What is Mechanical TV and why do I care?
As you may have seen from my other page – once of my interests is in building what is known as Mechanical Television systems. Mechanical TV was the precursor of modern TV systems and had its heyday 70-80 years ago. It used a mechanical mechanism to scan the picture lines – rather than the Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) or flat screen panels now in use. Mechanical TV systems usually use some sort of spinning disk or drum – the more advanced generally incorporating lenses and/or mirrors as well. My interest started over 20 years ago as I read of the exploits of John Logie Baird. Baird is widely regarded in the UK as the inventor of television and whilst he wasn’t the only experimenter tackling this problem – Baird was the first to demonstrate an actual working television system. He was also the first to provide a fully working public television system. For a brief overview of Baird and other early TV pioneers – the following page may be of interest: http://www.earlytelevision.org/yanczer_history
