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)
The greatest reward is seeing my invention come to life.
I have always believed that anything is possible with enough ingenuity.
The world will never be the same after television.
Television won't matter in your lifetime or mine.
I have sometimes achieved the impossible almost at once, and the possible has taken years.
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.
I am not a businessman; I am an inventor.
The most persistent sound which reverberates through man's history is the beating of war drums.
I foresee great possibilities for television in education.
The day will come when we shall see by electricity.
It is a strange thing to be the father of a grown-up child and not know your own offspring.
I have invented a means of seeing by wireless.
The problem of television is not to make it work in the laboratory, but to make it work in the home.
I am an experimenter, not a theorist.
The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.
My apparatus was held together with glue, string, and sealing wax.
The public wants television, and they shall have it.
I have left the beaten track and ventured into the wilderness.
Television should be a window on the world.
Success is 99% failure.
Contemporaries of John Logie Baird
Other Inventions born within 50 years of John Logie Baird (1888–1946).