Emigrant Vladimir Kuzmich Zvorykin, inventor of television, died in the USA. Zvorykin - Murom father of television

It is difficult today to meet a person who does not know what a television is. A television has long been no longer a luxury item; it is found in almost every home and is used by young and old. In the modern world, there are many types of TVs that differ from each other in parameters, characteristics, screen types, etc. However, not everyone knows the history of the television and who is considered its first inventor. However, the appearance of television is the merit of many scientists. Thanks to their inventions and research, the issue of transmitting images over a distance using technical means was resolved very successfully by the end of the 19th century. The beginning was made by the Englishman Smith, who discovered the phenomenon of the photoelectric effect in 1873. Hertz and other scientists continued research in this direction. At the beginning of 1888, Russian scientist A.G. Stoletov created an “electric eye,” which was the prototype of photocells. In 1884, the Nipkow disk was created, and in 1907, Dieckmann demonstrated a television, measuring 3 cm by 3 cm with a screen of 20 pixels. We cannot ignore the famous Russian scientist B. Rosing, who invented the “cathode telescope” system, which reproduced an image with a cathode ray tube. These and a number of other inventions were fundamental in the history of television.

The creator of electronic television is considered V.K.Zvorykin, creator of the electronic transmitting tube - iconoscope. In 1936, Zvorykin, a student and follower of the famous scientist Rosing, created the first electronic television in his laboratory, a little later he became the first creator of a television for the public. V.K. Zvorykin was born on July 17, 1889 in Murom in the family of the merchant Kozma Alekseevich Zvorykin. There are discrepancies and inaccuracies regarding the date of birth of this outstanding scientist. Thus, in the Central Archives of St. Petersburg there is a copy of his birth certificate, which indicates a different year of birth - 1888. The merchant's two brothers were famous Russian scientists, and his eldest son, Nikolai, also gave preference to science. Therefore, Kozma Alekseevich dreamed of eventually transferring his business to Vladimir, who already in childhood showed himself to be an incredibly energetic, capable and “handy” young man. As soon as the fashion for electric bells appeared in the city, he immediately made and equipped the entrance doors in the houses of relatives and friends with them. He successfully repaired the alarm system on a ship that belonged to his father's company.

In 1906, Vladimir successfully graduated from a real school in his native Murom and, at the insistence of his father, entered the Technological Institute of St. Petersburg, after which he became a certified industrial engineer in 1912. At the institute, an event occurs in Vladimir’s life that played a huge role for him in the future. In 1910, he was engaged in research work in the laboratory under the direction of Rosing, who is passionately working on the problem of transmitting images over a distance (electronic television). On the recommendation of the professor, Zworykin went on an internship in 1912 at the College de France. Here he listens to lectures by the famous Paul Langevin and studies under his guidance the properties of x-ray radiation. During the First World War, Private Zvorykin commanded a radio station for almost a year, which he himself installed. As a result of overvoltage, he was sent for rehabilitation to Petrograd, where he was soon awarded the rank of officer and sent as a teacher to the Officer Electrical Engineering School. In 1916, he was appointed military representative at the ROBTiT plant, which produces radio stations for the navy and army. Here he met a major entrepreneur and famous radio engineer S.M. Aizenstein. After the revolution, Zvorykin understands that his dreams of creating a laboratory where he could implement many of his engineering ideas and ideas in the field of electronic television, which was an early agreement with Eisenstein, would no longer come true. Zvorykin is seeking a transfer to work in Siberia. He hopes that the richest entrepreneurs in Siberia, interested in developing production, creating their own networks of radio stations, and establishing international trade relations, will help in the implementation of his plans. Fleeing from arrest, Zvorykin, with great difficulties, reached Omsk in July 1918, where he was seconded by the Provisional Siberian Government to England, Sweden, Denmark and Norway.

Having reached Arkhangelsk, Zvorykin met the US Ambassador to Russia D.R. Francis and received a visa to the US. In 1920, Zworykin and his wife moved to Pittsburgh, where he worked for the Westinghouse Electric Company. Since 1923, he has been inventing and constructing transmitting (iconoscope) and receiving, reproducing images (kinescope) cathode ray television tubes. In the late 1920s, Zworykin met a major entrepreneur, president RCA (Radio Corporation of America), a native of Russia D. Sarnov, who was well versed in electrical engineering issues. He supported Zvorykin’s ideas in the field of creating television systems and research, and invested huge amounts of money in this project. In 1931, Zworykin created a serial tube with a mosaic photocathode; he solved the most important issue of color transmission and laid down the basic principles of modern color television. In 1932, a television station was installed at the Empire State Building in New York, and the corporation's factories began producing the first televisions. Today, the buyer pays great attention to the characteristics and functional features of products. High-quality, multifunctional TVs from the online store palladium.ua will make your stay pleasant and comfortable. Plunge into the world of amazing and beautiful. Zworykin was proud of his invention, which brought people information, knowledge, culture, and gave the whole family the opportunity to sit in front of a blue screen. At the same time, he realized that television also carried danger; it could “brainwash all of humanity.” During his long and fruitful life, this great man made many inventions; his name was inducted in 1977 into the National House of Fame for Inventors of the United States of America.

Outstanding American engineer of Russian origin, “father of television” Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin(1888-1982) was born in an old and wealthy 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 attended primary school, then a secondary 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 of 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 of the American Society of 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 Medical Electronics Center 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 the Soviet Union put into operation the first electronic television transmitting station 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.

Date of birth: July 29, 1888
Date of death: July 29, 1982
Place of birth: Murom, Russian Empire

Zvorykin Vladimir Kozmich- a famous engineer born in Russia. Also Vladimir Zvorykin known as one of the founders of television.

Vladimir was born into a merchant family. His father was quite wealthy - he was engaged in banking, owned several steamships and was engaged in grain trading. The boy began his studies at a real school, and then went to St. Petersburg to receive higher education at the Polytechnic Institute. He studied well and received a red diploma in engineering.

Already during his studies, he became one of the members of a group that worked on electronic devices under the leadership of Professor B. Rosing. The young man continued his research in Paris, where he continued his studies at one of the technical colleges.

With the outbreak of World War I, Vladimir went to Grodno, and then, having the skills of an engineer, he came in handy at the Petrograd radio school for officers.

The war became a difficult time for the young scientist - he decided to move to Omsk, where he sympathized with the “white” movement, but continued his activities in terms of equipping radio stations. Once he was already preparing to be shot for searching for radio components, but Kolchak’s troops helped him stay alive.

One of the business trips related to his activities was to New York. At this time, news arrived that Kolchak had been defeated, and Vladimir decided not to return to Russia, because... again feared reprisals for meeting the “white” commander.

He stayed in America and found a job at Westinghouse. It was there that he managed to advance in his favorite topic - attempts to convey an image.

But the authorities did not appreciate this research, perhaps due to the scientist’s insufficient command of the English language. Vladimir continued his work without the help of the company. The result was the filing of a patent in the field of TV.

One of the most important meetings in the scientist’s life was the meeting with the future president of Radio Corporation of America, D. Sarnov. It was Sarnov who made Vladimir the head of the electronics laboratory.

A year later, a kinescope was created, and two years later, an iconoscope. Soon he made a presentation to all radio engineers in America and presented his new product.

Fame in the technical world allowed him to visit the USSR and establish both the production of televisions and TV broadcasting methods there. In addition, he became a consultant, thanks to whom TV appeared and developed in Europe.

In the pre-war years, Vladimir concentrated on creating systems for a scanning electron microscope.

During the Second World War he remained in the United States, but he was closely watched as a scientist of Russian origin, because. He was involved in work in the field of night vision devices and special aerial bombs.

After the war, Vladimir returned to optical systems, but in medical devices.

Died in America in July 1982.

Achievements of Vladimir Zvorykin:

Received Edison and Faraday medals
Was at the origins of modern television
Received more than 100 patents for inventions in various fields

Dates from the biography of Vladimir Zvorykin:

1906 entered the Technological Institute of St. Petersburg
1912 received an engineering diploma
1914 returned from Paris
1919 business trip to New York
1923 decided to apply for a patent in the field of television
1928 meeting with the future president of RCA
1929 developed a kinescope device
1933 trip to Europe to advise on television development
1967 in the USA received the National Medal of Science
1982 died

Interesting facts of Vladimir Zvorykin:

Died before he was 6 years old
He bequeathed his ashes to be scattered over the lake at his dacha, which was done
During a visit to Russia in the 1930s, he was received with state honors. Visited Tbilisi, where he met with Beria
Married twice, father of two daughters

07/29/1982. Emigrant Vladimir Kuzmich Zvorykin, inventor of television, died in the USA

Zvorykin - the father of television

(30.7.1889–29.7.1982) - inventor of the kinescope, spent most of his life in exile in the USA, where he died. But he gave so much to humanity that today we cannot imagine life without some of the fruits of his technical thought.

He was born into the family of a rich Murom merchant, the boy was named in honor. Vladimir grew up very inquisitive, and his father tried not to fetter his son’s initiative. If he wants to go for the summer as a cabin boy on his father’s luxury yacht - please. Dreaming of a book that has just appeared on the shelves in Moscow - what's the question? He is drawn to radio electronics - for God's sake. One day, all the electrical equipment on the yacht burned out, but the father allowed his son to fix the breakdown and was very proud when he succeeded.

This small success gave Zvorykin Jr. self-confidence. He became interested in electrical engineering, and his teacher was the famous electronics specialist B.L. Rosing, who was the first to use a cathode ray tube to receive television images. Zvorykin became his best student, with whom the master held conversations about the future of television.

At first, Zvorykin decided to study physics and entered St. Petersburg University, but soon transferred to the electrical engineering department of the St. Petersburg Technical Institute, where he met Rosing. It was the professor who insisted that his talented student continue his studies in Europe. Zvorykin chose the Collège de France in Paris, however, his internship did not last long - it began. From its very first months, Vladimir, having returned to his homeland, became an officer in the wireless telegraph units.

In 1915, he was sent to the Petrograd Officer Electrical Engineering School. Here he was again lucky with a teacher - Colonel I.E. Muromtsev. In addition, he arranged for the young officer to work at the Russian Society of Wireless Telegraphs and Telephones ROBTiT, a subsidiary of the English company Marconi in Petrograd.

Anticipating skeptical judgments that all such technical inventions only contributed to the satanic influence on humanity, we will object. Both on radio and on television, on the Internet, and on the printing press, you can make the Holy Scriptures and worship available to people, or you can spread godlessness and pornography. During the preaching of Christ, it never occurred to anyone to condemn the then means of disseminating information: papyrus, writing tablets and leather scrolls. The gospel message was recorded and spread throughout the world with the help of various technical devices.

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

The future great inventor was born on July 17, 1889 in the family of a 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 Kiev 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 work at the Collège de France provided an opportunity to study areas that Zvorykin 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 engaging in scientific activities in his homeland. Scientific work was poorly financed, old educational institutions were destroyed, 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?” A perfect illustration of 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 his 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

Zworykin’s invention, which was immediately dubbed the “miracle of the 20th 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 television cameras of the Zworykin system in order to conduct the world’s first live broadcast - from the Olympic Games. 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 technology, and his native company awarded him the position of honorary vice president.

Television is not the only invention of this great Russian scientist: during the Second World War, while working as part of the US Air Force Advisory Committee, 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.