the life of Philo T Farnsworth - Early Television Foundation

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THE STORY OF TELEVISION
"Sure, but it's a dirty, sticky job," he replied.
"I don't mind that; let's get started," I said.
So the operations were getting under way, and I, with my
own hands, wound the first focusing and deflecting coils for
the wholly electronic television system.
It was, as Phil prophesied, a dirty, sticky job,
and I, with my
awkward, amateur ways of handling the wire and shellac, got
all stuck up with the stuff. And I must say that the coils, like
the first dissector tubes, were crudely made. For several years
afterward they lay around the laboratory as evidence of my
awkwardness and lack of technical skill. I don't know what ever
became of them, but I surmise that Phil's pride got the better
of his historic sense and he threw them in the trash can.
To one of my background, who had had no experience in
electronics, the search for the elements Phil wanted in setting
up his miniature research laboratory was most engrossing. We
found nichrome wire at the Roebling
sales branch, we got
copper wire of varying diameters, we searched a lapidary shop
for a crystal Phil wanted in an experiment requiring polarized
light.
We bought radio tubes, resistors, and transformers where
we could find them to meet our needs.
As we went from store to store in the Los Angeles area, sometimes
driving miles from one point to another, the subtle humor
and imaginative quality of Phil's original thinking cropped
out. There was a constant flow of conversation about the possibilities
of the television system and about other developments
in electronics.
On one of these excursions he confided to me that he believed
that thought was a manifestation of electricity
and that if we
had electrical recording instruments of sufficient sensitivity,
an accurate record of human thought could be made. He went
on to visualize how whole libraries would be electrically
re-