the life of Philo T Farnsworth - Early Television Foundation

EXPERIMENTAL BROADCASTING STATION
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At luncheon the Japanese scientist, whom we shall call Dr.
T., proved to be a toothy myopic fellow with little knowledge
of English. He was most agreeable, and with the help of his
countrymen the difficulties of language were met fairly well.
He made it plain to us that he was prepared to spend several
days at our laboratory if we would grant him the privilege.
Since we had little
hopes of successfully exploiting our inventions
in Japanese markets we could see no harm in letting
him
do as he wished.
On the second or third day after the visitor had seen the
television transmitter and receiver and had spent some time in
technical discussion, our engineer inquired of the Japanese regarding
the progress of television in his country.
He replied, "We already make your receiver set. When I
go
home we make your transmitter/'
We were not particularly disturbed by this surprising confession,
but we were a bit startled by his frankness in stating
his intentions.
During his visit Dr. T. formed quite a friendly attachment
to Brolly. He finally
left after a visit of some four days.
When
he arrived in the east he visited Farnsworth at the Philadelphia
En route
laboratories. He returned home by way of Europe.
he kept Brolly and me posted as to his journeyings by sending
us post-card greetings from spots all the way around the world
on his way home. Some months later Brolly got copies of what
looked like Japanese scientific journals. The only thing we
could read was the name Farnsworth spelled out in English in
several places in the pages.
From time to time Farnsworth was called upon
to make
public appearances before engineering societies and scientific
groups. He always regarded such occasions as a waste of time
and a tax upon his energies. If possible, he avoided them. He