1.
SV Baird with early low definition receiver CU low definition receiver (2 SHOTS) (1926)
0.08

2.
GV Baird's original camera; GV Baird speaking; CU Scanning disc; SV Baird and machine; CU second disc; SV Baird and apparatus (5 SHOTS) (1938)
0.46

3.
SV Television under construction; CU Tube being carried revealing GV workshop; SV men sealing tube with flame; GV & SVs television being built Passiac, New Jersey, USA 1939 (6 SHOTS)
1.14

4.
GV Alexandra Palace; CU sign 'Television Offices, studio and Transmitter' (2 SHOTS) (August 1969)
1.22

5.
SV, CU & GV Technicians working (3 SHOTS)
1.30

6.
CU Values (2 SHOTS)
1.36

7.
SV Television camera; CU announcer; GV studio; CU Helen Mckay singing; SV, GV, & GV Helen Mckay singing (8 SHOTS)
2.59


TRANSCRIPT: ANNOUNCER: "With these pictures of the original television apparatus now in the South Kensington museum, we introduce Mr. John Baird, the inventor."



BAIRD: "It is now twelve years since this apparatus showed the transmission of outline images to the public for the first time. This is the scanning disc with its lenses...this is the second disc, by, which light is further divided and passes into a light cell. This apparatus was shown to members of the Royal Institution and others on January the 27th, 1929, and showed true television images in light and shade for the first time."



ANNOUNCER: "Hello, Radio Olympia. This is direct television from the studios of Alexandra palace. And now you are going to see and hear someone you know well, Miss Helen McKay."




Initials CLM/


TELERECORDING

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Fifty years ago on Sunday (September 30) the first experimental broadcast of a new system of communication -- television-- was carried out in the United Kingdom.

SYNOPSIS: Development of the principle had been going on since before 1900. In 1926, in England, the first true television pictures were shown.

Baird's system was mechanical, and the results were crude. But it was the start of television as a practical technology and his system did stimulate further research -- based on an electronic system. By 1936 that system, the basis of modern television, had been developed. Three years later this factory in the United States was making sites. Five Stations were transmitting then. In 1941 regular broadcasting began in the United States.

But it was from the United Kingdom that the world's first television broadcasting system began in November 1936 -- using an electronic system that lasted until 1964. Since those early days, the use of television as a means of communication has expanded rapidly. Live broadcasts in colour can now be broadcast, using satellites, around the world. In August 1936 though, the distance for this demonstration broadcast was small, just across London to an exhibition.

The early British broadcasts reached about 100 sets; now, the world total is almost 400 million. Audiences to have grown. An estimated 1,000 million people watched the last two Olympic Games.