Elma Farnsworth on Philo Farnsworth creating electronic television

Elma Farnsworth, wife of television inventor Philo T. Farnsworth shares the story of how her husband came up with the idea for electronic television when he was a teenager, as well as the battle that her husband fought with RCA over the patent to his invention. She includes the detail that Farnsworth showed a sketch of his invention to his high school teacher, many years before his conflict with RCA:

”He drew a sketch of his camera tube, the image dissector on a piece of his little notebook. He always carried a little notebook in his pocket. And tore it out and gave it to Mr. Tolman [his high school teacher]…And Phil and he had no contact at all with him between that time. … RCA said a boy of that age could not conceive of an idea so complicated as this. But here was the proof that he had.”

Watch Elma Farnsworth’s full interview to hear the story behind her husband’s invention and career.

TelevisionAcademy.com/Interviews