When Was the First Black and White Television Invented?

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According to the Federal Communications Commission, Vladimir Kosma Zworykin filed two patents for early versions of the television in 1923. However, RCA revealed the first black-and-white television sets sold to the American public at the World’s Fair in 1939.

In 1927, 21-year-old Philo Farnsworth presented his version of the television. The first image projected on his version was a line created when an electron beam scanned pictures. About 15 years before Farnsworth presented his creation, Russian Boris Rosing had conducted similar experiments transmitting moving pictures. Early in the 1920s, both English and American inventors presented mechanical television systems. All their televisions transmitted in black and white. RCA eventually chose Zworykin to help them develop the black and white televisions sets it sold in 1939.

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