Timeline Description: Television lets us see into worlds we would never know otherwise. The TV wasn't just one invention. It was the accumulation of lots of discoveries. This timeline goes over those discoveries, and how they led to the TV we know today.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1831 | The era of electronic inventions Scientists began working with electronics to make life better. They knew very little about electricity and how it worked. |
| 1862 | A still picture is transferred Abbe Giovanna Caselli invented the Pantelegraph. It could transfer an image through wires, similar to the way telephone wires transfer sound. |
| 1873 | The transfer of pictures to signals Two scientists named Smith and May experimented with selenium. It helped them figure out that they could transform pictures into signals to be sent over wires more easily. |
| 1876 | George Carey thinks up the TV George dreamed of a machine that people would use in their homes to view pictures. |
| 1880 | Invention of the photophone Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison came up with the Photophone. It could transfer sound, but they aimed for it to do the same with pictures at a higher quality. |
| 1884 | The technology works! A man named Paul Nipkow figured out how to send multiple pictures through wires. He used a rotating disk to move the pictures. |
| 1900 | It was named television The first "television" was seen at the 1900 World Fair in Paris. |
| 1907 | A new kind of TV Scientists developed a new way to work the television. It used something called cathode rays and a vacuum tube. |
| 1924 | The moving picture is developed A scientist from Scotland, named John Baird, developed a way to capture objects in motion. It was called the moving picture, and paved the way for movies and TV shows. |
| 1925 | The television is tested publically The first long distance television test ran between Washington D.C. and New York. |
| 1928 | The first TV station is born The first station was named W3XK. It was owned by Charles Jenkins. |
| 1936 | The TV revolution grows At first the TV reach was very small. By 1936 there were 200 sets in use, but that number quickly grew. |
| 1937 | The first major television network CBS was the first major TV network. |
| 1939 | Another World Fair exhibit TV's were tested at the World Fair in 1939 to market to the public. One of the first TV brands was RCA. |
| 1950 | Color TV is released Color TV had been in development for many years. It was finally released to the public in 1950. |
| 1969 | TV from the moon Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon and the whole world saw through their television sets. The TV revolution had begun. |
| 1997 | The flat screen takes over Developers at Panasonic developed and released the flat screen TV. It quickly took over the TV market. |
| 2009 | The HDTV mandate In 2009 the American people made the switch to all-digital television viewing. |