Hump Day History
Four years ago today I was in San Francisco enjoying a game with my sister.
But 81 years ago today, baseball was first televised. It was the Reds vs. Dodgers in Brooklyn, and it was during the World's Fair where RCA was showing off their new set.
The experiment was a success - people became fascinated with the television, particularly for sporting events. It wasn't until 1946 that regular network broadcasting caught on in America, and it wasn't until the mid-50's that TV's became common in households though.
The TV was invented in 1927 by Philo Farnsworth. In high school he envisioned a system that could transform images into code and move those images along radio waves. His system captured moving images using a beam of electrons, like a camera. He transmitted a dollar sign after an investor asked, "When are we going to see some dollars in this thing, Farnsworth?"
By 1934 though, it was all about the electronic systems, which rely on a Cathode Ray Tube - the Cathode was heated filament inside a glass tube. It would release a beam of electrons into the tube, all with a negative charge that would be attracted to positively charged anodes. As they were released on one end, they were displayed on screen at the other end.
And now, back to baseball.
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