Jenkins Laboratories Mechanical Scanning Television Receiver Amateur Kit, circa 1928

In 1925, Charles Francis Jenkins became the first American to demonstrate mechanical scanning television. This is the only Jenkins Laboratories Radiovisor Kit known to survive. Radio amateurs could build this kit to view nightly "radiovision" broadcasts originating from Jenkins' experimental television station, W3XK, near Washington, DC. Jenkins' broadcasts consisted of silhouette puppet shows--crude by today's standards, but pioneering nonetheless.