1906 - 1971 (64 years) Submit Photo / Document
Has 68 ancestors and 4 descendants in this family tree.
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Name |
Philo Taylor Farnsworth |
Birth |
19 Aug 1906 |
Beaver, Beaver, Utah, United States |
Gender |
Male |
Initiatory (LDS) |
27 May 1969 |
SLAKE |
FamilySearch ID |
KWCQ-PFY |
Death |
11 Mar 1971 |
Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States |
Burial |
17 Mar 1971 |
Provo City Cemetery, Utah, Utah, United States |
Person ID |
I95023 |
mytree |
Last Modified |
25 Feb 2024 |
Father |
Lewis Edwin Farnsworth, b. 30 Jul 1865, Beaver, Beaver, Utah, United States d. 8 Jan 1924, Provo, Utah, Utah, United States (Age 58 years) |
Mother |
Serena Amanda Bastian, b. 21 Jan 1880, Washington, Washington, Utah, United States d. 22 May 1960, Atherton, San Mateo, California, United States (Age 80 years) |
Marriage |
28 Dec 1904 |
St. George, Washington, Utah, United States |
Family ID |
F30718 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
Family |
Elma "Pem" Gardner, b. 25 Feb 1908, Jensen, Uintah, Utah, United States d. 27 Apr 2006, Bountiful, Davis, Utah, United States (Age 98 years) |
Marriage |
27 May 1926 |
Provo, Utah, Utah, United States |
Children |
| 1. Philo Taylor Farnsworth, b. 23 Sep 1929, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States d. 26 Feb 1987 (Age 57 years) |
| 2. Kenneth Gardner Farnsworth, b. 15 Jan 1931, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States d. 6 Mar 1932, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States (Age 1 year) |
| 3. Living |
| 4. Kent Morgan Farnsworth, b. 4 Sep 1948, Fort Wayne, Allen, Indiana, United States d. Jan 2017, Fort Wayne, Allen, Indiana, United States (Age 68 years) |
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Family ID |
F30722 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
Last Modified |
25 Jan 2025 |
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Event Map |
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 | Birth - 19 Aug 1906 - Beaver, Beaver, Utah, United States |
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 | Marriage - 27 May 1926 - Provo, Utah, Utah, United States |
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 | Initiatory (LDS) - 27 May 1969 - SLAKE |
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 | Death - 11 Mar 1971 - Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States |
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 | Burial - 17 Mar 1971 - Provo City Cemetery, Utah, Utah, United States |
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Notes |
- An American inventor who developed the first all-electronic television s y stem.
Farnsworth was a technical prodigy from an early age. An avid reader o f s cience magazines as a teenager, he became interested in the problem o f te levision and was convinced that mechanical systems that used, for ex ample , a spinning disc would be too slow to scan and assemble images man y time s a second. Only an electronic system could scan and assemble an i mage fa st enough, and by 1922 he had worked out the basic outlines of el ectroni c television.
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In 1923, while still in high school, Farnsworth also entered Brigham You n g University in Provo, Utah, as a special student. However, his father ’ s death in January 1924 meant that he had to leave Brigham Young and wo r k to support his family while finishing high school.
Farnsworth had to postpone his dream of developing television. In 192 6 h e went to work for charity fund-raisers George Everson and Leslie Gor rell . He convinced them to go into a partnership to produce his televisi on sy stem. Farnsworth moved to Los Angeles with his new wife, Pem Gardne r, an d began work. He quickly spent the original $6,000 put up by Everso n an d Gorrell, but Everson procured $25,000 and laboratory space from th e Cro cker First National Bank of San Francisco. Farnsworth made his firs t succ essful electronic television transmission on September 7, 1927, an d file d a patent for his system that same year.
Farnsworth continued to perfect his system and gave the first demonstrat i on to the press in September 1928. His backers at the Crocker First Nat io nal Bank were eager to be bought out by a much larger company and in 1 93 0 made overtures to the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), which sen t th e head of their electronic television project, Vladimir Zworykin, t o eval uate Farnsworth’s work. Zworykin’s receiver, the kinescope, was su perio r to that of Farnsworth, but Farnsworth’s camera tube, the image di ssecto r, was superior to that of Zworykin. Zworykin was enthusiastic abo ut th e image dissector, and RCA offered Farnsworth $100,000 for his work . He r ejected the offer.
Instead, Farnsworth joined forces with the radio manufacturer Philadelph i a Storage Battery Company (Philco) in 1931, but their association onl y la sted until 1933. Farnsworth formed his own company, Farnsworth Telev ision , which in 1937 made a licensing deal with American Telephone & Tel egrap h (AT&T) in which each company could use the other’s patents. Buoye d by t he AT&T deal, Farnsworth Television reorganized in 1938 as Farnswo rth Tel evision and Radio and purchased phonograph manufacturer Capehar t Corporat ion’s factory in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to manufacture both devi ces. Produc tion of radios began in 1939.
RCA had not taken Farnsworth’s rejection lightly and began a lengthy ser i es of court cases in which RCA tried to invalidate Farnsworth’s patent s . Zworykin had developed a successful camera tube, the iconoscope, bu t ma ny other necessary parts of a television system were patented by Far nswor th. Finally, in 1939, RCA agreed to pay Farnsworth royalties for hi s pate nts.
The years of struggle and exhausting work had taken their toll on Farnsw o rth, and in 1939 he moved to Maine to recover after a nervous breakdow n . World War II halted television development in America, and Farnswort h f ounded Farnsworth Wood Products, which made ammunition boxes. In 194 7 h e returned to Fort Wayne, and that same year Farnsworth Television pr oduc ed its first television set. However, the company was in deep financ ial t rouble. It was taken over by International Telephone and Telegrap h (IT&T ) in 1949 and reorganized as Capehart-Farnsworth. Farnsworth wa s retaine d as vice president of research. Capehart-Farnsworth produced t elevision s until 1965, but it was a small player in the industry when co mpared wit h Farnsworth’s longtime rival RCA.
Farnsworth became interested in nuclear fusion and invented a device cal l ed a fusor that he hoped would serve as the basis for a practical fusi o n reactor. He worked on the fusor for years, but in 1967 IT&T cut his f un ding. He moved to Brigham Young University, where he continued his fus io n research with a new company, Philo T. Farnsworth Associates, but th e co mpany went bankrupt in 1970.
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