John Logie Baird

John Logie Baird (13 August 1888 – 14 June 1946)R. W. Burns, ‘Baird, John Logie (1888–1946)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2007 http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30540, accessed 23 April 2010. was a Scottish engineer and inventor of the world's first working television system, and the world's first fully electronic colour television tube.

Early life
Baird was born in Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire, Scotland. He went to school at Larchfield Academy in Helensburgh and then went to the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College (which later became the University of Strathclyde); and the University of Glasgow. He stopped being a student at the beginning of World War I.

Television experiments
Although lots of inventors helped to make television, Baird was an important person and made big advances. Especially in Britain, lots of people say that Baird was the first person to make a live, moving, greyscale television picture from reflected light. Baird did this by making a better photoelectric cell and making the signal conditioning better.  

In 1925, Baird showed people his moving pictures on television at Selfridges department store in London. In 1928, he showed the world's first colour television transmission. 

Broadcasting
In 1927, Baird made a signal go over  between London and Glasgow; Baird sent the world's first long-distance television pictures to the Central Hotel at Glasgow Central Station.Interview with Paul Lyons , Historian and Control and Information Officer at Glasgow Central Station

Baird then started the Baird Television Development Company Ltd, and in 1928 it made the first transatlantic television transmission, from London to Hartsdale, New York, and the first television programme for the BBC.

Baird's television systems were replaced by the electronic television system developed by EMI-Marconi.

Baird did lots of work for the field of electronic television after mechanical systems stopped being used. In 1939, he showed colour television using a cathode ray tube. 

Other inventions
Some of Baird's early inventions did not work. In his twenties he tried to make diamonds by heating graphite and ruined Glasgow's electricity supply. Later Baird made a glass razor which did not get rusty

Later years
From December 1944 until he died two years later, Baird lived at a house in Station Road, Bexhill-on-Sea, immediately north of the station.Named "Baird Court", Rother District Council gave permission for this property to be demolished and the land used for a modern block of flats in 2006, despite the efforts of many local residents who believed that this property should be listed and preserved due to its historical importance. Baird died in Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, England on 14 June 1946 after a stroke in February 1946. The old house was knocked down in 2007.

John Logie Baird was buried with his mother, father and wife in Helensburgh Cemetery, Dunbartonshire.

References

Category:1888 births
Category:1946 deaths
Category:Deaths from stroke
Category:Scottish inventors
Category:Scottish scientists
Category:People from Argyll and Bute
Category:Electronic engineers