1931 in American television

none September 2024 1931 This is a list of American television-related events in 1931. Events April 26 - On April 26, the General Broadcasting System's WGBS radio and W2XCR television transmitted their regular broadcasting debut in New York City with a special demonstration performed in the Aeolian Hall at Fifth Avenue and Fifty-fourth Street. Thousands waited to catch a glimpse of the Broadway theatre stars who appeared on the 6 in on square image, in an evening event to publicize a weekday programming schedule offering movies and live entertainers during the four-hour daily broadcasts. Among those appearing were the boxer Primo Carnera, the actors Gertrude Lawrence, Louis Calhern, Frances Upton and Lionel Atwill, the WHN announcer Nils Granlund, and the Forman Sisters."Radio Talkies Put On Program Basis", The New York Times, April 27, 1931, p. 26. May 1 – The first wedding is broadcast by television, on New York City's W2XCR. June 3 – First television outside broadcast of a sporting event: Baird televises the Epsom Derby horse race in England.History of British television: Timeline, 1926–2017 https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/history-of-british-television-timeline/ National Science and Media Museum Bradford 2011-04-07 2023-09-28 July 21 – CBS's station W2XAB begins broadcasting 28 hours a week in New York City. https://web.archive.org/web/20090722063031/http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/recording/television5.html August – At the Berlin Radio Show, Manfred von Ardenne gives the world's first public demonstration of a television system using a cathode-ray tube for both transmission and reception. Ardenne never develops a camera tube, using the CRT instead as a flying-spot scanner to scan slides and film.Albert Abramson, Zworykin: Pioneer of Television, University of Illinois Press, 1995, p. 111. October 9 – Canada's first television station, VE9EC, begins broadcasting in Montreal, Quebec. VE9EC is owned jointly by radio station CKAC and the newspaper company La Presse.http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/backgrnd/brochures/b19903.htm CRTC Origins Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission 2008-09-05 2009-11-15 https://web.archive.org/web/20120110203201/http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/backgrnd/brochures/b19903.htm January 10, 2012 dead mdy-all thumb|130px|right|October 30: NBC on Empire State Building which had opened during May. October 30 – NBC installs a television transmitter on top of the Empire State Building. November- As head of television development at RCA, Vladimir Zworykin submitted a patent application for the iconoscope in November 1931. The patent was issued in 1935.Zworykin, V. K. Method of and Apparatus for Producing Images of Objects https://patents.google.com/patent/US2021907 Patent No. 2,021,907 n.d. filed 1931, patented 1935 United States Patent Office 2010-01-10 November 1 – Television images are transmitted from JOAK radio station in Tokyo, Japan by Professors Kenjiro Takayagani and Tomomasa Nakashima. The still images comprise 80 lines at 20 frames per second. December 22 – NBC begins broadcasting experimental test transmissions from the Empire State Building transmitter. December 23 – Don Lee Broadcasting begins broadcasting low-definition electromechanical television from the station W6XAO (later KTSL) in Los Angeles, broadcasting one hour of film footage, six days per week. Specific date unknown - In 1931, RCA's design for the iconoscope incorporated Kálmán Tihanyi's proposal about a camera tube that accumulated and stored electrical charges ("photoelectrons") within the tube throughout each scanning cycle. Tihanyi would not receive a U.S. patent for his transmitting tube until May 1939.https://patents.google.com/patent/US2133123 Patent US2133123 - Television apparatus December 11, 2015https://patents.google.com/patent/US2158259 Patent US2158259 - Television apparatus December 11, 2015 The first practical iconoscope was constructed in 1931 by Sanford Essig, when he accidentally left one silvered mica sheet in the oven too long. Upon examination with a microscope, Essig noticed that the silver layer had broken up into a myriad of tiny, isolated silver globules. Communications: an international history of the formative years Burns, R. W. The Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEE), (History of Technology Series 32) 2004 978-0-86341-327-8 534 https://books.google.com/books?id=7eUUy8-VvwoC&q=essig+iconoscope+1931 He also noticed that: the tiny dimension of the silver droplets would enhance the image resolution of the iconoscope by a quantum leap. Tele-visionaries: the People Behind the Invention of Television Webb, Richard C. John Wiley and Sons 2005 978-0-471-71156-8 34 https://books.google.com/books?id=BfoAYBwDUJsC&q=essig+iconoscope+1931 Philo Farnsworth overcame his power problems with his image dissector through the invention of a unique multipactor device. He began work on the device in 1930, and first demonstrated it in 1931.Abramson 1987 148 Everson George 1949 The Story of Television: The Life of Philo T. Farnsworth https://archive.org/details/storyoftelevisio00everrich New York City W. W. Norton & Co. 978-0-405-06042-7 137-141 This small tube could amplify a signal reportedly to the 60th power or better. Everson George 1949 The Story of Television: The Life of Philo T. Farnsworth https://archive.org/details/storyoftelevisio00everrich New York City W. W. Norton & Co. 978-0-405-06042-7 139 and showed great promise in all fields of electronics. A problem with the multipactor, unfortunately, was that it wore out at an unsatisfactory rate. Everson George 1949 The Story of Television: The Life of Philo T. Farnsworth https://archive.org/details/storyoftelevisio00everrich New York City W. W. Norton & Co. 978-0-405-06042-7 141 In March 1929, the radio giant RCA had begun daily experimental television broadcasts in New York City over station W2XBS, the predecessor of current television station WNBC. The 60-line transmissions consisted of pictures, signs, and views of persons and objects."Television Placed on Daily Schedule", The New York Times, March 22, 1929, p. 30. The experimental broadcasts continued until 1931."Six Visual Stations on the New York Air", The New York Times, July 19, 1931, p. XX13. In 1931, David Sarnoff of RCA offered to buy Philo Farnsworth's patents for $100,000, with the stipulation that Farnsworth would become an employee of RCA. Farnsworth refused. Everson George 1949 The Story of Television: The Life of Philo T. Farnsworth https://archive.org/details/storyoftelevisio00everrich New York City W. W. Norton & Co. 978-0-405-06042-7 #? In June of that year, Farnsworth joined the Philco company and moved to Philadelphia along with his wife and two children.Farnsworth 1990 135–138 NBC started to use the NBC chimes sequence in 1931. It eventually became the first audio trademark to be accepted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.NBC Chimes Museum http://www.nbcchimes.info/ October 14, 2010 NBCchimes.info September 14, 2010 https://web.archive.org/web/20100914221328/http://www.nbcchimes.info/ live Harris Bill Three Famous Notes of Broadcasting History – The NBC Chimes http://www.radioremembered.org/chimes.htm October 14, 2010 Radio Remembered November 28, 2010 https://web.archive.org/web/20101128120140/http://radioremembered.org/chimes.htm live Births 1931 in television#Births Deaths 1931 in television#Deaths References Sources Abramson Albert The History of Television, 1880 to 1941 1987 Jefferson, NC McFarland & Co. 0-89950-284-9 Everson George 1949 The Story of Television, The Life of Philo T. Farnsworth New York W. W. Norton & Co. 978-0-405-06042-7 Farnsworth Elma G. 1990 Distant Vision: Romance and Discovery of an Invisible Frontier Salt Lake City PemberlyKent Publishers, Inc. 978-0-9623276-0-5 #? https://archive.org/details/distantvisionrom00farn 1931 *