EDGAR LARNER, a pioneer of television

Born 1869 in Norwich, a son of Thomas Larner

My great grandfather Edgar T Larner, was author of The Principles of the Alternating Current (1908)and many other scientific papers from 1904 to 1928.His most famous work was "Practical Television" published in 1928 by Ernest Benn. A second edition was published in 1929 both in London and New York. John Logie Baird wrote the following foreword:

 "In the present work the author deals very fully with the fundamental principles from which Television was developed, and deals with them in such a way as to interests the general reader without departing from strict scientific accuracy. It is hoped that the book will prove of the greatest assistance to those who are commencing the study of a subject which perhaps offers to the young scientific worker the most promising prospects of any avenue of research".

A recent scan on e-bay. amazon and google revealed that the average price for a first edition was $590, and $830 for a mint edition.

He was also one of the pioneers together with his friend John Logie Baird of both television and experiments with high definition transmissions. This was in 1926, long before the so-called Japanese invention of High definition TV in the latter part of the 20th Century. He worked as an electrical engineer for the British General Post Office (telephone division).He also was a lecturer at the Hackney Institute.  All his papers and books were published either by Benn Publishing, London, Lockwood, Van Nostrand, New York  or in journals. The British Library keep copies of most of his work.

A new website chronicling the achievements and biography of this forgotten  television and radio pioneer can be found at  http://www.edgarlarner.org.uk

Nikola Tesla 

Without the genius of the Serbian Tesla, you would not be reading this. It was his development of the Alternating Current together with his sponsor George Westinghouse  which brought electricity to the world not Edison. He also often cited how he was inspired by Faraday. Although he was born in Croatia, his father was a Serbian Orthodox Priest, and his mother was also a Serb, so Tesla was also a Serb. A recent advertisent for Roberts Radio called Tesla, a Croat. Such simple mistakes have caused wars in the Balkans, advertisment agencies should know better.

Although Guglielmo Marconi is credited with inventing the radio, it should be remembered that it was the technology developed by Tesla that made Marconi's work possible.The US Supreme Court also recognised this fact!  So in fact Nikola Tesla should be credited as inventor of the radio.

I am pleased that Beograd (Belgrade) Airport was re named earlier this year as Nikola Tesla International, after Serbia's most famous son. As part of the celebrations for the 150th universary of the birth of the scientist Nikola Tesla, on 10. July 2006 at Belgrade Airport "Nikola Tesla" a monument dedicated to this great man was unveiled.  It was sculptured by Mrs. Drinka Radovanović and is 3.10 meters high, weighing about 1.000 kilograms, cast in bronze. click here for picture: http://www.edgarlarner.org.uk/16253.html.
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The Museum of Nikola Tesla in Belgrade holds the complete personal belongings of Nikola Tesla, which were, according to his last wishes (and thanks to the efforts of his nephew Sava Kosanović), collected and transferred to Belgrade after his death in New York in 1943

The Museum is in Belgrade, Serbia, at 51 Proleterskih brigada street (at the corner of Proleterskih brigada and Prote Mateje streets). It was founded in 1952, and opened for visitors on October 20th, 1955.  click for details

Lady Ada Lovelace

Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, friend and colleague of Thomas Babbage was a superb mathematician. She was without doubt the world's first computer programmer. The computer Language ADA is named after her. A good web site is : http://www.aimsedu.org/Math_History/Samples/ADA/Ada.html

John Logie Baird, the real Inventor of Television.

John Logie Baird (1888 - 1946),was a close friend and colleague of Edgar Larner. JBL (Baird) was a brilliant an electrical engineer and inventor. He took over a large attic (2 rooms) at 22 frith St in the summer of 1924.  It was here that he conducted a series of experiments over the next year and a half that led to his demonstration of his "noctovision" to members of the Royal Institution, on the 27th  January  1926. This was the first public demonstration of this technology. Although others including Edgar Larner were also working on picture transmission, Baird was the first to succeed. His system used infrared rays to communicate pictures from a darkened room . see: http://www.edgarlarner.org.uk/62025.html for more details

Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday came from a poor family living in London. He was born in 1791 and from an early age he had a enquiring mind and was curious about everything. When he reached 13, he started work as a messenger boy for a booking business in London. He would read every book which he came across and wanted to write his own book. He had become interested in the concept of force (energy). As he had began reading at an early age and his later experiments regarding energy he made important discoveries in his life. He eventually qualified as a physicist and chemist.

In 1821 he constructed two devices to produce what he termed electromagnetic rotation, this is best described as “the continuous circular motion from the circular magnetic force around a wire”. In 1831 he started a series of experiments in which he discovered electromagnetic induction. These experiments form the basis of modern electromagnetic technology.

In this year (1831), he used his "induction ring", to make one of his greatest discoveries - electromagnetic induction: or the "induction" or generation of electricity in a wire by means of the electromagnetic effect of a current in another wire. The induction ring was the first electric transformer. Later in the same year during a series of experiments he discovered magneto-electric induction: the production of a steady electric current. Faraday did achieve this by attaching two wires through a sliding contact to a copper disc. By rotating the disc between the poles of a horseshoe magnet, he managed a continuous direct current. This was the first proper generator. It was from Faraday’s experiments came the devices that led to the modern electric motor, generator and transformer.

Faraday continued these electrical experiments. In the next year (1832), he proved that the electricity induced from a magnet, voltaic electricity produced by a battery, and static electricity was all the same. He also did significant work in electrochemistry, stating the First and Second Laws of Electrolysis. This laid the foundations for what we now called electrochemistry.

To be continued..(partial data fro the Institution of Electrical Engineers-IEE).

Philo Farnsworth.the pioneer of electronic television. This man's contributions are often forgotten. His design and format of television architecture owes much to his work in the 1920s and 1930s. Farnsworth was born in Indiana Springs, Utah, where he grew up as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons).  From an early age he took an interest in electrical circuits and basic electronics.  Whilst still a teenager, he received local funding to carry out experiments with television.  By the time he reached 21, Farnsworth had a working Cathode Ray tube television, and had attracted the attention of the electronics firm RCA.  However, despite his early success, he like many inventors and pioneers suffered from commercial pressures, and once his ideas had been taken up, he was ignored by the industry he had helped established. When Philo Farnsworth died, his valuable contribution to the development of television was almost completely unknown by the general public. 

Alexander Graham Bell, whose wife was deafened and is popularly credited with developing the first working telephone system. A biography of this engineer will be posted soon

more pioneers can be found at: http://www.edgarlarner.org.uk/62025.html