the life of Philo T Farnsworth - Early Television Foundation

PROGRAM EXPERIMENTS 203
While the research laboratories of R.C.A. and Farnsworth
were definitely rivals, there were certain elements where there
could be no rivalry.
We were not equipped technically or financially
to compete with R.C.A/s National Broadcasting
Company, or any other company,
in the field of broadcast technique,
programs, and entertainment.
For a time shortly after our laboratories were established independently
in Philadelphia, Farnsworth had ambitious ideas
regarding the development of an experimental broadcasting
station as a center for our experimental program work. Both
Mr. McCargar and I felt that this was quite beyond our pocketbooks
and very much outside the scope of the Farnsworth program.
We were convinced that we were not fitted for the entertainment
field and that when actual commercial television
arrived people experienced in radio programs
and motionpicture
production would have at their fingertips the technique
and facilities that would take us months, if not years, to acquire.
However, in the studio at our station in Philadelphia, Phil
did succeed in doing quite a bit in the way of experimental programs.
He employed Bill Eddy, who later gained considerable
prominence in the development of television programs at the
National Broadcasting Company and other studios, to direct
this work. Eddy made some interesting experiments in lighting
for television and in the operation of two cameras picking up
studio productions. He also made some tests of fake background
with miniature sets. Such tests did little more than prove to
our own satisfaction that our television camera was a practical
device for the transmission of studio programs.
At this time we had two cameras in operation,
in addition to
the telecine channel for the transmission of motion pictures.
Monitors were so arranged on the control panels that the chief
operator at the panels could see what sort of picture each of