With the 75th anniversary of the invention of television coming up, who knows who the actual all-but-forgotten inventor of the medium is?

That's Philo Farnsworth....any relation to Richard??

John is correct........ it is Philo Farnsworth, the real inventor of television and not who is commonly credited by RCA...... So the next question is who has RCA tried to give the credit to and even went to court, more than once, to try and dispute who really invented television? They lost in court to Farnsworth, but over the years have continually perpetuated the lie that they invented the medium. They even tried to surpress the biography of Farnsworth ("The Last Lone Inventor") a version of history that RCA/NBC has no incentive to revise, even today.

Dad I usually go with Ward Cleaver but Vladmir Zworykin had an early patent on a scanning tube, but his tube was vastly inferior to the one Farnsworth developed several years later. Valdmir's original design never really cut it so the design eventually used by RCA was a rip off of Farnsworth's design.

Tony has the correct answer....it was Vladimir Zworykin, at that time RCA's chief television engineer. As hard as RCA tried to have him declared the inventor, Farnsworth ultimately triumphed in court. David Sarnoff and RCA with it's television offshoot NBC persists to this day in trying to rewrite history.

Sadly, Farnsworth made very little money off of his revolutionary invention due to his patents having expired by the time television become an industry. It's my understanding that he was appalled by how televison was used until he saw the moon landing then he felt that his years of dedicated work was vinticated.

The only instance I know of Mr. Farnsworth making any money off his name was when he appeared on the old "Ive Got A Secret" tv show and was paid 80 dollars.

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