Honorary Lecturer, University of Glasgow, Engineering Archaeologist, Television Historian, Author.
London, England
Joined May 2009
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#OTD (13 June) 100 years ago, TV pioneer C Francis Jenkins showed for the first time the moving silhouette image of a windmill transmitted as television from Bellevue DC to his laboratory over a distance of 10km. See theconversation.com/the-tran…
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As it's now 40 years since I had my first success with revealing Baird's Phonovision images, I thought I'd tackle the WIKIpedia entry for 'Phonovision' for the first time (!) as a one-off edit. I've fixed the lack of references that was identified as a problem.
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#OTD 90 years ago, the BBC produced and broadcast live the world’s first television revue on the 30-line TV standard. It stands as the most cited programme from BBC Television of 1932-35. In 1996, I recovered 4mins of vision from a disc recording & identified it as that prog.
My latest forensic-level original investigation of an early television artefact has now been published online (awaiting a journal print slot). 'Before True Television', Proc. IEEE, doi: 10.1109/JPROC.2022.3170655.
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@BBCArchive #OTD 25 years ago BBC's Tomorrow's World revealed the earliest vision-only video recording of BBC Television from April 1933 that I had restored and identified as the start of 'Looking In' - the 'world's first television revue'. See at youtu.be/Rg6Qtdz6cwQ
#CoventryCathedralBBCFour : a superbly rich presentation and production of high quality television - full of 'I didn't know that' moments, all researched and delivered with fantastic archive content. . Yet another magnificent piece for television from @illuminations
For anyone interested in the technical history of BBC Outside Broadcast units, I recommend Brian Summers' authoritative article in @BVWSOfficial Bulletin. It provides history, operational context and the evolution of technical systems in the monochrome era.
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Brian and others are undertaking the commendable task of restoring a vintage OB unit from 1963 with funding from various sources including @HeritageFundUK - all presented at mcr21.org.uk
John Liffen told me 'The Ballad of Stooky Bill' is on 28-Feb 4:30pm @BBCRadio4. John Burnside (author of the @RadioTimes article) might like to know that 'Daisy Elizabeth Gandy' was a fake name on Wikipedia's John Logie Baird page about 5 years ago. (Should be Oliver Hutchinson)
The original Stookie Bill is safely attached to JLB's 'Double-8' apparatus in @MediaMuseum. The 'replica' referred by Burnside I think came from the IBA Gallery. The Stookie Bill that's missing is the one used by JLB from late 1926 onwards and appeared on a Phonovision disc.
Celebrating 20 years this month since my award-winning book, 'Restoring Baird's Image' - covering my discovery and restoration of the world's first video recordings, set in a new history of early UK television development - was published by the IEE (@IET) and it's still in print!
A clip from BBC film 'Television Comes to London' (1936) appears as an @BritishPathe clip 'TV comes to Alexandra Palace', with their guess of 1938. Could they have the full film as a better print than the one at @BFI National Archive? youtu.be/bH7AxAOfeIk
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Into the fog: How Britain lost track of the coronavirus reuters.com/investigates/spe… via @SpecialReports
Imminent event for those interested in British TV history: celebrating 60 years since BBC Television Centre opened - Monday 29th June 2020.
rts.org.uk/event/tvc-60 via @RTS_Media rts.org.uk/event/tvc-60
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Taking time off from writing to explore the fascinating (for media historians) world of UK TV (& film) studios at tvstudiohistory.co.uk. I love sites that leave me with 'I didn't know that' moments. Thanks @martinkempton
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From historian of Baird television, Ray Herbert, here is one of his private photographs taken on VE day 1945. In memory of a generation to whom we all owe great tribute.
Great views from the tops of lamposts and traffic lights!
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For #TapeBoxTuesday, here's a unique collection - my original transcriptions (from '83-'87) of all known Baird Phonovision videodiscs from 1927-1928. 5 of the discs survive in safe keeping, and there is a subsequent 1996 digital transcription lodged with @BLSoundHeritage
My own contribution for #TapeboxTuesday @BLSoundHeritage: from 1983, containing my transcription of what turned out to be the earliest-known video recording of television (Sep 1927) in a lab test of J L Baird's #Phonovision process, to capture 30-line video at 4 frames/sec.
Great to see the historic Swingate Chain Home radar station (at 1m20s) repurposed as a support for receiving that cross-channel transmission. @BBCarchive, it would be nice to see the surviving tele-recording (from ‘We Bring You Live Pictures’ 1982)?
#OnThisDay 1950: "Calais, starting point for many a Channel crossing, was the setting for another this week."
Newsreel showed how the BBC had transmitted the first direct television pictures across the Channel.
... and this is an alternative version of the history, from Teletronic
teletronic.co.uk/pages/histo…
Proud to have been friends with Betty Bolton and also to have suggested to the BBC they include her on the launch day of BBC Choice in 1998, 66 years after the launch the BBC's 30-line TV service. (Restored video clip of her singing on that 1st service is on my YouTube channel)
Today in 1932 the BBC began making its own TV programmes. Betty Bolton and Betty Astell (pictured) appeared in the first show - a low-definition extravaganza from Studio BB, Broadcasting House, with an introduction by John Logie Baird. genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/150fa8ba…
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