Product Description

While the great minds of science, financed by the biggest companies in the world, wrestled with 19th century answers to a 20th century problem, Philo T. Farnsworth, age 14, dreamed of trapping light in an empty jar and transmitting it, one line at a time, on a magnetically deflected beam of electrons.

Philo Farnsworth was a self-educated farm boy from Rigby, Idaho, when he first sketched his idea for electronic television on a blackboard for his high school science teacher. Six years later, while competitors still struggled with mechanical television systems, Farnsworth successfully demonstrated his invention. He was 21.

In 1930, Farnsworth was awarded the fundamental patents for modern television. He spent the next decade perfecting his invention, fighting off challenges to his patents by the giant Radio Corporation of America and defending his vision against his own shortsighted investors who did not share his larger dream of scientific independence.

The Boy Who Invented Television traces Farnsworth’s "guided tour" of discovery, describing the observations he made in the course of developing his initial invention, and revealing how his unique insights brought him to the threshold of what might have been an even greater discovery—clean, safe, and unlimited energy from controlled nuclear fusion.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #650585 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 296 pages

From Library Journal
At the tender age of 14 and with very little previous knowledge of electronics, Philo T. Farnsworth brought together the building blocks for the television medium, which turned 75 on September 7. Schatzkin, a Farnsworth scholar, focuses on the boy genius's life story, showing us who and what influenced him. Drawing on 20 years of research (including interviews with Farnsworth's family and confidants), he details the funding of various television experiments, patent protection efforts, and technological developments. This joins a number of other recent biographies on Farnsworth, most notably Evan Schwartz's The Last Lone Inventor: A Tale of Genius, Deceit, and the Birth of Television, which focuses on his battle with David Sarnoff over the organization of television, and Donald Godfrey's more general Philo T. Farnsworth: The Father of Television. On its own, Schatzkin's book is a great biography of a gifted inventor and of value to anyone seeking an accessible tour of Farnsworth's life and challenges. Recommended, particularly for academic libraries with broadcasting and media collections.
David M. Lisa, Wayne P.L., NJ
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Philo T. Farnsworth had one of his first insights into electronic television's design while watching a horse-drawn mower on a farm. It is remarkable enough that a boy should have such an inspiration, let alone that so primitive a technology would influence so advanced an instrument. But such insights occurred regularly throughout his life to a man not only obsessed with transmitting pictures over wireless airwaves but also one possessing a mind able to absorb and resolve every sort of theoretical and technical issue. Schatzkin, although clearly in awe of his subject, finds room to document some of Farnsworth's less amiable characteristics, such as his bouts of drinking and depression, his neglect of wife and family, and his persistent rivalry with RCA's Samoff, who was equally committed to developing television. Schatzkin keeps the pace moving quickly and doesn't let himself get bogged down in the scientific details. The result is a readable, if not particularly analytical, biography of the man whose invention truly revolutionized the world. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Paul Schatzkin has been researching and telling the story of television’s forgotten inventor for more than 25 years. He first encountered the subject while serving as a videotape editor on the ABC-TV comedy series "Barney Miller," for which he received an Emmy Award nomination.

Customer Reviews

Who Invented the Remote Control?


We know the inventor of electric lighting, and we know who turned mass production assembly lines into affordable automobiles. Nicola Tesla invented the alternating current motors we use today, invented radio, invented fluorescent lighting, discovered X-rays, and yet failed to cash in or get credit, and wound up dying at an advanced age in a transient hotel.

This book is the bio of an Philo T. Farnsworth, a young man who walked away from the obscurity of his rural agricultural background into a Teslian style obscurity, after a lifetime of brilliant work.

This American inventor eventually turned to inertial containment as the solution to controlled fusion for electrical power generation.

The account in this book of his fusion work is interesting, and includes a tantalizing incident in which fusion may have been achieved, briefly. Much more important than who invented the intelligence vacuum (TV) vs. who got the credit for it is the discussion of Farnsworth's breakthroughs in fusion and his being frozen out by the US government et al.

The current laser inertial containment research (Sandia Labs' Z-Machine dumps 290 trillion watts of X-rays onto a sample target as of four years ago) owes a debt to Farnsworth. While I personally doubt that fusion will ever reach breakeven regardless of the money poured into it, should it bear fruit Farnsworth will probably get flipped out of the picture.

For television buffs who want to learn how it all began
The Boy Who Invented Television is the astonishing biography of Philo T. Farnsworth, who at age 14 dreamed of trapping and transmitting light, and while plowing on his father's farm looked at the parallel rows he had been making and conceived of a practical and effective way to wirelessly beam information from one point to another which concept resulted in his 1930 fundamental patent for modern television. Farnsworth's struggle against challenges from the Radio Corporation from America, his fight to protect his vision from reticent investors, and his work that would forever change the world and modern communications, is presented in a highly readable narrative enhanced with black-and-white photographs. The Boy Who Invented Television is very highly recommended reading -- especially for television buffs who want to learn how it all really began!

Interesting biography
I really enjoyed this engaging biography of Philo T. Farnsworth. The science of the book was mostly understandable to a layperson, and I found myself rooting for Farnsworth all the way. I could really sympathize with his triumphs and his losses, and I was so saddened and angry at the way he was treated toward the end of his life. It seems a real shame that he has not gotten the recognition he deserves, and I'm glad this book is out to give him the publicity due him.