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)
Vision by radio is now an accomplished fact.
The sceptics said it couldn't be done. That was my motivation.
I transmitted the image of a living human face – that of my business partner, Oliver Hutchinson.
Invention is the mother of necessity.
The BBC was at first reluctant to adopt my system.
Television will bring the theatre, the opera, and the sporting event into the home.
I am working on seeing by moonlight – television in the dark.
The first transatlantic television signal was sent from London to New York.
Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
My health was broken by the strain of work and poverty.
The television receiver of the future will be a simple box, hung on the wall like a picture.
I have shown that television is practicable. The rest is a matter of development.
The real thrill of invention lies in the chase, not the capture.
Contemporaries of John Logie Baird
Other Inventions born within 50 years of John Logie Baird (1888–1946).