It is quite difficult to answer the question of who invented the television at first glance, since the history of the television as a technology had two branches of development based on different principles - electromechanical television (mechanical) and electronic. Often, economic, political and ideological interests are always squeezed into the answer to such questions, which makes everything even more confusing. But still, let’s try to understand in more detail the individuals and personalities who contributed to the development of television and the invention of television.

As a rule, you can come across the following names that are credited with the invention of the television: Baird, Rosing, Zvorykin, Kataev, Persky, Nipkov, Takayanagi, Farnsworth. Let's try to understand these names and what contribution each of them made to the invention of the television.

Nipkow Paul Julius Gottlieb

Technician and inventor from Germany. He is best known for inventing a disk in 1884, called the “Nipkow disk.” The disk made it possible to mechanically scan objects so that information about them could later be transmitted to the receiver. The disk was an ordinary rotating circle with holes in a spiral. By rotating, it allowed the object to be read line by line. Nipkov did not invent the television, but he did invent an important component for mechanical television.

Schematic representation of a Nipkow disk

Persky Konstantin Dmitrievich

Was a teacher at cadet corps St. Petersburg, had the rank of Guards artillery captain. In 1900, he made a presentation at the IV International Electrotechnical Congress “Television through electricity”, where he first used the term “television”. Since the report was read in French, many do not even think about the fact that the term was essentially invented by a Russian. But Persky has nothing to do directly with the development of the TV.

Baird John Logie

By the 1920s, when signal amplification made television more practical, Scottish inventor John Lougie Baird used the Nipkow disk in his prototype video systems. On 25 March 1925, Baird gave the first public display of television images of the silhouette in motion at the Selfridge department store in London. Because the human faces did not have enough contrast to show up in his primitive system, he broadcast an image of the head of a talking ventriloquist doll called "Stooky Bill", whose painted face had more contrast. By January 26, 1926, he presented the first transmission of an image of a human face in motion via radio, which is considered the first television transmission in the world. In 1927, it carried out the first broadcast transmission in the world, transmitting a signal between London and Glasgow over a distance of 705 km.

Rosing Boris Lvovich

Rosing was a Russian physicist, teacher and inventor. He realized that the development of mechanical television was a dead end, so he began his research by introducing an inertia-free electron beam into the television system, thereby opening an alternative path for the development of television communications. His main merit was not even that he proposed a new method of transmitting images at a distance, which was still very imperfect, but that this transmission method set the vector of development for all television systems of the future, including modern ones. There was no Rosing system mechanical parts. It is because of this fact that Rosing should be considered the main inventor of the electronic television. This priority was also secured by a patent in 1907, which were recognized in a number of leading European powers, such as Germany, the USA, and England. And in 1911, Rosing created a prototype of a kinescope, which received the simplest images, which became the world's first electronic television transmission.

Diagram of the television system of B. L. Rosing, developed in 1907. At the top is the transmitting device, at the bottom is the receiving cathode ray tube.

Campbell-Swinton Alan Archibald

Alan Campbell-Swinton was a Scottish electrical engineer who was Rosing's main competitor in developing the theoretical basis for electrical television. Campbell-Swinton, like Rosing, understood that mechanical television was limited in its development due to the limited number of scanning lines, leading to poor image quality and flickering of the picture. In 1908, he wrote an article for the journal Nature, where he outlined his view of the “electric vision”. In the same year, he writes another article, “Remote Electrical Vision,” where he sets out the principles by which he proposes to create electric television. In 1911, he gave a speech in London, where he theoretically described a system of remote electrical vision using cathode ray tubes, both at the receiving and transmitting ends, which was fundamentally no different from Rosing’s scheme. True, he was never able to conduct successful experiments to create such a system in the future. In 1914, he conducted a series of not very successful experiments in collaboration with G.M. Minchin and J. C. M. Stanton.

Takayanagi Kenjiro

On December 25, 1925, the Japanese Kenjiro Takayanagi demonstrated a 40-line resolution television system using a Nipkow disk scanner and a cathode ray tube. This prototype is still on display at the Takayanagi Memorial Museum at the University of Shizuoka, Hamamatsu Campus in Japan. By 1927, Takayanagi had improved the resolution to 100 lines, which was unsurpassed until 1931. By 1928, he was the first to render human faces in halftones. His work influenced the later work of Vladimir Kuzmich Zvorykin.

Farnsworth Philo Taylor

Farnsworth is an American television inventor. His contribution was that he invented a special transmission device called an "image dissector", which did the same thing as a Nipkow disk in a mechanical system, it allowed the image to be broken down into electrical signals. He also managed to build the world's first fully electronic television system, which he demonstrated in 1928 to the press, and in 1934 he demonstrated this system to the public.

Farnsworth Image Dissector

Kataev Semyon Isidorovich

Kataev was a Soviet inventor and scientist who was involved in the development of Rosing's ideas in practical terms. He was a competitor to another inventor of Russian origin, who will be discussed below, Zvorykin. Both inventors tried to develop Rosing's idea of ​​​​using CRTs in television. But the tubes are different. The Germans at this time were intensively trying to develop gas-focusing CRTs, that is, using gas in a tube to focus the cathode rays. Kataev took a different path and began to develop a CRT with magnetic focusing. The result of his work was the so-called. “radio eye” is an analogue of Zvorykin’s iconoscope. His invention Kataev S.I. tested it in 1931, and in 1933 received a patent for it in the USSR. Later, when Zvorykin and Kataev showed each other their inventions, Zvorykin noted that the radio eye was superior to his iconoscope in some respects.

Zvorykin Vladimir Kozmich

Zworykin was also a Russian inventor and student of Boris Rosing, although after the revolution his relationship with the new Soviet government did not work out, and he emigrated to the United States, where he continued to develop the ideas of his teacher. Zvorykin in the West is considered the inventor of the television, but, of course, this cannot be considered for the many reasons that we have already noted above, although his contribution to the development of television is also difficult to overestimate. Unlike Kataev, Zvorykin followed the path of creating a CRT with electrostatic focusing. The thinking of Kataev and Zvorykin was diametrically opposed, which gave rise to such a difference in approaches and inventions. If Kataev, as a true theorist, first decided to invent a transmitting tube, and only then a receiving one, then Zvorykin did the opposite, since instead of a transmitting one, a transmitter built like a Nipkow disk could be used. In 1935 V.K. Zworykin received a US patent for his invention, although he staged demonstrations of his invention back in 1926. Televisions with magnetic focusing were more common until the 70s of the 20th century, since for a long time it was not possible to obtain a CRT with electrostatic focusing that was of equal quality. But it was with the advent of the iconoscope that electronic television fully became a reality.

RESULTS

As mentioned above, a distinction should be made between electromechanical and electronic TVs. The mechanical TV appeared parallel to the electronic one, so it cannot be considered a predecessor, rather a dead-end branch of development. It was severely limited in increasing picture quality and resolution, unlike cathode ray tube televisions. Therefore, all names associated with a mechanical television can be excluded from contenders for the invention of the television as we know it. Thus, Nipkow, Baird and the rest did not invent the electronic television.

On the Internet you can often find the thesis that Kataev filed his patent application before Zvorykin and formally it is more correct to consider him the inventor of the television, but in fact Zvorykin invented his iconoscope earlier, but due to bureaucratic red tape, his patent was considered for a long time. In fact, this is generally unimportant, since both of them were Rosing’s students, and Zvorykin more than once confirmed Rosing’s priority in the invention of television, therefore it was Boris Lvovich Rosing who, obviously, should be called the inventor of television. He foresaw the future of electronic television long before anyone else and was an active popularizer of this idea.

It is difficult today to meet a person who does not know what a television is. A television has long been no longer a luxury item; it is found in almost every home and is used by young and old. IN modern world There are many types of TVs that differ from each other in parameters, characteristics, screen types, etc. However, not everyone knows the history of the television and who is considered its first inventor. However, the appearance of television is the merit of many scientists. Thanks to their inventions and research, the issue of transmitting images over a distance using technical means was resolved very successfully by the end of the 19th century. The beginning was made by the Englishman Smith, who discovered the phenomenon of the photoelectric effect in 1873. Hertz and other scientists continued research in this direction. At the beginning of 1888, Russian scientist A.G. Stoletov created an “electric eye,” which was the prototype of photocells. In 1884, the Nipkow disk was created, and in 1907, Dieckmann demonstrated a television, measuring 3 cm by 3 cm with a screen of 20 pixels. We cannot ignore the famous Russian scientist B. Rosing, who invented the “cathode telescope” system, which reproduced an image with a cathode ray tube. These and a number of other inventions were fundamental in the history of television.

The creator of electronic television is considered V.K.Zvorykin, creator of the electronic transmitting tube - iconoscope. In 1936, Zworykin, a student and follower of the famous scientist Rosing, created the first electronic television in his laboratory, a little later he became the first creator of a television for the public. V.K. Zvorykin was born on July 17, 1889 in Murom in the family of the merchant Kozma Alekseevich Zvorykin. There are discrepancies and inaccuracies regarding the date of birth of this outstanding scientist. Thus, in the Central Archives of St. Petersburg there is a copy of his birth certificate, which indicates a different year of birth - 1888. The merchant's two brothers were famous Russian scientists, and his eldest son, Nikolai, also gave preference to science. Therefore, Kozma Alekseevich dreamed of eventually transferring his business to Vladimir, who already in childhood showed himself to be an incredibly energetic, capable and “handy” young man. As soon as the fashion for electric bells appeared in the city, he immediately made and equipped them entrance doors in the houses of relatives and friends. He successfully repaired the alarm system on a ship that belonged to his father's company.

In 1906, Vladimir successfully graduated from a real school in his native Murom and, at the insistence of his father, entered the Technological Institute of St. Petersburg, after which he became a certified industrial engineer in 1912. At the institute, an event occurs in Vladimir’s life that played a huge role for him in the future. In 1910, he was engaged in research work in the laboratory under the direction of Rosing, who is passionately working on the problem of transmitting images over a distance (electronic television). On the recommendation of the professor, Zworykin went on an internship in 1912 at the College de France. Here he listens to lectures by the famous Paul Langevin and studies under his guidance the properties of x-ray radiation. During the First World War, Private Zvorykin commanded a radio station for almost a year, which he himself installed. As a result of overvoltage, he was sent for rehabilitation to Petrograd, where he was soon awarded the rank of officer and sent as a teacher to the Officer Electrical Engineering School. In 1916, he was appointed military representative at the ROBTiT plant, which produces radio stations for the navy and army. Here he met a major entrepreneur and famous radio engineer S.M. Aizenstein. After the revolution, Zworykin understands that his dreams of creating a laboratory where he could implement many of his engineering ideas and ideas in the field of electronic television, which was an early agreement with Eisenstein, would no longer come true. Zvorykin is seeking a transfer to work in Siberia. He hopes that the richest entrepreneurs in Siberia, interested in developing production, creating their own networks of radio stations, and establishing international trade relations, will help in the implementation of his plans. Fleeing from arrest, Zvorykin, with great difficulties, reached Omsk in July 1918, where he was seconded by the Provisional Siberian Government to England, Sweden, Denmark and Norway.

Having reached Arkhangelsk, Zvorykin met the US Ambassador to Russia D.R. Francis and received a visa to the US. In 1920, Zworykin and his wife moved to Pittsburgh, where he worked for the Westinghouse Electric Company. Since 1923, he has been inventing and constructing transmitting (iconoscope) and receiving, reproducing images (kinescope) cathode ray television tubes. In the late 1920s, Zvorykin met a major entrepreneur, president RCA (Radio Corporation of America), a native of Russia D. Sarnov, who was well versed in electrical engineering issues. He supported Zvorykin’s ideas in the field of creating television systems and research, and invested huge amounts of money in this project. In 1931, Zworykin created a serial tube with a mosaic photocathode, he decided the most important question color transmission, laid down the basic principles of modern color television. In 1932, a television station was installed at the Empire State Building in New York, and the corporation's factories began producing the first televisions. Today, the buyer pays great attention to the characteristics and functional features of products. High-quality, multifunctional TVs from the online store palladium.ua will make your stay pleasant and comfortable. Plunge into the world of amazing and beautiful. Zworykin was proud of his invention, which brought people information, knowledge, culture, and gave the whole family the opportunity to sit in front of a blue screen. At the same time, he realized that television also carried danger; it could “brainwash all of humanity.” Over the course of a long and fruitful life, this great person made many inventions, his name was included in the National Chamber of Fame of Inventors of the United States of America in 1977.

Zvorykin Vladimir Kozmich - scientist, inventor in the field of electronics. Zworykin invented the “miracle of the 20th century” - electronic television. His innovative ideas were also used in the creation of electron microscopes, photomultipliers and electron-optical converters

Born 07/30/1888 Murom, Vladimir province. After graduating from a real school, he entered St. Petersburg University in 1906, but at the insistence of his father he soon transferred to the Technological Institute. Here a meeting took place that largely determined Z.’s scientific interests: he met Professor B. Rosing, the author of innovative works on electronic transmission of images over a distance. In 1912, Zvorykin graduated from the Technological Institute, receiving a diploma with honors, which gave him the right to go on a scientific internship in one of the European laboratories. For a year, Vladimir Kozmich studied X-ray diffraction at the Collège de France, then went to Germany to take a course in theoretical physics at the Charlottenburg Institute.

1st World War interrupted Zvorykin’s scientific studies, he returned to Russia, where he was drafted into the army. For a year and a half he served in the signal troops in Grodno, then worked at the officer radio school in Petrograd. In 1917, on the instructions of the Provisional Government, he established a radio station for communication between the Tauride Palace and Kronstadt, then returned to work at ROBTiT. At the end of the year, the plant was evacuated to Moscow: the Germans were breaking through to the capital, and this important defense enterprise had to be transferred from Petrograd to a safer place.

In 1919 he emigrated to the USA. Zvorykin was given the opportunity to try his hand at Westinghouse Electric in Pittsburgh. Plunging headlong into experiments, he began to implement the ideas of electronic television that had long been nurtured. By 1923, Vorykin created a television device, the basis of which was an original transmitting tube with a mosaic photo code. The capabilities of the developed equipment were, however, still very limited. Gradually moving towards his intended goal, by 1929 he designed a high-vacuum receiving tube - a kinescope, and developed a number of other elements for electronic television equipment. The fundamental invention of 3vorykin, which allows solving main problem in the development of television technology, there was the creation of a transmitting cathode ray tube with charge accumulation and high photosensitivity. Zvorykin received in 1931 a special cathode ray tube with a mosaic photosensitive structure - an iconoscope. After successful testing of the iconoscope, Zvorykin, together with his assistants, began developing the television system as a whole. In 1933, a television system with 240 lines was created, and in 1934 - with 343 lines with interlaced scanning. In 1936, television broadcasts using such a system began in the United States.

In the second half of the 30s, Zworykin was mainly concerned with problems of electron optics. Since 1939, Zvorykin, together with his assistant J. Hillier, has been developing electron microscopes, reaching short time significant results. During the Second World War, night vision devices designed by Zvorykin were used by the US Army to equip tanks and vehicles, and also as sights.

In 1954, Zworykin retired from his position as director of the electronics laboratory at RCA. His merits are so great that he is given the position of honorary vice president of RCA. Zvorykin began active organizational and scientific activities. He was director of the Center for Medical Electronics at the Rockefeller Institute, founding president of the International Federation of Medical Electronics and Biological Engineering, and a member of professional medical electronics groups established in the United States and France.

Vladimir Kozmich was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Academy of Engineers, the American Philosophical Society, and an honorary member of many academies and scientific societies. He owns over 120 patents and more than 80 scientific papers. Z. was called a “gift to the American continent.” He has received more than 30 awards (including the US National Medal of Science, the Pioneer Award of the American Association of Manufacturers, the Presidential Certificate of Honor, the French Legion of Honor, etc.). Inventive and scientific activity Z. was noted by including his name in the American National Gallery of Fame for Inventors.

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 these researches, 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

It was 85 years ago, on April 7, 1927, that the American scientist Herbert Ives managed to organize the first public television broadcast over a long distance. Then viewers in New York saw an image of the future US President, still just Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, transmitted from New Jersey. The Americans were terribly proud of their new product and somehow did not particularly spread the fact that its father was a Russian with an unpronounceable surname - Zworykin.

I just want to start this story with the words: “In the glorious city of Murom, there lived a rich merchant Kozma Alekseevich. He had a beloved child - his son Volodymyr.” Well, if you want, then we’ll start like that, and then we’ll move on as we do today. For the story is about the man who created our electronic today.

Vladimir, in the family of a grain merchant, owner of the Oka Shipping Company Zvorykin, chairman of the board of the Murom Public Bank, merchant of the first guild Kozma Zvorykin, was the youngest of seven children. However, it was with him that my father pinned all his business hopes. The eldest son Nikolai did not show any interest in the affairs of his father’s company and was completely passionate about science, just like his uncles, Nikolai Alekseevich, who died early, and Konstantin Alekseevich, who later became a famous scientist and metallurgist. Five daughters did not count, so when on July 29, 1888, the wife brought the merchant his long-awaited second son, he considered him a gift from God and from early childhood began to attach him to business, mainly shipping business. The smart boy liked this, although he was more interested not in boring office books, which meticulously listed cargo, routes, income and expenses, but in sophisticated ship technology. As a boy, he already repaired ship alarms, ran electric bells he made at home, and tried to understand the operation of machines and mechanisms.

In 1906, Vova graduated from the Murom Real School and left his hometown for St. Petersburg. Where he quickly entered St. Petersburg University. The father, who learned about this, became seriously alarmed, suspecting that this son would also be drawn into science, and demanded that he transfer to a more down-to-earth Technological Institute. The young man did not dare to disobey his parent. It cannot be said that the translation was to his detriment. In any case, he met one of the Russian enthusiasts who was trying to learn how to transmit images over a distance, Professor Boris Lvovich Rosing, there.

Work in the field of “far-sighting” even then excited the minds of many scientists in all parts of the world. The most promising was considered “mechanical television,” in which rays of light hit a photocell through a special “Nipkow disk” with holes cut in a spiral. With its help, the image on the screen was also formed. The disadvantage of the design was the extremely low clarity, which depended on the number of holes. However, Rosing adhered to a different, extremely dubious and unpromising concept of “electronic television”. It was clear to all scientists that a “point” pulse of millionths of a second could not cause any noticeable result in a photocell, and it was precisely such pulses that the “electronics engineers” were based on. They diligently tried to strengthen the signal, assuring everyone that only with the help of their technology could high-definition images be achieved. Trying hard, but to no avail.

By the end of his studies, Volodya Zvorykin became Professor Rosing’s favorite student and spent almost all his time in his laboratory. In 1912, he graduated from the institute with excellent grades, received a diploma of “technological engineer” and the right to continue his studies abroad. His father demanded his return to Murom, but Rosing advised the promising young man to go to Paris, to the College de France to the famous physicist Paul Langevin. Zvorykin listened to the professor.

But I didn’t manage to study in France for a long time. In 1914, the war began, Volodya returned to Russia and was immediately mobilized into the army. At first he was sent to the signal troops in Grodno, where he arrived with a radio transmitter he built with his own hands, but after a year and a half he was promoted to second lieutenant and transferred to the Petrograd officer radio school. By that time, he had already married Tatyana Vasileva, a student at the dental school. After February revolution the young officer was almost court-martialed following a denunciation from a soldier who claimed that he had abused his subordinates, forcing them to “talk into a box with a hole.” Fortunately, the members of the tribunal knew a little about radio electronics and knew that the “hole” is also called a “microphone.”

The situation became increasingly tense. In order to do what he loved, Zvorykin was first forced to transfer to Kyiv, then, after taking off his military uniform, move to Moscow. Vladimir’s wife left for Berlin, but he decided not to leave his homeland, hoping for a quick end to the “troubled times.” In Moscow, as a former officer, they first tried to draft him into the Red Army, and when he did not appear at the commissariat, they decided to arrest him altogether. Having learned from a policeman he knew that a warrant had been issued for him, Vladimir decided not to play with fate and escape to Omsk, the Siberian capital of the white movement.

On the way, in Yekaterinburg, he was arrested and put in prison as a “suspicious person.” Fortunately, the city was soon captured by the Czechs, who had no complaints against Zvorykin. In Omsk, the White Guard government greeted the young radio engineer cordially. Communication issues were a priority, and Zvorykin was immediately provided with documents for a trip to America, where he was instructed to purchase the equipment necessary to build a powerful radio transmitter. The scientist-engineer, who temporarily turned into a sales agent, got down to business with enthusiasm. And the first thing was to get to America. Since all normal routes were blocked by the Bolsheviks, Zvorykin first had to move north, along the Irtysh and Ob, through the Kara Sea, to the island of Vaygach, from there on an icebreaker to Entente-occupied Arkhangelsk, there obtain a visa and sail further, through Norway, Denmark and England. The whole journey took several months. Completing quickly, despite the disgusting knowledge in English, all given instructions, Vladimir returned to Omsk in 1919, but through Japan, Vladivostok and Harbin, thus circumnavigating the globe.

By that time, Admiral Kolchak had settled in the capital of Siberia. A brilliant military leader, he was a useless administrator, and therefore all the authorities, with their huge bureaucratic system of office work, were exactly copied by him from those that operated in the empire destroyed by the Bolsheviks. But what at least somehow worked in peacetime conditions was completely unsuitable before wartime. Nevertheless, officials in the Omsk ministries worked calmly and leisurely for six hours a day, went to theaters in the evening, intrigued for “warm” places and were in no hurry to show any initiative in any case. Every case dragged on for many weeks and months, while the Bolsheviks made decisions almost instantly. It’s funny and sad: as it turned out later, Zvorykin’s business trips were a waste of money and time, since the necessary radio station in Siberia already existed at that time, but officials did not even ask the question of finding the necessary facility.

Soon after arriving in Omsk, Zvorykin was again provided with documents, instructions and again sent to the United States. True, they didn’t give me the money, promising to transfer it at the first opportunity. It took him a month and a half to get to New York, arrived there on June 19, immediately began active work, and on August 1, almost by accident, he learned that he had been fired for a month “for idleness.” As it soon became clear, the Minister of Trade and Industry Tomashevsky, who sent Zworykin on a business trip, was dismissed, and now the official who had caught him was urgently changing his team. Outraged by such injustice, the sales agent wrote in his defense: “With the greatest energy on my part, I could only arrive in New York on the evening of June 19th and send the first telegram with information to Omsk on June 27th...

Dismissal from the Civil Service clearly discredits my name, I will allow myself to briefly outline below the history of my business trip and my work and ask for an investigation to be ordered against me and, in the absence of any crimes of an official or other nature on my part, for the rehabilitation of my name. .. First of all, dismissal from the Civil Service under the pretext of clearly disrespectful, without trial or investigation, as is known, has a certain imprint that leaves a stain on a person and which can only be washed away either by a judicial investigation or by annulment.” Zvorykin was supported by employees of the Russian missions, who saw how diligently the young agent carried out the assignments assigned to him. Finally, in early October, the case was decided in his favor. They even decided to transfer Vladimir to the supply department of the Northern Sea Route, which was a clear promotion. But at the end of October, the Kolchak government fell, and this was the end of Vladimir Zvorykin’s trading activities. There was no one to buy for, and Vladimir happily remembered his engineering education.

The Russian ambassador, the famous hydrodynamics scientist Boris Aleksandrovich Bakhmetyev, helped him get a job at the Pittsburgh research laboratory of Westinghouse Electric. The engineer moved to Pittsburgh with his wife and newborn daughter Nina, who had come to join him. In the laboratory, Vladimir remembered his television past and by 1923 he had made the first transmitting electron tube, which he called an “iconoscope.” He decided not to amplify the weak signal, but to accumulate charge. To do this, Zvorykin, together with his assistants, manually “paved” the receiving element with microscopic capacitors. Now the resulting charge was already enough to transmit the image, but the quality left much to be desired. To such an extent that Zvorykin himself, always distinguished by an enviable sense of humor, called his “television” “elevision”. But the scientist firmly believed that all this was just the beginning and all the shortcomings could be overcome, with proper funding. However, his superiors did not think so and, coldly assessing the results of many years of work, ordered him to abandon his useless projects and do something more useful for the company. The inventor had to agree and from now on work time work on sound film equipment. But he still filed a patent application, first for the transmitting “iconoscope”, and a year later for the receiving “kinescope”.

In 1924, Zvorykin received American citizenship and entered the University of Pittsburgh as an applicant. Since for this he had to be under the age of 35, he knocked off one year in the entrance documents. As a result of this simple hoax, Americans celebrated the 100th and 120th anniversaries of their hero a year later than expected. In 1926 he was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree in physics for his work in the field of photovoltaic cells. Soon the scientist managed to create a high-speed fax in his laboratory. But his thoughts were still directed towards television, for the creation of which he lacked just a little - money.

In 1928, Zvorykin finally managed to find a wealthy investor. He became a millionaire, vice-president of the newly created Radio Corporation of America (RCA), conditional Russian emigrant David Sarnov. Conditional - because his parents brought him to the United States as an 8-year-old child. Many years later, seeing Zvorykin off to retire, he said: “27 or 28 years ago I first met this young man who spoke with the same terrible accent as today. He enthusiastically told me about the cathode ray tube he had invented, about the great prospects and possibilities of using it in practice - about the creation of electronic television... I admit, I understood almost nothing from that first story about his invention, but I was very impressed by this man... just fascinated by his persuasiveness. I asked:

Taking into account everything you say, how much money would you need to allocate to put your ideas into practice? How much money do you need to spend to get a really working television system?

He looked at me slyly, took a deep breath and answered very confidently:

I think $100 thousand would be enough.

I already understood then that a working television system, of course, costs 100 thousand. Just how right he was became clear only now. We spent nearly $50 million before we made even one penny back from selling the first televisions. But who today can say that we spent this money in vain? I can confidently say that Zvorykin is the best seller of ideas I have ever known.”

Soon Zvorykin already went to work at RCA, and moved with his family to the city of Camden (New Jersey). By that time, his wife gave him another daughter, Elena. However, the family idyll did not last long: in 1930, Vladimir divorced Tatyana. But research developed with increasing success. Already by the beginning of the 1930s, Zworykin managed to convince the majority of “television people” that the most promising was the completely electronic television he created and patented. The main turning point was a lecture on electronic television systems that the scientist gave in June 1933 at a conference of the American Society of Radio Engineers.

Doctor Zworykin began to be invited to give lectures at leading universities in the world, and soon was invited even to the USSR. Where they made it clear that if he stayed, he would not only be forgiven for his counter-revolutionary past, but would also be provided with everything a scientist could desire. He was taken around the country and had meetings with leading scientists and politicians. Lavrentiy Beria, who was then only the first secretary of the Communist Party of Georgia, having learned that the scientist wanted to look at the Black Sea, provided him with a military aircraft for this. In the USSR, Vladimir met with his sisters, from whom he asked for advice on whether he should stay in the Land of the Soviets. To which one of their husbands gave the scientist very sensible advice. The gist of it was that as long as Vladimir had an American passport in his pocket, they would fiddle with it and please him. But after he exchanges it for a “red-skinned passport” the situation can change dramatically. Therefore, it is best for Volodya not to tempt fate and return to the USA. Time has shown how right this relative was.

In 1933, Zvorykin created the first high-definition television system with a 240-line scan. This crazy figure was increased to 343 lines within a year, and in 1936 regular television broadcasts designed for Zavorykin systems began in the USA. In 1935, Vladimir visited the USSR again. Now the result of the trip was the conclusion of an agreement on the supply of television equipment between RCA and the People's Commissariat of the Electrical Industry.

But, of course, living on television, Zvorykin lived not only on it. In 1938, he, together with Canadian scientist James Hiller, created the first electron microscope. high resolution. During World War II, his laboratory was engaged in the creation of television guidance systems for aerial bombs and night vision devices. Together with the father of computers, John von Neumann, he tried to develop computational methods for predicting weather and dreamed of combining a television and an electronic computer.

For his participation in the New York fund for helping victims of the war in the USSR, the FBI, during the period of rampant McCarthyism, deprived him of his international passport, making him virtually prohibited from traveling abroad for some time. US intelligence agencies considered the scientist an agent of Moscow and for a long time listened to his phone, trying to convict him of counter-American activities. In the USSR, on the contrary, he was considered an “American henchman.”

In 1951, Dr. Zvorykin married for the second time, now to Ekaterina Andreevna Polevitskaya, a professor of microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania. In fact, their romance lasted for more than two decades, but the lovers could not formalize their relationship, since Catherine’s first husband did not give her a divorce. In 1954, Vladimir resigned as head of the RCA laboratory and became interested in medical electronics. This obviously could not have happened without the influence of his beloved wife. Having become director of the Center for Medical Electronics at the Rockefeller Institute in New York, he created many electronic medical devices: microscopes, endoscopes, radiosondes. Many scientists believe that it was Zvorykin’s work at this center that laid the foundation for such a scientific direction as bioengineering.

Together with his wife, he visited 8 more times Soviet Union, met with relatives, talked with scientists, gave lectures. And he suffered greatly from the fact that he was not allowed into Murom, which was closed to foreigners. Finally, in the late 1960s, while visiting Vladimir, he simply “got lost,” took a taxi and headed back to his hometown. To my father’s house, to the old church of St. Nicholas of the Naberezhny, to the cemetery where my parents are buried...

Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin died in 1982, on his birthday. He turned 94 years old. A few hours before his death, he gave his last telephone interview, in which he said that he was dying of old age. His wife survived him by a year.

Zvorykin owns 120 patents. He wrote more than 80 scientific papers, was an honorary member of many academies and scientific societies, and a holder of many orders and medals. In 1967, US President Lyndon Jones awarded the Russian-speaking American the US National Medal of Science. In 1977, the name of Vladimir Zvorykin was included in the US National Chamber of Fame for Inventors. In the American ranking “1000 years - 1000 people” his name is included in the top hundred, along with the names of Peter I, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Lenin, Stalin and Gorbachev.

And his biggest mistake, although already in his later years, he called the invention of... television.

“I created a monster capable of brainwashing all of humanity,” he said. - This monster will lead our planet to unified thinking... You evaluate reality by those you see on the screen, who you listen to.

Sometimes you argue with them, object and even seem to win the argument. But this is only an appearance. The main one is the invisible one who presses the buttons. It is he who determines who to show and what to say to achieve his goals. From hundreds of speakers, he, invisible, chooses those who need him, and not you, me or the truth. He chooses those who drag you into talking about nonsense instead of discussing the essence of the matter. ... I would never let my children even go near the TV. It's terrible what they show there. ... Although, of course, there are details in it that worked out especially well for me. The best one is the switch.