a bit of politics and history?

[Nowhere Man 1966]

Originally Posted by Mohoender

About TV, I disagree strongly. It was not developped at all during WWII. It was developped in the 1920's and 1930's. Actually WWII never accelerated its developement, it delayed it. TV had been available to the public in the early 1950's but without the war it would certainly have been available in the early 1940's (for France).

Vichy France has nothing to do with it (actually you had no TV under Vichy). As of June 1940 all the french national press, TV and Radios were taken over by Germany. The only press publication allowed by Germany was "l'Humanité" (communist) that was printed up to 1941. Not surprising when you recall that USSR was allied to Germany and that the French communist party was instructed, by Moscow, to help the German in all their military efforts. If you want to know more about this ask U.S. historians they are good and very knowledgeable about that.

About TV, it was emiting from Paris, under strict German regulation (actually it was turned off until 1943). However, the developement was done under the 3rd Republic with a regular program as early as 1937 (100 TV in Paris). A program was on the air every evening between 20pm and 21pm (about). It was slowed down a lot as a result of the war.

In the US, General Electric started with it in 1928. 11 years before the war (First politician on TV in 1928). The admited date for its invention is around the mid-1920's (1924 or 1923) in the U.S.. By the way TV was invented by Russians who emigrated to the U.S. after the soviet revolution.

If you look closely at everything else you might find the same, Wars delay things except, of course, when the thing is a military application. Germany sent a missile to lower space in 1942 as they wanted such device to deliver an atomic bomb to New York and Washington in 1945 (U.S. have been very good and a bit lucky on that one).

I think the invention of TV is really muddled, I think about the Russian who came to the U.S., you're talking about Vladimir Zworkin. He worked for Westinghouse briefly, here in Pittsburgh I think, but went to RCA to work for David Sarnoff of RCA/NBC fame. There are many here, and I'm one of them, where we see that a guy named Philo T. Farnsworth actually invented the modern electronic TV system and Zworkin and Sarnoff "ripped off" the idea after Farnsworth did the work in the 1920's. David Sarnoff, well he does deserve some credit where it is due, but on the inventions, there are many who see him as a thief.

There is a book and a documentary by Ken Burns that was done in 1992 about the development of radio centralized on three men, Lee Deforest, David Sarnoff and Edwin Howard Armstrong. Armstrong had a lot of patents from a regenerative radio receiver, to superhetrodyne, to FM radio. Armstrong did research on FM radio with the aid of Sarnoff until Sarnoff didn't need him anymore and booted him out of the Empire State Building, then and now, the main TV/radio broadcast center for New York City. Sarnoff made FM radios and claimed they were different than Armstrong but this was not true and it was settled in court, some cases were started in the 1930's and not settled until as late as 1980.

Armstrong went on his own and build an FM tower across the Hudson in Alpine, New Jersey just so Sarnoff could see it and to "stick it to him." Evenutally, beaten down, Armstrong committed suicide in 1954 but in a way, he did have the last laugh. When 9/11 happened in 2001, the World Trade Center was home to many of New York City's radio and TV transmitters. When they fell, some stations did have backups in the old Empire State building but for some who didn't, they had to use Armstrong's Tower as a backup transmitting site and this included WNBC, the flagship station and first TV station David Sarnoff founded in 1941. Sarnoff's station was using Armstrong's tower, it was so ironic since the two men were at each other's throats. The only person laughing on 9/11 was Armstrong from the grave it seems due to that irony.

So the story is really murky on TV and radio and it is often said that there is really no true one inventor.

Back to the subject, I know the UK had TV as well from 1936, the Nazis had it and of course the French and Italians. We were kind of behind in the U.S., maybe if the war didn't happen, TV could have come about sooner although maybe a few things might have taken longer. The bad thing though is that major wars do take it's toll on consumer goods and this really delayed TV in many places. Well, no TV in Vichy France but still that did not stop science, the again for war purposes.

I know TV collectors in Europe do have quite a few sets from pre-World War II, here in the U.S., they existed too but are more rare. We did have a few TV station going during the war, but they were in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Schenectany, NY. When the Japanese were about to surrender but they didn't yet, a station in Washington, D.C., jumped the gun and put "War Is Over" on the TV screen and the Navy had to investigate that.

Chuck M.