the life of Philo T Farnsworth - Early Television Foundation

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Program Experiments
FOLLOWING Dr. Zworykin's
visit to the Farnsworth laboratories
in 1931, we were honored by a visit from David Sarnoff, president
of R.C.A. At the time, Phil and Mr. McCargar were in
Philadelphia negotiating the Philco contract. Sarnoff seemed
impressed with what he saw at our laboratories but told me
that he felt Dr. Zworykin's work on the receiver made it possible
for R.C.A. to avoid the Farnsworth patents, and that at the
transmitter they were using a mechanical mirror device that
he thought would equal the results which we could obtain by
our dissector-tube camera. He said that their laboratories at
Camden were being reorganized and that he was putting his
influence behind the developments of Dr. Zworykin. After this
visit we felt more certain than ever that the R.C.A. laboratories
would give us stiff competition.
Naturally, we were not permitted to know the details of the
R.C.A. developments, but from time to time announcements
were made to indicate that they were making splendid progress.
In due course the Zworykin iconoscope, as the heart of the
R.C.A. television camera, was announced. It is a most ingenious
tube based on a principle
somewhat different from the Farns-
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