This column first appeared in August 2011.
Last month we took our family vacation to Washington D.C. The trip was ostensibly a journey to retrace the saga of the Battle of Bull Run in Manassas, Virginia on the 150th anniversary of the first engagement of the Civil War. It turned out to be a questionable decision if based solely on the four straight days of 103 degree weather (120 degrees with heat index). However, we used the opportunity to visit our nation’s Capitol and pay homage to the heroes of our country in statuary hall in the air conditioned United States Capitol building. Each state is allowed to contribute two statues from their history for display. Indiana’s statues are of General Lew Wallace & Civil War Governor Oliver P. Morton.
The sight of these magnificent life-sized works of art is stirring to say the least and allows visitors the chance to take stroll through a veritable pantheon of American history: Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Adams, Jefferson, Jackson, Eisenhower, Reagan, Ford and Helen Keller to name but a few. While in the entryway of the new Capitol Visitor’s Center, my family and I watched as a group of youngsters walked up to one of the statues. As they gazed at the figure in apparent bewilderment, one of the young men in the group loudly asked, “So, who’s the dork holding the baloney?”
The “dork with the baloney” is Philo T. Farnsworth and the artwork they were looking at was Utah’s bronze statue of Farnsworth created by artist James R. Avati dedicated in 1990. The statue depicts a tall, thin young man with his shirt sleeves rolled up holding what appears to be a large capsule about the size of a loaf of bread (it’s actually a glass television tube). Philo Taylor Farnsworth was an American inventor and a television pioneer. In fact, if not for Farnsworth, there would be no television as we know it today. Farnsworth created the very first fully functional all-electronic image pickup device (video camera tube), the “image dissector,” the first fully functional and complete all-electronic television system, and was the first person to demonstrate such a system to the public on September 3, 1928. And oh yes, he has an Indiana connection.
Farnsworth was born on August 19, 1906 to a Mormon couple living in a log cabin built by his grandfather in a place called Indian Creek near Beaver, Utah. The family moved to a farm in Rigby, Idaho in 1918, where Philo was excited to find that his new home was wired for electricity. Philo developed an early interest in electronics after the discovery of a large cache of technology magazines in the attic of the family’s new home.
Farnsworth excelled in chemistry and physics at Rigby High School, and once staggered his science teacher by asking advice about an electronic television system he was working on. Philo drew his diagrams on several blackboards to show how it might be accomplished electronically and the baffled science teacher encouraged him to continue his research.
Philo quit school to find work, married Elma “Pem” Gardner Farnsworth and the two relocated to California. A few months after arriving in California, Farnsworth decided that he should apply for patents for his designs, a decision which proved crucial in later disputes with RCA. On September 7, 1927, Farnsworth’s image dissector camera tube transmitted its first image, a simple straight line, at his laboratory at 202 Green Street in San Francisco. The source of the image was a glass slide, backlit by an arc lamp. By 1928, Farnsworth had developed the system sufficiently to hold a demonstration for the press. The first image shown was, appropriately, a dollar sign. In 1929, Farnsworth transmitted the first live human images using his television system, including a three and a half-inch image of his wife Pem, with her eyes closed (because of the blinding light required).
In 1931, David Sarnoff of RCA offered to buy Farnsworth’s patents for $100,000, with the stipulation that he become an employee of RCA, but Farnsworth refused. In June of that year, Farnsworth joined the Philco company and moved to Philadelphia along with his wife and two children. In March 1932, Philco denied Farnsworth time to travel to Utah to bury his young son Kenny, placing a strain on Farnsworth’s marriage, and marking the beginning of his struggle with depression. Farnsworth quit Philco and returned to his lab, where, by 1936 his company was regularly transmitting entertainment programs on an experimental basis. That same year, Farnsworth developed a process to sterilize milk using radio waves and invented a fog-penetrating beam for ships and airplanes.
In 1938, Farnsworth established the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In September 1939, after a more than decade long legal battle, RCA finally conceded to a multi-year licensing agreement concerning Farnsworth’s 1927 patent for Television totaling $1 million. RCA was then free, after showcasing electronic television at The New York World’s Fair on April 20, 1939, to sell electronic television cameras to the public.
Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation was purchased by International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT) in 1951. During his time at ITT, Farnsworth worked in a basement lab known as “the cave” on Pontiac Street in Fort Wayne. From there he introduced a number of breakthrough concepts, including: a defense early warning signal, submarine detection devices, radar calibration equipment and an infrared telescope. One of Farnsworth’s most significant contributions at ITT was the PPI Projector, an enhancement on the iconic “circular sweep” radar display, which allowed safe control of air traffic from the ground. This system developed in the 1950s was the forerunner of today’s air traffic control systems.
In July 1957, Philo T. Farnsworth appeared on the CBS quiz show I’ve Got A Secret. Farnsworth was identified as “Dr. X” and his secret (“I invented electronic television”) flashed on television screens. The panel failed to guess his secret. Show host Garry Moore then spent a few minutes discussing with Farnsworth his research on such projects as high definition television and flat screen receivers. In 1957!
In addition to his electronics projects, Farnsworth was working on nuclear fusion research. The stress associated with the viability of this work caused Farnsworth to turn to the bottle. By the end of the decade, Philo was fired and driven into medical retirement. Philo began a decade-long lost weekend, but he never stopped working on his ideas and inventions.
In the spring of 1967, Farnsworth and his family moved back to Utah to continue his fusion research at Brigham Young University, which presented him with an honorary doctorate. The university offered him office space and an underground concrete bunker for the project. The future looked promising but a NASA contract, said to be on the horizon, never materialized and eventually, the banks called in all outstanding loans, repossession notices were placed on any remaining assets, and the Internal Revenue Service put a lock on the laboratory door until back taxes were paid. Farnsworth’s habit of abusing alcohol led to pneumonia, and he died on March 11, 1971. Farnsworth’s wife “Pem” fought for decades after his death to assure his place in history. Philo always gave her equal credit for creating television, saying, “my wife and I started this TV.” She died on April 27, 2006, at age 98. The couple was survived by two sons, Russell from New York and Kent, said to still be living in Fort Wayne. In 1999, TIME magazine included Farnsworth in The TIME 100: The Most Important People of the Century.
Farnsworth reportedly grew bitter in his final years towards the television medium he had created and reports claim that he forbade his kids to watch TV at all. His bitterness was no doubt fueled by the many lawsuits filed by RCA over the years as well as his perceived mistreatment by Philco and ITT. However, shortly before he died, his wife Pem recalled how the couple watched the July 1969 Apollo 11 moonlanding on TV together and Philo turned to her with tears in his eyes and said, “Pem, this has made it all worthwhile.”
In May and June 2010 the Farnsworth TV factory in Fort Wayne was razed along with the “cave” where many of Farnsworth’s inventions were created. It was located in the International Harvester Industrial Park on Pontiac Street. The Farnsworth home (from 1948 to 1967) still stands, it’s the big yellow house at East State and St. Joseph boulevards. And for a time, The Philo T. Farnsworth Television Museum stood on the corner of State and St. Joseph boulevards nearby. But the museum closed and on Saturday June 19, 2010, the entire collection of the Museum was sold at auction.
The sale included, you guessed it, scores of vintage television sets. However, the museum’s collection contained a broad range of items other than TVs. Glancing through the 800 lots, bidders could find furniture, two copper peacocks and a package of Charmin toilet paper, signed by Mr. Whipple. No word what the latter sold for.
Al Hunter is the author of the “Haunted Indianapolis” and co-author of the “Haunted Irvington” and “Indiana National Road” book series. His newest books are “Bumps in the Night. Stories from the Weekly View,” “Irvington Haunts. The Tour Guide,” and “The Mystery of the H.H. Holmes Collection.” Contact Al directly at Huntvault@aol.com or become a friend on Facebook.
