the life of Philo T Farnsworth - Early Television Foundation

86 THE STORY OF TELEVISION
sequently, Farnsworth's research into the problem of amplification
and of improving the sensitivity of the dissector tube
became very fertile fields from which Lippincott gleaned much
valuable material for patent applications. This resulted in extending
the Farnsworth patent structure from its original idea
of one broad patent covering his television scheme to a whole
mass of interrelated patents reaching into many
fields of electronics.
As Phil progressed
in the solution of his problems the Lippincott
office became increasingly busy with the filing
and pursuit
of patent applications
in the Patent Office for Farnsworth and
his associates. The Farnsworth laboratory came to be recognized
as an important electrical research laboratory. Phil had
an unusually good nose for patentable material. With the
assistance of Lippincott's broader experience he developed a
practical sense for what was novel in the electronic field. From
the very first, therefore, he laid the foundations for a broad and
sound patent structure.
After the first
dissector tube was completed and the magnetic
and scanning coils adapted to it, there came the problem
of the design and building of the necessary electrical equipment
to generate the wave pulses for scanning the image. It had to be
built from scratch by the cut and try method. Neither Phil nor
his technicians had a broad orthodox training in electrical
engineering, so they were not handicapped by orthodox procedure.
One set of coils was necessary to control the oscillation of the
electron image back and forth laterally so that it could be
picked up a line at a time by the anode in the front of the
dissector tube. The other pulse was necessary to swing the
picture up and down at a stated frequency of so many times
per second in order that the lines could be picked off in regular