a similar line by line scan
Speaker 1: of an image. And there are different accounts of whether
Speaker 1: that was a field of potatoes or beats, but you know,
Speaker 1: it was a field with straight lines was being plowed
Speaker 1: on the farm. So, as the story goes, his teacher
Speaker 1: did not quite go he was talking about, and his
Speaker 1: fellow students didn't either. I'm imagining the teacher kind of
Speaker 1: patting him on the head and going that's nice there. Well,
Speaker 1: like every say, except he was fifteen. Well, and Tolman
Speaker 1: hung onto that sketch. Yeah, there was something about it
Speaker 1: that he thought like, this is interesting enough that I'm
Speaker 1: gonna keep it. Maybe this is a real thing in
Speaker 1: not space medic Yeah. So after high school, Farnsworth attended
Speaker 1: Brigham Young University starting in nineteen but unfortunately, his education
Speaker 1: hit an early roadblock when his father died in nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty four. He had to drop out of school so
Speaker 1: that he could help work and support the family, and
Speaker 1: this really put an end to his formal education, but
Speaker 1: his scientific work didn't stop there. He kept learning on
Speaker 1: his own, tankering and experimenting. One of the many self
Speaker 1: taught people that we've talked about in the podcast. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we do a lot of our big names in the
Speaker 1: science history and invention are really self taught, which I
Speaker 1: think is an interesting through line. And in nine six
Speaker 1: Filo married Elma pim Gardner, and they would eventually have
Speaker 1: four children together. We won't go into depths on their kids,
Speaker 1: but I wanted to make a note that same year
Speaker 1: he was able to get enough cash together to move
Speaker 1: into full time research. He had been working for two
Speaker 1: professional fundraisers. They were George Everson and Leslie Garrel in
Speaker 1: southern California in their bulk mailing business. After Farnsworth told
Speaker 1: his bosses about his concept for an electronic television, the
Speaker 1: pair formed this venture partnership with him as Everson, Farnsworth
Speaker 1: and Garrel. Additional investment came from the Cracker Bank under
Speaker 1: President William W. Crocker, and a new group, Crocker Research Laboratories,
Speaker 1: was formed. Crocker and yet another investor, Roy and Bishop,
Speaker 1: were based in San Francisco, and consequently they wanted Farnsworth
Speaker 1: to move closer to where they were, So with all
Speaker 1: of this funding and place, Farnsworth set up a lab
Speaker 1: at two O two Green Street, which is at the
Speaker 1: bottom of Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, with his wife
Speaker 1: Pim and her brother Cliff Gardener as his assistants. In
Speaker 1: ninety seven, in January, Firensworth filed for his first patents
Speaker 1: for his television system, and later that year, on September seven,
Speaker 1: he unveiled his electronic television prototype, and it was the
Speaker 1: first of its kind. It featured a video camera tube,
Speaker 1: which he also called an image dissector. It was essentially
Speaker 1: the same thing he had sketched as a teenager and
Speaker 1: shown to his slightly befelled chemistry teacher. Yeah, that's going
Speaker 1: to be important later as well. Uh. The first image
Speaker 1: that he transmitted was really just a blurry line. But
Speaker 1: working with his research team, because he hired more people
Speaker 1: on and they were dubbed the Lab Gang, he was
Speaker 1: able to pretty quickly advance the technology and he was
Speaker 1: sending progressively more complex shapes, and within a few years
Speaker 1: he actually sent signals to a location that was eight
Speaker 1: blocks away at the Merchant's Exchange building. During all of
Speaker 1: this time of really apid development, they actually had an
Speaker 1: enormous setback. In late nine the lab and its assortment
Speaker 1: of chemicals and electrical components caught fire and they had
Speaker 1: to completely rebuild it from scratch. So basically they've been
Speaker 1: rolling along and they had to start completely over and
Speaker 1: completely rebuild. So think about how much faster it would
Speaker 1: have gone if they hadn't had this big chunk of
Speaker 1: time where they had starting completely over. On September three,
Speaker 1: which is just a little before that fire happened, the
Speaker 1: San Francisco Chronicle ran a story about Farnsworth Television, and
Speaker 1: the article described how Farnsworth all electronic approach was a
Speaker 1: total game changer. So to quote, all television systems now
Speaker 1: in use employ a revolving disc two feet in diameter
Speaker 1: to break up or scan the image. A similar disc
Speaker 1: is at the receiving end, and the two discs must
Speaker 1: revolve at precisely the same instant and it precisely the
Speaker 1: same speed or blurred vision results. Farnsworth system employs no
Speaker 1: moving parts whatsoever. Instead of moving the machine, he buries
Speaker 1: the electric current that plays over the image and thus
Speaker 1: gets the necessary scanning. The system is thus simple in
Speaker 1: the extreme, and one of the major mechanical obstacles to
Speaker 1: the perfection of television is thereby removed. This article is
Speaker 1: actually pretty detailed. It mentions the frame rate, which is
Speaker 1: twenty pictures per second, and the resolution, which is eight
Speaker 1: thousand elements or pinpoints of light for each picture. The
Speaker 1: screen he was using to demonstrate in a mirror one
Speaker 1: point to five inches square. It is tiny. As we
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, the warehouse their team viewers have a sense
Speaker 1: of what that looks like. In the words of the chronicle,
Speaker 1: it is a queer looking little image in bluish light, now,
Speaker 1: one that frequently smudges and blurs, but the basic principle
Speaker 1: is achieved and perfection is now a matter of engineering.
Speaker 1: And at the time, Farms was actually told the paper
Speaker 1: that he envisioned that his tell vision receiver could actually
Speaker 1: be attached to a radio set, and he thought it
Speaker 1: was gonna be sold at retail for about a hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: which is a lot of money at the time. But uh,
Speaker 1: it's just interesting that he had this whole plan of
Speaker 1: how it was going to become a business. So while
Speaker 1: he was just a privately funded inventor and researcher, Radio
Speaker 1: Corporation of America also known as r c A, was
Speaker 1: a giant. You couldn't legally build a radio in the
Speaker 1: United States without an r c A license. David Sarnoff,
Speaker 1: who was the acting president of our c A at
Speaker 1: the time, had established this business model of finding scientists
Speaker 1: and engineers, hiring them and buying out their patent rights
Speaker 1: to grow our CIA's legal holdings. And Sarnoff was really
Speaker 1: quick to protect his company's stake in the home entertainment
Speaker 1: market when he got wind of Farnsworth's new television on
Speaker 1: November eighteenth, UH an essay that was actually written by
Speaker 1: or Off appeared in the New York Times and it
Speaker 1: was entitled Forging an Electric Eye to scan the World,
Speaker 1: and it assured readers that Farnsworth Television was nowhere near
Speaker 1: ready for the home market, and that TVs would first
Speaker 1: be available to consumers from our c A and that
Speaker 1: they were going to beat Farnsworth to the market. This
Speaker 1: reminds me of the competing advertisements in our episode about
Speaker 1: the history of the setting machine. A lot of this
Speaker 1: reminds me of it once we get into the r
Speaker 1: c A portion of it. This is not really a
Speaker 1: real thing, ours a real thing. A month later, another
Speaker 1: New York Times piece was published entitled leaders to spell
Speaker 1: Television Fears, and this one was not written by Sarnoff,
Speaker 1: but he was the main source for the article. This
Speaker 1: one encouraged readers to keep buying radios, particularly for the holidays,
Speaker 1: instead of waiting for television. Sarnoff even hired another inventor,
Speaker 1: Vladimir's work In from the research team at Westinghouse to
Speaker 1: do a little bit of digging for him. He was
Speaker 1: paper hired to head up UH some labs, but it
Speaker 1: was clear that Sarnoff also wanted him to kind of
Speaker 1: try to figure out what the heck Farnsworth was actually
Speaker 1: up to and working. Actually visited farnsworth San Francisco Lab
Speaker 1: in and when he returned from his mission, he attempted
Speaker 1: to reverse engineer the technology he had seen while he
Speaker 1: was visiting Farnsworth. And there are some versions of this
Speaker 1: story that say that was working actually telegraphed design and
Speaker 1: Schamata information ahead to our Cia so that the lab
Speaker 1: could get to work on it, and by the time
Speaker 1: he got back from visiting Farnsworth in San Francisco, the
Speaker 1: first model was there, but those seemed to be a
Speaker 1: little bit Paul Taylish, that's a that would be a
Speaker 1: very quick build of things for people that did not
Speaker 1: have the first hand account of it for three D printers.
Speaker 1: So before you ask why in the world would Farnsworth
Speaker 1: let a competitor just come visit his lab, pretty sure
Speaker 1: that he did not know that that's what's working was Yeah,
Speaker 1: there are accounts at the time to indicate that he
Speaker 1: thought it's working. Was still under the Westinghouse Umbrella, and
Speaker 1: Westinghouse had shown some interest in Farnsworth's work, and so
Speaker 1: the financial backers of the Green Street Lab had been
Speaker 1: encouraging Farnsworth to sell his idea to Westinghouse or at
Speaker 1: least licensed the rights to them. So I remember this
Speaker 1: was all going on right after the stock market crash,
Speaker 1: and while Farnsworth was an idealist then wanted to tinker
Speaker 1: and not think a whole lot about money. The people
Speaker 1: who were paying for his work, we're pretty financially nervous
Speaker 1: at this point. Yeah, and some accounts will say that
Speaker 1: it was clear that working was still working for our
Speaker 1: ci A and not Westinghouse. Um, But really the crux
Speaker 1: of the matter was that Farnsworth thought this was like
Speaker 1: a Oh, I'm gonna come and visit and hang out
Speaker 1: and see what licensing options we might be able to
Speaker 1: work out. Not and I'm coming to steal all of
Speaker 1: your ideas and technology trip right, So but when's Workin's
Speaker 1: attempts to recreate farnsworth device didn't work out. They completely
Speaker 1: fell flat. He wasn't able to deliver Sarnoff actually decided
Speaker 1: that he was going to go visit Green Street himself,
Speaker 1: and he did so in spring of ninety one. And
Speaker 1: there's some hint that he kind of thought he was
Speaker 1: the big businessman that was going to go in strong
Speaker 1: arm this foolish farm boy UH. But Farnsworth actually wasn't
Speaker 1: there at the lab when Sarnov dropped in unannounced, but
Speaker 1: he was allowed to enter. UM staff let him in
Speaker 1: and he eventually, after looking around and returning back to
Speaker 1: r C headquarters, he made an offer to hire Farnsworth
Speaker 1: into the r C family and to buy Farnsworth's company
Speaker 1: and his patents. But he made was a pretty low
Speaker 1: ball offer, and Farnsworth said no, and this did not
Speaker 1: go over well at all. Yeah, and it really was
Speaker 1: low ball. Even the investors that have been kind of
Speaker 1: urging Farnsworth to look into selling because of the volatility
Speaker 1: of the stock market and the economy at the time,
Speaker 1: even they are like, that doesn't sound like a fair
Speaker 1: offered us UM. So, as with most game changing inventions
Speaker 1: that also UH involved corporate intrigue and bruised egos, a
Speaker 1: legal battle ensued, backed by r C a's huge legal power.
Speaker 1: Vladimir's working claimed that Farnsworth's work violated patents he already
Speaker 1: had on a similar invention, and in Zorkian had applied
Speaker 1: for a patent for an invention called an iconoscope, which
Speaker 1: was an electronic image scanner. So there were similarities and
Speaker 1: this was the basis for a decade long war that
Speaker 1: our ci A morged again waged against Farnsworth. Although it's
Speaker 1: of note that's working never was able to build a
Speaker 1: functioning model of his patent at all. He it was
Speaker 1: all theoretical. He never was able to make a real
Speaker 1: world version of it. You're right, this is really really similar.
Speaker 1: It's worth noting that other inventors were also on the
Speaker 1: trail of televised imagery. Charles Jenkins came up with a
Speaker 1: scanning drum to display moving silhouettes in UR and John
Speaker 1: Barrett of Scotland had made mechanical image transmissions using a
Speaker 1: transparent rot array in dr. Herbert Ives came up with
Speaker 1: a wire harness system for Bell Labs that sent electrical
Speaker 1: impulses to electrodes on its viewing screen. Individually, there were
Speaker 1: televisions being developed in France, Great Britain and Russia by
Speaker 1: a number of different researchers. Yeah, so again, it really
Speaker 1: is similar to the sewing machine thing, or everybody knew
Speaker 1: this was kind of the next step, and they were
Speaker 1: all kind of working towards creating it, but some different approaches.
Speaker 1: But even with all of this work, and as was
Speaker 1: mentioned in the newspaper article about him, like they talked
Speaker 1: about existing televisions too, So all of this work was
Speaker 1: going on. Uh uh. And z Workin's patent had happened
Speaker 1: before farnsworth TV, but he was the first one to
Speaker 1: actually produce an electronic TV based on his research and designs.
Speaker 1: So now is when we bring back that high school
Speaker 1: chemistry teacher. Yeah, so the one that kept filers drawing.
Speaker 1: Those turned out to be really important when it came
Speaker 1: to all the legal proceedings because he was able to
Speaker 1: testify that Farnsworth had diagrammed and described this television idea
Speaker 1: way back in the drawing itself, which he had hung onto.
Speaker 1: Was also a huge moon to Farnsworth's case, and while
Speaker 1: the case was dragging on, Farnsworth was still working in
Speaker 1: one he started the Philco Radio Corporation's television department. In
Speaker 1: an exchange for additional lab funding for his own research,
Speaker 1: Farnsworth had to move his family and his team to Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: That move was not really popular with his wife, Pim.
Speaker 1: She really loved San Francisco and she often spoke uh
Speaker 1: when you know, asked about their lives or giving interviews
Speaker 1: about how you know, the West was really where their
Speaker 1: heart was. But in nineteen thirty three, so just a
Speaker 1: couple of years later, Farnsworth left Philco and continued his
Speaker 1: work solo because Philko had decided that the television division
Speaker 1: did not really fit in their corporate vision any longer.
Speaker 1: So after moving his entire family kind of against their will,
Speaker 1: it turned out that wasn't going to work out so well.
Speaker 1: So irritating the U S. Patent Office found in Farnsworth's favor,
Speaker 1: Our c A appealed, but that same verdict came down
Speaker 1: again and again. As you can imagine, there's some uh
Speaker 1: bruised he goes at play even after you know this
Speaker 1: element of the legal proceedings was done. Uh. In eight
Speaker 1: Farnsworth founded the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation. He was
Speaker 1: really ready to launch into the brave new world of
Speaker 1: consumer television and broadcast reception. But as an independent inventor,
Speaker 1: which was just a creature that was basically extinct in
Speaker 1: this environment of explosive growth of corporate labs in the
Speaker 1: thirties and forties, Barnsworth couldn't really stand up to the
Speaker 1: pr machine that our c A was able to crank
Speaker 1: out at the world's fair r c A sponsored a
Speaker 1: television pavilion, and Starnoff brokered a deal for the radio
Speaker 1: and television rights to air the opening ceremony. But I
Speaker 1: feel like we should mention prior to being named acting
Speaker 1: president of our CIA, Starnoff had actually founded NBC Radio Network,
Speaker 1: which was owned by our CIA, So it kind of
Speaker 1: sets the stage of like broadcast rights and bitter battles
Speaker 1: really being at the heart of network television. Basically from
Speaker 1: day one, think it was already about who had the
Speaker 1: rights to do what, and kind of some you know,
Speaker 1: backbiting and really aggressive business practices. So our CIA had
Speaker 1: been working on television technology throughout these whole legal proceedings,
Speaker 1: and it was selling televisions and department stores leading up
Speaker 1: to this event, and it announced just prior to the
Speaker 1: fair opening that NBC was starting a regular broadcast schedule.
Speaker 1: And at this point Farnsworth realized he was outgunned. I
Speaker 1: think I read a m A statistic that right out
Speaker 1: of the gate r c A had an easy eight
Speaker 1: or greater market share, and there was just no way
Speaker 1: that Farnsworth was going to be able to keep up.
Speaker 1: So he actually sold our CI A a non exclusive license.
Speaker 1: At that point for one million dollars. After the r
Speaker 1: c A deal, Farnsworth was really exhausted and he had
Speaker 1: a nervous breakdown that resulted in him being hospitalized. He
Speaker 1: really struggled with depression and would continue to struggle with
Speaker 1: it for the rest of his life. And meanwhile, World
Speaker 1: War two put television in a time out because all
Speaker 1: manufacture of non military electronics was banned by the U.
Speaker 1: S Government for the duration of the war. When the
Speaker 1: war ended and the Farnsworth Corporation was making its home
Speaker 1: in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and it started to produce television sets.
Speaker 1: But our CIA had the resources to launch a much
Speaker 1: more successful manufacturing operation, Farnsworth just couldn't keep his company afloat.
Speaker 1: It was eventually purchased by International Telephone and Telegraph Company,
Speaker 1: and under I T and T, Farnsworth continued his research
Speaker 1: into television as well as nuclear fusion. The television division
Speaker 1: was shut down before very long though, yeah so had uh.
Speaker 1: At that point, Farnsworth's work in television had basically been
Speaker 1: shut out a little bit by big business. You know,
Speaker 1: he had battled our Cia, and while he tried to
Speaker 1: still kind of struggle with a little small part of
Speaker 1: the market, it wasn't gonna work out, and so when
Speaker 1: he sold his company, thinking he was going to bolster
Speaker 1: his his television work, they were like, no, we don't
Speaker 1: really want to be in the TV business after all. So, uh,
Speaker 1: he was, you know, shut out of television at that point.
Speaker 1: But he kept on inventing, and he certainly kept on
Speaker 1: studying science. In nineteen fifty one, he was awarded an
Speaker 1: honorary doctorate of Science by the Indiana Institute of Technology. Yeah,
Speaker 1: which was his first degree since he did not ever
Speaker 1: finish college. Uh. In nineteen fifty seven, he started the
Speaker 1: Farnsworth Research Corporation as its president and director of Research.
Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty seven, he moved back to Utah and
Speaker 1: became head of a fusion lab at Brigham Young University,
Speaker 1: and just a year later that lab actually changed names
Speaker 1: to Filo Key Farnsworth and Associates and it moved to
Speaker 1: Salt Lake City, but within two years funds had dried
Speaker 1: up for the lab. In nineteen sixty eight, he was
Speaker 1: awarded his second honorary doctorate, this time from Brigham Young University,
Speaker 1: and he was inducted into the National Inventor's Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame nineteen seventy really marked the beginning of the end
Speaker 1: for Farnsworth. Uh. As we mentioned, the lab was running
Speaker 1: out of money and he was forced to close it
Speaker 1: due to the lack of funds. And at that point
Speaker 1: the depression that he had really been battling for decades,
Speaker 1: you know, it had really started in the UH in
Speaker 1: the thirties, going through all of that, battling with our
Speaker 1: c A and patent suits and then having to deal
Speaker 1: with the war offsetting their efforts. The depression just kind
Speaker 1: of one out at that point, and he started drinking
Speaker 1: and drinking heavily, and it really became a habitual drinking
Speaker 1: problem in the last few months of his life. He
Speaker 1: died of pneumonia on March eleventh, ninety one, in Salt
Speaker 1: Lake City. When he died, the televisions that were being
Speaker 1: made for consumer markets used components that were included in
Speaker 1: about a hundred of his patents. Although he really didn't
Speaker 1: have any wealth to speak of. On the other hand,
Speaker 1: Sarnoff died the same year, but very wealthy, extremely wealthy.
Speaker 1: So what would I have to say about that? He
Speaker 1: didn't get take it with him. That's true. Uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it is kind of one of those things
Speaker 1: where Farnsworth in so many ways was in the right,
Speaker 1: but it really did him no good. Even though he
Speaker 1: won the patent lawsuit, and even though he made that
Speaker 1: big settlement with our c A, that money went towards
Speaker 1: funding a lab that was really struggling and didn't didn't
Speaker 1: turn out so well in terms of um his his
Speaker 1: end of life quality. But after his passing, his wife
Speaker 1: Pim really worked tirelessly to try to establish her husband's
Speaker 1: image in a positive way and ensure that he was
Speaker 1: recognized as the visionary that he really was. And Farnsworth
Speaker 1: really gave him a great deal of credit throughout his
Speaker 1: life for his most famous work, and he would often
Speaker 1: say that my wife and I started television and they
Speaker 1: had worked together. Pim had worked alongside her husband throughout
Speaker 1: his life in his various labs, and as he often
Speaker 1: became really engaged with his work, he would forget to eat,
Speaker 1: he would neglect to think about his health. He apparently
Speaker 1: had this weird habit where he was in insomniac, so
Speaker 1: at night he would go to bed and kind of
Speaker 1: give himself a problem to solve, knowing that he would
Speaker 1: wake up and hoping that he would be working through
Speaker 1: it in that sort of half sleep state, like he
Speaker 1: really kind of was not doing things that were great
Speaker 1: in terms of like his quality of health as he
Speaker 1: went on. Uh. But Pam was always the constant that
Speaker 1: kind of kept their lives in order, despite his sort
Speaker 1: of odd behaviors and his tendency to get really over
Speaker 1: absorbed into his work. In nine eight one, his two
Speaker 1: oh two Green Street address in San Francisco, which was
Speaker 1: home to the lab where the first televised image was projected,
Speaker 1: was given a historical marker. There's also a memorial statue
Speaker 1: of Farnsworth at the Letterman Digital Arts Center in San Francisco.
Speaker 1: In the state of Utah gave the National Statuary Hall
Speaker 1: Collection in Washington, d C. A statue of Farnsworth by
Speaker 1: artist James r Avati, which had the inscription father of Television. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love uh Inn. He was inducted into the San
Speaker 1: Francisco Hall of Fame, and in he was inducted into
Speaker 1: the Academy of Television, Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: And in his life he had held at least a
Speaker 1: hundred sixty patents, and he contributed to the development of
Speaker 1: many other things which we are actually relevant to uh,
Speaker 1: you know, other recent podcasts we've been working on. He worked.
Speaker 1: Some of his work contributed to the development of radar
Speaker 1: infra red electron microscopes, baby incubators. Uh So when you
Speaker 1: go to like the I See You or the newborn
Speaker 1: I cu the nick you, those incubators are in part
Speaker 1: due to the work that Farnsworth did and even astronomical telescopes.
Speaker 1: And Pim died in two thousand six, but their kids
Speaker 1: have continued this tradition of kind of keeping his image
Speaker 1: alive and well, uh, there was also uh. In two
Speaker 1: thou four, they announced a screenplay. New Line Cinema had
Speaker 1: optioned the screenplay from Aaron Sorkin about the life of Farnsworth,
Speaker 1: which never came to fruition, and in two thousand five
Speaker 1: Sorkin adapted it to the stage and it's been produced
Speaker 1: a couple of times, and maybe we'll eventually go full
Speaker 1: circle and become a film again. But if it ever does,
Speaker 1: I feel like I should pre warn people that it's
Speaker 1: it's not historically accurate, like that was not the intent
Speaker 1: for change for dramatic effects there musical, I feel like
Speaker 1: there's a musical. I hope not. There might be I have.
Speaker 1: We're in the opposite You're like, I hope not because singing,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I hope so because the singing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not the biggest fan of musicals. There's nothing wrong
Speaker 1: with them. It's my personal I don't like to watch
Speaker 1: people sing. I don't like to look in their mouths thing.
Speaker 1: I know. That's my weird neurotic biz. I want fabulousness
Speaker 1: about Filo Farnsworth with a big chorus line and lots
Speaker 1: of kicking. That doesn't seem right for him though. He
Speaker 1: just wanted to quietly work in the lab. Why That's
Speaker 1: why people can all do the kicking and the big
Speaker 1: boisterous show numbers, whereas he could have quiet little songs
Speaker 1: in his lab. Up. But yeah, that's uh Farnsworth. It's
Speaker 1: interesting because in some circles when you say pilot Farnsworth,
Speaker 1: people go, oh, I love his story, and other people
Speaker 1: just get a glazy look like he's he's kind of
Speaker 1: reached through history and hit certain people, and a lot
Speaker 1: of people have become very interested in his story, But
Speaker 1: for many others, they have no idea he even existed,
Speaker 1: let alone lead to the box that uh inhabits our
Speaker 1: lives all the time, although modern day TV tech is
Speaker 1: very different. But I'm hoping that all the Warehouse thirteen
Speaker 1: fans who've been writing us and asking us to talk
Speaker 1: about Paracelsis can take some temporary solace in this episode.
Speaker 1: About Farnsworth, I love him. I have a real soft
Speaker 1: spot for him, partially because I love television and entertainment,
Speaker 1: and partially because you know, he's just that guy who
Speaker 1: wants to work on projects and didn't really have business
Speaker 1: acumen and just was a great thing gear that kind
Speaker 1: of was an underdog. I love him, all right. Do
Speaker 1: you also have some listener mail? I do. I have
Speaker 1: two pieces. They are both related to our Crystal Palace podcast.
Speaker 1: Uh and I mentioned them because they both mentioned something
Speaker 1: that we didn't touch on. And the first one is
Speaker 1: from our listener Laura, and she says, high, ladies, I
Speaker 1: love it when you do British podcasts. I'm a britt
Speaker 1: living in South Korea and it's lovely to hear about
Speaker 1: things from home. I wonder why you left out the
Speaker 1: Crystal Palace Football Club, which is soccer? Do you guys?
Speaker 1: She says in your Crystal Palace podcast, it's a really
Speaker 1: interesting part of the history of the place and something
Speaker 1: that keeps the name of the building alive today. If
Speaker 1: you talk about Crystal Palace anywhere in Britain, I bet
Speaker 1: that it's the football club people will associate with it
Speaker 1: rather than the original building. Uh. And I know that
Speaker 1: the park did host the football club and championship games
Speaker 1: there for two decades, I think, but I kind of
Speaker 1: left it out because it seems like a big, huge
Speaker 1: thing on its own and in terms of the actual building, uh,
Speaker 1: not so much. But I probably should have mentioned it
Speaker 1: at some point. Now. We had the same basic response
Speaker 1: to both of these emails, which was I'm guessing which
Speaker 1: one you're reading next, actually, which is that that we
Speaker 1: were mostly talking about the history of the building and
Speaker 1: there are so many other things that went on in
Speaker 1: the park and the grounds that that would be eighteen
Speaker 1: other episodes. Yeah, I mean, the football club is big,
Speaker 1: and I'll admit my knowledge of football in Great Britain
Speaker 1: is not so vast. My knowledge of football anywhere is
Speaker 1: is non existent. Any football, whether it's football or soccer,
Speaker 1: that would be a good podcast to do in the future. Interesting, uh,
Speaker 1: sporting things that are kind of outside our regular knowledge.
Speaker 1: And our second one comes from our listener Richard, and
Speaker 1: he says, I can't thank you enough for the Crystal
Speaker 1: Palace podcast. It brought back warm memories of when I
Speaker 1: was a child going for my swimming lessons at the
Speaker 1: neighboring Olympic pool. I remember visiting the Dinosaur Park and
Speaker 1: seeing the Crystal Palace site every Saturday more, even though
Speaker 1: it was just grass and some decorative stone fencing and steps.
Speaker 1: I even remember the train station architecture was a poor
Speaker 1: representation on the outside of the great glass structure. I
Speaker 1: also remember walking past the huge concrete head of Joseph Paxton,
Speaker 1: which is on display with a pack to honor the
Speaker 1: site's history, and becoming very scared along with my sister.
Speaker 1: Paxton's concrete head was pretty daunting when you're only half
Speaker 1: its size. I have a lot of affiliation with Crystal Palace.
Speaker 1: My grandfather was a member of the football club, my
Speaker 1: father was a steward in the seventies, and even though
Speaker 1: I live in Melbourne, Australia, I still have fond memories
Speaker 1: of growing up with this historic area so cool. I
Speaker 1: totally guessed wrongly which other crystal I thought, yeah, we
Speaker 1: got another one. That was you all didn't discuss, and
Speaker 1: I don't remember what it was, but there were yet
Speaker 1: so many other things that went on in the building
Speaker 1: and in the grounds, and oh yeah, it was the
Speaker 1: the taxidermy at the expo. R didn't mentioned because that
Speaker 1: pertained to you. An older podcast about Walter Potter, who
Speaker 1: first got inspired into Texted or Me just before I
Speaker 1: joined the podcast after seeing an exhibit at the Great Expo,
Speaker 1: and I didn't go into text or Me either, even
Speaker 1: though I love it. But that was one of those
Speaker 1: they're winding paths that you choose not to walk down
Speaker 1: because you know you will get wildly derailed and maybe
Speaker 1: not stay on topic. Well, and you and I have
Speaker 1: both had some some research rabbit holes of late. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's easy to do, you know, you find one interesting thing.
Speaker 1: What often happens to me is I'll be researching a
Speaker 1: topic and I find one other person or item that's mentioned,
Speaker 1: and then I'm like, I really want to look that up,
Speaker 1: but make sure I'm understanding their place in this bigger story.
Speaker 1: And then something cool there leads me way down a
Speaker 1: path that is no longer really relevant, but I just
Speaker 1: want to read some more about it. Anyway, it happened uh.
Speaker 1: If you would like to write us, you can do
Speaker 1: so at History Podcast at Discovery dot com. If you
Speaker 1: would like to connect with us on Twitter, you can
Speaker 1: at mist in history or on Facebook dot com slash
Speaker 1: History class stuff. And you can visit us on tom
Speaker 1: or at missed in history dot tumbler dot com. And
Speaker 1: you can check out what we've been penning on Pinterest.
Speaker 1: If you want to learn a little bit more about
Speaker 1: what we talked about today, you can go to our
Speaker 1: website and actually type in the words Barnsworth and one
Speaker 1: of the articles you will see is the top ten
Speaker 1: technological Innovations in TV Broadcasting, and one of those items
Speaker 1: is about Farnsworth's work with a great picture of him. Uh.
Speaker 1: And if you would like to learn almost anything else
Speaker 1: that your mind can think about, you can do that
Speaker 1: at our website, which is a house to works dot
Speaker 1: com for more on this and thousands of other topics
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