JOHN LOGIE BAIRD
(1886-1946)

Baird is best known for inventing the Televison.

His career as an inventor followed a period with an electricity company which he had to leave as a result of chronic illness.

He began to develop ideas involving the electronic transmission of images and significant demonstrations in 1924 proved the principle in practice. Two years later he was able to show a commercial prototype to the Royal Institute at his workshop in Soho, London.

He started his own television station, making the first broadcast on behalf of the BBC in 1929. However it was Marconi’s system (utilising cathod ray tubes) which the BBC contracted for their service in 1937.

Despite this, Baird continued his research until his death. His phonovision - using discs to store video signals - was a forerunner to video discs and DVD.