Elma Farnsworth, television pioneer

SALT LAKE CITY – Elma Gardner ‘Pem’ Farnsworth, who helped her husband, Philo T Farnsworth, develop the television and was among the first people whose images were transmitted on TV, has died at age 98.

Farnsworth, who married the young inventor in 1926, worked by her husband’s side in his laboratories and fought for decades to assure his place in history after his 1971 death. Other inventors had demonstrated various developments in the 1920s, including mechanical transmission of images, but it was Farnsworth’s work that led to the electronic TV we know today.His first TV transmission was on September 7 1927, in his San Francisco lab, when the 21-year-old inventor sent the image of a horizontal line to a receiver in the next room.He said inspiration for his invention had come seven years earlier, while plowing a field on his family’s Idaho farm.He realised an image could be scanned onto a picture tube the same way: row by row.His widow recalled that morning in the lab “like it was yesterday”, she told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2002.”It was a very small screen, about the size of a postage stamp, an inch and a half square.At first, we were stunned.It was too good to be true.Then Phil said, ‘There you have it – electric television’.”According to the book ‘Philo T Farnsworth: The Father of Television’ by Donald G Godfrey, the first human images transmitted by Farnsworth were of his wife and her brother, Cliff Gardner.The book lists her as the “first woman on TV”.But credit for the invention nearly escaped Farnsworth after RCA claimed the innovation was the work of its chief television engineer, Vladimir Zworykin.In 1935, the courts ruled on Farnsworth’s patent, naming him TV’s undisputed father.The decision was upheld on appeal, though Farnsworth continued to get little recognition.Philo Farnsworth gave his wife equal credit in his invention, saying, “my wife and I started this TV”.He eventually was featured on a US postage stamp, and a historical marker was placed on the San Francisco building where the first Farnsworth television image was projected.A statue of her husband now stands in the US Capitol bearing the inscription: ‘Philo Taylor Farnsworth: Inventor of Television’.Elma Farnsworth was received with applause when she stood up at the Academy of Television Arts & Science’s Emmy Awards tribute to her husband in Los Angeles in 2002.- Nampa-APOther inventors had demonstrated various developments in the 1920s, including mechanical transmission of images, but it was Farnsworth’s work that led to the electronic TV we know today.His first TV transmission was on September 7 1927, in his San Francisco lab, when the 21-year-old inventor sent the image of a horizontal line to a receiver in the next room.He said inspiration for his invention had come seven years earlier, while plowing a field on his family’s Idaho farm.He realised an image could be scanned onto a picture tube the same way: row by row.His widow recalled that morning in the lab “like it was yesterday”, she told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2002.”It was a very small screen, about the size of a postage stamp, an inch and a half square.At first, we were stunned.It was too good to be true.Then Phil said, ‘There you have it – electric television’.”According to the book ‘Philo T Farnsworth: The Father of Television’ by Donald G Godfrey, the first human images transmitted by Farnsworth were of his wife and her brother, Cliff Gardner.The book lists her as the “first woman on TV”.But credit for the invention nearly escaped Farnsworth after RCA claimed the innovation was the work of its chief television engineer, Vladimir Zworykin.In 1935, the courts ruled on Farnsworth’s patent, naming him TV’s undisputed father.The decision was upheld on appeal, though Farnsworth continued to get little recognition.Philo Farnsworth gave his wife equal credit in his invention, saying, “my wife and I started this TV”.He eventually was featured on a US postage stamp, and a historical marker was placed on the San Francisco building where the first Farnsworth television image was projected.A statue of her husband now stands in the US Capitol bearing the inscription: ‘Philo Taylor Farnsworth: Inventor of Television’.Elma Farnsworth was received with applause when she stood up at the Academy of Television Arts & Science’s Emmy Awards tribute to her husband in Los Angeles in 2002.- Nampa-AP