Perfecting Television. Electric Camera Opens New Prospect

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18163, 10 August 1933, Page 9

Perfecting Television. Electric Camera Opens New Prospect

CHICAGO, June 26. AN electric camera, believed by its ™ inventor to solve one of the major problems of television, was announced to-day after 10 years of research work, before the American- Association for the Advancement of Science. It is believed that it will p}ace the telcvisioning of outdoor scenes-in the realm of practicability. The new devico, called an “iconoscope” by its designer, Dr. Vladimar Zworykin, of Camden, N.J., was described, in a paper which he delivered boforo the annual convention of tho Institute of Radio Engineers, as having a “sensitiveness approximately equal to that of a photographic film operating at the speed of a motion picture camera with the same optical or lens system.” Dr. Zworykin declared that it opens new prospects for high grade television transmission, and at the same time “offers wide possibilities in its application in many fields as a substitute for tho human eye, or for the observation of phenomena at present, completely hidden from the eye, as in tho case of tho ultra-violet microscope. ’ ’ Dr. Zworykin has been active in developing the use of tho cathode ray tube or “kinescope” for television inception, and now has applied tho same principles to the transmitting end. Placing a eathodo ray tube at the transmitter as well as the receiver makes the entire process electrical and obviates the necessity of scanning discs, motors or other mechanical devices. *

Outlining results obtained with the “Iconoscope,” Dr. Zworykin said that “some of the actually construct cd tubes are good up to, 500 lines with a good margin for future improvement.” Detail in a television picture is governed by the number of lines in the complete picture, some of the earlier experiments* containing 24 lines. 4 . „

Tho tube, ho said, could be used “not only for transmission of pictures in visual light but also for pictures invisible to the eye in which the illumination is either by ultra-violet or infra-red light.” Declaring that “the real goal of television” lies in the transmission of outdoor pictures, heretofore handicapped by the need for more light than was obtainable with mechanical systems and by failure to get a sufficient number of the picture elements which give details, Dr.. Zworykin said that “the inherent resolution of the device is higher than required for 70,000 picture-element transmission. ’’ Portability is Easy. The tube, which has a length of 18 in. over all and a bulb Sin. in diameter, liiks somewhat like an overgrown electric light, with an exceptionally long neck. In this neck is an electron “gun,” that fires a beam of electrons against a mosaic plate. 4in. square in a scanning motion at high speed. The mosaic plate is photo-sensitive „and reall'v consists of many tiny 'photoelectric cells.

The picture is focussed on flip .plate by a lens system and then transformed into electrical energy by the sweeping motion of the gun. The tube can be mounted in a comparatively small box and set upon-a tripod for picture taking, thus giving easy portability.