mike weber (9:52 PM on Sat Dec 29, 2007)

The first "television" transmission, using a spinning-disc system, was 1888, in Germany.

In the 1920s, a British inventor demonstrated a practical (by the standards of the day) mechanical television based on the same principle. In 1930, regular transmission over BBC radio stations after regular transmission had ened for the day began.

Zworykin, in fact, at the instigation of RCA head David Sarnoff, basically stole the work of a young inventor named Philo Farnsworth; Sarnoff had offered Farnsworth $100,000 for his patents and Farnsworth refused, nning to license them to RCA instead and make more money.

Quoting:

"Farnsworth's designs kept showing up in Zworykin's work and lawsuits between the two companies followed. Eventually RCA was forced to pay Farnsworth $1,000,000 in licensing fees, but the onset of WW II delayed the introduction of television to most of the United States and the market for electronic television did not really take off until after the war. By then many of Farnsworth's key patents had expired and he never made the money he probably really deserved for his contributions to electronic television.

Adding insult to injury, most of the history of television was written by RCA employees and they, perhaps in revenge for the license they were forced to take out, left Farnsworth's contributions completely out of the story." http://www.unmuseum.org/tvinvent.htm