Mechanical television (also called televisor) was a television system that

used mechanical orelectromechanical devices to capture and display images. However, the
images themselves were usually transmitted electronically and via radio waves. The reason
for the dual nature of mechanical television lay in the history of technology. The earliest
mechanical television components originated with 19th century inventors, with 20th century
inventors later adding electronic components as they were created

Television Development - 100 Years at a glance

1880s to 1899 Period of Dreams, Concepts and Initial Discoveries

1900 The word "Television" is first used
Early Experiments with a MECHANICAL scanning disc
1922 to 1927
system. TV Picture is neon orange and very small.
First Mechanical TV Sets sold to public -- At the peak, 42 US
stations were in operation using the Jenkins system.
1928 to 1934
However, picture quality is lacking. Not suitable for
commercial use. Electronic TV offers greater promise.

Early Experiments with All-Electronic Cathode Ray Television

1926 to 1935
(the basic system we have today)
Electronic TV begins broadcasting in Germany, England, Italy,
1935 to 1941
France, USA, Holland, etc.
Early 1940s Work begins on CBS Mechanical Color Television
Electronic Black & White Television begins broadcasting in
July 1, 1941
United States

World War-II halts all TV sales and most all public

1942 to 1945
broadcasting.

First American Post War TV set is RCA 630-TS (Less

Late 1946
than 7,000 TV sets in USA, pre WW-II)
First Mechanical Color Television Set Placed on Market at
June 25, 1951
$499.95.
Oct 20, 1951 Mechanical CBS Color TV Broadcasting ends forever
First All-Electronic Color Television Set is RCA CT-100, selling
May 1954
at $1,000

Japanese demonstrate ANALOG high-definition TV system

1987
(called MUSE)
General Instrument's Video Cipher division announces
1990
DIGITAL Hi-Definition System
1995 Congress Passes the Telecommunications Act of 1995,
 replacing the old 1934 laws
Internet, World-Wide-Web explodes onto the scene --
Late 1990s
ushering in new global communications for the 21st century!

Electronic television requires a cathode ray tube to display the picture,

and some sort of electronic camera tube to capture the image. The cathode
ray tube was the easier of these to develop, but the emergence of electronic
television was delayed for years until a suitable camera tube could be
developed. Though the documentary evidence is slim, Vladimir Zworykin,
while working for Westinghouse, probably demonstrated a crude line image
on his Iconoscope camera tube in 1924 and the image of a cross in
1925. Philo Farnsworth, a young man with no electronics background,
produced images on his Image Dissector camera tube in 1927. The Image
Dissector required too much light to be practical for television, while the
Iconoscope produced acceptable pictures with a reasonable amount of light.

Mechanical colored television

Mechanical television returned to the United States as a method of painting colors
over a monochrome CRT. The CBS color television system of Peter Goldmark used
such technology in 1940. John Baird's 1928 color television experiments had
inspired Goldmark's more advanced field-sequential color system. In Goldmark's
system, stations transmit color saturation values electronically. Yet mechanical
methods also come into play. At the transmitting camera, a mechanical disc filters
hues (colors) from reflected studio lighting. At the receiver, a synchronized disc
paints the same hues over the CRT. As the viewer watches pictures through the
color disc, the pictures appear in full color.

John Logie Baird demonstrated the world's first color transmission on July 3, 1928,
using scanning discs at the transmitting and receiving ends with three spirals of
apertures, each spiral with filters of a different primary color; and three light
sources at the receiving end, with a commutator to alternate their illumination.

Baird also made the world's first color broadcast on February 4, 1938, sending a
mechanically scanned 120-line image from Baird's Crystal Palace studios to a
projection screen at London's Dominion Theatre.

On August 16, 1944, John Logie Baird gave the first demonstration of a fully
electronic color picture tube. His 600-line color system used triple interlacing, using
six scans to build each picture.

RCA demonstrated to the FCC on January 29, 1947 the first all-electronic color
television system, with no moving parts, to transmit live images.