every century has been its skyline the very ancient the old the medieval the modern imprints of man's neverending path of progress silhouetted against the ageless canvas of the sky our day our times our signature our skyline metal fingers beckoning to the the dream of television that persisted for centuries the human eye is a miraculous instrument perceptive sensitive forever tuned to the pulsating wavelengths of light yet the eye is hand in by horizon giant telescopes to probe the further span of  space always there were very distant could man fling pictures to the sky and gather them in at a distant point it was a provoking challenge and nowhere did the challenge provoke more unending experiment and research than an r c a as far vice president and technical consultant of r c a doctors who are again every now and then i like to put the calendar back and remember another important occasion when you came to my office you're a good salesman and i was a good dream up we talked about broadcasting moving images by electronics and i remember that i asked you what it would cost to develop the circuit was complete all electronic television was achieved it worked how the lens of a television camera acts like the iris of the human eye it gathers in the light rays and focuses them on the optic nerve of the camera picture tube is the electron beam controlled by electromagnets the beam scans the picture which is on a plate in rapid sweeping motions from side to side from top to bottom when the beam hits the image it loses varying amounts of electrons and then bounces back to the opposite end of the picture tube where it is amplified millions of time the signals are broadcast as radio impulses into space part of the receiving set is the kinescope here the action is reverse the stream of electrons synchronized graphically with those of the camera to literally paint the picture information on a chemically treated screen line by line the glow is bright when the bemis to wrong less bright when it is we nineteen thirty one atop the empire state building the national broadcasting company a service of r c a erected the crimes manning antenna for experimental television station w two x p s now r c a s technicians and scientists tackled the next goal improvement of picture quality here to using a mechanical process the best that could be transmitted was a crude signal of sixty scanning lines a turned to the new science of electronics discarded the mechanical spinning disc and soon doubled tripled then tripled again the scanning lines now television was really on its way in nineteen thirty seven television strode out of the studio with mobile vans developed by r c a and n b c versatile self sustaining new eyes new wigan for the world a man could sit at home yet his eyes could scan the countryside a bright new era dawning a new dimension and communication distance reduced and microwaves walls barriers mountains erased television the ultimate triumph man's search for a site beyond the range of the human  nineteen thirty nine television is ready to make its official public debut the setting could hardly be more perfect than new york world's fair it seems the world of tomorrow the world of tomorrow big game the world of today the r c a exhibit building where on april twenty ninth one hundred thirty nine david sarnoff stated we have added radio site to sound c cameras probed explored scrutinised viewers watching the three thousand television set then in new york saw the first president ever televised franklin d roosevelt officially opening the world of tomorrow baseball game ever televised aug nineteenth thirty nine nineteen forty the nerve to yngling drama on a national political convention the first ever televised philadelphia and new york were knit together by the still in the trial and error stage television began studying its own future as a tremendous new medium of entertainment the first programs were simple unpretentious proving grounds for technicians cameramen directors writers and perform slowly the know how was game bit by bit creative imagination began to give form and substance to the new art form called television nineteen forty one of a four year war and the beginning of a four year blackout for commercial t v and television and listed for the duration research went forward that war temp four years of unparalleled war effort denial sacrifice the american public hungry for the rewards of peace and television with its promise of endless hours of enjoyment entertainment was part of the peacetime dream nineteen forty nine and historic television first a presidential inauguration as harry truman took leo the event was a dynamic industry employing more than a million television an unparalleled blending of science and i invention and engineering private incentive and public service by television american business has found the most effective advertising medium and in turn advertising has provided the resources that sustain the standards of programming and permit the never ending research that is the heart of the television industry television servicing alone has become a major industry employing nearly one hundred thousand people yes in little more than a wink of time television has entered our homes our lives imprinted new silhouettes on our skyline and all this has been just the beginning there was still another dream to be realized still another dimension to be added black and white television had been the heroes it put millions of t v sets into our homes built hundreds of t v stations created an industry and not a public service an exhilarating component of our american way of li