Date of birth: July 29, 1888
Date of death: July 29, 1982
Place of birth: Murom, Russian Empire

Zvorykin Vladimir Kozmich- a famous engineer born in Russia. Also Vladimir Zvorykin known as one of the founders of television.

Vladimir was born into a merchant family. His father was quite wealthy - he was engaged in banking, owned several steamships and was engaged in grain trading. The boy began his studies at a real school, and then went to St. Petersburg to receive higher education already at the Polytechnic Institute. He studied well and received a red diploma in engineering.

Already during his studies, he became one of the members of a group that worked on electronic devices under the leadership of Professor B. Rosing. The young man continued his research in Paris, where he continued his studies at one of the technical colleges.

With the outbreak of World War I, Vladimir went to Grodno, and then, having the skills of an engineer, he came in handy at the Petrograd radio school for officers.

The war became a difficult time for the young scientist - he decided to move to Omsk, where he sympathized with the “white” movement, but continued his activities in terms of equipping radio stations. Once he was already preparing to be shot for searching for radio components, but Kolchak’s troops helped him stay alive.

One of the business trips related to his activities was to New York. At this time, news arrived that Kolchak had been defeated, and Vladimir decided not to return to Russia, because... again feared reprisals for meeting the “white” commander.

He stayed in America and found a job at Westinghouse. It was there that he managed to advance in his favorite topic - attempts to convey an image.

But the authorities did not appreciate this research, perhaps due to the scientist’s insufficient command of the English language. Vladimir continued his work without the help of the company. The result was the filing of a patent in the field of TV.

One of the most important meetings in the scientist’s life was the meeting with the future president of Radio Corporation of America, D. Sarnov. It was Sarnov who made Vladimir the head of the electronics laboratory.

A year later, a kinescope was created, and two years later, an iconoscope. Soon he made a presentation to all radio engineers in America and presented his new product.

Fame in the technical world allowed him to visit the USSR and establish both the production of televisions and TV broadcasting methods there. In addition, he became a consultant, thanks to whom TV appeared and developed in Europe.

In the pre-war years, Vladimir concentrated on creating systems for a scanning electron microscope.

During the Second World War he remained in the United States, but he was closely watched as a scientist of Russian origin, because. He was involved in work in the field of night vision devices and special aerial bombs.

After the war, Vladimir returned to optical systems, but in medical devices.

Died in America in July 1982.

Achievements of Vladimir Zvorykin:

Received Edison and Faraday medals
Was at the origins of modern television
Received more than 100 patents for inventions in various fields

Dates from the biography of Vladimir Zvorykin:

1906 entered the Technological Institute of St. Petersburg
1912 received an engineering diploma
1914 returned from Paris
1919 business trip to New York
1923 decided to apply for a patent in the field of television
1928 meeting with the future president of RCA
1929 developed a kinescope device
1933 trip to Europe to advise on television development
1967 in the USA received the National Medal of Science
1982 died

Interesting facts of Vladimir Zvorykin:

Died before he was 6 years old
He bequeathed his ashes to be scattered over the lake at his dacha, which was done
During a visit to Russia in the 1930s, he was received with state honors. Visited Tbilisi, where he met with Beria
Married twice, father of two daughters

Yulia Goryacheva

Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin, inventor of television, was born on July 17 (29 N.S.), 1889

In domestic means mass media The name of the outstanding Russian engineer-inventor Vladimir Zvorykin, who lived most of his life in the USA, is now often mentioned. His name comes to mind whenever there is talk about the need for technological innovation in Russia.

The name Zvorykin became one of the successful symbols of new landmarks. It sounds logical and fair from the lips of the country's leadership in connection with the establishment of the annual Zvorykin Prize - the National Prize in the field of innovation. A little later, the feeds of news agencies bring news of the creation by Leonid Parfenov of a historical documentary film entitled “Zvorykin - Muromets”, as well as of an all-Russian fundraiser for the installation of a monument to the “father of television” in his native Murom.

In the Russian diaspora, Vladimir Zvorykin is a special source of pride: he is the first member of the Russian-American Chamber of Fame. It was Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin who was awarded the title of Honored Russian American in 1978 by the Congress of Russian Americans for his outstanding contribution to world science and technology. It should be noted that in the USA the name of Zvorykin is highly revered, especially by scientists. The famous television historian Albert Abramson dedicated a solid monograph to him, published in 1995, “Zvorykin. Pioneer of television." (The author met with Vladimir Zvorykin during his lifetime, and he gave him one of the versions of a detailed autobiography.)

“A gift to the American continent,” one of his colleagues in the field of electronics described Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin. Having every reason for this: it was Zvorykin who invented the twentieth century - electronic television; his innovative ideas were also used in the creation of electron microscopes, photomultipliers and electron-optical converters, and in the creation of new samples military equipment, engineering and medical equipment.

...Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin was born on July 17 (29th New Style) 1889 in the family of the merchant of the first guild Kozma Zvorykin, who traded bread, owned steamships and was the former chairman of the Murom Public Bank. The three-story Zvorykinsky stone house has survived to this day and now serves as the Murom Historical and Art Museum. In his autobiography, the famous scientist and inventor characterizes his father as a man of progressive ideas, who was also the head of Murom for one term. In addition to Vladimir, the youngest child, the family had one more brother and five sisters. From childhood, the father tried to accustom his children to socially useful work, writes Zvorykin. He himself, according to him, showed an interest in technology from his youth. After graduating from the Murom Real School, in 1906 he entered the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology. Takes part in student unrest. Moreover, having been captured while distributing leaflets calling for democratic reforms and elections to the Second Duma, he spends two weeks in prison with his student friends. The time of student for the future engineering genius is also significant for the fateful meeting with Professor Boris Rosing, the author of pioneering works on electronic image transmission at a distance. The young engineer begins to devote a lot of attention to his work as Rosing's assistant in a special laboratory. In addition to Rosing’s scientific ideas, the autobiography tells, the student Zvorykin was greatly impressed by his foreign trip to industrial plants in Germany, Belgium, France and England, which took place under the auspices of the International Chamber of Commerce.

Having received a diploma in electrical engineering in 1912, Zvorykin went to study at the Paris College de France with the outstanding physicist Paul Langevin. Then, despite his father’s absentee attempts to involve his son in the common Murom cause, he continued his studies at the University of Berlin. Shortly after returning to Russia via Denmark and Finland during World War I, Zvorykin was drafted into the army. For a year and a half in Grodno, he was responsible for setting up and equipping radio stations. Meets February revolution in Petrograd with the rank of lieutenant, working as a teacher at an officer radio school. After the revolution, his father’s business and the magnificent family house above the Oka River in Murom “become the property of the victorious proletariat.” Established scientific and industrial ties have been destroyed.

“It became obvious,” wrote Zvorykin, “that a return to normal conditions, in particular for research work, was not necessary in the near future. The new government issued strict decrees, according to which all former officers were obliged to report to the commissariat for conscription into the Red Army. I didn't want to participate civil war. Moreover, I dreamed of working in a laboratory to realize the ideas I had in mind. In the end, I came to the conclusion that for such work you need to go to another country, and America seemed to me to be such a country.”

The talented young man recalls that he “had friends in a large cooperative organization that had its representative offices in America and the Siberian city of Omsk.” He managed to receive an invitation from these friends to go there to carry out an official assignment. Having stocked up with a lot of official papers, he goes to Siberia. Wandering around former empire(by train to Nizhny Novgorod, then along the Kama by steamship to Perm, from there again by train to Yekaterinburg and again by train to Omsk), the young man eventually arrives at a meeting with representatives of the provisional Siberian government, which is not associated with cooperation with the Bolsheviks. This government sends him to the United States to negotiate the supply of radio equipment. Since Omsk was cut off on all sides except the north by the warring factions, Zvorykin joins the Arctic expedition and floats across the Kara Sea by steamer over the course of a half-month along the Irtysh and Ob rivers to the island of Vaygach. At the end of the journey he reaches a radio station located between the islands of Vaygach and Novaya Zemlya and built to report on ice conditions in this part of the ocean. After waiting for the icebreaker, a few weeks later Zvorykin reaches Arkhangelsk, occupied by Entente troops. Having received visas and made stops along the way in Norway, Denmark and England, on the eve of 1919 he finally arrived in the United States.

“Soon after arriving, I found the office of a cooperative organization, to which I owed a business trip and a trip,” the researcher recalls. There, a young engineer is studying radio equipment. But “in the spring, an order was received from the Siberian government for me to return to Omsk. They needed a radio specialist, and I also had to bring some radio equipment parts.” And he goes back. The main map of its route is as follows: Seattle - Yokohama - Vladivostok. And in January 1919, Zvorykin symbolically completed his trip around the world, returning to Omsk, this time through Pacific Ocean, Japan, Vladivostok and Harbin. An adventure that seemed so incredible that initially Albert Abramson, the biographer of the outstanding inventor, did not believe in the authenticity of Zvorykin’s story.

After some time, Zvorykin - already during the reign of Admiral Kolchak - went to the USA again. This time free from obligations to anyone. Forever. He arrives without recommendations, and, moreover, speaks virtually no English. As news from his homeland, he brings with him a jar of myrrh - a blessed oil used in church services, which the Russian Orthodox Church asked to hand it over to the head of the Russian Church in the USA.

The future world genius was lucky: sensing his potential, Zvorykin was initially taken under the wing of the Russian Ambassador to the USA B.A. Bakhmetyev. (The fate of Bakhmetyev himself is noteworthy: the United States is in no hurry to recognize the Bolshevik government, even though the Provisional Government in Russia has long been liquidated. And a former professor at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, Bakhmetyev still manages the activities of the embassy, ​​information bureau and purchasing commission of Russia in the United States.) Zvorykin is enlisted on the staff of the purchasing commission based in New York. In the autobiography, the manuscript of which is kept in the Pittsburgh Museum, you can read: “...Worked as an accountant”.

The newly minted emigrant persistently sends dozens of letters to various companies offering his services as a radio electronics specialist. As a result, he is invited to work at the Westinghouse research laboratory (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). (A large group of emigrants from the former Russian Empire worked at this company. In particular, Stepan Timoshenko, a specialist in the strength of materials, whose books have been translated into many languages.) The young radio engineer’s desire to work in his specialty is so great that, according to historians, he was not I was confused by the size of the salary, half that of the procurement commission. Zvorykin did not immediately have the opportunity to study television in the Pittsburgh laboratory. He worked fanatically: the Westinghouse security guards were ordered by management to send the scientist home if the windows of his laboratory were lit after 2 am.

In 1923, Zvorykin finally got the opportunity to begin implementing the idea of ​​​​creating electronic television. And in the same year, he drew up a patent application in which he fully described the electronic television system. The US Patent Office refused Zworykin on the grounds that the photosensitive plate for the transmitting tube (that is, a television camera) described in the application does not exist in reality and there are serious doubts about the possibility of its creation under existing conditions. Then he takes a time out and completely switches to the official task of Westinghouse - the development of photovoltaic cells, which have begun to be actively introduced in engineering and industrial construction. It was this, as he himself admitted, uninteresting work that made his name known both in Pittsburgh itself (in 1926 the University of Pittsburgh awarded him a doctorate) and beyond.

At the same time, the inventor did not stop doing his work related to television.

“By that time,” he later recalled, “I realized that work on an idea that could lead to commercial success must be camouflaged until the possibility of making a profit became obvious to business people.” In order to move from experiments to pilot production, a representative of large business was needed.

And such a representative appeared in the person of compatriot David Sarnov, President Radio Corporation of America(RCA). Sarnov was born into a poor Jewish family in the town of Uzlyany (modern Belarus) and was brought to the United States by his parents at the age of nine. David Abramovich spoke both Russian and English perfectly; was a completely assimilated American. Behind Sarnov is the path from an ordinary employee of the Marcorni company to the head of a huge corporation.

After talking with Zworykin, he, unlike other American bosses, believed in his ideas and became his boss and patron for many years. Sarnov subsequently recalled that in response to a question about the estimated cost of the project, Zvorykin asked for a “modest” $100,000. In fact, the design work cost a hundred times that amount, and the company began to receive its first income from television when the total investment exceeded $50 million. In 1929, Zvorykin began working at the RCA branch located in Camden (New Jersey). In 1931, he created the final design of the transmitting tube iconoscope, which became the basis for the future electronic television system. After a series of practical tests carried out in Camden, a 2.5 kW television transmission station is installed in the very tall building New York - Empire State Building. RCA factories begin to produce televisions with a picture tube designed by Zvorykin. Residents of New York and surrounding areas within a radius of up to 100 km are becoming the first subscribers to electronic television. By 1933, Zvorykin and his employees completed the creation of an electronic television system. The birth of the television can be dated back to 1933, when Vladimir Zvorykin spoke at the annual conference of the American Society of Radio Engineers. In his report “Iconoscope - a modern version of the electric eye,” the scientist summed up the results of many years of work. He invented a device capable of transmitting the resulting image of an object to the screen of a cathode ray tube, that is, a kinescope. The new development became one of the most outstanding inventions of its time and is deservedly called the “miracle of the twentieth century.”

For the sake of objectivity, we note that not only Zvorykin claimed the title of inventor of television. In the late twenties, yesterday's schoolboy Philo Farnsworth, a self-taught person from Idaho, who, with the support of philanthropists Leslie Gorell and George Everson, founded his own laboratory in San Francisco, is developing a system for transmitting signals at a distance. Farnsworth’s contribution to the creation of electronic TV is “weighty and undeniable,” writes the modern Russian magazine Popular Mechanics. But the Image Dissector of the 1928 model, developed by him, was of little use for creating television equipment. Zworykin managed to do what Philo Farnsworth and his equally talented like-minded friend and competitor, Hungarian Kalman Tihanyi, who filed an application for his invention with the US Patent Office in 1928, failed.

All issues related to the recognition of the priority and authorship of Vladimir Zvorykin are described in detail in the book by television history researcher Albert Abramson. It also says that RCA President David Sarnov, in order to avoid conflicts in this issue and guided commercial interests, bought Farnsworth's patents for $1 million. He also acquired the patent of the Hungarian inventor.

In the second half of the 1930s, the threat of war became increasingly obvious. Many leading American corporations receive military orders. During these years, Zvorykin was mainly engaged in the problems of electronic optics, working together with I. Langmuir, J. Morton, L. Malter... Research in the field of electron-optical transformations led to the creation of a night vision device operating in the infrared range. During World War II, night vision devices designed by Zvorykin were used by the US Army to equip tanks and vehicles, and also as sights. It was he who developed the first television-controlled aerial bomb, which had an iconoscope that transmitted a picture to the operator. A little later, it was his laboratory that prepared a night vision device, which was immediately adopted by snipers, tank crews and operators. Albert Abramson, in his voluminous study, writes a lot about guided missiles and underwater torpedoes, developed with the active participation of Vladimir Zvorykin. The list of applications of inventions can be continued endlessly.

Years of living in the USA did not alleviate the homesickness. Vladimir Zvorykin strives to go to Russia. For the management of the RCA company, Zvorykin’s trip to the USSR is seen as an opportunity to receive Russian orders for its products: the USA was experiencing the most severe economic crisis— Receiving orders for products from other countries was welcomed. Zvorykin himself dreamed of meeting his sisters and brother. A few months before his first trip to the Soviet Union, representatives of the Soviet Union, specialists in the field of radio electronics S.A., visited the company on an official visit. Vekshinsky and A.F. Shorin. In a private conversation, the famous engineer was assured that the Soviet government would “provide him with the most favorable conditions for work and life and guarantee protection from any persecution related to his pre-revolutionary past.”

In August 1933, Zvorykin was in Russia. The report “Television using cathode tubes” gathers electricians in the hall of the Leningrad NTO great amount specialists. A year later, Zvorykin goes to Russia again. In 1935, RCA concluded a solid agreement with the People's Commissariat of Electrical Industry of the USSR, according to which the Soviet state was supplied with “technological documentation and materials, equipment for the production of electrovacuum devices, equipment for equipping the first Soviet electronic television center, etc.”

In the USSR, Vladimir Zvorykin always received a warm welcome. “Bolsheviks,” writes V.P. Borisov, “they forgave the talented scientist everything: his officer’s shoulder straps, his collaboration with Kolchak, and his flight to the USA...” Stalin’s USSR began industrialization: here they were purposefully interested in acquiring the latest technologies, including the purchase of television equipment. Moreover, the inventor receives a reception from the People's Commissar of Communications of the USSR Rykov.

The first Soviet TV “VK” was created precisely according to Zvorykin’s developments. By the end of 1936, the Leningrad Institute of Telemechanics, which by that time had been transformed into the All-Russian Research Institute of Television, completed the development of an electronic television system. On March 10, 1939, regular television broadcasts began from the Moscow Television Center on Shabolovka, and in 1954, serial production of television receivers was launched at the Kuntsevo Radio Engineering Plant in Moscow.

...The famous inventor was able to visit his homeland again only in 1959.

In 1945, he was actually banned from traveling abroad and was denied a passport. Until the end of the 50s, Zvorykin did not travel. One of the chapters of Albert Abramson's monograph contains detailed information about how the FBI was actively interested in Zworykin since 1943. Why from this moment? In 1943, Zvorykin, who by that time had moved with his laboratory to the most prestigious city from a scientific point of view, Princeton, was approached by activists of the Fund for Relief of War Victims in Russia, which was involved in raising funds for the purchase and sending of food and clothing to the population of the USSR, offering to head the New York branch of this fund. Zvorykin, who in principle had not previously affiliated himself with any parties or movements and was not involved in any social activities, agreed this time. The American Fund for Relief to Victims of the War in Russia, as it became known later, was one of the first on the FBI's list of suspicious organizations and was repeatedly searched at its own headquarters. At the same time, Vladimir Zvorykin in 1943 agreed to head the list of leaders of the New York Science Committee of the Council of American-Soviet Friendship.

Close attention to the life of a famous scientist - a native of Russia, in addition to his social activities, undoubtedly, is connected with his growing position in American society. On October 26, 1944, the headquarters of the US Air Force appointed Zvorykin as an expert consultant to the Air Force on scientific issues. Zworykin's laboratory at RCA developed several major military television systems during the war. Zvorykin’s contribution to the technical equipment of the US Army is invaluable.

Albert Abramson's book provides data on the persecution of the inventor and surveillance of him by FBI agents and informants. The author emphasizes that this section of the study was written on the basis of FBI documents, which he used thanks to the famous Freedom of Information Act adopted in 1966. Is it true, most of the information received at his request was obscured, as is customary in cases where there is information of special secrecy. Nevertheless, the chapter of the book devoted to the activities of the inventor during World War II is densely saturated with references to his dossier compiled by the FBI. For example, FBI files contain information that Vladimir Zworykin, as a member of the science committee of the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, asked one of his colleagues at the University of Berkeley (California) to transfer a list to Russian scientists scientific literature. FBI files dating back to August 1944 contain information about Zworykin's property. Information from an informant dated November 18, 1944 indicates that Zvorykin discussed with American colleagues the possibility of creating atomic bomb. The documents, dated November 30, 1944, report that Senator McKee requests that Zworykin's name be added to a special national censorship list in order to send copies of all his correspondence (both internal and external) to a special bureau. Since December 8, 1944, Zvorykin’s telephone in his Princeton apartment has been wiretapped. It was also installed to wiretap the telephone country house. His meetings with Ekaterina Polevitskaya, who later became his wife, also came under surveillance.

The materials published in Abramson's book, in particular, indicate that on February 19, 1945, after pressure from David Sarnov, the head of the FBI, John Edgar Hoover, was forced to write a letter in which he said that Zvorykin had nothing to do with the construction of the atomic bomb. It would seem that this should have ended the FBI's pressure, but it did not end.

In 1945, groups of specialists were formed in the United States to travel through the territory of Germany that had just been occupied by the Allied troops. The goal was to “identify the importance of extant research and industrial developments, identify highly qualified scientists and engineers, etc.” for the purpose of using them in the interests of the United States. Zvorykin, who arrived at Washington airport on April 26, 1945 and was leaving as part of a delegation to Germany, was categorically told that “he was not allowed to leave the United States.”

Vladimir Zvorykin continues to be showered with signs of recognition from the United States: he was awarded a medal. Howard Potts, an Honorary Diploma from the President of the United States, the Lamme Medal and Prize of the Institute of Electrical Engineers, the Pour Richard Club Gold Medal for outstanding achievements in science, etc. However, the inventor fears for himself, because he believes, as his biographers note, that “scientific merit is weak protection in an atmosphere of pseudo-patriotic frenzy.”

In 1951, a significant event took place in personal life Zvorykina. After many years of bachelorhood, he marries Ekaterina Polevitskaya, an emigrant from Russia. The history of their union is significant - they met twenty years before the wedding. Zworykin was fascinated by the beauty and charm of Polevitskaya, who was married. The marriage proposal followed when Zvorykin learned that Ekaterina Polevitskaya had become a widow. And although both newlyweds had crossed the sixty-year mark by that time, they lived in love and harmony for more than thirty (!) years. His energetic and erudite wife, a doctor by profession, greatly influenced the determination of Zvorykin’s future professional interests. After retiring as director of the RCA Electronics Laboratory in 1954 at the age of 65, his scientific and inventive interests shifted primarily to the field of medical electronics.

Zvorykin’s merits are appreciated so highly that he is awarded the position of honorary vice president of RCA. “The concept of resignation has nothing to do with Vladimir Zvorykin,” Sarnov said in his closing speech at a Princeton University conference specially organized in honor of the outstanding inventor. — A scientist like Zvorykin never resigns. His talent never fades. The imagination and creative instinct of a true scientist lead him to even more extensive knowledge.” That same year, Zworykin began work as director of the Center for Medical Electronics at the Rockefeller Institute in New York. To study chemical reactions inside living cells, the talented inventor soon created a unique microscope that reproduces a color image of objects on a television screen. The further development of integrated microelectronics allowed the scientist to implement the idea of ​​endoradiosounding together with doctors. The probe in this method is a miniature radio transmitter tablet, with the help of which “you can obtain data on acidity and other indicators of the internal environment.”

Together with the outstanding mathematician J. von Neumann, Zworykin develops new method forecasting weather changes using meteorological rockets and computer data processing. Then he takes on the problem of improving traffic safety on expressways and, as a result, creates an experimental model of a radio-controlled safe car. It is significant that in 1954, our eminent compatriot accurately predicted that a person would see the surface of the Moon and other planets precisely with the help of a television, which would be delivered there on board an interplanetary spacecraft.

In addition to working at the Rockefeller Institute, the scientist and inventor begins teaching as a visiting professor at the University of Miami. The International Federation of Medical Electronics and Biological Technology is created, Vladimir Zvorykin is elected president of the federation.

All these years, Vladimir Kozmich carried in his heart love for Russia and his native Murom. In 1967, the Zvorykin couple formalized an Intourist visit to Vladimir. The two of us went to admire the cathedrals. Then, having caught a taxi, we headed to the closed city of Murom. Thanks to his courage, fifty years later Vladimir Zvorykin is again in his hometown near the house where he spent his childhood and adolescence.

Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin is the holder of 120 patents, co-author of the books: Television: The Electronics of image transmission (1940, 1954), Electron optics and the electron microscope (1945), Photo electricity and its applications (1949), Television in science and industry (1958 ). Author of 100 technical articles in professional publications. Member of the National Academy of Sciences, Academy of Engineering, National Chamber of Honor of Inventors of the USA. In 1966 he was awarded the National Medal of Science by US President Lyndon Johnson.

About the death of V.K. Zvorykin in 1983 was reported by all US newspapers.

Vladimir Kuzmich Zvorykin is called “Russian gift to the Americans.” He left for the USA at a young age, but did not stop being a Russian scientist. Zvorykin invented the first electronic transmitting tube (iconoscope) and television receiving tube (kinescope). Zvorykin also worked on the creation of electron-optical converters, improvement of the electron microscope, and many others.

Little Vladimir was born on July 30, 1889 in the city of Murom into a wealthy merchant family. Since childhood, the boy was interested in Electrical Engineering and was distinguished by his love of books. In his memoirs, he wrote about his childhood: “My father tried to interest me in his affairs even when I was still a mere child, taking me with him on the ship and on other short business trips, which I liked.

When the weather was bad, my father would invite me into his office so that I could watch him receive business visitors. Of course, I didn’t understand their conversations, but I liked watching what was happening.”

In 1906, Zvorykin graduated from the Real School and entered St. Petersburg University. But after some time, the young man transferred to the St. Petersburg Technical Institute at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. Vladimir Kuzmich wrote about this time: “When I was a student, I studied with professor of physics Rosing, who, as you know, was the first to use a cathode ray tube for receiving television images. I was very interested in his work and asked permission to help him. We spent a lot of time talking and discussing the possibilities of television. Then I realized the shortcomings of mechanical scanning and the need for electronic systems.”

Zworykin spent his whole life remembering the house in which he grew up: “The house in which I was born belonged to our family for several generations. It was a large three-story stone building, too large even for our large family. In practice, we occupied only the second floor, the rest of the house was empty and we children had a lot of free space for playing hide and seek.... The house was located on a large square, facing two churches. Every Saturday a market was held on the square, where peasants brought their goods. The Saturday view from our windows of the square and bazaars was a source of entertainment...”

In 1912, after graduating from college, the young man went to France, to the College de France for an internship. During the First World War, Zvorykin returned to his homeland and fought for more than a year as an officer in wireless telegraph units. After some time, Zvorykin received an appointment to the Petrograd Officer Electrical Engineering School.

At the end of the summer of 1917, Vladimir Kuzmich went abroad. He understood that in Russia he did not have the opportunity to engage in the research that interested him in the field of television. It was not only impossible to work in Russia, but staying here for the merchant’s son turned out to be mortally dangerous. After the revolution, life in the country changed beyond recognition. It was difficult to survive in the atmosphere of chaos and bloody events, especially since Zvorykin came from a wealthy family.

Subsequently, when Vladimir Kuzmich found himself on a business trip in Russia in 1933, he found out what happened to many close and dear people. His teacher, Professor B.L. Rosing, was exiled to the North, where he soon died. A cousin - A.K. Zvorykin - was arrested in 1928 on charges that he was the son of a merchant of the first guild, his family had a house at their disposal before the revolution and he studied abroad and knows foreign languages. Soon my brother died on Solovki, in the camp. Vladimir Kuzmich's brother, Nikolai, a hydraulic engineer, was arrested in the early 1930s. If Vladimir Zvorykin had not left Russia, it is likely that the same fate would have awaited him. But he managed to leave his homeland, which had become hostile.

First Zvorykin went to London, then settled in the USA. At first, he could not find a decent job for himself; he worked in accounting at the Russian embassy. Soon Zvorykin learned English language and thanks to the assistance of Russian emigrants, he got a job at Westinghouse Electric. Zvorykin spent a long time lobbying management for the opportunity to engage in research in the field of television. This topic he had been interested in for a long time. But his superiors did not give him such an opportunity. As a result, Zworykin even left the company, but returned after a while because no one took his ideas seriously.

Vladimir Kuzmich continued to work at Westinghouse Electric, and in his free time he still continued to conduct experiments on “far-sighting,” as he then called the topic of his research. And very soon, in 1923, Zvorykin demonstrated to the leadership the transmission of images at a distance. Subsequently, he recalled this episode: “The demonstration was impressive, the transmitted image was a cross. The same cross was visible in the receiving cathode tube, only less contrasting and sharp.” However, despite the lack of special entertainment, the installation was obvious. The company's management reacted with interest to what they saw. But spend work time However, such research was not considered appropriate.

In 1926, Vladimir Kuzmich graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, received a Doctor of Philosophy degree, and after some time received a Doctor of Science degree from the Brooklyn Polytechnic University. He also became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and many other academies and scientific societies. But Zworykin did not give up his inventive activity. He has filed several patent applications in the field of television. However, for some reason they were not considered or were done extremely slowly. For one patent application, the inventor received a patent only after 15 years.

In America, Vladimir Zworykin did not feel like he belonged. The atmosphere of a foreign country weighed heavily on him. He suffered greatly when his wife, Tatyana Vladimirovna, died, leaving two children. Vladimir Kuzmich married for the second time in 1951. His wife was a Russian emigrant, Ekaterina Andreevna Polevitskaya. Interest in television among the world community arose completely unexpectedly. In the 1920s in different countries experiments were conducted in this industry around the world. Westinghouse Electric management commissioned Zworykin to produce a detailed summary of the achievements of the case. In 1927, Vladimir Kuzmich went on a business trip to European countries. He visited Belgium, Germany, France, England. During the trip, Zvorykin learned a lot of new, useful formations.

In 1928-1929, he designed a television receiving tube with electrostatic focusing. This device became the predecessor of modern picture tubes. And the word “kinescope” itself appeared thanks to Vladimir Kuzmich, who proposed a strange term for the name of receiving television tubes. The word consists of two Greek words: “kineo”, which translated into Russian means “set in motion” and “skopeo” - “look”. The management of Westinghouse Electric has already provided Zworykin with more opportunities for research and experimentation in the field of electricity. Equipment and staff were provided to the scientist. During 1929, Vladimir Kuzmich designed several televisions and other television equipment, in particular a radio transmitter.

During this period, Zvorykin decided to leave Westinghouse Electric to start his own business. However, he did not have enough funds, and so the inventor went to work at RCA - Radio Corporation of America. It was within the framework of this corporation that Vladimir Kuzmich designed picture tubes, which brought him worldwide fame.

It so happened that in 1931, almost simultaneously, two engineers living in different countries filed patent applications for the same invention - a transmitting television tube (“iconoscope”). There was very little difference in the timing of filing patent applications. These inventors were Vladimir Zvorykin and Semyon Kataev from Russia.

Zvorykin submitted his application on November 13, 1931. On November 26, 1935, he received a US patent. But Kataev was the first to apply. This was taken on September 24, 1931. He received the copyright certificate on April 30, 1933.

It is interesting that both inventors did not argue about who was the first to create the device. They became friends and met several times.

The method of operation and structure of the tube, which was called the “iconoscope,” are very interesting. The main component of the device was a mosaic photocathode - a mica plate, on one side of which there are millions of light-sensitive elements. These could be silver particles coated with cesium. Each element was a tiny cathode, forming a capacitor in connection with a nearby but mica-separated metal coating deposited on the plate on the other side. The result is a dielectric with two conductive plates.

This is where charges accumulated. The scanning electron beam ran around the mosaic, discharging the microcapacitors. And amplified electrical impulses entered the circuit. This increased the power of video signals.

In the second half of the 1930s, Zvorykin began solving problems of electron optics. Under his leadership, a night vision device was created that operated in the infrared range. The scientist also continued to work on improving television equipment. His laboratory also developed such electron-optical instruments as a supericonoscope, orthikon, vidicon, electron microscope, etc. By order of the military departments, on-board television devices were created for targeting bombs and missiles, and devices for radar systems.

In 1954, Zworykin retired as director of electronic research at RCA, but for a long time he was a consultant to the company. D. Sarnov, president of the corporation, wrote about the inventor: “His brilliant mind never waits for others. He never stops creating and innovating. Even fifteen years after his so-called retirement, following a remarkably productive career, he created more than many people do in a lifetime.”

In 1957, Zvorykin patented a device that provides a color image of active living cells on a screen in ultraviolet radiation. This was the beginning of a new milestone scientific research. Vladimir Kuzmich also improved the electron microscope used for medical and biological research.

In 1967, Zworykin was awarded a medal from the National Academy of Sciences of the United States for his contributions to the development of instruments for science, technology and television and for promoting the use of electronics in medicine. In addition, the scientist had many other various awards. In 1977, Zworykin was elected to the National Gallery of Inventors' Honor.

Vladimir Kuzmich Zvorykin received more than 100 patents for various inventions throughout his life. Among them were photocells, microscopes, electronic control systems vehicles and much more. When the scientist was 90 years old, he said about himself: “I’m still learning.” And indeed it is. Until the end of his life, Vladimir Kuzmich showed interest in various fields of science. They made more than 80 scientific publications. Vladimir Kuzmich Zvorykin lived a long, fruitful life. He died in 1982.

Discoveries and inventions of Russia, Slavic House of Books

Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin was the first of our compatriots to receive the honor of entering the Russian-American Chamber of Fame. He owns the invention that had the most important impact on the society of the twentieth century - electronic television. Zvorykin's developments gave birth to such devices as an electron microscope, a night vision device and an electron-optical converter. Without him none of this would have happened Personal Computer, nor many other devices that are used in the military, medical and engineering fields.

Premature opening

The future great inventor was born on July 17, 1889 in the family of a merchant of the first guild, Kozma Alekseevich Zvorykin, who owned several ships, traded in bread and financial transactions - he served as chairman of the Murom Public Bank. Volodya was the youngest of seven children of a merchant. The father, an exemplary capitalist, had progressive views and tried to instill work discipline in his children. He encouraged his sons' interest in science in every possible way - especially since several of Kozma Alekseevich's brothers became famous scientists: Nikolai Zvorykin was a master of mathematics and physicist, professor of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute Konstantin Zvorykin was an engineer, author of works on metal processing and mechanical engineering technologies. And Ivan Alekseevich, a professor of physics at Moscow University, probably could have become a great meteorologist - he was creating a device that would register electrical discharges, predicting the approach of a thunderstorm. But, alas, his life was tragically cut short - he had connections with the organization " People's will” and shot himself when the police came to his apartment with an arrest warrant.

Like Konstantin Alekseevich, Vladimir showed an interest in technology from childhood and in his youth chose the right path - he entered the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology. It was in 1906, at the very height of the First Russian Revolution, and the newly minted student did not remain aloof from political events - together with his comrades he ended up in prison for two weeks for distributing leaflets calling for reforms and elections to the Second Duma. The most important role in Zvorykin’s fate was played by a meeting with Professor Boris Lvovich Rosing, who conducted experiments on electronic transmission of images over a distance. One day, having caught Vladimir doing someone else’s laboratory work (he was helping a friend), Boris Lvovich did not reprimand him, but, on the contrary, invited him to be an assistant in his laboratory. “Since you spend so much time here anyway,” he added slyly. Zvorykin happily agreed.

Now it’s somehow strange to think about it, but at the time when Rosing and Zworykin created their electron-vacuum tube, the most likely path for the development of television was considered mechanical. In the 20s, Scottish inventor John Bird created mechanical television based on the so-called Nipkow disk - simple device, which allows you to turn the scanned image into a set of “lines”, from which you can then reassemble the image on the screen of the receiving device. In 1925, Byrd demonstrated the transmission of images over a distance - the image of a humanoid doll on a mechanical “screen” assembled from flickering squares seemed to be a ghost caused by an experienced medium. Despite the obvious imperfection of the technology, contemporaries immediately fell in love with the “box”. Two years later, Byrd managed to transmit a signal over a distance of 705 km using a telephone cable, and a year later - to carry out the first transmission of a “television signal” between continents. In 1936, the BBC even broadcast “television broadcasts” using the improved Byrd system, which by that time gave a frame resolution of 240 lines. Unlike real television, it did not make it possible to directly transmit the captured image on the air: first it was necessary to record the film on film, which was then scanned.

The first Soviet serial TV B-27. Photo: Kunov Valentin / TASS

Rosing proposed a fundamentally different approach to solving the problem: optical-mechanical devices are a dead-end direction; to construct images, one must use an electron beam in a vacuum, directing it using electromagnetic fields. The idea was so innovative that it was decades ahead of its time: Rosing's system required parts that had not yet been created - for example, photovoltaic cells that could convert light into a stream of electrons. Even vacuum had to be obtained using antediluvian methods - using hand vacuum pumps. If technology had matured, perhaps Rosing would have been awarded the laurels of the pioneer of television. But many more years passed before the dream became feasible.

In the service of Kolchak

Having received a diploma in electrical engineering in 1912, Zworykin went to study abroad - at the Parisian Collège de France, where his professor was the outstanding physicist Paul Langevin. Here Zvorykin worked with X-ray installations, exploring their capabilities for studying crystal structures. The inventor himself writes in his memoirs that he survived by some miracle: the X-ray equipment of that time was powerful and did not have a protective screen - many of those who worked with them died within several years. But research at the Collège de France provided the opportunity to study areas that Zworykin would later find useful. In 1912, when the transmission of radio time signals from the Eiffel Tower began, he independently assembled a radio receiver in the laboratory - this was his first experience with radio. And the young engineer’s first acquaintance with medical electronics happened in a completely curious way: one day a student from Russia came into his laboratory and had a needle get under her skin in the area of ​​her wrist. The doctor was unable to determine its location and remove the needle. At that time, X-ray machines were only available in large hospitals. Zvorykin managed to set up his setup in such a way as to take a clear picture, which allowed the doctor to remove the foreign object. Vladimir’s experience with transmitting and receiving radio signals helped him during the First World War: he was called up to military service, he was engaged in the construction of field radio stations.

The revolution put an end to Zvorykin’s dreams of studying scientific activity at home. Scientific work was poorly financed, old educational institutions were destroyed, many of the inventor’s colleagues went abroad. At the invitation of friends who worked in an international cooperative organization, he went to Omsk, where the provisional Siberian government operated. The local Ministry of Supply sent him to the United States to negotiate the purchase of radio equipment. To leave the country, Zvorykin had to get out of the ring of fronts - having joined the ranks of the Arctic expedition, he reached Vaygach Island and from there went on an icebreaker to Arkhangelsk, which was occupied by the British and French. Having received the necessary visas, Zworykin finally went to the United States. However, in 1919, this country had not yet become his second home - soon he was again requested to Omsk, and he had to return in a roundabout way - through Canada, Japan and Vladivostok. And only during his next visit on behalf of the provisional government of Siberia did he realize that he would remain in America forever: soon after his arrival in New York, the Kolchak government fell, and there was nowhere to return.

The first RCA 630-TS TV to go into mass production. Photo: Fletcher6 / Wikipedia

The United States had not yet recognized the Bolshevik government, and Zvorykin decided to ask the ambassador of the Provisional Government in the United States, Boris Bakhmetyev, to get him a job at the embassy. It turned out that the only place he could offer him was that of a specialist working on an adding machine in the accounting department of the Russian Purchasing Commission in New York. Zvorykin agreed, but did not accept the miserable position - he began sending letters to companies looking for vacancies for radio electronics specialists. Finally, he received an invitation from Westinghouse Electric in Pittsburgh: in the corporate laboratory he began preparing cathodes for radio tubes. While working at this electric company, Zvorykin made several inventions, which, however, he never patented - he did not know English well and could not explain to the patent attorney what exactly their novelty was.

Zvorykin’s “career” in the United States was not at all smooth: after leaving Westinghouse Electric, at the invitation of a petrochemical company, he moved to Kansas City. He didn’t understand petrochemistry, but the salary here was twice as high, and they also gave him the opportunity to open his own laboratory. Experiments to improve the process of cracking oil using high-frequency current did not bring success - it turned out that the current even slows down the process of splitting hydrocarbons. The management was furious, the laboratory was closed, and Zvorykin ended up on the street.

Dream come true

However, this failure was only one of the troubles that preceded success. When, many years later, the inventor asked his daughter Nina what she remembered most about life in Kansas City, she replied: “The phrase “electron beam.” You repeated it a hundred times a day.” Soon after being expelled from the petrochemical industry, he was invited back to Westinghouse Electric: the head of the laboratory had changed there, and its new head expressed interest in Zvorykin’s projects, which were not appreciated by the previous bosses. The scientist was given the opportunity to do what he liked, and in less than two months, working almost alone, he assembled the first current system electronic television. Contrary to popular misconception, the transmitting electron tube was called an “iconoscope”, and the receiving tube from the very beginning received the same name as it does now - kinescope. And although the quality of the transmitted signal was far from perfect, the head of the laboratory immediately believed that the future lay in electronic rather than mechanical television. But the general director, to whom he demonstrated the invention of the talented Russian, just chuckled and brought out his resume: “The guy is talented, but he does nonsense. Isn’t it possible to use it more usefully?” A perfect illustration of corporate shortsightedness!

In the first half of the 20s, Zvorykin patented several inventions at once - an iconoscope, a kinescope, a model of color television. In 1926 he received his doctorate for his work in the field of photovoltaic cells. However, his ideas did not have commercial success - no one undertook to turn them into a product in demand by consumers. It is difficult to say how much more time the inventor could have spent proving their usefulness to others if not for another successful acquaintance: he managed to tell David Sarnov, president of Radio Corporation of America (RCA), about his developments. Perhaps the compatriot effect played a role: like Zvorykin, Sarnov was a native of the Russian Empire and spoke excellent Russian. He was a successful businessman and from the very beginning believed in the promise of electronic television. In 1929, Zvorykin went to work at RCA, where he improved the iconoscope for two years. Finally, television appears as a service available to ordinary citizens - so far, however, only in New York: a transmitting station installed on the 85th floor of the Empire State Building allows residents of the city and surrounding area to receive broadcasts on television receivers manufactured by RCA factories.

Empire State Building. Photo: AP

Zvorykin’s invention, which was immediately dubbed the “miracle of the 20th century,” quickly became interested all over the world - corporations understood the commercial benefits of television, governments understood the propaganda benefits: for example, Nazi Germany used television cameras of the Zvorykin system in order to conduct the world's first live broadcast - with Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936. The idea of ​​​​creating our own television caused delight among the leaders of the USSR. Unlike, for example, Igor Sikorsky, Zvorykin was never an implacable enemy of Bolshevism - at the invitation of the Soviet government, he visited Moscow in 1935 and took part in signing an agreement with RCA on the supply of television equipment. The first television transmitting station in Moscow began operating in 1938 using equipment supplied by the studio. The first Soviet TV, TK-1, which was produced in 1934 at the Kozitsky plant in Leningrad, was made under an American license.

During the television broadcast of the landing of American astronauts on the Moon, Zworykin cried with happiness - from now on he will be involved in everything that is happening in the world: after all, it is his brainchild that allows us to see even what is separated from us by hundreds of thousands of kilometers. However, the ability to see far (remember that television literally means “far vision”) was possessed not only by Zvorykin’s brainchild, but also by himself. One of the inventor’s colleagues called it “A Gift to the American Continent.” Zworykin's merits in the United States were appreciated - in 1978, the Congress of Russian Americans awarded him the title of Honored Russian American for his outstanding contribution to world science and technology, and his native company awarded him the position of honorary vice president.

Television is far from the only invention of this great Russian scientist: during the Second World War, while working as part of the US Air Force Advisory Committee, he used a kinescope to construct a night vision device capable of converting infrared rays into an image accessible to the human eye. In addition, he became a pioneer in the field of television-controlled bombs and missiles. Back in the twenties, Zvorykin created an electronic fax machine (the mechanical “fax” was invented back in mid-19th century). In the fifties, Zworykin returned to experiments in medical electronics, begun by that X-ray that made it possible to remove a needle from the arm of a Russian student. In collaboration with Canadian engineer James Hiller, he invented the first electron microscope high resolution, which could be used for medical and biological research.

Zvorykin visited the USSR two more times - in 1967, Vladimir Kozmich and his wife even went to their native Murom, buying a tourist ticket. It is noteworthy that the emigrant’s merits did not allow his name to be silenced even in his homeland, which diligently disowned the talented people who left it.