John Logie Baird remembered

supplied by Jim Breeds https://www.facebook.com/HAPP1066

Hastings and Area Past and Present… On 14th August 1888, television pioneer John Logie Baird was born in Dumbartonshire. He died on this day, 14th June 1946 in Bexhill aged just 57. In early 1923, and in poor health, Baird moved to 21 Linton Crescent, Hastings, on the south coast of England and later rented a workshop in the Queen’s Arcade in the town. Baird built what was to become the world’s first working television set using items including an old hatbox and a pair of scissors, some darning needles, a few bicycle light lenses, a used tea chest, sealing wax and glue that he had purchased.

Alan Esdaile… He should be celebrated more locally and have a dedicated major attraction to him.

Fiona Evans… Yes, we should make more of our local history & culture. Most famous date in history, birthplace of TV, May bank holiday celebrations, pirates, Alan Turin etc. Could we not impress upon the council to do more/encourage entrepreneurs to make more of Hastings?

Marcus de Mowbray… Hastings: Home of TV, Home of lousy TV reception!

Kate Recknell-Page… I remember coming home from Guides with Heather one night to find mum & dad sitting in darkness watching TV in black/white on a 14” John Logie Baird – our very first TV !!! Wow

Mike Waghorne… Baird House was by Bexhill station it has been knocked down and replaced by a block of flats aptly named Baird House !

Andy Qunta… What we would have missed without his invention!

Colin Bell… Andy, Why does Charlie’s Angels come to mind?!..

John Beeching… His invention was a bit of a flop. (There was nothing on worth watching.)

Kate Recknell-Page… Our first TV as a kid was a 14” black/white JLB my sis & I came back from Guides one night to find the house in darkness & our mum & dad watching the tv (which we knew nothing about till then) such great memories- happy days

John Logie Baird and Stooky Bill

post shared from : Steve Rolfe.  Original source: Orrin Dunlap, Jr.

British inventor John Logie Baird and his first publicly demonstrated television system, with which he transmitted moving pictures March 25, 1925 at the London department store Selfridges. This was one of the first demonstrations of television technology. The selenium photoelectric tubes he used had such low sensitivity that human faces could not be televised due to their low contrast. So Baird used the two articulated ventriloquist’s dummies shown, “James” and “Stooky Bill” (right), whose painted faces had higher contrast, and televised them speaking and moving. The banks of bright light bulbs were required to illuminate the faces enough to produce an image. His mechanical televisor system had a large spinning disk with 30 lenses mounted in it. As each lens passed across the subject it generated a scan line of the image. At the receiver a similar spinning disk with holes recreated the image. The image thus had a resolution of 30 scan lines, just enough to recognize a face. By the next year Baird was televising real human faces. The two ventriloquist’s dolls, James and Bill – “the first television stars” – are held by Baird in front of the microphone and the mechanical eye that sees and hears everything that goes on in front of it.

Marcus de Mowbray… There’s a Baird exhibition in St Leonards which I hope to visit.

Linda Gowans… Didn’t he do some work in a room over the arcade next to Wellington Place?

Alan Esdaile… Linda, Queens Arcade.

Eric Harmer… yes Queens Arcade. A great inventor ,but no mention of his mate Boo Boo ?? Or picnic baskets ??

Kev Towner… Eric, smarter than the average inventor

Chris Jolly… Well to think I spent 40 years working in broadcast television and it was all his fault… haha!

David Kent… I read somewhere that he tried using a human eye in the apparatus – presumably a prototype.