The BBC’s State Of The Art Television…1956
The BBC’s State Of The Art Television…1956
On the 10th Anniversary of the return to the air after World War II, here is a look at the history of television in The UK. From the early Emitron cameras to the Marconi BD 848 color cameras and even zoom lenses, it’s all here.
By the way, the Emitron would be the general equivalent to the Iconoscope and as you’ll see, the Marconi color camera looks a lot like the RCA TK41. Having started with Marconi as a boy, David Sarnoff had a soft spot for them and shared not only the TK41 design, but the TK30 plans too back in 1946. Enjoy and share!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G36AaMDFdM
A Panorama programme from June 1956, with Richard Dimbleby, showing a behind the scenes view of technological advances in BBC Television. Showing the studios…
We have in the APTS Archive collection an Emitron camera tube, an Image Iconoscope, and two Image Orthicon tubes (4.5″ & 3″).
The Emitron was actually an Image Iconoscope. Zworykin’s team did a lot of the development of this tube either in concert or parallel with EMI. Without Farnsworth’s image-section patents, RCA could never use it commercially (and by the time the patent deal was signed, the Image Orthicon had been developed) but EMI had licenses from both RCA and Farnsworth (as did, I believe, Telefunken) and could use and develop the tube freely. EDIT: …Ooops! After looking at the video, I realize that it’s the Super Emitron that’s the Image Iconoscope equivalent. Got a little ahead of myself in BBC history. Sorry for the confusion.
The man who wrote the great theme of the movie The Dam Busters, Eric Coates, also wrote this theme for BBC TV…http://soundcloud.com/iain-mcglinchey/television-march-paramount-3