The Television

Televisions were being made in as early as the 1800s but barely anyone had them back then and the late 1920s was when televisions started being shown to the public. It started with mechanical TVs, which used spinning discs and a light source to produce images, but it was the electric television first successfully demonstrated in San Francisco on September 7th, 1927, that began taking over. The television was invented by 21-year-old Philo Taylor Farnsworth who had lived without electricity for 14 years. This electric television was miles ahead of previous mechanical television systems as it captured moving images using a beam of electrons (basically a primitive camera). The television had a significant impact on us today as the 20s televisions not only set the stage for today’s televisions but also altered public understanding of the world around us.

Here's an example of a television from the 1920s.