The main means of communication created in the 20th century was the television. This statement is due to the extent of its consumption by societies, possible for all social classes in the world, and for being an efficient means of disseminating information and ideologies. Despite its presence in almost every home, television was originally a luxury item, aimed at the wealthier classes.
The creation of television refers to research carried out by John L. Baird, which in 1920 united electronic components that had just been produced in various parts of the world and assembled the first television prototype. A satisfactory reproduction of images happened just 5 years later.
Also in this period, in 1923, the Russian Wladimir Zworykin created and patented the ionoscope, which earned him, years later, a contract with RCA. From the ionoscope he was able to develop the first television tubes, called Orticon, produced on an industrial scale from 1945 onwards.
Even though there is still no industrial-scale production of televisions, open broadcasts are now occur from the 1930s, first in Germany, in 1935, and then in England, USA and Union Soviet.
In Brazil, in 1950, there was access to an open TV signal after the inauguration of TV Tupi, by the journalist Assis Chateaubriand. The first broadcast took place in the lobby of “Diários Associados”, owned by Chateaubriand. It was also necessary for the journalist to import about two hundred TV sets for the station's programs to be watched, since there was still no large-scale consumption of television sets. Subsequently, new stations emerged, such as Globo, Record and Bandeirantes.Do not stop now... There's more after the advertising ;)
And even so the transmissions were still in black and white, without color, a situation that was changed in 1954 in the USA, when the NBC network managed to carry out the first public broadcasts in color, using a system compatible with the old black and White.
Today the variety of devices, broadcasters and signal quality have been improved with scientific studies, providing signals of high quality and sharp images, which travel around the world through a vast network of satellites positioned around the Earth.
By Tales Pinto
Graduated in History
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
PINTO, Tales dos Santos. "Short History of Television"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiag/breve-historia-televisao.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.