Who Invented the Color Television?

Early Traces of Color Television
Well, early traces points to a German patent that was garnered in 1904. This was said to contain the first recorded proposal written for a color television.

In 1928, Charles Jenkins receives the license for the first television station issued by the Federal Radio Commission.

Another known patent was filed by Vladimir Zworykin in 1925 for a television system using all-electronic color. The transmission and television reception of the images was done with what was called a kinescope tube.

However, both patents did not receive instant success for the color television system. Nevertheless, these were the earliest records in history for color television, and these early records of inventors were known to be the ones who invented the color television system.

Other Attempts in Modifying the System
With Peter Goldmark leading the group of CBS researchers, Goldmark invented a particular mechanical color TV system in 1940. This system was actually based on John Logie Baird’s designs in 1928. But this didn’t last long in the market.

Rise to Commercial Success
It was only during the year 1949 did televisions rose to commercial success with the monochrome television. Around ten million of these television sets were sold to a lot of people. And television programs were made available to the pleasure of the public.

But color television systems can only be licensed if the broadcast signal for colored systems can be received as a monochrome signal on these television sets.

Attempts at Making a National Standard System
In 1950, FCC authorized CBS’s color televisions system as the standard system throughout the nation even though the system used was not actually compatible with early products of black and white monochrome TV sets. (CBS and RCA are leading companies in the field of television.) The system was also known to flicker and was bulky in weight. Nevertheless, this was seen as a practical solution.

This system was called as the CBS Field Sequential Color System. It was known to display images in the television sets in color sequences such as red, green, and blue. It highly depended on the eye to be able to merge these as one colored picture.

RCA saw this as “mechanical.” That is why RCA’s Alda Bedford proposed the use of “mixed highs” with the help of the dot sequential system approach. According to Bedford, this would solve the bandwidth limitation of the field sequential system.

Other additions to the television sets had been added like the use of a burst or a train of eight cycles of a sine wave, and others.

With the approval of the system, CSB went on to producing expensive color broadcasts. But then, there was no audience for the shows, and the televisions sets were left unsold.

And with other setbacks that involved the onset of Korean war, slow sales, and lawsuits, the CBS television system ceased to be.

More Colored Sets
In 1967, most of the television broadcasts were in color.

And in the year 1972, it was noted that half of the television sets in most households are colored television sets.

From then on, television sets had grown and evolved through the years.

From how things are now with television sets, these early inventors who invented the color television sets have much to be proud of.