TeleVisionary

Dene Bebbington celebrates the work of the engineer who gave the first public demonstration of television

- 

So crude was television in the beginning that the BBC took time to be convinced by John Logie Baird’s invention. Born in Helensburgh on 13 August 1888, Baird enrolled at Glasgow's Royal Technology College to study maths and electrical engineering when he was 18. The course involved practical apprenticeship work in addition to study. His curiosity in that period led to the visionary idea of sending not just sound but also pictures over wires and airwaves. It wasn't an original notion, since others had already thought of it, and credit goes to Russian Constantin Perskyi for the word “television” which he coined years earlier in 1900.

Dogged by poor health for much of his life, Baird was classified as unfit for active duty during World War One and instead found work with the Clyde Valley Electrical Power Company. Baird often suffered with cold feet and his solution to this, the Baird Undersock — which, according to advertising “instantly absorbs and neutralises all perspiration, keeping the feet clean, healthy, and comfortable” — was to become a profitable exercise, allowing him to leave his day job.

Less successful inventions included an attempt to create diamonds by heating graphite, which shorted out Glasgow's electricity supply, a rustproof glass razor that shattered, and air-cushioned shoes - a similar idea to Dr Martens’ Air-Wair sole — containing semi-inflated balloons that burst.

Looking for a warmer climate, Baird sailed to Trinidad in 1919, where he opened a jam factory. However, problems with flies eating the sugar supplies and falling into the vats of jam caused the business to fail and, in September 1920, Baird returned to the UK. After a period in London, where he began his television experiments, Baird moved to Hastings, Sussex in 1923 and, the following year, transmitted an image of a Maltese cross over his equipment.