Table Of ContentHISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY SERIES 27
Restoring
Baird’s Image
Donald F McLean
The Institution of Electrical Engineers
IEE HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY SERIES 27
Series Editors: Dr B. Bowers
Dr C. Hempstead
Restoring
Baird's Image
Other volumes in this series:
Volume 1 Measuring instruments—tools of knowledge P. H. Sydenham
Volume 2 Early radio wave detectors V. J. Phiilips
Volume 3 A history of electric light and power B. Bowers
Volume 4 The history of electric wires and cables R. M. Black
Volume 5 An early history of electricity supply J. D. Poulter
Volume 6 Technical history of the beginnings of radar S. S. Swords
Volume 7 British television—the formative years R. W. Burns
Volume 8 Hertz and the Maxwellians J. G. O'Hara and D. W. Pricha
Volume 9 Vintage telephones of the world P. J. Povey and R. A. J. Earl
Volume 10 The GEC Research Laboratories 1919-84 R. J. Clayton and
J. Algar
Volume 11 Metres to microwaves E. B. Callick
Volume 12 A history of the world semiconductor industry P. R. Morris
Volume 13 Wireless: the crucial decade, 1924-1934 G. Bussey
Volume 14 A scientist's war—diary of Sir Clifford Paterson R. Clayton and
J. Aigar (Editors)
Volume 15 Electrical technology in mining: the dawn of a new age A. V. Jones
and R. Tarkenter
Volume 16 'Curiosity perfectly satisfyed': Faraday's travels in Europe
1813-1815 B. Bowers and L Symons (Editors)
Volume 17 Michael Faraday's 'Chemical notes, hints, suggestions and
objects of pursuit' of 1822 R. D. Tweney and D. Gooding
(Editors)
Volume 18 Lord Kelvin: his influence on electrical measurements and
units P. Tunbridge
Volume 19 History of international broadcasting J. Wood
Volume 20 The very early history of radio, from Faraday to Marconi
G. Garratt
Volume 21 Exhibiting electricity K. G. Beauchamp
Volume 22 Television: an international history of the formative years
R. W. Burns
Volume 23 History of international broadcasting, Volume 2
J. Wood
Volume 24 The life and times of AD Blumiein R. W. Burns
Volume 25 History of electric light and power, 2nd edition B; Bowers
Volume 26 A history of telegraphy K. G. Beauchamp
Restoring
Baird s Image
Donald F McLean
Published by: The Institution of Electrical Engineers, London,
United Kingdom
© 2000: The Institution of Electrical Engineers
This publication is copyright under the Berne Convention and the
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dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or
review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988,
this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any forms or
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While the author and the publishers believe that the information and
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been asserted by him/her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
ISBN 0 85296 795 0
Typesetting and page layout by the author
Printed in England by T J International
Contents
Contents v
Foreword xi
Preface xv
Acknowledgments xix
1 As Others See Us 1
Videodisc comes of Age 1
Mechanical Television Today 3
Mechanical Computers? 3
* Mechanical' Space Imaging 4
Seeing at a Distance 4
The World-Wide Camera 5
History in 'Sound-Bites' 7
Struggling with the Language of 'Techno-speak' 9
What does 'Television' really mean? 9
2 Distant Vision 11
Revolutionary Television 11
From Scratch... 11
How it's Done 12
From Scene to Image 13
Photography 15
Facsimile 17
Shedding Light on Selenium 18
News Facsimile 19
Moving Pictures - the Movies and Television 20
Cinema Television - 1930s Style 22
Television 23
3 The Path to Television 25
Early Systems 25
Nipkow's Disc 26
The Scots 'invent' Television 29
vi Restoring Baird 's Image
The Electronic and Mechanical Paths to Television 31
John Logie Baird 32
The Day-Baird Letters 3 5
Viewing in Reflected Light 35
Viewing in Light and Shade - Television at Last! 36
The First Demonstration of Television 3 8
Baird's Television Format 42
Non-linear Scanning 44
Multiple Spirals - Multiple Images 45
Seeing at a Long Distance 46
Transatlantic Television 47
Demonstrations and Remonstrations 51
1928 - A New Scanning Method 51
4 Phonovision 57
The BBC disc 57
Hints of Phonovision 5 8
The Search begins 58
The NBTVA 59
Ray Herbert 60
Drawing a Blank 62
The Royal Television Society 63
The Baird Company Network 65
Final Phonovision? 66
Absence of Evidence 67
Equipment 68
The Phonovision Patents 71
The Phonovisor Patent 74
The Thinking behind Phonovision and the Phonovisor 75
Publications 76
Personnae 78
Witness: B. Clapp 79
Witness: W. C. Fox 80
Witness: J. D. Percy 81
Witness: T. H. Bridgewater 81
Witness: C. L. Richards 82
Witness: F. Whitworth 83
J. Gilbert 84
A Wellsian Future from the 19th Century 84
Fictional Phonovision 87
Experiments and Demonstrations 87
The Sound of Vision 89
5 Restoring Vision 93
Climbing Mountains 93
Contents vii
Vision by Electricity 94
Television Synchronisation 97
30-line Vision Synchronisation 100
What do we do without Timing? 101
Early Attempts at Viewing the Recordings 102
Principles behind the Restoration Process 103
Phase 1 - Capture 104
Pick-up Cartridge 106
Centring the Disc 107
Digitisation 107
Phase 2 - Restoration 108
Signal Processing 109
Image Processing 112
It's all a Question of Timing 113
Pattern Matching 114
Pattern Matching Methods 115
Phase and Frequency 117
Fourier Analysis 118
Correcting for Disc Surface Faults 120
Early Videodisc Defects 121
Filtering 123
Small Defect Detection 124
Alternative Approaches 125
Phase 3 - Displaying the results 125
Vision restored 127
6 Discoveries 129
Phonovision: Genuine or Fake? 129
The Columbia Graphophone Company 131
Dating 'Miss Pounsford' 132
Why are these Discs Phonovision? 133
Valid Recording Dates? 134
Baird's Recording Studio? 134
The Studio in 3D 138
When were the Photographs taken? 140
When were the Photographs taken? 141
When were the Photographs taken? 142
'Phoney' Phonovisor 142
Radial Tracking 144
Pick-up Type 146
The Bar reveals all 146
Timing Faults 147
'Stookie Bill' 149
Image Shape 150
Aspect Ratio 153
Faults in Building the Nipkow Disc 153
viii Restoring Baird's Image
Progress in Timing 156
Howling Evidence 158
Torque of the Drive Motor 160
Miss Pounsford's Cigarette 161
'Miss Pounsford' 163
Scanning Direction 164
Too Fast 164
'What is Wrong with this Picture?' 165
Work in Progress 167
7 Television Develops 169
The Legacy of Baird 169
An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman 172
Radio 173
Intentions made clear 174
US Experimental Television Broadcasting takes off 175
Getting on Air 175
The Baird Television Service 177
The First BBC Television Service 180
First Light 182
Progress on 30-line Quality 183
The New Wave 186
End of the Line 188
Intermediate Film - the Intermediate Answer 188
All-Electronic Television takes Shape 190
Television in Transition 191
Trial by Television 192
Airborne Reconnaissance - 1937 193
Baird's Colour Television 195
8 It's All in the Groove 199
The First 'International' Television Service 199
Audience Numbers 200
The Amateurs 200
Domestic Audio Recorders 202
Vision Disc Transcription 203
Revelations from Aluminium 203
Pictures from the first BBC Television Service 205
'Looking In' 208
Movement - The Key to Clarity 211
Reviews of the Revue 212
The Games Discs 213
Authentic or Fake? 215
Betty Bolton 218
Betty Bolton's Career 218
Contents ix
Dating Miss Bolton 220
Gramovision 221
Major Radiovision - A Major Disappointment 223
A 'Sister' Disc to Major Radiovision 225
The BBC's 30-line Recording 225
Changing History? 226
9 Capturing the Vision 229
Television - the Ephemeral Medium 229
How far back? 230
Pre-War British Video Recording 231
The Early International Scene 232
Recording Methods 233
Tele-recording 234
Recording - from the Beginning 237
Magnetic Recording 240
The Beginnings of Magnetic Tape 241
Video: faster and higher 242
Ampex 243
The Development of the Practical Videotape Recorder 245
Quadruplex versus Helical-scanning 246
Helical Scanning Takes Off 248
VERA Lingers 249
Tape - the Fluid Medium and the Store House 251
Disc Technology 252
There is no time like the Present 254
Who wants to live forever? 255
The Explosion of Formats 255
Archiving Videotape 256
Dead Formats 257
The End of Media? 258
An Archive for the Future 259
Preserving Data 260
A Format for Survival 261
First and Last? 261
The Ultimate Archive 262
10 Revising History 265
Changing Views 265
Over-zealous Claims 266
British Television in Perspective 267
Shifts in Perception 269
The Evolution of Views 271
'Just a Few Lines' 272
A Digital Viewpoint on Television 274
