John Logie Baird
A Scottish engineer and inventor who demonstrated the first working television system.
Most quoted
"The crude apparatus shook and trembled, and the image quivered and danced. But it was there. A human face, recognisable, yet ghostly and pale, stared from the screen."
— from Description of first television demonstration, 1925
"In the dance of electrons across a screen, I see not just technology, but the yearning of the human spirit to transcend its physical limitations."
— from Interview fragment
"I often wondered if the people watching my early broadcasts understood the sheer effort involved in getting that flickering image to them."
— from Biography/Interview
All quotes by John Logie Baird (413)
I am not a scientist, I am an inventor.
The public will not be interested in seeing a flickering image in a small box.
My system is simple, robust, and cheap. It is the television of the people.
The BBC are not interested in television. They are interested in radio.
I have been called a charlatan, a madman, and a dreamer. But I have proved them all wrong.
Stereoscopic television will be the next great advance.
The public will demand television, just as they demanded radio.
My system is superior to the electronic system.
The BBC's decision to adopt the EMI-Marconi system was a political one, not a technical one.
I am a pioneer, and pioneers often get shot in the back.
The future of entertainment is visual.
Television will revolutionize education.
The world will be a smaller place because of television.
I have always believed in the impossible.
My greatest regret is that I did not live to see my system universally adopted.
The mechanical system has its advantages, especially in simplicity and cost.
The public will not tolerate poor quality images for long.
I am not afraid of failure, only of not trying.
The potential of television is limitless.
It is not enough to invent; one must also persuade.
Contemporaries of John Logie Baird
Other Inventions born within 50 years of John Logie Baird (1888–1946).