John Lowy Baird

John Lowy Baird was a Scottish inventor and engineer whose name has gone down
in history as one of the pioneers of television who had the greatest influence on the
development of this medium. His scientific work on electromechanical television
cameras and televisions paved the way for other inventions. Baird himself is best
known as the man who first demonstrated a fully electronic colour television tube.
John Lowy Baird was born on 13 August 1888 in Helensborough, Scotland. In his
youth he took an active interest in electricity and its properties. After school he
entered and graduated from Glasgow Technical College and University. Due to the
outbreak of the First World War, he never obtained a doctorate.
As well as television, John Baird tried his hand at many other things. He tried to
create diamonds by heating graphite and ended up short-circuiting the Glasgow
University power supply. After a while he created a razor made of glass, which,
however, shattered. He tried to make pneumatic shoes, following the example of
car tyres, but the tubes in the prototype broke. The thermal sock is another
invention that has been more successful than others. He also invented a device for
recording video images - Phonovision.