"Interview with Frank Smith at our home in Holladay, Ut." 2/6/70 Side 1, 1970

Item — track: 7

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Frank Smith is interviewing Philo Farnsworth.
Philo says that he knew at six that he would be an inventor. It's difficult to hear what he says sometimes as he speaks very softly and not very well.
He describes an invention that he made at eight years old, but it is very difficult to hear exactly what he says.
Mr. Farnsworth says he knew Justin Tollman, the brother of a principle at an Idaho high school that Philo attended. He says that Mr. Tollman had notes that Philo had made and kept them for fifteen years. He tutored Philo extremely frequently throughout school.
In San Francisco, he created the first electronic television transmitter tube. Sound comes in and out from the tape for a little bit.
He was told by a Caltech engineer that he stood as much a chance as a drip of ice on a red hot stove.
It took about a year to get a television picture that was as good as the average home set during 1970.
Philo owns a patent for horizontal and vertical synchronization that he believes is extremely important because it removes the horizontal lines from the picture. He says it is still being used in the exact same form as of the time of the interview.
He owned at some point 165 US patents, unsure if he still owns this many. RCA attempted to sue him for some of the patents but he did not lose a single case.
He developed a serum for hemolytic streptococcus while working with the University of Pennsylvania, which had been incurable previously. He says that the loss of his second son to hemolytic streptococcus motivated him to work in the field of medicine.
He believes that television is beginning to hurt the peripheral vision of children and envisions a television experience in which you would simply be able to walk into the virtual projection rather than watching it on a screen.
He thanks Roy N. Bishop, W.W. Crocker, Joseph Feagen (unsure on spelling), because they were his initial backers in his research and development of the television.

Dates

1970

Language of Materials

From the Collection: Collection material in English.

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