[ti:American Inventions: The Television]
[by:www.21voa.com]
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[00:00.04]Television has made it possible
[00:03.36]for people around the world
[00:05.80]to share in many different experiences –
[00:09.76]sports, music shows, films, and more.
[00:14.24]Yet many people would find it difficult
[00:17.72]to name the inventor of the television.
[00:21.28]They might also be surprised
[00:23.72]to learn that the inventor
[00:26.16]came up with the idea
[00:28.56]when he was just fourteen years old.
[00:32.04]Today, we explore the life
[00:35.00]of one of the great inventors
[00:37.76]of 20th century America:
[00:40.84]Philo Taylor Farnsworth.
[00:44.56]Philo Farnsworth was born in August 1906,
[00:49.56]near Indian Creek in the western state of Utah.
[00:54.48]The house he lived in for the first
[00:57.28]few years of his life had no electricity.
[01:01.48]But Philo read about electricity
[01:05.52]and quickly began to experiment with it.
[01:09.36]One night, Philo read a magazine story
[01:13.48]about the idea of sending pictures
[01:16.64]and sound through the air.
[01:19.96]The story said some of the world's
[01:22.32]best scientists were working on the idea.
[01:26.24]It said these scientists
[01:28.80]were using special machines
[01:31.56]to try to make a kind of device to send pictures.
[01:36.88]Fourteen-year-old Philo decided these
[01:40.08]famous scientists were wrong.
[01:42.84]He decided that mechanical devices would never work.
[01:48.12]Philo believed such a device
[01:51.16]would have to be electronic.
[01:53.68]Philo knew electrons could be made
[01:57.16]to move very fast.
[01:59.32]All he would have to do was find a way
[02:02.76]to make electrons do the work.
[02:05.64]Soon, Philo had an idea for such a receiver.
[02:10.92]It would trap light in a container
[02:13.92]and send the light on a line of electrons.
[02:18.28]Philo called it "light in a bottle."
[02:21.92]Several days later, Philo told his teacher
[02:26.24]about a device that could capture pictures.
[02:30.52]He drew a plan for it and gave it to his teacher.
[02:35.80]Philo's drawing seemed very simple.
[02:39.52]But it still clearly showed
[02:41.84]the information needed to build a television.
[02:46.56]Philo's teacher was Justin Tolman.
[02:49.88]Many years later, Philo would credit Mr. Tolman
[02:54.76]with guiding his imagination
[02:57.64]and helping him open the doors of science.
[03:02.08]In September 1927,
[03:05.44]Philo turned on a device
[03:08.04]that was the first working television receiver.
[03:11.68]In another room was the first television camera.
[03:16.68]Philo had invented the special camera tube earlier that year.
[03:22.36]While the image produced on the receiver
[03:25.68]was not very clear, the device worked.
[03:29.64]Within a few months, Philo had found several people
[03:34.52]who wanted to invest money in his invention.
[03:39.52]In August 1930, the United States government
[03:43.92]gave Philo patent documents.
[03:46.68]These documents aimed to protect his invention
[03:51.32]from being copied by others.
[03:54.36]Still, he became involved in legal disputes
[03:58.44]with a powerful company at the time known as RCA.
[04:04.32]Philo won the disputes
[04:06.36]but faced many business
[04:08.44]and financial difficulties in his life.
[04:12.08]He developed more than 100 devices
[04:16.32]that helped make modern television possible.
[04:19.76]He also developed early radar,
[04:23.20]invented the first electronic microscope,
[04:27.00]and worked on developing peaceful uses of atomic energy.
[04:32.32]Philo Farnsworth died in March of 1971.
[04:37.92]He is considered one
[04:40.00]of the most important inventors of the 20th century.
[04:45.76]I'm John Russell.更多听力请访问21VOA.COM