Vladimir Zworykin
Vladimir Zworykin
U.S. Inventor
Vladimir Kozma Zworykin. Born in Mourom, Russia, July 30, 1889. Degree in engineering from St. Petersburg Institute of Technology (Russia), 1912; attended College de France, 1912-14; University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Ph.D., 1926. Married: 1) Tatiana Vasilieff, 1916 (divorced); two children; 2) Katherine Polevitsky, 1951. Served in Signal Corps, Russian Army, World War I. Immigrated to U.S., 1919; naturalized, 1924. Bookkeeper, financial agent, Russian Embassy, Washington, D.C., 1919-20; electronics re searcher, Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, Pittsburgh, 1920, 1922, 1923-29; researcher, electronics development firm, Kansas, 1922-23; filed first of 120 patents, for electronic cam era tube called an "iconoscope," 1923; patented kinescope, 1924; patented color television, 1929; director of electronics research lab, Radio Corporation of Amer ica (RCA), Camden, New Jersey, 1929-42; sponsored development of early version of electron microscope, 1940; associate research director, RCA Labs, Princeton, New Jersey, 1942-45, director of electronic research, 1946-54; vice president, from 1947; honorary vice president and consultant, 1954-82; director, Medi cal Electronics Research Center, Rockefeller Institute (now Rockefeller University), New York City, from 1954; developed radioendosonde, 1957; developed ultraviolet color-translating television microscope, 1957; researcher, Princeton University, 1970s; visiting professor, Institute for Molecular and Cellular Evolution, University of Miami, 1970-82; contributed numerous papers concerning electronics to scientific journals. National chair, Professional Group on Medical Electronics, Institute of Radio Engineers; founder and president, International Federation for Medical Electronics and Biological Engineering; officer of the Academy, French Ministry of Education; governor, International Institute for Medical Electronics and Biological Engi neering, Paris. Fellow: American Association for the Advancement of Science; American Institute of Physics; American Physical Society; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Member: American Academy of Arts and Sciences; American Philosophical Society; charter member, Electron Microscope Society of America; National Academy of Engineering; National Academy of Sciences; charter member, Society of Television Engineers; charter member, Society of Television Pioneers; Sigma Xi. Honorary fellow: Istituto Internazionale delle Comunicazione, Italy; Television Society, England. Honorary member: British Institute of Radio Engineers; Societe Fram;aise des Électriciens et des Radio Électriciens; Television Engineers of Japan. Eminent member, Eta Kappa Nu Association. Recipient: Liebman Memorial Prize, 1934; Overseas Award, 1939; National Association of Manufacturers Modern Pioneer Award, 1940; American Academy of Arts and Sciences Rumford Medal, 1941; U.S. War Department Certificate of Appreciation, 1945; U.S. Navy Certificate of Commendation, 1947; Franklin Institute Potts Medal, 1947; Presidential Certificate of Merit, 1948; chevalier, Legion d'Honneur, 1948; American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) Lamme Medal, 1949; Poor Richard Club Gold Medal of Achievement, 1949; Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers Progress Medal, 1950; Medal of Honor, 1951; establishment of Television Prize in his name by the Institute of Radio Engineers, 1952; AIEE Edison Medal, 1952; Union Fram;aise des Inventeurs Gold Medal, 1954; University of Liege Trasenster Medal, 1959; Cristoforo Columbo Award and Order of Merit, Italy, 1959; Broadcast Pioneers Award, 1960; American Society of Metals Sauveur Award, 1963; University of Liege Medical Electronics Medal, 1963; British Institution of Electrical Engineers Faraday Medal, 1965; DeForest Audion Award, 1966; National Medal of Science, 1966; American Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award, 1967; National Academy of Engineering Founders Medal, 1968; named to National Inventors Hall of Fame, 1977; Eduard Rhein Foundation ring, 1980. Died in Princeton, New Jersey, July 29, 1982.
Vladimir Zworykin.
Photo courtesy of Broadcasting & Cable
Bio
For his fundamental and crucial work in creating the iconoscope and the kinescope, inventor Vladimir Zworykin is often described as "the father of television." These basic technologies revolutionized television and led to the worldwide adoption of electronic television rather than mechanical television, a device that used synchronized moving parts to generate rudimentary pictures.
At the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology. Zworykin studied electrical engineering with Boris Rosing, who believed cathode-ray tubes would be useful in television's development because they could shoot a steady stream of charged particles. After graduating from St. Petersburg in 1912, Zworykin studied X-ray technology with well-known French physicist Paul Langevin at the College de France in Paris. Both experiences influenced Zworykin's later work after he emigrated to the United States in 1919.
In 1920 Zworykin joined Westinghouse to work on the development of radio tubes and photocells. While there, he earned his Ph.D. in physics at the University of Pittsburgh and wrote his dissertation on improving photoelectric cells. However. electronic television's development captured his attention. and in December 1923 he applied for a patent for the iconoscope, which produced pictures by scanning images. Within the year. he applied for a patent for the kinescope. which reproduced those scanned images on a picture tube. Electronic television was now possible. After Zworykin demonstrated his new system to Westinghouse executives, they decided not to pursue his research.
He found a more receptive audience in 1929 at the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). where he was hired as associate research director for RCA's electronic research laboratory in Camden, New Jersey. This same year, he filed his first patent for color television. Reportedly, Zworykin told RCA president David Sarnoff that it would take $100,000 to perfect television. Sarnoff later told the New York Times, "RC A spent $50 million before we ever got a penny back from TV."
In 1930 Zworykin’s experiments with G.A. Morton on infrared rays led to the development of night-seeing devices. He also began to apply television technology to microscopy, which led to RCA's development of the electron microscope. His work also led to text readers. electric eyes used in security systems and garage door openers, and electronically controlled missiles and vehicles. During World War II, he advised several defense organizations, and immediately after the war, he worked with Princeton University professor John von Neumann to develop computer applications for accurate weather forecasting.
After retiring from RCA in 1954. Zworykin was named an honorary vice president of the corporation and its technical consultant. He was also appointed director of the Medical Electronics Center at Rockefeller Institute and worked on electronically based medical applications.
Zworykin received numerous awards related to these inventions, especially television. They included the Institute of Radio Engineers' Morris Liebmann Memorial Prize in 1934; the American Institute of Electrical Engineers' highest honor, the Edison Medal, in 1952; and the National Academy of Sciences' National Medal of Science in 1967.
See Also
Works
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Photocells and Their Applications, with E.D. Wilson, 1930
Television: The Electronics of Image Transmission, with G.A. Morton, 1940
Electron Optics and the Electron Microscope, with G.A. Morton, E.G. Ramberg, and others, 1945
Photoelectricity and Its Application, with E.G. Ramberg, 1949
Television: The Electronics of Image Transmission in Color and Monochrome, with G.A. Morton, 1954
Television in Science and Industry, with E.G. Ram berg and L.E. Flory, 1958
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Walt Disney, William H. Anderson
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ABC
October 1957-September 1959 Thursday 8:00-8:30
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The Things I Had to Learn, as told to Helen Ferguson, 1961