Vladimir Kosma Zworykin
1889-1982
Russian-American Physicist and Electrical Engineer
Recognized as the "father of television," Vladimir Zworykin created the iconoscope and the kinescope, two inventions that made that machine possible. Yet that was far from the only achievement credited to this prolific genius, who in his lifetime obtained more than 120 patents. Among his other inventions was the electron microscope, which greatly expanded scientists' knowledge by making it possible to see objects much smaller than those glimpsed by regular microscopes. As for his principal invention, Zworykin was asked in 1981 what he thought of American television programming: "Awful," was his reply.
The son of Kosma, who operated a fleet of river boats, and Elaine Zworykin was born on July 30, 1889, in Mourom, Russia. Zworykin studied electrical engineering under Boris Rosing, an early advocate of cathode ray tubes, at St. Petersburg Institute of Technology. Cathode ray tubes shot streams of charged particles, and Rosing—going against the prevailing wisdom among the few scientists then considering the possibility of television—maintained that this, and not the mechanical systems then being tested, was the most viable television technology.
After earning his degree at St. Petersburg in 1912, Zworykin went on to the Collège de France in Paris, where he studied x-ray technology under Paul Langevin (1872-1946), a renowned French physicist. He served as a radio officer in the Russian army signal corps in World War I, during which time he also married Tatiana Vasilieff. The couple later had two children, but in the face of the Communist takeover, they decided to leave Russia in 1918. By 1919 they were living in the United States.
Zworykin first took a job with Westinghouse, where in 1920 he began work on developing radio tubes and photoelectric cells, small devices whose electrical properties are modified by the action of light on them. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on photoelectric cells at the University of Pittsburgh, and in 1923 filed a patent for his iconoscope. In contrast to the mechanical systems then under development by figures such as Great Britain's John Logie Baird (1888-1946), Zworykin's iconoscope was electronic. It replicated the actions and even the structure of the human eye, and produced a far better picture than a mechanical system—without requiring nearly as much light.
In the following year, Zworykin filed a patent for the invention that, with the iconoscope, would make television possible: the kinescope, or picture tube. Zworykin's special cathode ray tube overcame problems first noted by Scottish physicist A. A. Campbell Swinton in 1908, and provided a practical means for bombarding a signal plate with electrons, thus producing an image.
Zworykin demonstrated his invention to executives at Westinghouse, and was told that he should spend his time on something "a little more useful." Thus the company missed one of the greatest business opportunities in history, and Zworykin took his talents to RCA, the Radio Corporation of America, in 1929. RCA had to invest plenty before it reaped any rewards, however. Initially Zworykin told RCA's David Sarnoff (1891-1971) that development of television would cost "about $100,000"; in fact, as Sarnoff later told the New York Times, "RCA spent $50 million before we ever got a penny back from TV."
In 1930 Zworykin and G. A. Morton had created an infrared image tube that made night vision technology possible, and the military adapted this as Sniperscope and Snooperscope during the war. Also during the war, Zworykin collaborated with John von Neumann (1903-1957) at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Studies on the development of one of the first computers.
With the end of World War II and the lifting of restrictions regarding the manufacture of receivers, television exploded. Soon Zworykin's invention, if not his name, was making its way into virtually every household of the industrialized world. Meanwhile, he turned his attention to a number of inventions, among them the electron microscope, the electric eye used in security systems and automatic door openers, electronic missile controls, and some of the earliest electronic technology to aid the blind in reading print.
Zworykin and his first wife divorced, and in 1951 he married Katherine Polevitsky. Among the many awards he received in his lifetime were the Edison Medal from the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (1952) and the National Medal of Science (1967). He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1943, and also received the French Legion of Honor. Zworykin died one day before his 93rd birthday, on July 29, 1982.
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