The first demonstration of television was given by Scottish inventor John Logie Baird on 26 January 1926. Baird’s system used mechanical scanning, in which a rotating disc scanned the image and transmitted it to a receiver, where it was reconstructed into a visible image. This early form of television was not very practical and had limited resolution, but it was a significant step forward in the development of television technology.
Baird gave several public demonstrations of his television system in the late 1920s, including one at Selfridges department store in London in 1925, and one at the Royal Institution in London in 1926. These demonstrations drew large crowds and generated a great deal of interest in television technology.
Baird’s system was soon replaced by the electronic television system developed by Philo Farnsworth, which used a cathode ray tube to scan the image and had much better resolution and picture quality. Electronic television gradually replaced mechanical television in the 1930s, and by the 1940s it had become the standard for television broadcasting.
The first public electronic television broadcast was made by the BBC in London on 2 November 1936.
Baird’s early work in television technology and his public demonstrations helped to pave the way for the development of modern television and his contributions to the field of television were widely recognized during his lifetime and continues to be remembered today.
On 26 January 2016, Google Doodle celebrated 90th Anniversary of the first demonstration of Television.