Iconoscope

Zworykin holding the iconoscope tube, in a 1950 magazine article

The iconoscope (from the Greek: εἰκών "image" and σκοπεῖν "to look, to see") was the first practical video camera tube to be used in early television cameras. The iconoscope produced a much stronger signal than earlier mechanical designs, and could be used under any well-lit conditions. This was the first fully electronic system to replace earlier cameras, which used special spotlights or spinning disks to capture light from a single very brightly lit spot.

Some of the principles of this apparatus were described when Vladimir Zworykin filed two patents for a television system in 1923 and 1925.[1][2] A research group at Westinghouse Electronic Company headed by Zworykin presented the iconoscope to the general public in a press conference in June 1933,[3] and two detailed technical papers were published in September and October of the same year.[4][5] The German company Telefunken bought the rights from RCA and built the superikonoskop camera[6] used for the historical TV transmission at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.

The iconoscope was replaced in Europe around 1936 by the much more sensitive Super-Emitron and Superikonoskop,[7][8][9] while in the United States the iconoscope was the leading camera tube used for broadcasting from 1936 until 1946, when it was replaced by the image orthicon tube.[10][11]

A graphic from Kálmán Tihanyi's "Radioskop" patent from 1926 (part of the UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme)[12]
Zworykin's patent diagram of a UV-microscope 1931.[13] The apparatus is similar to the iconoscope. The image entered through the series of lenses at upper right, and hit the photoelectric cells on the image plate at left. The cathode ray at the right swept the image plate, charging it, and the photoelectric cells emitted an electric charge in variance with the amount of light hitting them. The resulting image signal was carried out the left side of the tube and amplified.
  1. ^ Zworykin, Vladimir K. (n.d.) [filed 1923, issued 1935]. "Television System". Patent No. 2,022,450. United States Patent Office. Retrieved 2010-01-12.
  2. ^ Zworykin, V. K. (n.d.) [filed 1925, patented 1928]. "Television System". Patent No. 1,691,324. United States Patent Office. Retrieved 2010-01-12.
  3. ^ Lawrence, Williams L. (June 27, 1933). "Human-like eye made by engineers to televise images. 'Iconoscope' converts scenes into electrical energy for radio transmission. Fast as a movie camera. Three million tiny photo cells 'memorize', then pass out pictures. Step to home television. Developed in ten years' work by Dr. V.K. Zworykin, who describes it at Chicago". New York Times. ISBN 9780824077822. Retrieved 2010-01-12.
  4. ^ Zworykin, V. K. (September 1933). "The Iconoscope, America's latest television favourite". Wireless World (33): 197. ISBN 9780824077822. Retrieved 2010-01-12.
  5. ^ Zworykin, V. K. (October 1933). "Television with cathode ray tubes". Journal of the IEE (73): 437–451. ISBN 9780824077822. Retrieved 2010-01-12.
  6. ^ Heimprecht, Christine. "Fernsehkamera – Dr. Walter Bruch und die Olympiakanone" (in German). Zukunftsinitiative Rheinland-Pfalz (ZIRP) e.V. Archived from the original on 2008-03-31. Retrieved 2009-05-21. Picture of the iconoscope camera used at the Olympic Games Berlin, 1936
  7. ^ Howett, Dicky (2006). Television Innovations: 50 Technological Developments. Kelly Publications. p. 114. ISBN 978-1-903-05322-5. Retrieved 2013-10-10.
  8. ^ Gittel, Joachim (2008-10-11). "FAR-Röhren der Firma Heimann". photographic album. Jogis Röhrenbude. Retrieved 2010-01-15.
  9. ^ Smith, Harry (July 1953). "Multicon – A new TV camera tube" (PDF). newspaper article. Early Television Foundation and Museum. Retrieved 2013-03-12.
  10. ^ "R.C.A. Officials Continue to Be Vague Concerning Future of Television". The Washington Post. 1936-11-15. p. B2. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  11. ^ Abramson, Albert (2003). The history of television, 1942 to 2000. McFarland. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-7864-1220-4. Retrieved 2010-01-10.
  12. ^ "Kalman Tihanyi's 1926 Patent Application "Radioskop"". UNESCO Memory of the World. 2001. Retrieved 29 January 2009.
  13. ^ Zworykin, V. K. (n.d.) [filed 1931, patented 1935]. "Method of and Apparatus for Producing Images of Objects". Patent No. 2,021,907. United States Patent Office. Retrieved 2010-01-10.