the life of Philo T Farnsworth - Early Television Foundation

2l6
THE STORY OF TELEVISION
any thinner prevented our venturing into these alluring pastures.
Phil used good judgment in recognizing the limitations of his
own time and our financial resources and did not wander off
from the main objective, as so often happens with men
endowed with inventive genius. Many such avenues were
properly open to large companies because of their wide and
varied commercial interests. For us it was necessary to stick to
the main objective, television.
With the establishment of our experimental broadcasting
station in Philadelphia, the executives of the Columbia Broadcasting
System manifested a friendly interest in our developments,
and Phil and I were proud to arrange a special demonstration
one Sunday for members of the C.B.S. staff. At this
time Columbia had recently employed an Austrian engineer,
Dr. Peter Goldmark, to organize and set in motion Columbia's
effort to enter the television field.
Dr. Goldmark and Phil developed a high regard
for each
other's professional attainments and were most congenial in
their discussion of television problems.
Dr. Goldmark was a
tireless student with great
abilities as an engineer.
He had a fine
appreciation of Farnsworth's originality and a gift
for the development
of simple and practical devices.
As time went on C.B.S. became quite a regular purchaser of
Farnsworth dissector tubes for Dr. Goldmark's department.
His requirements were very exacting. This had a wholesome
effect on the tube department of the Farnsworth laboratories.
Farnsworth recognized that here, for the first time, was an
opportunity for his dissector tube to be put to the test by a
commercially operated broadcasting company that was fully
aware of all the requirements of the day-in and day-out
schedule on the air.
Some time later Mr. McCargar and I were privileged to see