When talk about TV, the wide screen, high-definition (HD) and crystal clear images crossed our mind. But only a few of us may realized that the evolution of television has started over 100 years back.
Everything started in 1870s with the discovery of photoconductive selenium. Experimentation with the scanning disk has paved the way for mechanical television.
In 1900s, early TV technology with the amplification tube, mirror-drum scanner for transmission and selenium for receivers has been invented. About 20 years later, Scotsman John Logie Baird has demonstrated a fully operational mechanical TV. He successfully transmitted flickering image of a Maltese cross on a tiny screen. The official debut of TV with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presedential address at the 1939 World’s Fair, New York City.
Early television sets had huge wooden frames but tiny round screens of glass (I still remember seeing one of these in my grandpa’s house when I was a kid!). And if you’re lucky enough to experience the early years of TV, you may still remember the black and white images which were actually shades of monochromatic grey. In 1950s, cathode ray tubes were introduced in TV manufacturing. It requires glass screen to work and the bigger the size, the heavier it gets.
The remote control for TV sets made its mark in 1950s while in 1960s, the colour television swept the world. From monochromatic red, green and blue (RGB), every other combination of colour were formed.
And if you think LCD is a millenium invention, you’re totally wrong!. The LCD was first invented in 1970s. LCD consists of a layer of liquid crystals twists to let varying amounts of light pass through colour filters, creating an image on the screen.
Sony, Panasonic and Samsung are among the leaders in today’s television. Each of the manufacturer competes each other by introducing state of the art technologies on their TVs. Samsung for instance started TV operations in 1970. Despite being among the ‘youngest’ in this industry, it was dubbed “World’s Best TV” 25 years later.
Samsung introduced the biggest flat panels in the world with the 63″ plasma and 40″ LCD TV sets. Samsung’s LED TVs are ultra slim, lightweight and beutiful with crystal bezel design.