The television was invented through contributions from multiple inventors, but Philo Taylor Farnsworth is widely credited with inventing the first fully functional all-electronic television system and demonstrating it in 1927 at age 21 in San Francisco.
Key relevant details include:
- Philo Farnsworth developed the first fully electronic image pickup device (image dissector) and successfully demonstrated electronic television transmission in 1927, transmitting the first live human images by 1929. He held the first patent for electronic television in the U.S. and produced commercially viable TV systems.
- John Logie Baird , a Scottish inventor, demonstrated the first mechanical television system in 1926 and later developed the first publicly demonstrated color TV system. His system was mechanical, using spinning discs to scan images, which differs from modern electronic TV. Baird showed moving images and even achieved early transatlantic transmissions.
- Earlier, Paul Nipkow invented a spinning disc system (the Nipkow disc) in 1884, which was foundational for mechanical television, though he never built a working TV system.
- Other contributors like Vladimir Zworykin worked on electronic TV components, but Farnsworth's earlier patents and working models led to legal recognition of his priority.
Thus, television as we know it evolved from mechanical beginnings (Nipkow disc, Baird) to fully electronic systems pioneered by Farnsworth, who is often called "the father of television" for inventing the first practical all- electronic TV.
