the life of Philo T Farnsworth - Early Television Foundation

264 THE STORY OF TELEVISION
the laboratory, asked him to become a consultant without fee.
After the visit here, he and Pern went on to see friends and
relatives in St. George, Provo, and Salt Lake City in Utah. In
all of these places they were given impromptu receptions. This
It was sort of a re-
trip did Phil a tremendous amount of good.
lease from the bondage of his long illness and the frustration of
enforced inactivity.
Immediately upon his return to Fort Wayne, he announced
to Fort
to Mr. Nicholas that he was planning to move his family
Wayne and get into the harness in the laboratory again on a
full-time basis.
The problem of the projection tube was foremost in his mind.
While there were many details which needed to be attended to
in Newton Center and Fryeburg before he could move to Fort
Wayne, he managed to spend the major portion
of his time
with the engineers working on the tube.
When I arrived in Fort Wayne for the directors' meeting at
the end of May in 1948 I was delighted to meet Phil at the plant
and learn from him that while they had not found a house, they
planned to take up residence there and Pern was searching the
city for a place. Phil was wholly immersed in the problem of the
projection tube. Following the directors' meeting he took us all
down into the laboratory and showed us how the new screen was
fabricated and impregnated with the essential metallic materials.
He, Chris Larson, and other members of the staff had built
a laboratory model of the tube, and while they were not prepared
to show us a picture on it, they wanted us to see the brilliant
spot the surface would give. This demonstration was in a
room brilliant with light from a big window. Everything was in
readiness when we arrived and the spot was turned on. It was of
blinding
brilliance. Then Phil with his usual conciseness and
clearness of exposition showed us how the screen was made,