Tim Finally Gets A Television

We mentioned just before Christmas that Tim was finally going to be getting a television, and some of you have been speculating about the programmes he would be watching, and whether he would be catching up with box sets of The Wire and Breaking Bad.

Well, Tim does lean towards the retro when it comes to technology, and his television is in fact a working model of the Televisor, an early form of television that started being trialled in Britain in 1929.

The Televisor was devised by the Scottish engineer and innovator, John Logie Baird, and a few thousand people were able to receive the early broadcasts, which used the BBC radio transmitters. You could buy a televisor, but plans were also available to enable people to build their own. These early video pictures were only 30 lines - just as you will see in this video - and it is hard today to imagine the excitement these low resolution images created in the early 1930s.

These early television trials led to the establishment of high definition broadcasting, which started in 1936 from Alexandra Palace in north London.

Video recording was not available in 1936, but a film was made at the time, called Television Comes to London, and the sequence Tim watches on the Televisor comes from that film. As well as seeing the people 'behind the scenes', there is a performance by Adele Dixon of a specially commissioned song called 'Television'.

Television

A mighty maze of mystic, magic rays
Is all about us in the blue,
And in sight and sound they trace
Living pictures out of space
To bring a new wonder to you
The busy world before you is unfurled -
Its songs, its tears and laughter, too.
One by one they play their parts
In this latest of the Arts
To bring new enchantment to you.
As by your fireside you sit,
The news will flit,
As on the silver screen.
And just for entertaining you
With something new
The stars will then be seen. So...
There's joy in store
The world is at your door -
It's here for everyone to view
Conjured up in sound and sight
By the magic rays of light
That bring Television to you.

The early Televisor only had a resolution of 30 lines, which is the resolution you see in this video, but if you want to see a high quality version of this same film, you can see it here -    • 1936 Television song  

For viewers outside the UK, Tim makes a reference at the end to Radio Times - Radio Times is a British weekly television and radio programme listings magazine. It first came out in 1923, and at that time only had radio listing, hence the name. Once television started, it carried details of tv programmes as well, but kept the original name!

On a personal note, my first job at the BBC was based at Alexandra Palace, and it was quite wonderful to be working in the building where television had begun. Hendrik Ball

See http://www.grand-illusions.com/acatal...