Paul Gottlieb Nipkow

Paul Julius Gottlieb Nipkow (22 August 1860 – 24 August

1940) was a German technician and inventor. He invented the Paul Gottlieb Nipkow
Nipkow disk, which laid the foundation of television, since his
disk was a fundamental component in the first televisions.[1]
Hundreds of stations experimented with television broadcasting
using his disk in the 1920s and 1930s, until it was superseded by
all-electronic systems in the 1940s.

The first public television station in the world, Fernsehsender Paul

Nipkow, was named in his honour.[2]

Contents
Beginnings
Nipkow disk
First TV systems Nipkow in about 1884

"Paul Nipkow" Transmitter Born 22 August 1860

Lauenburg,
See also
Prussia
Bibliography (today Poland)
References Died 24 August 1940
External links (aged 80)
Berlin, Germany
Nationality German
Beginnings
Occupation Engineer
Nipkow was born in Lauenburg (now Lębork) in the Prussian Engineering career
province of Pomerania, now part of Poland. While at school in Projects Nipkow disk
neighbouring Neustadt (now Wejherowo), in the province of West
Prussia, Nipkow experimented in telephony and the transmission Significant Television
of moving pictures. After graduation, he went to Berlin in order to advance
study science. He studied physiological optics with Hermann von
Helmholtz, and electro-physics with Adolf Slaby.

Nipkow disk
While still a student he conceived an "electric telescope", mainly known for the idea of using a spiral-
perforated disk (Nipkow disk), to divide a picture into a linear sequence of points. Accounts of its invention
state that the idea came to him while sitting alone at home with an oil lamp on Christmas Eve, 1883.
Alexander Bain had transmitted images telegraphically in the 1840s but the Nipkow disk improved the
encoding process.
 He applied to the imperial patent
office in Berlin for a patent
covering an "electric telescope"
for the "electric reproduction of
illuminating objects", in the
category "electric apparatuses".
This was granted on 15 January
1885, retroactive to 6 January
1884. It is not known whether
Nipkow ever attempted a
practical realization of this disk,
but one may assume that he
himself never constructed one.
The patent lapsed after 15 years
owing to lack of interest. A television receiver using a Nipkow
Nipkow took up a position as a disk in the Tekniska museet,
designer at an institute in Berlin- Stockholm
Buchloh and did not continue
work on the broadcasting of
pictures.

First TV systems
The first television broadcasts used an optical-mechanical picture
scanning method, the method that Nipkow had helped create with his
Nipkow's 'disc' from the patent disk; he could claim credit for the invention. Nipkow recounted his first
application of 1884 sight of television at a Berlin radio show in 1928: "The televisions stood
in dark cells. Hundreds stood and waited patiently for the moment at
which they would see television for the first time. I waited among them,
growing ever more nervous. Now for the first time, I would see what I had devised 45 years ago. Finally, I
reached the front row; a dark cloth was pushed to the side, and I saw before me a flickering image, not easy
to discern." The system demonstrated was from the company Telefunken.[3]

From the early 1930s, total electronic picture scanning, based on the work of Manfred von Ardenne,
became increasingly prevalent, and Nipkow's invention was no longer essential to further development of
television.[3]

"Paul Nipkow" Transmitter

The world's first public television station, started in Berlin in 1935, was named Fernsehsender "Paul
Nipkow" after Nipkow – the "spiritual father" of the core element of first-generation television
technology.[2] He became honorary president of the "television council" of the "Imperial Broadcasting
Chamber". Nipkow's glory was used by Hitler and the Nazi government as a tool of nationalist scientific
propaganda. Nipkow died in Berlin in 1940 two days after his 80th birthday and had an official ceremony
organised by the Nazi government.

In one of the last episodes of the British spy drama series Secret Army, Nipkow is credited with being the
sole inventor of television by Standartenführer Kessler as he unveils the closed-circuit TV surveillance
cameras and monitors he has set up at Gestapo headquarters in Brussels.
See also
German inventors and discoverers
History of television

Bibliography
SCHMIDT, Claus-Dietrich, Paul Nipkow. Erfinder des Fernsehens (1860–1940). Sein Leben in den
technischen Fortschritt, Lebork Museum, 2009. The only detailed biography on Nipkow.

References
1. "Nipkow-Scheibe" (https://www.dpma.de/dpma/veroeffentlichungen/meilensteine/tempo90/n
ipkow/index.html). Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt (in German). 19 November 2019.
Retrieved 29 March 2020.
2. Schuldt, Rainer (22 March 2015). "Es begann in der Fernsehstube: TV wird 80 Jahre alt" (htt
ps://www.computerbild.de/artikel/avf-News-Fernseher-Es-begann-in-der-Fernsehstube-TV-
wird-80-Jahre-alt-11525963.html). Computer Bild (in German). Retrieved 29 March 2020.
3. "Televisionen" (https://web.archive.org/web/20180702122254/https://www.mdr.de/lexi-tv/tech
nik/artikel20552.html) (in German). Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk. 18 December 2015. Archived
from the original (https://www.mdr.de/lexi-tv/technik/artikel20552.html) on 2 July 2018.

External links
Works by or about Paul Gottlieb Nipkow (https://archive.org/search.php?query=%28%28subj
ect%3A%22Nipkow%2C%20Paul%20Gottlieb%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Nipkow%2
C%20Paul%20G%2E%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Nipkow%2C%20P%2E%20G%2E%
22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Paul%20Gottlieb%20Nipkow%22%20OR%20subject%3A%
22Paul%20G%2E%20Nipkow%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22P%2E%20G%2E%20Nipko
w%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Paul%20Gottlieb%20Nipkow%22%20OR%20creator%3
A%22Paul%20G%2E%20Nipkow%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22P%2E%20G%2E%20Ni
pkow%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22P%2E%20Gottlieb%20Nipkow%22%20OR%20creat
or%3A%22Nipkow%2C%20Paul%20Gottlieb%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Nipkow%2
C%20Paul%20G%2E%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Nipkow%2C%20P%2E%20G%2E%
22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Nipkow%2C%20P%2E%20Gottlieb%22%20OR%20title%3
A%22Paul%20Gottlieb%20Nipkow%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Paul%20G%2E%20Nipko
w%22%20OR%20title%3A%22P%2E%20G%2E%20Nipkow%22%20OR%20description%
3A%22Paul%20Gottlieb%20Nipkow%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Paul%20G%2E%
20Nipkow%22%20OR%20description%3A%22P%2E%20G%2E%20Nipkow%22%20OR%
20description%3A%22Nipkow%2C%20Paul%20Gottlieb%22%20OR%20description%3A%
22Nipkow%2C%20Paul%20G%2E%22%29%20OR%20%28%221860-1940%22%20AN
D%20Nipkow%29%29%20AND%20%28-mediatype:software%29) at Internet Archive
"Seeing by Electricity" The Electrical World, New York, November, 14, 1885 (https://www.his
tv.net/nipkow-world-electricity-nov-1885)
The Television System of Paul Nipkow (http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blnipkov.
htm)
"Une idée et son mythe : le disque de Nipkow" (https://web.archive.org/web/2018011402242
7/https://www.histv.net/paul-nipkow-invente-le-disque-de-ba) at Histoire de la télévision, site
edited by André Lange (https://www.histv.net/)
Newspaper clippings about Paul Gottlieb Nipkow (http://purl.org/pressemappe20/folder/pe/0
22602) in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Paul_Gottlieb_Nipkow&oldid=1035481555"

This page was last edited on 25 July 2021, at 23:15 (UTC).

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