Zvorykin electron microscope. Emigrant Vladimir Kuzmich Zvorykin, inventor of television, died in the USA
VC. Zvorykin
“A gift to the American continent” - this is what his colleague in the field of electronics said about Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin. There were certainly reasons to assign such a pompous definition to an emigrant from Russia. Zvorykin is credited with the invention of the “miracle of the 20th century” - electronic television. His innovative ideas were also used in the creation of electron microscopes, photomultipliers and electron-optical converters, and various medical electronics devices - from miniature “radio pills” to a television reading device for the blind.
Russian engineer, one of the inventors of modern television, was born on July 18 (July 30, new style) 1889 in the city of Murom, Vladimir province.
Father, Kozma Alekseevich, a merchant of the 1st guild, traded grain, owned steamships, and was respected in the city; from 1903 he was chairman of the Murom Public Bank. Two brothers of Kozma Alekseevich became scientists: Nikolai Alekseevich, who died early, was a master of mathematics and physics, a student of A. Stoletov; Konstantin Alekseevich, professor at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, became widely known as the author of fundamental works on the theory of metal cutting and mechanical engineering technology.
While studying at the Murom Real School, V.K. From the age of 12, Zworykin visited ships and his father’s office; I got used to being organized, controlling the arrival schedule of ships, and loved to repair electrical equipment. After graduating from a real school, he entered St. Petersburg University in 1906, but at the insistence of his father he soon transferred to the Technological Institute. Here a meeting took place that largely determined Zvorykin’s scientific interests: he met Professor B. Rosing, the author of pioneering works on electronic transmission of images over a distance. Beginning in 1910, Zvorykin conducted scientific work in his laboratory under the leadership of Rosing.
Subsequently, Vladimir Kozmich recalled his long conversations with B.L. Rosing, during which the possibilities of television were discussed: “At this time I fully understood the shortcomings of mechanical television and the need to use electronic systems.” After graduating with honors from the Institute of Technology in 1912, Zworykin continued his education at the College de France in Paris under the guidance of famous physicist P. Langevin.
The First World War interrupted Zworykin's scientific studies; he returned to Russia, where he was drafted into the army. For a year and a half he served in the signal troops in Grodno, then worked at an officer radio school in Petrograd.
The events of the February Revolution of 1917 were perceived ambiguously by him. For many officers tsarist army Already the first months after February turned into a personal drama: revolutionary tribunals at that time could, based on complaints from soldiers, bring any officer or general to justice for poor treatment of lower ranks in the past. Zworykin was also summoned to such a tribunal: one of the soldiers complained that he “mocked” him, forcing him to repeat numbers into a “hole” (microphone) for a long time, while he himself was rummaging through some kind of apparatus in the next room. The court released the inventor, realizing the absurdity of the charges brought against him. However, it was hardly possible to conduct research work in Petrograd, and Zvorykin decided to return to the regular army. This time he served in the town of Brovary near Kiev.
The situation was difficult. As a delegate of his unit, Zvorykin participated in all-front rallies. One day, while returning by train, he saw officers being arrested and disarmed in neighboring carriages. Knowing the dangers of this, he jumped out of the train window as it moved, sliding safely downhill into soft bushes. The shots in pursuit did not harm him. Further service lost all meaning, and soon he, having replaced military uniform into civilian clothes, went to Moscow.
Zvorykin understood that “there was no need to expect a return to normal conditions, in particular for research work, in the near future.” He did not want to participate in the civil war, and all former officers were required to report to the commissariat for conscription into the Red Army. “Moreover,” Z. recalled, “I dreamed of working in a laboratory in order to realize the ideas that I had in mind. In the end I came to the conclusion that for similar work you need to go to another country, and America seemed like such a country to me.”
Events forced us to act decisively. Having accidentally learned that an arrest warrant had already been issued for him for not appearing at the commissariat, Zvorykin left Moscow for Nizhny Novgorod. Familiar employees of the office of the former shipping company "K.A. Zvorykin" helped with money in exchange for preserved jewelry. Zvorykin decided to get to Omsk at all costs, where shortly before he was offered a job equipping a radio station on a business trip to the USA. With great difficulty he managed to get to Yekaterinburg; where he was arrested and put in prison to determine his identity. It is unknown how his fate would have been decided if Czechoslovak units had not entered the city, after which the prison guards fled.
The Russian engineer did not arouse suspicion among the Czechs, and he was released. In Omsk, which was the capital of independent Siberia, the young radio specialist was greeted cordially: he was given the necessary papers for a business trip to the United States. However, it turned out to be almost impossible to travel to America: all roads from Omsk, except to the north, were cut off. In this situation, Zvorykin decided to go by steamer along the Irtysh and Ob rivers, across the Kara Sea to the island of Vaigach. The voyage took more than a month. At the end of it, Zvorykin ended up on a small island in the Kara Gate Strait. It was possible to get out of here only by icebreaker. Fortunately, the icebreaker arrived, and a few weeks later Zvorykin reached Arkhangelsk, occupied by Entente troops. Further difficulties were associated mainly with obtaining visas, after which Zworykin set off across new seas and oceans. Having made stops along the way in Norway, Denmark and England, he reached the United States on the eve of 1919. However, the inventor felt bound by obligations with the Siberian government. Therefore, in the same 1919, he returned to Omsk through the Pacific Ocean, Japan, Vladivostok and Harbin. Having reported on previous orders and received a lot of new ones, Zworykin again went to America, this time for good.
At first, the Russian ambassador B. Bakhmetyev helped him settle in New York. It was not easy to get a job in a research laboratory. Finally, Zvorykin was given the opportunity to try his hand at Westinghouse Electric in Pittsburgh. Plunging headlong into experiments, he set about implementing the long-nurtured ideas of electronic television, and by 1923 he managed to create a television device, the basis of which was an original transmitting tube with a mosaic photocathode. The capabilities of the developed equipment were, however, still very limited. The demonstration of the device did not make much of an impression on the company’s management; as a result, Zvorykin received instructions to “do something more useful.” His innovative application was also met with distrust at the US Patent Office. Only 15 years after registering the application, as a result of an appeal to the so-called “Court of Conscience,” Zvorykin managed to obtain a patent.
While developing devices for practical use in the laboratory, Zvorykin did not abandon his “television ideas.” He created devices (photocells, sound recording systems) that were used in television. Gradually moving towards his intended goal, by 1929 he designed a high-vacuum receiving tube - a kinescope, and developed a number of other elements for electronic television equipment. The fundamental invention of Zvorykin, which allows solving main problem in the development of television technology, there was the creation of a transmitting cathode ray tube with charge accumulation and high photosensitivity. By the beginning of the 30s. In many countries, including England, France, Germany, and the USSR, work was carried out to improve photocathodes and create transmission tubes suitable for television transmission. The difficulty was explained by the fact that when the transmitted image is scanned, the light impact of each of its elements on the photosensitive layer occurs within only millionths of a second. The photocurrent excited in this case turns out to be extremely small; its amplification seemed difficult to implement technically. Having set out to find a way to accumulate the charge of point photocells, Z. received a special cathode ray tube in 1931 - an iconoscope. After successful tests of the iconoscope, Z., together with his assistants, began to develop the television system as a whole. In 1933, a television system with 240 lines was created, in 1934 - 343 lines with interlaced scanning. In 1936, television broadcasts using such a system began in the United States.
In 1933, Zvorykin’s laboratory in the USA was visited by envoys from Russia, specialists in the field of radio electronics - S. Vekshinsky and A. Shorin. In the same year, Zvorykin made a visit to the USSR and gave a detailed report on his work at the Moscow House of Scientists. A year later, he returned to his homeland again and became acquainted with the work of a number of laboratories in Leningrad and Moscow. The contacts turned out to be mutually enriching: big interest Zvorykin was inspired by the work of L. Kubetsky, the inventor of a multistage photomultiplier. Upon returning to the USA, Zworykin developed a similar device in his company. An important result of the meetings in which Zvorykin participated was the conclusion in 1935 of an agreement between the company Radio Corp. of America (RCA) and the People's Commissariat of the Electrical Industry. The implementation of the agreement played a role positive role in the development of domestic radio electronics.
Having received recognition throughout the world as the author of fundamental inventions in the field of electronic television, Zvorykin made a significant contribution to the development of other areas of technology: in the late 30s - early 40s. he carried out a series of works on the creation of electron microscopes; his laboratory also developed a supericonoscope, an orthicon, a vidicon, and electron-optical converters. IN post-war years The range of Zworykin's inventive thought expanded even more. Among his developments are a computer method for weather prediction using radiosonde rockets, an electronic traffic control system, etc. His work in the field of medical electronics turned out to be especially fruitful during these years; he created a television reading device for the blind.
After resigning in 1954 from his position as head of the RCA laboratory, Zvorykin began active organizational and scientific activities. He was director of the Center for Medical Electronics at the Rockefeller Institute, founding president International Federation medical electronics and biological engineering, member of professional medical electronics groups established in the USA and France. Drawing attention to the disunity of technology, medicine and biology, Zworykin spoke in print against the excessive specialization of professional groups and societies, proposing rational forms for carrying out technical developments for medicine. With the same passion, he continued to invent: his ideas were used in the development of the endoradiosounding method ("radio pills") and the creation of computer information retrieval systems for medicine.
Zvorykin owns over 120 scientific patents. His name is listed in the American National Gallery of Fame for Inventors, he has been awarded more than thirty awards, including the US National Medal of Science, the Pioneer Award of the American Association of Manufacturers, the Order of the Legion of Honor of France, the Order of Honor of the Italian government, etc. His life was full of trips to many countries, meetings with scientists, engineers, public figures. Since 1959, he came to his homeland eight more times, visited loved ones, and was interested in the development of science, technology, and culture in our country. He lamented that he could not visit Murom, where he spent his childhood and teenage years(the city was closed to foreigners). Then, with his characteristic entrepreneurial spirit, he solved this problem.
In 1967, the Zvorykin couple formalized an Intourist visit to the city of Vladimir. There the two of us went to see the cathedrals, and then, catching a taxi, headed to Murom. And now, after fifty years of separation, Vladimir Kozmich is back in hometown- at the Church of St. Nicholas Naberezhny over the Oka, in the cemetery where relatives are buried, in the house where he spent his childhood and adolescence.
Zvorykin loved to tell guests who visited his Princeton home about this risky trip. His face became animated and a mischievous sparkle appeared in his eyes. The old gatekeeper, the Negro Lynn, brought vodka, mushrooms and herring. The guests laughed; they were not at all bothered by the host’s strong Russian accent, which he never got rid of during his sixty years of living in America.
Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin died on July 29, 1982 in Princeton, New Jersey, USA, one day short of his 93rd birthday.
Used articles by V.P. Borisova about V.K. Zvorykin
G.V. Kuznetsov
“This is how TV journalists work”
In 1999, at the international television forum, first place in the “Teleportrait” category was won by the series of films “ Hidden people" One of the films tells how Professor Boris Rosing, a handsome, noble, talented man, died in Arkhangelsk.
He was arrested “for financial support of the counter-revolution” - he gave money to an acquaintance who was accused of some seditious statements.
And so in April 1933, while in exile in Arkhangelsk, Rosing was riding on a tram, holding a pot of rationed thin soup. The tram rocked and soup spilled on a lady's coat. She raised a cry. “Don’t shout, I’ll arrange everything,” the scientist asked. The lady did not let up. Rosing suffered a stroke - or, as they wrote then, a cerebral hemorrhage.
We need to know more about this person. If you ask young journalists who invented television, the answer is either silence, or, in the most recent years, the name of Zvorykin, the “Russian American”, whom Bulat Okudzhava, along with the writer Vladimir Nabokov, honored with his poem:
How good it is that Zworykin left and invented television there! If he had not left the country, He, like everyone else, would have ascended to Golgotha.
When journalists dubbed Zvorykin “the father of television,” he exclaimed: “I invented the kinescope and I don’t pretend to anything else!” The invention of television, according to Zworykin, “is an endless staircase created by dozens of hands.” In addition to the kinescope (the main unit of a modern TV), Zworykin was responsible for the development of the iconoscope, i.e. main camera unit. The message that the electronic television scheme has been created, that 10 years of work has been completed, V.K. Zvorykin made this in 1933 at the meeting of the Society of Radio Engineers in Chicago. And already in the fall of this year he was invited to visit the USSR, where he went not without fear, although he received assurances that his “White Guard past” would not become an obstacle in business negotiations.
However, this past prevented our country from recognizing publicly, in mass popular publications, the merits of the great inventor. In these books there was just a “ladder of names”, and it was opened by Boris Lvovich Rosing, a professor at the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology, and, of course, it was not mentioned that Rosing was arrested and died in the same year when his best student Zvorykin was accepted with honor into the Leningrad and Moscow. Our literature proudly notes that in 1949 the Moscow television center was re-equipped with “new, domestic equipment.” What kind of equipment was working there from March 25, 1938 (on that day they showed the film “The Great Citizen,” justifying the repressions against the old Bolsheviks) - our history was silent. Meanwhile, the launch of the television center on Shabolovka was a direct consequence of Zvorykin’s visit to the USSR. The equipment was supplied by a major company RCA (Radio Corporation of America), where Vladimir Kozmich Zworykin worked under the guidance of his fellow countryman, also a native of Russia, David Abramovich Sarnov. If Zworykin, like his teacher Rosing, invented “just” a technical means of vision at a distance, then Sarnov immediately understood the commercial possibilities of the new product (he had previously published a memorandum on mass radio - after all, A.S. Popov also invented not a mass media, but a means of communication).
Sarnov's parents brought him to the United States in 1900. America started talking about him in 1912, when 21-year-old radio operator Sarnov received signals from the Titanic in distress, and then for three days without a break he received and recorded the names of surviving passengers transmitted by ships -rescuers. In 1916, he writes: “A plan is needed that will make the radio a household appliance, like a piano or a phonograph... This plan would especially interest farmers and residents of remote areas. By purchasing a music radio box, they could enjoy concerts, lectures, poetry readings, etc.”
The names of Zvorykin and Sarnov were first mentioned in our post-war mass press by Komsomolskaya Pravda journalist Yaroslav Golovanov. He described a meeting with the 85-year-old honorary vice president of RCA, Zvorykin, mentioning that he “emigrated to the United States at the end of the First World War.” In fact, it was impossible to write that Zvorykin came to America in 1919 with the documents of the plenipotentiary representative of the Siberian government, Kolchak.
We know sadly little about this extraordinary man, whose life resembles a fascinating detective novel. In the USA, documentaries have been created about him, but only recently in the city of Murom, on the Oka River, has a Memorial plaque on the house where Vladimir Kozmich was born. His father owned a shipping company, and the house is now a historical and art museum. It is interesting that Zvorykin managed to visit here in 1967, despite the fact that Murom was closed to foreigners. Having issued an Intourist voucher to Vladimir, he broke away from the group, took a taxi and drove off in his small homeland. I bowed to the ashes of my ancestors in the cemetery, stood on the banks of the Oka, went into parents' house. “The scientist later happily told guests at his Princeton home about this adventurous trip. The old gatekeeper, the Negro Lynn, brought vodka, mushrooms and herring, the guests laughed, they were not at all bothered by the owner’s strong Russian accent, which he never got rid of during his sixty years of living in America,” the memoirist wrote.
In 1906, Zvorykin entered the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology and after a brief fascination with politics, disillusioned with demagogue leaders, he devoted himself entirely to work in the laboratory of Professor Rosing. “Our relationship soon grew into friendship,” recalls Zvorykin, “and I discovered that he was not only a talented scientist, but also a versatile educated person. During our work together, he did not try to use me only as an assistant, but in every possible way expanded my knowledge in the field of physics. Rosing was essentially ahead of his time... To obtain the required vacuum it was necessary to spend a huge amount of time. The pumps we had were manual, and we often had to spend hours lifting and lowering heavy vessels with mercury in order for the degree of vacuum to reach the desired level... And yet, by the end of our joint work, Professor Rosing received current system, which reproduced a vague picture on the screen."
Other eyewitnesses, however, wrote about the “clear” picture, in particular, about the image of “a grating in transmitted light, placed in front of the transmitter lens.” This image of the grid can be called a gloomy prophecy of the fate of a genius in Soviet Russia.
Here are Zvorykin’s Leningrad impressions dating back to 1933 (omitting the sad lines about the difficulties of life of the townspeople): “The program of the visit turned out to be well thought out, it contained many lectures, several visits to laboratories and official dinners. I discovered that I was a guest of the radio industry and therefore of the government, and not of the university, as I had assumed... Of course, I asked about Professor Rosing. Most of the people I asked had never heard of him. Finally they told me that he was arrested during the revolution, exiled to Arkhangelsk and soon died.”
In fact, Rosing, as already mentioned, was arrested in 1931, having managed to publish several works on television technology.
One copy of Rosing’s book “Electrical Telescopy” fell into the hands of another talented person, laboratory assistant at the Central Asian University Boris Pavlovich Grabovsky, who decided to implement the idea of electronic television - and immediately! And he presented the improved “radio telephony” project to Rosing himself in Leningrad. With Rosing's help, orders were placed for electric vacuum equipment, which made it possible to test Grabovsky's system in 1928 on the basis of the tram trust in Tashkent. But at that time, the minds of the Moscow authorities were dominated not by electronic, but by mechanical television - albeit low-line, with a screen no larger than a matchbox, but “long-range”, accessible to “proletarians of all countries.” Radio amateurs of the USSR received precisely such broadcasts from abroad. Disappointment will come later - then they will invite Zvorykin to the Union, ignoring their craftsmen.
Somewhat earlier, a television installation was built in Leningrad by V.A. Gurov (in the laboratory of the Comintern plant) - it was disabled as a result of the flood of 1924. Lev Sergeevich Termen, an employee of the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology, was also involved in television. The magazine "Ogonyok" in its issue dated November 21, 1926 cited the opinion of Academician A.F. Ioffe: “The discovery of L. S. Theremin is enormous and of pan-European scope. We saw the movement of a human hand on the screen.” Then they showed a hammer, a clown and other objects. Theremin's traces were lost for a while in the wilds of the intelligence services (he worked in a residency in the USA), and in the late 1950s he emerged as a pop artist, a performer on the “theremin” - an instrument that changes the tone of the sound by moving the hand near the antenna.
Rosing, Termen, Gurov, apparently, worked in the very laboratories through which the honored guest from the United States, Zvorykin, was taken. He recalls them this way: “Several laboratories that I visited did not make an impression on me. They were located, as a rule, in old buildings and were poorly equipped, sharply different from the new, well-equipped laboratories in the United States. However, I saw many original experiments with results that were new to me.”
Apparently, Zvorykin’s memoirs summarized his impressions from two visits to the USSR - he visited us in 1933 and 1934. After the first visit, the “Zvorykin problem” was ordered to be solved by the entire sector of the Institute of Telemechanics, headed by Ya.A. Ryftin, who simultaneously headed the television department at the Military Electrotechnical Academy in Leningrad. “Komsomolskaya Pravda” in its issue of March 14, 1935 wrote this: “In August 1933, at the invitation of the Soviet government, the famous American inventor of television Dr. Zvorykin came to the USSR and gave a number of lectures about his invention at Moscow and Leningrad institutes. Dr. Zvorykin did not say anything about the essence of the invention and its technical details. At the Leningrad Institute of Telemechanics there is nothing but appearance there was no kinescope. In 1934, Dr. Zvorykin came to the USSR again. He was amazed by what he found in the laboratories of the Leningrad Institute of Telemechanics: - For the first time I came to acquaint you with my achievements. This is the second time I'm leaving as a colleague. I’m afraid that for the third time I will have to learn a lot from you,” said Doctor Zvorykin before leaving.”
The Leningrad television center was built on the basis of domestic equipment and went on air a little later than the Moscow one - on July 7, 1938. The image clarity was 240 lines (in Moscow, the “Zvorykin” equipment gave 343 lines, post-war - from 1949 to the present day - 625 lines) . Moscow broadcasts had a slightly larger distribution radius thanks to the use of the Shukhov radio tower on Shabolovka, 148 m high. This tower began to be built in 1919 by order of V.I. Lenin "to ensure reliable and constant communication between the center of the republic and Western states and outlying areas." The Soviet Republic is surrounded by fronts, but hundreds of qualified builders are diverted to this “archivally important” matter and receive Red Army rations, working in both cold and heat in the hope that radio waves will contribute to the world revolution. Until the 40s, the most powerful radio stations in the USSR were called “named after the Comintern” - i.e. world communist government. Regarding television, the plans were similar. In 1925, in the Pravda newspaper on July 16, the founder of our documentary cinema, Dziga Vertov (D.L. Kaufman), wrote: “In the near future, a person will be able to simultaneously transmit visual and auditory phenomena recorded by a radio film camera via radio to the whole world. We must prepare to turn these inventions of the capitalist world to its own destruction.”
But life decreed otherwise, and at the Moscow television center on Shabolovka the creative efforts of two Russian geniuses, who found themselves on opposite sides of the class barricades, united: Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin and Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov. Initially, Shukhov proposed a project for a tower with a height of 350 m (higher than the Eiffel), but during the civil war there was no metal for such a tower, and they limited themselves, essentially, to the upper “half”, which, nevertheless, amazes with its elegance and serves as a symbol of domestic television on for many years.
Let us finally turn to the most delicate side of Zvorykin’s biography, to the reasons for silencing his name in our press during the post-war decades. Although in 1956 we published a purely technical book by Zvorykin and his co-author (his technical ideas were too important to be silent about them), - in ordinary consciousness the opposition continued: Shukhov and Rosing are patriots, Zvorykin betrayed his Motherland, and also served Kolchak. In fact, Vladimir Kozmich was not an enemy Soviet power, he just wanted to study technology, not politics. The authorities, one might say, forced him to emigrate. This is how it happened - according to Zvorykin’s memoirs, written in English and not intended for publication in Russia.
Zvorykin broke up with Rosing shortly after the famous display of the bars on television. The institute's diploma was received, and practice was to take place in laboratories in Europe. And in 1912, the transmission of radio signals from Eiffel Tower, and Zvorykin experimented with different types receivers. Then there were holidays in Spain and continuation of work - already in Germany, which seemed to Zvorykin more thorough in a technical sense. But war broke out. Through Denmark and Finland, Zvorykin reached his homeland, where he was immediately mobilized into the army with the rank of private. In the area of the city of Grodno, a private with an engineer's badge became interested in the command and was appointed commander of a radio station - it was disassembled somewhere in the railway warehouses.
It was possible not only to assemble the station, but also to establish “radio interception” - listening to German official messages. In 1917, in approximately the same way, Zvorykin opened a radio station for the Provisional Government, he was helped by a driver named Lushin. A year later, the same driver saved Zvorykin from execution. While working in the police, he learned that Zvorykin was included in the list as a white officer who did not show up for registration, and, waiting for Vladimir Kozmich to return from work, from the Marconi radio factory, which moved after the Soviet government to Moscow, Lushin literally dragged him into the car and drove him the station. In Nizhny Novgorod, Zvorykin was rescued by employees of the shipping company owned by his father - apparently, they respected the former “exploiter”.
He reached Perm by boat, then ended up in Yekaterinburg, where he was arrested. The rebel Czechs were approaching the city, the tsar who was nearby was shot along with his family, and Zvorykin and his cellmates broke down the doors and fled - because the guards and investigators fled even earlier. Together with the White Czechs, Zvorykin arrived in Omsk.
The Siberian anti-Soviet government sent him to the USA to get radio equipment. After a month-long voyage on a steamer down the Ob, further to a radio station operating in the Novaya Zemlya area to report on ice conditions, Zvorykin reached Arkhangelsk on an icebreaker, already occupied by Entente troops. From revolutionary Russia he found himself in another world: Copenhagen, London and, Finally, New York. But Zvorykin’s ideas about honor were such that he carried out the assignment, obtained the necessary equipment and completed his first trip around the world along the route Seattle - Yokohama - Vladivostok - Omsk. As chaos in Russia grew ever greater, he decided to return to the United States, this time for good. Admiral Kolchak hoped that Zvorykin would arrange a regular supply of radio equipment - and Vladimir Kozmich went to the United States as an authorized representative of the Kolchak government. He barely had time to see the Statue of Liberty before this government fell.
When the famous American Zworykin was received in the USSR in 1933, the trip program included a lot of interesting things. In Georgia he was kindly received by A.P. Beria and even provided him with his plane to fly to the sea, to Sukhumi. And in Moscow, at the play “Days of the Turbins” in Art Theater, in the man sitting next to him in the first row of the stalls, Zvorykin recognized with horror... the investigator who had once interrogated him in the Yekaterinburg prison. “The Leader of All Times and Peoples” was a master at such jokes. Perhaps he himself was present at that performance - from the archives of the Moscow Art Theater it is known that Stalin watched “Days of the Turbins” many times.
All that remains is to repeat after Bulat Okudzhava: “It’s so good that Zvorykin left and invented television there...”.
Another Russian inventor turned out to be the founder of the famous, world's first company in the United States, which produced video recorders in 1956. The company is called Ampex. The first three letters are initials: A.M. Witness. "Ex" - excellent, brilliant.
So, it turns out that Russia is the birthplace of television. We have something to be proud of. Let us remember our fellow countrymen. In 1978, Zvorykin’s name was included as No. 1 in the Book of Russian-American Glory.
Literature:
Kutsenko I.Ya. B. L. Rosing - discoverer of electronic television, founder of the Kuban Polytechnic Institute. Maykop: OJSC “Poligraphizdat “Adygea”, 2007, - 260 p., with ill.
Outstanding American engineer of Russian origin, “father of television” Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin(1888-1982) was born in an ancient and rich merchant family. His father, Kozma Alekseevich, was a merchant of the first guild, was engaged in the grain trade, owned a shipping company, and headed the Murom Public Bank. The Zworykin family had seven children (two sons and five daughters); Vladimir was the youngest. Because Kozma Alekseevich was busy, the children saw their father infrequently; Household affairs were managed by my mother, Elena Nikolaevna, who also came from the extensive Zvorykin family.
Vladimir Zvorykin visited primary school, then – real school. He studied easily and with enthusiasm. Already in his youth, Vladimir Zvorykin had a penchant for technology. In high school, he especially liked physics. Since his older brother Nikolai did not have much interest in entrepreneurship, his father involved Vladimir in the family business from the age of 10 and gave him instructions. After graduating with honors from a real school in 1906, Vladimir Zvorykin studied for some time at the physics department of St. Petersburg University, but was soon transferred to the St. Petersburg Technological Institute. Here he made a fateful acquaintance with the inventor of television, Professor Boris Lvovich Rosing, whose assistant in experiments with “electrical foresight” he was for about two years. Television became Zvorykin’s dream and his life’s work.
In 1912, V.K. Zvorykin graduated with honors from the Technological Institute and received the right to an internship in Europe. The father, of course, wanted his son to continue the family business, and it was decided that this would be the case - only later. The internship began in Paris at the Collège de France with the outstanding physicist Paul Langevin and continued in Berlin at the Charlottenburg Institute, but the First World War came. Through Denmark, Zvorykin came to Russia, where he was drafted into the army. For a year and a half, Private Zvorykin served at a military radio station in Grodno, then received an officer rank and became a teacher at the Officer Electrical Engineering School in, and was a military representative at the Petrograd plant. Russian society wireless telegraphs and telephones" (ROBTiT). Since the fall of 1917, Zvorykin served in an artillery unit, which was stationed near Kyiv before being sent to the front.
The Civil War began, and in April 1918 Zvorykin arrived in Murom, where sad news awaited him - the family house was requisitioned, his father died (a few months later his mother would also die). His reluctance to participate in the Civil War and the need to put his ideas into practice led him to the decision to leave Russia. Zvorykin with great difficulty reached, which was the center of the White movement. In Siberia, he was instructed to restore trade relations with a number of foreign countries and purchase machinery and equipment, including for a radio station in Omsk. Zvorykin went on a business trip - he got to the North, then on an icebreaker to Arkhangelsk, and from there to New York. In the spring of 1919, Zvorykin, having completed his assignment, returned to Omsk through the Pacific Ocean, Japan and Vladivostok, where he received a new assignment and again left for the United States.
During the second business trip, the Kolchak government dismissed Zvorykin from service. From now on, his fate was connected with America. One of the problems was that Vladimir Kozmich practically did not speak English. His strong Russian accent remained with him throughout his life. V.K. Zvorykin first worked as an accountant in New York, then, from 1920, in Pittsburgh at the Westinghouse research laboratory, where he began working on the creation of an electronic television system. He called the electronic transmitting television tube “iconoscope” (from the Greek words “ikon” - picture and “skop” - to see), and the receiving tube - “kinescope” (from the Greek “kineo” - to move).
In 1924 Zworykin became a US citizen, and in 1926 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Meanwhile, the management of the Westinghouse company did not see any prospects for Zvorykin’s work in the field of electronic television. At the beginning of 1929, V.K. Zvorykin met with an emigrant from Russia, David Sarnov, vice president of RCA (Radio Broadcasting Corporation of America), who believed in the success of television. Vladimir Kozmich went to work at RCA as the head of the television laboratory in Camden (from 1934 he became the head of the electronics laboratory, from 1947 - vice president of RCA). In 1933, together with his group of specialists, he completed the development of an electronic television system and spoke in Chicago at the annual conference American Society radio engineers with a report on the iconoscope. After this, the name Zvorykin became widely known throughout the world.
In 1936, the first electronic television suitable for practical use was developed in Zvorykin’s laboratory, and in 1939 D. Sarnov organized regular television broadcasting in the USA. In 1941-1942, V.K. Zvorykin, together with the RCA laboratory, moved to Princeton (New Jersey). In 1954 he became honorary vice president of RCA and director of the Center for Medical Electronics at the Rockefeller Institute in New York.
For his fruitful work, Zvorykin was awarded many awards and prizes. A significant part of his ideas were implemented. He played an important role in the development of color television, electron microscopy, fax communications, night vision devices, remote control, medical electronics, etc. As a scientist, Vladimir Kozmich was distinguished by a great spirit of creativity, broad imagination and intuition. He always worked with great enthusiasm and perseverance.
V.K. Zvorykin visited the USSR several times (the first time in 1933). Thanks to agreements with RCA in 1938 Soviet Union put into operation the first transmitting station for electronic television and began production of TK-1 televisions. In 1967, Zvorykin managed to visit his native Murom, which was closed to foreigners.
V.K. Zvorykin was married twice: the first wife was Tatyana Vasilyeva, the second wife was Ekaterina Andreevna Polevitskaya; daughters: Nina and Elena. In his home life, he largely remained a Russian person. He loved receiving guests, skating, and hunting. One of his hobbies was flying an airplane. In the last years of his life, Zvorykin began to have a somewhat negative attitude towards his brainchild - television, believing that it leads to unified thinking. V.K. Zvorykin died in Princeton. His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered over his beloved Taunton Lake, not far from his country home.
Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin was the first of our compatriots to receive the honor of entering the Russian-American Chamber of Fame. He owns the invention that had the most important impact on the society of the twentieth century - electronic television. Zworykin's developments gave birth to such devices as an electron microscope, a night vision device and an electron-optical converter. Without it, neither a personal computer nor many other devices that are used in the military, medical and engineering fields would exist.
Premature opening
Future great inventor born on July 17, 1889 in the family of the merchant of the first guild Kozma Alekseevich Zvorykin, who owned several ships, traded in bread and financial transactions- He served as chairman of the Murom Public Bank. Volodya was the youngest of seven children of a merchant. The father, an exemplary capitalist, had progressive views and tried to instill work discipline in his children. He encouraged his sons' interest in science in every possible way - especially since several of Kozma Alekseevich's brothers became famous scientists: Nikolai Zvorykin was a master of mathematics and physicist, professor of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute Konstantin Zvorykin was an engineer, author of works on metal processing and mechanical engineering technologies. And Ivan Alekseevich, a professor of physics at Moscow University, probably could have become a great meteorologist - he was creating a device that would register electrical discharges, predicting the approach of a thunderstorm. But, alas, his life was tragically cut short - he had connections with the People's Will organization and shot himself when the police came to his apartment with an arrest warrant.
Like Konstantin Alekseevich, Vladimir showed an interest in technology from childhood and in his youth chose the right path - he entered the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology. It was in 1906, at the very height of the First Russian Revolution, and the newly minted student did not remain aloof from political events - together with his comrades he ended up in prison for two weeks for distributing leaflets calling for reforms and elections to the Second Duma. The most important role in Zvorykin’s fate was played by a meeting with Professor Boris Lvovich Rosing, who conducted experiments on electronic transmission of images over a distance. One day, having caught Vladimir doing someone else’s laboratory work (he was helping a friend), Boris Lvovich did not reprimand him, but, on the contrary, invited him to be an assistant in his laboratory. “Since you spend so much time here anyway,” he added slyly. Zvorykin happily agreed.
Now it’s somehow strange to think about it, but at the time when Rosing and Zworykin created their electron-vacuum tube, the most likely path for the development of television was considered mechanical. In the 1920s, Scottish inventor John Bird created mechanical television based on the so-called Nipkow disk - a simple device that allows you to turn a scanned image into a set of “lines”, from which you can then reassemble the image on the screen of the receiving device. In 1925, Byrd demonstrated the transmission of images over a distance - the image of a humanoid doll on a mechanical “screen” assembled from flickering squares seemed to be a ghost caused by an experienced medium. Despite the obvious imperfection of the technology, contemporaries immediately fell in love with the “box”. Two years later, Byrd managed to transmit a signal over a distance of 705 km using a telephone cable, and a year later - to carry out the first transmission of a “television signal” between continents. In 1936, the BBC even broadcast “television broadcasts” using the improved Byrd system, which by that time gave a frame resolution of 240 lines. Unlike real television, it did not make it possible to directly transmit the captured image on the air: first it was necessary to record the film on film, which was then scanned.
The first Soviet serial TV B-27. Photo: Kunov Valentin / TASS
Rosing proposed a fundamentally different approach to solving the problem: optical-mechanical devices are a dead-end direction; to construct images, one must use an electron beam in a vacuum, directing it using electromagnetic fields. The idea was so innovative that it was decades ahead of its time: Rosing's system required parts that had not yet been created - for example, photovoltaic cells that could convert light into a stream of electrons. Even vacuum had to be obtained using antediluvian methods - using hand vacuum pumps. If technology had matured, perhaps Rosing would have been awarded the laurels of the pioneer of television. But many more years passed before the dream became feasible.
In the service of Kolchak
Having received a diploma in electrical engineering in 1912, Zworykin went to study abroad - at the Parisian Collège de France, where his professor was the outstanding physicist Paul Langevin. Here Zvorykin worked with X-ray installations, exploring their capabilities for studying crystal structures. The inventor himself writes in his memoirs that he survived by some miracle: the X-ray equipment of that time was powerful and did not have a protective screen - many of those who worked with them died within several years. But research at the Collège de France provided the opportunity to study areas that Zworykin would later find useful. In 1912, when the transmission of radio time signals from the Eiffel Tower began, he independently assembled a radio receiver in the laboratory - this was his first experience with radio. And the young engineer’s first acquaintance with medical electronics happened in a completely curious way: one day a student from Russia came into his laboratory and had a needle get under her skin in the area of her wrist. The doctor was unable to determine its location and remove the needle. At that time, X-ray machines were only available in large hospitals. Zvorykin managed to set up his setup in such a way as to take a clear picture, which allowed the doctor to remove the foreign object. Vladimir’s experience with transmitting and receiving radio signals helped him during the First World War: when he was called up for military service, he was engaged in the construction of field radio stations.
The revolution put an end to Zvorykin’s dreams of studying scientific activity at home. Scientific work poorly financed, old educational establishments were defeated, many of the inventor’s colleagues went abroad. At the invitation of friends who worked in an international cooperative organization, he went to Omsk, where the provisional Siberian government operated. The local Ministry of Supply sent him to the United States to negotiate the purchase of radio equipment. To leave the country, Zvorykin had to get out of the ring of fronts - having joined the ranks of the Arctic expedition, he reached Vaygach Island and from there went on an icebreaker to Arkhangelsk, which was occupied by the British and French. Having received the necessary visas, Zworykin finally went to the United States. However, in 1919, this country had not yet become his second home - soon he was again requested to Omsk, and he had to return in a roundabout way - through Canada, Japan and Vladivostok. And only during his next visit on behalf of the provisional government of Siberia did he realize that he would remain in America forever: soon after his arrival in New York, the Kolchak government fell, and there was nowhere to return.
The first RCA 630-TS TV to go into mass production. Photo: Fletcher6 / Wikipedia
The United States had not yet recognized the Bolshevik government, and Zvorykin decided to ask the ambassador of the Provisional Government in the United States, Boris Bakhmetyev, to get him a job at the embassy. It turned out that the only place he could offer him was that of a specialist working on an adding machine in the accounting department of the Russian Purchasing Commission in New York. Zvorykin agreed, but did not accept the miserable position - he began sending letters to companies looking for vacancies for radio electronics specialists. Finally, he received an invitation from Westinghouse Electric in Pittsburgh: in the corporate laboratory he began preparing cathodes for radio tubes. While working at this electric company, Zworykin made several inventions, which, however, he never patented - he did not know English well and could not explain to the patent attorney what exactly their novelty was.
Zvorykin’s “career” in the United States was not at all smooth: after leaving Westinghouse Electric, at the invitation of a petrochemical company, he moved to Kansas City. He didn’t understand petrochemistry, but the salary here was twice as high, and they also gave him the opportunity to open his own laboratory. Experiments to improve the process of cracking oil using high-frequency current did not bring success - it turned out that the current even slows down the process of splitting hydrocarbons. The management was furious, the laboratory was closed, and Zvorykin ended up on the street.
Dream come true
However, this failure was only one of the troubles that preceded success. When, many years later, the inventor asked his daughter Nina what she remembered most about life in Kansas City, she replied: “The phrase “electron beam.” You repeated it a hundred times a day.” Soon after being expelled from the petrochemical industry, he was invited back to Westinghouse Electric: the head of the laboratory had changed there, and its new head expressed interest in Zvorykin’s projects, which were not appreciated by the previous bosses. The scientist was given the opportunity to do what he liked, and in less than two months, working almost alone, he assembled the first operating electronic television system. Contrary to popular misconception, the transmitting electron tube was called an “iconoscope”, and the receiving tube from the very beginning received the same name as it does now - kinescope. And although the quality of the transmitted signal was far from perfect, the head of the laboratory immediately believed that the future lay in electronic rather than mechanical television. But the general director, to whom he demonstrated the invention of the talented Russian, just chuckled and brought out his resume: “The guy is talented, but he does nonsense. Isn’t it possible to use it more usefully?” Lovely illustration corporate shortsightedness!
In the first half of the 20s, Zvorykin patented several inventions at once - an iconoscope, a kinescope, a model of color television. In 1926 he received doctorate for his work in the field of photovoltaic cells. However, his ideas did not have commercial success - no one undertook to turn them into a product in demand by consumers. It is difficult to say how much more time the inventor could have spent proving their usefulness to others if not for another successful acquaintance: he managed to tell David Sarnov, president of Radio Corporation of America (RCA), about his developments. Perhaps the compatriot effect played a role: like Zvorykin, Sarnov was a native of the Russian Empire and spoke excellent Russian. He was a successful businessman and from the very beginning believed in the promise of electronic television. In 1929, Zvorykin went to work at RCA, where he improved the iconoscope for two years. Finally, television appears as a service available to ordinary citizens - so far, however, only in New York: a transmitting station installed on the 85th floor of the Empire State Building allows residents of the city and surrounding area to receive broadcasts on television receivers manufactured by RCA factories.
Empire State Building. Photo: AP
Zvorykin’s invention, which was immediately dubbed the “miracle of the twentieth century,” quickly became interested all over the world - corporations understood the commercial benefits of television, governments understood the propaganda benefits: for example, Nazi Germany used the television cameras of the Zvorykin system to conduct the world's first live broadcast - with Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936. The idea of creating our own television caused delight among the leaders of the USSR. Unlike, for example, Igor Sikorsky, Zvorykin was never an implacable enemy of Bolshevism - at the invitation of the Soviet government, he visited Moscow in 1935 and took part in signing an agreement with RCA on the supply of television equipment. The first television transmitting station in Moscow began operating in 1938 using equipment supplied by the studio. The first Soviet TV, TK-1, which was produced in 1934 at the Kozitsky plant in Leningrad, was made under an American license.
During the television broadcast of the landing of American astronauts on the Moon, Zworykin cried with happiness - from now on he will be involved in everything that is happening in the world: after all, it is his brainchild that allows us to see even what is separated from us by hundreds of thousands of kilometers. However, the ability to see far (remember that television literally means “far vision”) was possessed not only by Zvorykin’s brainchild, but also by himself. One of the inventor’s colleagues called it “A Gift to the American Continent.” Zworykin’s merits in the United States were appreciated - in 1978, the Congress of Russian Americans awarded him the title of Honored Russian American for his outstanding contribution to world science and equipment, and his native company awarded him the position of honorary vice president.
Television is far from the only invention of this great Russian scientist: during the Second World War, working as part of the Advisory Committee air force USA, he used a kinescope to construct a night vision device capable of converting infrared rays into an image accessible to the human eye. In addition, he became a pioneer in the field of television-controlled bombs and missiles. Back in the twenties, Zworykin created an electronic fax machine (the mechanical “fax” was invented in the middle of the 19th century). In the fifties, Zworykin returned to experiments in medical electronics, begun by that X-ray that made it possible to remove a needle from the arm of a Russian student. In collaboration with Canadian engineer James Hiller, he invented the first high-resolution electron microscope that could be used for medical and biological research.
Zvorykin visited the USSR two more times - in 1967, Vladimir Kozmich and his wife even went to their native Murom, buying a tourist ticket. It is noteworthy that the emigrant’s merits did not allow his name to be silenced even in his homeland, which diligently disowned the talented people who left it.
Vladimir Kuzmich Zvorykin is called “Russian gift to the Americans.” He left for the USA at a young age, but did not stop being a Russian scientist. Zvorykin invented the first electronic transmitting tube (iconoscope) and television receiving tube (kinescope). Zvorykin also worked on the creation of electron-optical converters, improvement of the electron microscope, and many others.
Little Vladimir was born on July 30, 1889 in the city of Murom into a wealthy merchant family. Since childhood, the boy was interested in Electrical Engineering and was distinguished by his love of books. In his memoirs, he wrote about his childhood: “My father tried to interest me in his affairs even when I was still a mere child, taking me with him on the ship and on other short business trips, which I liked.
When the weather was bad, my father would invite me into his office so that I could watch him receive business visitors. Of course, I didn’t understand their conversations, but I liked watching what was happening.”
In 1906, Zvorykin graduated from the Real School and entered St. Petersburg University. But after some time, the young man transferred to the St. Petersburg Technical Institute at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. Vladimir Kuzmich wrote about this time: “When I was a student, I studied with professor of physics Rosing, who, as you know, was the first to use a cathode ray tube for receiving television images. I was very interested in his work and asked permission to help him. We spent a lot of time talking and discussing the possibilities of television. Then I realized the shortcomings of mechanical scanning and the need for electronic systems.”
Zworykin spent his whole life remembering the house in which he grew up: “The house in which I was born belonged to our family for several generations. It was a large three-story stone building, too large even for our large family. In practice, we occupied only the second floor, the rest of the house was empty and we children had a lot of free space for playing hide and seek.... The house was located on a large square, facing two churches. Every Saturday a market was held on the square, where peasants brought their goods. The Saturday view from our windows of the square and bazaars was a source of entertainment...”
In 1912, after graduating from college, the young man went to France, to the College de France for an internship. During the First World War, Zvorykin returned to his homeland, more than a year fought with the rank of officer in wireless telegraph units. After some time, Zvorykin received an appointment to the Petrograd Officer Electrical Engineering School.
At the end of the summer of 1917, Vladimir Kuzmich went abroad. He understood that in Russia he did not have the opportunity to engage in the research that interested him in the field of television. It was not only impossible to work in Russia, but staying here for the merchant’s son turned out to be mortally dangerous. After the revolution, life in the country changed beyond recognition. It was difficult to survive in the atmosphere of chaos and bloody events, especially since Zvorykin came from a wealthy family.
Subsequently, when Vladimir Kuzmich found himself on a business trip in Russia in 1933, he found out what happened to many close and dear people. His teacher, Professor B.L. Rosing, was exiled to the North, where he soon died. Cousin- A.K. Zvorykin - was arrested in 1928 on charges that he was the son of a merchant of the first guild, his family had a house at their disposal before the revolution and he studied abroad and knows foreign languages. Soon my brother died on Solovki, in the camp. Brother Vladimir Kuzmich, Nikolai, a hydraulic engineer, was arrested in the early 1930s. If Vladimir Zvorykin had not left Russia, it is likely that the same fate would have awaited him. But he managed to leave his homeland, which had become hostile.
First, Zvorykin went to London, then settled in the USA. At first, he could not find a decent job for himself; he worked in accounting at the Russian embassy. Soon Zvorykin learned English and, thanks to the assistance of Russian emigrants, got a job at Westinghouse Electric. Zvorykin spent a long time lobbying management for the opportunity to engage in research in the field of television. This topic he had been interested in for a long time. But his superiors did not give him such an opportunity. As a result, Zworykin even left the company, but returned after a while because no one took his ideas seriously.
Vladimir Kuzmich continued to work at Westinghouse Electric, and in his free time he still continued to conduct experiments on “far-sighting,” as he then called the topic of his research. And very soon, in 1923, Zvorykin demonstrated to the leadership the transmission of images at a distance. Subsequently, he recalled this episode: “The demonstration was impressive, the transmitted image was a cross. The same cross was visible in the receiving cathode tube, only less contrasting and sharp.” However, despite the lack of special entertainment, the installation was obvious. The company's management reacted with interest to what they saw. But I still did not consider it advisable to spend working time on such research.
In 1926, Vladimir Kuzmich graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, received a Doctor of Philosophy degree, and after some time received a Doctor of Science degree from the Brooklyn Polytechnic University. He also became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and many other academies and scientific societies. But Zworykin did not give up his inventive activity. He has filed several patent applications in the field of television. However, for some reason they were not considered or were done extremely slowly. For one patent application, the inventor received a patent only after 15 years.
In America, Vladimir Zworykin did not feel like he belonged. The atmosphere of a foreign country weighed heavily on him. He suffered greatly when his wife, Tatyana Vladimirovna, died, leaving two children. Vladimir Kuzmich married for the second time in 1951. His wife was a Russian emigrant, Ekaterina Andreevna Polevitskaya. Interest in television among the world community arose completely unexpectedly. In the 1920s in different countries experiments were conducted in this industry around the world. The management of Westinghouse Electric commissioned Zworykin to produce a detailed summary of the achievements of this case. In 1927, Vladimir Kuzmich went on a business trip European countries. He visited Belgium, Germany, France, England. During the trip, Zvorykin learned a lot of new, useful formations.
In 1928-1929, he designed a television receiving tube with electrostatic focusing. This device became the predecessor of modern picture tubes. And the word “kinescope” itself appeared thanks to Vladimir Kuzmich, who proposed a strange term for the name of receiving television tubes. The word consists of two Greek words: “kineo”, which translated into Russian means “set in motion” and “skopeo” - “look”. The management of Westinghouse Electric has already provided Zworykin with more opportunities for research and experimentation in the field of electricity. Equipment and staff were provided to the scientist. During 1929, Vladimir Kuzmich designed several televisions and other television equipment, in particular a radio transmitter.
During this period, Zvorykin decided to leave Westinghouse Electric to start his own business. However, he did not have enough funds, and so the inventor went to work at RCA - Radio Corporation of America. It was within the framework of this corporation that Vladimir Kuzmich designed picture tubes, which brought him worldwide fame.
It so happened that in 1931, almost simultaneously, two engineers living in different countries, filed patent applications for the same invention - a transmitting television tube (“iconoscope”). There was very little difference in the timing of filing patent applications. These inventors were Vladimir Zvorykin and Semyon Kataev from Russia.
Zvorykin submitted his application on November 13, 1931. On November 26, 1935, he received a US patent. But Kataev was the first to apply. This was taken on September 24, 1931. He received the copyright certificate on April 30, 1933.
It is interesting that both inventors did not argue about who was the first to create the device. They became friends and met several times.
The method of operation and structure of the tube, which was called the “iconoscope,” are very interesting. The main component of the device was a mosaic photocathode - a mica plate, on one side of which there are millions of light-sensitive elements. These could be silver particles coated with cesium. Each element was a tiny cathode, forming a capacitor in connection with a nearby but mica-separated metal coating deposited on the plate on the other side. The result is a dielectric with two conductive plates.
This is where charges accumulated. The scanning electron beam ran around the mosaic, discharging the microcapacitors. And amplified electrical impulses entered the circuit. This increased the power of video signals.
In the second half of the 1930s, Zvorykin began solving problems of electron optics. Under his leadership, a night vision device was created that operated in the infrared range. The scientist also continued to work on improving television equipment. His laboratory also developed such electron-optical instruments as a supericonoscope, orthikon, vidicon, electron microscope, etc. By order of the military departments, on-board television devices were created for targeting bombs and missiles, and devices for radar systems.
In 1954, Zworykin retired as director of electronic research at RCA, but for a long time he was a consultant to the company. D. Sarnov, president of the corporation, wrote about the inventor: “His brilliant mind never waits for others. He never stops creating and innovating. Even fifteen years after the so-called resignation, which followed an amazing productive activity, he created more than many people do in a lifetime.”
In 1957, Zvorykin patented a device that provides a color image of active living cells on a screen in ultraviolet radiation. This was the beginning of a new milestone scientific research. Vladimir Kuzmich also improved the electron microscope used for medical and biological research.
In 1967, Zworykin was awarded a medal from the National Academy of Sciences of the United States for his contributions to the development of instruments for science, technology and television and for promoting the use of electronics in medicine. In addition, the scientist had many other various awards. In 1977, Zworykin was elected to the National Gallery of Inventors' Honor.
Vladimir Kuzmich Zvorykin received more than 100 patents for various inventions throughout his life. Among them were photocells, microscopes, electronic control systems vehicles and much more. When the scientist was 90 years old, he said about himself: “I’m still learning.” And indeed it is. Until the end of his life, Vladimir Kuzmich showed interest in different areas Sciences. They made more than 80 scientific publications. Vladimir Kuzmich Zvorykin lived a long, fruitful life. He died in 1982.
Discoveries and inventions of Russia, Slavic House of Books
Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin, was born on July 30, 1889 in the Russian city of Murom and died on July 29, 1982 in Princeton, New Jersey, USA. He is a Russian-American engineer and inventor of the iconoscope (the first electronic transmitting television tube) and the kinescope, as well as the author of modern television, one of the main inventions of the 20th century.
Becoming
Volodya was born into a large family of a wealthy merchant who owned steamships, traded bread and was the chairman of the Murom Public Bank. The children of Kozma Zvorykin, contrary to popular belief, followed not only the trading path, but also found themselves in science. The elder brother Nikolai Zvorykin became a civil engineer (he built hydroelectric power stations in Georgia), two sisters studied to be doctors, and one became a paleontologist.
Volodya Zvorykin was very fond of physics as a child, and after graduating from the Murom Real School in 1906, he entered the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology, where from 1910 to 1912 he spent most of his time in the laboratory of the physics teacher Professor Boris Rosing. It was Boris Lvovich who fascinated the 20-year-old boy with experiments in the field of “far vision” with a television system consisting of a rotating mirror drum for scanning an image and a cathode ray tube for displaying it.
In the spring of 1912, he graduated with honors from the St. Petersburg Institute with a diploma in electrical engineering, which gave him the right to an internship in one of the foreign laboratories. Therefore, in 1912-1914 he went to France, where he continued his studies at the Collège de France with the famous physicist Paul Langevin.
During the First World War, he served in the signal troops, and then worked as a teacher at a radio school in Petrograd. Then turbulent fate threw him around Russia, and in 1919, during his second business trip to the United States, he decided to remain there in exile. In 1920, he took a job at the Westinghouse Electric Corporation in Pittsburgh, where he took up his favorite topic - transmitting images over a distance. One day, having demonstrated his prototype electron tube to the chief manager of the company, he unfortunately did not find understanding of this project among his superiors, and continued development on his own.
As time went on, he continued to work on his idea, and in 1923 he created and filed a patent application for television operated entirely on an electronic principle (other television systems, such as Rosing, relied on mechanical devices like rotating disks and mirror drums to capture and image playback.)
Invention of television
One day, by chance in 1928, he met an emigrant from Russia, David Sarnov, who was the vice president of the Radio Corporation of America. D. Sarnov, who became the president of RCA in 1930, appointed Zvorykin as head of the RCA electronics laboratory. The next step in Vladimir Kozmich’s research was a business trip to Paris.
At the end of 1928, to study television research carried out in partnership between Westinghouse and the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), Zworykin traveled to Europe to the Paris laboratory of Eduard Belin. There he was particularly impressed by the cathode ray tube designed by Fernand Holweck and Pierre Chevalier. The Holweck-Chevalier tube used electrostatic fields to focus a beam of electrons.
Zworykin's revolutionary enthusiasm for the development and creation new handset and electronic television was not shared by the majority of Westinghouse executives, but despite this, in January 1929, a historic meeting took place between the vice presidents of the companies (Westinghouse and RCA) Sam Kinnear and David Sarnoff, where David Sarnoff asked how much time and money it would take to bring to market electronic television. Zworykin said two years and $100,000 (as time has shown, he greatly underestimated the scale of the project), and D. Sarnoff convinced S. Kinnear to provide Zworykin with the necessary resources.
By the end of 1929, Vladimir had improved his cathode ray receiver, the "kinescope", which had a fairly large and bright image for home viewing; however, the television system he developed still used a mechanical device, a rotating mirror, as part of the transmitting device.
A total of six picture tubes were assembled; one was at Zworykin's home, where late at night he received test television signals from the Westinghouse radio station, KDKA, in Pittsburgh. In 1930, Westinghouse's television research was transferred to RCA, and Vladimir Zvorykin became head of the television division at RCA's laboratory in Camden, New Jersey.
In April 1930, Zworykin visited the San Francisco laboratory of inventor Phil Farnsworth, a visit organized by Farnsworth supporters who wanted to make a deal with RCA. Three years ago, Phil Farnsworth already conducted the first successful demonstration of an all-electronic television system. What was particularly impressive was the transmission tube, the image diffuser, and he was inspired by it to improve upon his earlier tube camera, the “iconoscope,” for which he filed a patent in 1931.
RCA kept Vladimir Zvorykin's developments secret, and it was only in 1933 that the man who created television was able to report the existence of the iconoscope.
Vladimir Zvorykin’s consultations played a major role in the creation of television broadcasting systems in Europe. Zvorykin also came to the USSR at the invitation of the Soviet government, and as a result - the conclusion of an agreement with RCA, its subsequent implementation, and the commissioning in 1938 of the first electronic television transmitting station (television center on Shabolovka) in Moscow.
The production of TK-1 televisions with a kinescope, which was created by Zvorykin, was mastered. The TV operated on 33 radio tubes and was manufactured under an American license and using their documentation.
The TV was expensive, and it was usually purchased by clubs, red corners, etc. The TK-1 TV was intended for group viewing. To set up the TV for high-quality viewing, you had to adjust 14 knobs, which required certain skills and technical knowledge. Therefore, the first televisions were serviced by employees of television centers.
By the end of 1938, the industry had produced about 200 televisions, and by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War their number was up to 2000 pieces.
It was not until 1939, at the New York World's Fair, that RCA introduced regular electronic television broadcasting to the public.
VC. Zvorykin owns more than 120 patents for various inventions.
Other developments in electronics were aimed at improving the scanning electron microscope. Also, the developed electronic image camera, sensitive to infrared light, was the basis for a night vision device. Zvorykin was developing television-guided bombs, all of which were first used in battles in World War II.
Named honorary vice president of RCA in 1954, from then until 1962 Zworykin also served as director of the medical electronics center at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York (now The Rockefeller University).
Main published works: "Television - the electronics of image transmissions" (1940),
"Electron optics and electron microscope" (1945, "Photoelectricity and its applications" (1949), "Television in science and industry" (1958).
In 1966, the National Academy of Sciences awarded him the National Medal of Scientific Merit. He was also the founding president of the International Federation of Medical Electronics and Biological Engineering, a recipient of the UK Faraday Medal (1965) (read more in Faraday Michael) and a member National Hall USA glory since 1977
