the life of Philo T Farnsworth - Early Television Foundation

PROGRAM EXPERIMENTS 209
By painstaking work Molinari and Sleeper found out what
caused most of the distortion and reduced it to a point where it
was not objectionable. They also had greater faith in the effectiveness
of the dissector tube as an instrument for the camera
than did Farnsworth and his associates in Philadelphia. They
felt that if maximum results could be obtained in the circuits,
the intense lighting requirements, due to lack of sensitivity of
the cesium surface, could be greatly reduced, and they set about
to prove it.
After many and prolonged attempts to get a satisfactory
demonstration in the Philadelphia laboratories, in desperation
Mr. McCargar sent both Sleeper and Molinari to Philadelphia
to lend a hand in producing a presentable picture.
Such a drastic
measure, naturally, caused some embarrassment to the San
Francisco boys, and resulted in some friction. Engineers generally
are about as temperamental and fractious to handle as
prima donnas. Anyone who has had much experience with
them will recognize that this was an explosive situation and
might have resulted disastrously. However, by the use of considerable
patience and forbearance on the part of everyone
concerned, the advantages that had been gained in the San
Francisco laboratory were incorporated in the Philadelphia
demonstration setup. As the result of adding the work of the
boys from the Coast to the latest developments in Philadelphia,
we were able to give a very satisfactory picture.
Phil seemed to be unable to reconcile his scientific aspirations
and his desire to solve every problem by invention, rather
than by painstaking engineering, with the practical necessities
of the situation. The fault was as much that of his backers as
his because we had kept him completely sheltered from the
hard financial requirements of the situation. We had felt that
it
was our obligation to provide the money and his responsi-