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 first television picture was of a ventriloquist's dummy, 'Stooky Bill', because the lights needed were too hot for a human face.
I am more interested in the fact that television works than in the money it may bring.
The march of invention has clothed mankind with powers of which a century ago the boldest imagination could not have dreamt.
Do not be afraid of making mistakes; the greatest mistake of all is to be afraid of making one.
I transmitted the image of a cross from one room to another.
The future of television lies in colour and stereoscopy.
Persistence is the key to all invention.
I saw on the screen the flickering, blurred, but unmistakable image of a human face.
The inventor is a man who looks upon the world and is not contented with things as they are.
Wireless pictures are the next great step.
My work was done in poverty and obscurity.
Television will be a great force for peace, breaking down barriers between peoples.
I have always been more interested in the adventure of discovery than in the fruits of success.
The apparatus was primitive, but the principle was sound.
Every great invention is at first impossible.
I believe in the ultimate triumph of television.
The world is a very small place when you can see events happening thousands of miles away.
My first studio was an attic in Hastings.
The difficulty is not to invent, but to invent something people want.
I demonstrated television in Selfridges department store to attract attention and funding.
Contemporaries of John Logie Baird
Other Inventions born within 50 years of John Logie Baird (1888–1946).