the life of Philo T Farnsworth - Early Television Foundation

it,
CRUDE BEGINNINGS THE FIRST TELEVISION PICTURE 95
and consequently radio engineers had not concerned themselves
with the problem. Therefore, no amplifiers were yet developed
that would meet the demands required by
Phil in his
experiments. The "black box" was the first step in the long
road to adequate amplifiers
for transmission of the broad band
of frequencies necessary to produce the full detail in a television
picture.
It was this problem of amplification
and broad wave band
requirements that led Lippincott in his first analysis of Phil's
plans to the conclusion that the whole scheme was fantastic and
could not be made practical.
I think in the beginning Phil was
not wholly aware of the difficulties
limited knowledge I
in this regard. With my
was blissfully ignorant of this seemingly
factor. Had I known as much about it as I
hopeless limiting
do now, I doubt whether I could have gone into the scheme as
wholeheartedly as I did.
As the problem loomed in Phil's mind, he attacked it with
great courage and initiative. Lippincott followed along, confident
that between Phil's genius and the rapid developments in
electronics a solution would be found. On the part of both of
them it was a splendid example of faith and courage.
In his efforts to develop better and better amplifiers, Phil, as
usual, attacked the problem on several different fronts. He felt
that if he could devise some new means of controlling the action
of electrons within vacuum tubes he might find what he
needed. Therefore, he studied the action of electrons. Among
the phenomena that came to his attention was that of secondary
electron emission, in which new electrons were released
from the surface of metals when bombarded by primary electrons.
Out of this grew his multipactor tubes, which came into
prominence several years later.
At this time he began to work on what he called an "admit-