The invention: System for broadcasting full-color images over the airwaves.
The people behind the invention:
Peter Carl Goldmark (1906-1977), the head of the CBS research
and development laboratory William S. Paley (1901-1990), the businessman who took over
CBS
David Sarnoff (1891-1971), the founder of RCA
The Race for Standardization
Although by 1928 color television had already been demonstrated in Scotland, two events in 1940 mark that year as the beginning of color television. First, on February 12,1940, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) demonstrated its color television system privately to a group that included members of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), an administrative body that had the authority to set standards for an electronic color system. The demonstration did not go well; indeed, David Sarnoff, the head of RCA, canceled a planned public demonstration and returned his engineers to the Princeton, New Jersey, headquarters of RCA’s laboratories.
Next, on September 1,1940, the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) took the first step to develop a color system that would become the standard for the United States. On that day, CBS demonstrated color television to the public, based on the research of an engineer, Peter Carl Goldmark. Goldmark placed a set of spinning filters in front of the black-and-white television images, breaking them down into three primary colors and producing color television. The audience saw what was called “additive color.”
Although Goldmark had been a researcher at CBS since January, 1936, he did not attempt to develop a color television system until March, 1940, after watching the Technicolor motion picture Gone with the Wind (1939). Inspired, Goldmark began to tinker in his tiny CBS laboratory in the headquarters building in New York City.
If a decision had been made in 1940, the CBS color standard would have been accepted as the national standard. The FCC was, at that time, more concerned with trying to establish a black-and-white standard for television. Color televisionseemed decades away. In 1941, the FCC decided to adopt standards for black-and-white television only, leaving the issue of color unresolved—and the doors to the future of color broadcasting wide open. Control of a potentially lucrative market as well as personal rivalry threw William S. Paley, the head of CBS, and Sarnoff into a race for the control of color television. Both companies would pay dearly in terms of money and time, but it would take until the 1960′s before the United States would become a nation of color television watchers.
RCA was at the time the acknowledged leader in the development of black-and-white television. CBS engineers soondiscovered, however, that their company’s color system would not work when combined with RCA black-and-white televisions. In other words, customers would need one set for black-and-white and one for color. Moreover, since the color system of CBS needed more broadcast frequency space than the black-and-white system in use, CBS was forced to ask the FCC to allocate new channel space in the ultrahigh frequency (UHF) band, which was then not being used. In contrast, RCA scientists labored to make a compatible color system that required no additional frequency space.
No Time to Wait
Following the end of World War II, in 1945, the suburbanites who populated new communities in America’s cities wanted television sets right away; they did not want to wait for the government to decide on a color standard and then wait again while manufacturers redesigned assembly lines to make color sets. Rich with savings accumulated during the prosperity of the war years, Americans wanted to spend their money. After the war, the FCC saw no reason to open up proceedings regarding color systems. Black-and-white was operational; customers were waiting in line for the new electronic marvel. To give its engineers time to create a compatible color system, RCA skillfully lobbied the members of the FCC to take no action.
There were other problems with the CBS mechanical color television. It was noisy and large, and its color balance was hard to maintain. CBS claimed that through further engineering work, it would improve the actual sets. Yet RCA was able to convince other manufacturers to support it in preference to CBS principally because of its proven manufacturing track record.
In 1946, RCA demonstrated a new electronic color receiver with three picture tubes, one for each of the primary colors. Color reproduction was fairly true; although any movement on the screen caused color blurring, there was little flicker. It worked, however, and thus ended the invention phase of color television begun in 1940. The race for standardization would require seven more years of corporate struggle before the RCA system would finally win adoption as the national standard in 1953.
Impact
Through the 1950′s, black-and-white television remained the order of the day. Through the later years of the decade, only the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) television network was regularly airing programs in color. Full production and presentation of shows in color during prime time did not come until the mid-1960′s; most industry observers date 1972 as the true arrival of color television.
By 1972, color sets were found in more than half the homes in the United States. At that point, since color was so widespread, TV Guide stopped tagging color program listings with a special symbol and instead tagged only black-and-white shows, as it does to this day. Gradually, only cheap, portable sets were made for black-and-white viewing, while color sets came in all varieties from tiny handheld pocket televisions to mammoth projection televisions.
See also Autochrome plate; Community antenna television; Communications satellite; Fiber-optics; FM radio; Radio; Television; Transistor; Videocassette recorder.
