1935

1935 seems to have been the year that electronic television really took off. In 1934, magazines such as Television and Short-wave World concentrated heavilly on mechanical receivers whereas during 1935 the focus seems to have shifted almost totally to electronic television. But not everyone saw this at the time - in early 1935, Le De Forest who had been such a major player in the development of the valve, was quoted as saying "Improvements in television will not come by way of the cathode-ray tube." and that "... the solution lies in mechanical reproduction". Oh dear!

(Feb) Demonstration Baird 180-line receiver		Another Baird CRT-based receiver circa April 1935		(Nov) Reciever closely resembling the later Baird T5

In February, the Baird company, who had been one of the pioneers of mechanical television, demonstrated an electronic 180-line receiver. By November they demonstrated a receiver that looked remarkable like the model T5 that would be on sale to the public in time for the inaguration of the British television service in late 1936.

Even though the commencement of high definition broadcasts was over a year away, Birmingham was already being tipped as a hot favourite for a second transmitter. This was fuelled by the Post Office announcing plans to lay a cable between London and Birmingham capable of carrying of television signals (in addition to over 200 telephone calls).

Exhibitions

With the work needed to produce a public television system well under way, the public had high expectations regarding the demonstration of television at this year's Radiolympia.

They were to be dissapointed. The Radio Manufacture's Association (R.M.A.) had barred any exhibitor from including television. The public would probably have been even more miffed in the light of the televisions on show at the German equivalent of Radiolympia which which ran at about the same time.

The G.E.C. were probably pretty miffed too as they sent one of their employees, a Mr. H. de A. Donisthorpe who was well known to many amateur radio societies in Britain, to the German show from which he telephoned the G.E.C. stand at Radiolympia to give a full description of the German show. Mr. Donisthorpe even managed to get Baron von Ardenne (a significant figure in the development of television) to send special greetings over the telephone to the Olympia Exhibition - what a glorious "up yours R.M.A." :-)

The R.M.A. had already stated that it would be arranging for such a demonstration at another date - which didn't happen.

News From Abroad

On the 23rd December Philco engineers demonstrated television transmission to their executives. A one hour program was transmitted 7 miles across part of Philadelphia. Although it highlighted that there were still a number of problems to be resolved the demonstration was considered a success.

During March, the German Broadcasting Company began transmitting exeperimental high-definition television (180-line, 25 frames per second). These were in addition to the regular Post Office laboratory test transmissions which had began in August 1933. At the start of May the German PO open the first public televiewing post, located in Berlin. This was soon followed on the 13th May with the opening of the first public televiewing post outside of Berlin, at Potsdam. The 180-line system was used to transmit upto 1½ hours By mid-1935 Germany had a total of five television manufactureres, Telefunken, Fernseh A.G., Radio A.G. D.S. Loewe, Ardenne and Tekade Co. At the time there were regualar broadcasts in Berlin at 9a.m., 11a.m. and 8.30p.m. every day except Fridays and Sundays.

A Telefunken check receiver and modulation control panel at the Verlin Broadcast House.

"Television Street" - a display of home receivers by Fernseh A. H.

The German Radio Exhibition, held in August in Berlin, coincided with the British Radiolympia. Whilst no television was shown at Radiolympia (such displays had been banned by the Radio Manufacturer's Association ), it was to form a major part of the German Exhibition.

A receiver by Loewe giving an approximately 22cm x 19cm (~8"x7") picture.			Lorenze television with CRT by Manfred von Ardenne (see notes)

A number of televisions at the show were available to the public (at least in theory), the cheapest costing the equivalent of approximately £65. Whilst the currently selected system was 180-line definition, Fernseh also demonstrated a receiver showing 320 lines.

180-line mechanical receiver by Tekade utilising a mirror screw.

The television exhibition was lucky - on Monday 19th August a massive fire destroyed two halls of the exhibition, but the television hall itself survived.

In April the French authorities began a series of experimental 60-line transmissions from the Eiffel Tower. Before the end of the year the transmissions had been improved to 180-line definition and were beginning to attract a lot of public attention.

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