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Seeverbo. dot com slash trust for details. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past two hundred and fifty years, and now it takes form in a new way. The twenty twenty six semi quincentennial coin and medal program from the United States Mint.
It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and. Reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov/semiq. That's usmint.gov/semiq.
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Scammers, insurance companies, you name it. That's why you want Incogni. Go to incogni. com slash lee for sixty percent off. That's i n c o g n i dot com slash lee incogni dot com slash lee incogni dot com slash lee incogni dot com slash lee Ready to feel energized and in control again?
At Orderly Meds, we have helped thousands just like you take charge of their health with a GLP one. If you've tried dieting, exercising, and relying on willpower, and nothing seems to stick, then it might be time to talk to a licensed provider about your options. That's what Orderly Meds is for. This fall, choose healthier habits for yourself with a visit to OrderlyMeds dot com. You don't need to visit with a physician in person to become eligible.
Orderly Meds has a simple Virtual process. Connect with licensed medical professionals who can determine whether a GLP-1 treatment may be appropriate for you wherever you are. Get started from the comfort of home online. Change your habits and consider a new approach to feeling your best. Visit orderlymeds.com to learn more.
That's orderlymeds.com. Orderlymeds.com. Gain confidence and choose better habits this fall. Compounded medications are not FDA approved. Eligibility required and determined by.
A licensed provider. Individual results may vary. See website for details. This is Hoda Kotb from Joy One Hundred One with Hoda Kotb. Every purchase is a financial decision, so it's worth asking: What am I getting out of this?
If you're using the Chase Freedom Flex Card, you can maximize your cash back on things you need. More ways to earn, more ways to get rewarded. Sign up for the Chase Freedom Flex Card. Learn more at chase.com/getflex. This is a paid collaboration with Chase Freedom Flex Cards issued by J.P.
Morgan Chase Bank. NA member FDIC, subject to credit approval. Offer subject to change. Terms apply. This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people.
Imagine what it was like growing up on a farm in the American West in 1906. With electricity rare out in the country, chores took up most of the day. Movies, no; radio, no. It was only on military ships at the time. There was music if you played your own instruments, but there was no television.
In 1906, inside a log cabin on a farm in Utah, a boy was born who would change things. His name was Philo Farnsworth. Here is Daniel Stashower, author of *The Boy Genius* and *The Mogul: The Untold Story of Television*. My grandmother had an eccentric cousin by the name of Hugo Gerensbach. He was my grandmother's first cousin.
And he was a big figure in the world of science fiction. In fact, he's the man for whom the Hugo Award is named. And he had a large stable of science and science fiction magazines. And in these magazines, he would often speculate. As to the coming wonders of science, and some of these forecasts, such as radar and microfilm, were pretty good, and others, like the Martian friendship beam, were pretty bad.
But one of the things that he wrote about, and wrote about often, was television, and one of his enthusiastic readers was the young Philo T. Farnsworth. Philo T. Farnsworth, at the age of fourteen. Is the man who came up with the idea that became electronic television technology.
From the moment he got the idea, it became his life's work. He was the son of a Mormon farmer, and he moved to a farmhouse. Where he discovered a stack of science and science fiction magazines in the attic, and he devoured these. And he was working in a field in Idaho.
Sometimes it's a hay field, and he's mowing the hay.
Sometimes it's potatoes, and he's tilling.
Sometimes it's beets. But he was working in a field, pushing a horse-drawn cutter. Back and forth, and his mind was drifting, as it often did. This time on the problem of television, which was an idea he had read about in a magazine. When he got to the end, he looked back over this field, and over the neat lines that he himself had made in the field.
And it suddenly occurred to him that it might be possible to invent a device, an extraordinary and unique type of glass tube, that would take an image, break it down into easily transmittable lines, just like the rows in the field, send them by means of electricity, and then put them back together at the other end. This was 1921. Radio was still in its infancy. That's why this idea. The whole concept of television was very, very new.
Although a lot of people were thinking about it, a lot of people were working on it. Radio itself was still in a fairly early state. In fact, it had only recently, mostly during World War One, progressed beyond basic communication, ship to shore kinds of traffic. And even the idea of the human voice over radio was still fairly new. The Farnsworth family, Philo T.
Farnsworth and his family, did not. In fact, own a radio at the time, and yet he had this idea, as it was commonly known at the time, to send pictures by means of radio. As Farnsworth was having his idea, virtually at the same time, within a matter of months, was the first time presidential election returns had been broadcast over the radio. David Sarnoff, who began in the mailroom and worked his way up to become the chairman of RCA, the Radio Corporation of America, a man who was also deeply interested in the future of television. Sarnoff, in many ways, is the archetype of the American immigrant success story.
He came to America from Russia at the age of nine in 1900. He did not speak English. He sold Yiddish language newspapers while teaching himself English, and he got a job in the mailroom of the company that became RCA. Literally, worked his way up to the top. From there.
He was deeply interested in the development of radio, and in 1915, wrote something now legendary called the Radio Music Box Memo, in which he speculated that it might be a good idea if we used this radio to bring music into American homes. This obviously turned out to be a pretty good idea. RCA did very well with it. But even as RCA began to make millions on radio, Sarnoff already had his eye on television, which was an extension that he considered to be inevitable. RCA had been called into being, actually, by the United States government after World War One.
They were very concerned about keeping control of some valuable radio patent technology that had been developed in wartime, particularly an alternator that was allowing the human voice to be sent further and more clearly than ever before. Just after the war, a British firm placed a large order for these alternators, and the government was a little concerned. They had spent a lot of money protecting and developing this technology, and they were concerned about sending it overseas. The Radio Corporation of America was called into being to take charge of the government's electronic patents, and also at one time those controlled by Westinghouse, AT&T, and General Electric. They all had.
A patent pool, a cross-licensing agreement, which allowed them to use the technology and protected it from foreign competition for a limited time.
So, at one time, Philoty Farnsworth, the kid in the field in Idaho, was literally squaring off against the combined might of AT&T, General Electric, and Westinghouse. The miracle of the situation is that he succeeded to the extent that he did. As I told you, my grandmother had this connection, and one day I was looking through a written issue of Science and Invention magazine, which was another Hugo Gerzbech magazine, and there was a contest being run to help combat the problem of auto theft. And you've been listening to the story of Philo Farnsworth, the son of a Mormon farmer, who discovered science magazines in the attic of his family's home, devoured them, and while doing daily farm work, tough work, his mind would wander, wander to this invention he would create: the television. When we come back, the story continues here on our American stories.
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories. And all of our history stories are brought to us by our generous sponsors, including Hillsdale College, where students go to learn all the things that are beautiful in life and all the things that matter in life. If you can't get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free and terrific online courses. Go to hillsdale.edu. That's hillsdale.edu.
Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past two hundred and fifty years, and now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 semiquintennial coin and medal program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues.
Shop. New official coins at usmint.gov/semiq. That's usmint.gov/semiq. Your home address is on the internet right now. Anyone can find it.
Anyone—a stranger, a scammer, someone with a grudge, someone sitting in a car outside your house. I didn't believe it, so I typed my name into a people search site. Seconds later, there it was: my home address, my cell number, my family member's name. All of it exposed for anyone who looked. That's why I use Incogni.
Incogni sends requests to remove your personal information, including your home address, from hundreds of data brokers and people search sites automatically. It keeps sending them because these sites love to sneak your info back up. You don't fill out a single form. You don't make a single call. Incogni has sent 344 removal requests for me, and there's a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Think about who. Could be looking you up right this minute. They can't harm you if they can't find you. Go to incogni dot com slash lee for sixty percent off. That's i n c o g n i dot com slash lee.
Incogni dot com slash lee. Ready to feel energized and in control again? At Orderly Meds, we have helped thousands just like you take charge of their health with a GLP-1. If you've tried dieting, exercising, and relying on willpower, and nothing seems to stick, then it might be time to talk to a licensed provider about your options. That's what Orderly Meds is for.
This fall, choose healthier habits for yourself with a visit to orderlymeds.com. You don't need to visit with a physician in person to become eligible. Orderly Meds has a simple ver. Virtual process. Connect with licensed medical professionals who can determine whether a GLP-1 treatment may be appropriate for you wherever you are.
Getting started from the comfort of home online. Change your habits and consider a new approach to feeling your best. Visit orderlymeds.com to learn more. That's orderlymeds.com. Orderlymeds.com.
Gain confidence and choose better habits this fall. Compounded medications are not FDA approved. Eligibility required and determined by licensed. Individual results may vary. See website for details.
This is Hoda Kotb from Joy One Hundred One with Hoda Kotb. Have you started your holiday shopping yet? This time of year always feels like the list just keeps growing—gifts for family, gifts for friends, stocking stuffers, plus all the everyday things you still have to buy, like groceries and gas. That's why being a little strategic about the spending on gifts and those everyday needs is key. With the Chase Freedom Flex card, you can be a little savvier.
Finding the right gift feels good. And maximizing cash back feels even better. Freedom Flex offers plenty of ways to earn more. You get 5% cash back on popular rotating quarterly categories, 3% on dining and drugstores, and 1% on all other purchases.
So while you're checking names off your holiday list, those gifts can be a treat for you too. This holiday season, let Freedom Flex reward you. More ways to earn, more ways to get rewarded. So sign up for the Chase Freedom. Flex card.
Learn more at chase dot com slash get flex. This is a paid collaboration with Chase Freedom Flex. Cards issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank, and a member FDIC. Subject to credit approval. Offer subject to change.
Terms apply. All right, quick quiz for the hiring managers out there. What's worse, being understaffed or being poorly staffed?
Well, that's a trick question because both are recipes for chaos. Either way, just say to yourself, "This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs." You'll get matched with candidates that meet the skills, certifications, and everything else you're looking for. Or go a different way and get no traction. Seriously, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are 95 percent more likely to report a higher than non-sponsored jobs. It really is a no-brainer.
Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. And listeners of this show will get a seventy five dollars sponsored job credit to help your job get the premium status it deserves at Indeed. dot com slash podcast.
Just go to Indeed. dot com slash podcast right now. Indeed. dot com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply.
Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. And we continue with our American stories, and the story of Philo Farnsworth, the farm boy who invented TV. Let's pick up where we last left off. As I told you, my grandmother had this connection, and one day I was looking through a written issue of Science and Invention magazine, which was another Hugo Gerensbach magazine, and there was a contest being run to help combat the problem of auto theft, and it was inviting readers to mail in.
Their ideas for an invention, some attachment that could be added to an automobile at that time to help prevent theft.
Well, young Philoty Farnsworth, age 14, entered the contest, which was pretty ambitious because his family certainly didn't have a car. He wouldn't have seen many cars, but he entered the contest and won it with something called the magnetized anti-theft ignition lock. And he used part of the money to buy his first pair of long pants because he was only fourteen years old. It was thrilling for me to be looking through these old magazines and see the name P. T.
Farnsworth in this magazine, edited by this relation of mine, as the inventor of this little automobile lock. Years earlier, I had been writing an article for. Smithsonian Magazine about Hugo Gernsback. Who was in the nineteen twenties running a television station in in New York, based on this mechanical television technology—the technology that went nowhere. In other words, your television was going to have moving parts inside.
It was going to have a spinning metal disc called the Nipkow disc. Light would shine through that disc and perform a scanning function.
Now, I don't want to claim that Hugo Gerensbach, my illustrious relation, was a. Player in the drama of television, but he certainly helped to put the idea into Farnsworth's head, and to a great extent, probably showed Farnsworth what not to do, because Gerstebach was a big proponent of this mechanical, gears and belt drives kind of technology. Gerstebach, as with many things in his life, sank a lot of money into it, lost it all. And as I was writing about that and describing it, I was looking around for the word to say.
Well, Gurnsback wanted to be a would-be, and I wanted to use the name of the inventor of television. I wanted to say he wanted to be a would-be Edison or a would-be Alexander Graham Bell. I realized I didn't know the name of the inventor of television. That's how I started down the road and got interested in who the inventor actually was. At the beginning, RCA didn't do anything but administer these radio patents.
That was Sarnoff's job. That was how Sarnoff became so deeply interested in patent technology, or the control and use of these electronic breakthroughs. But they were all competitors who, by means of this cross-licensing agreement, for a brief time. Had the right to use each other's scientific advancements without paying royalties on it. This was meant to foster greater development.
In fact, it very rapidly became unworkable, and in short order, the government, which had called it into being in the first place, moved to break it up. A lot of the seeds of what these companies became. Today can be seen in this story. They were all interested in radio, and for a time they were all interested in television, including Westinghouse. But by means of the partnership agreement, then the competition, and then some quite brutal and cutthroat competition between them, they all set down on the roads that led them more or less to where they are today.
Colonel Justin Tollman was a teacher at. Rigby High School in Rigby, Idaho, and among the courses that he taught was senior chemistry. Young Philoty Farnsworth, who had just moved to the area, was a freshman in high school, but he desperately wanted to take this senior chemistry course. Every day, for a week, Farnsworth camped out. Badgered Justin Tollman, said, "Please let me take the class.
Please let me take the class." Well, the school year was already halfway done. Tollman thought there was no way this kid, who was only a freshman, could possibly make up the work and keep up with the seniors. Farnsworth said, "Please, please, please!" And finally, Tollman said, "Well, I'll let you sit in, but just keep quiet." Just listen to what's going on.
Well, Farnsworth didn't keep quiet. He was in the class. It was soon evident not only that Farnsworth knew more than any of the kids in the class, but Farnsworth was easily on an equal footing with Justin Tollman himself. Tollman started coming in after school and before class to make sure that Farnsworth was getting the extra education that he needed. And very soon they moved well beyond the scope.
Of any high school chemistry class, one day Tolman was walking down the hall, and he hears Farnsworth's voice coming from a study hall. And expects to hear Farnsworth helping his fellow students with their chemistry assignment. Instead, he was expounding on Einstein's theory of relativity, which was fairly new and certainly would not have been on the curriculum of the Rigby High School school system at that time. What was miraculous about it? What Tolman so responded to was that Farnsworth.
Fellow students were hanging on every word. There was something about this kid. When he started talking about his ideas, people listened. He just caught fire, and he managed to convey the ideas in a thrilling, dynamic, and compelling way. From the moment that Farnsworth had the idea of Electronic television transmission.
He was desperate, not only to put himself in a position where he would be able to work on the idea, in other words, get together lab equipment, lab facilities, but he was also conscious of the fact that he was just a 14-year-old kid. He needed an education.
So, in addition to working with this Justin Tollman, the high school chemistry teacher, Farnsworth read everything he could get his hands on. Tollman recalled bringing in a book on cathode rays. Farnsworth just about wore it out before he gave it back to him. Then Farnsworth tried to get himself a college education, and unfortunately, his father passed away. During these years, and Farnsworth was obliged to drop out of college and help to support his family.
He joined the Navy and went to school in the Navy at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, hoping to further his education and, at the same time, remove some of, lessen some of the financial burden on his family. It didn't work out. It was never a good fit, and among the reasons that Farnsworth just did not feel comfortable in the Navy was he came to believe that whatever ideas he had and developed at the time were going to belong to the government. There were other reasons besides, but he very soon got a discharge and was on his way back to Utah. Often in this country, the credit goes to a brilliant Russian scientist who worked for RCA, named Dr.
Vladimir Shvorekin. For much of their careers, Shvorekin and Farnsworth were in lockstep. They were working along the same lines. Shvorekin, who was the son of a of a wealthy family in Russia, Had been exposed to electronic television technology before World War One, working in the lab of a legendary Russian physicist named Boris Rosing. Rosing had the idea.
Of transmitting a picture electronically, the technology of the day couldn't keep up with him. He had a lab that must have looked like Frankenstein's workroom: leather straps holding up crude glass bulbs, wooden tables, sparking coils sending up electrical pulses all over the place. But Rosing had this idea that a picture could be sent from one place to another, and he imparted that idea to his brilliant young. Young pupil Vladimir Zworykin, and you've been listening to Daniel Stashower, author of *The Boy Genius and the Mogul: The Untold Story of Television*, and we're hearing about Philo Farnsworth and his childhood—a prodigy, no doubt. As a freshman, a new freshman in Rigby High School in Iowa, he wanted to sit in on and take the senior chemistry class.
Farnsworth came in, and pretty soon he was well, almost as knowledgeable as the teacher. He attended Annapolis at the Naval Academy, but the fit wasn't good. Moreover, he was worried secretly, probably deep down inside, that his ideas would become the property of the United States government. When we come back, the story of Philo Farnsworth continues here on Our American Stories. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans.
It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past two hundred and fifty years, and now it takes form in a new way. The twenty twenty six semi quincentennial coin and medal program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official.
Coins at usmint.gov/semiq. That's usmint.gov/semiq. Your home address is on the internet right now. Anyone can find it. Anyone—a stranger, a scammer, someone with a grudge, someone sitting in a car outside your house.
I didn't believe it, so I typed my name into a people search site. Seconds later, there it was: my home address, my cell number, my family members' names. All. All of it exposed for anyone who looked. That's why I use Incogni.
Incogni sends requests to remove your personal information, including your home address, from hundreds of data brokers and people search sites automatically. It keeps sending them because these sites love to sneak your info back up. You don't fill out a single form. You don't make a single call. Incogni has sent 344 removal requests for me, and there's a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Think about who could be looking. You up right this minute. They can't harm you if they can't find you. Go to incogni.com/lee for sixty percent off. That's i-n-c-o-g-n-i.com/lee.
incogni.com/lee Ready to feel energized and in control again? At Orderly Meds, we have helped thousands just like you take charge of their health with a GLP-1. If you've tried dieting, exercising, and relying on willpower, and nothing seems to stick, then it might be time to talk to a licensed provider about your options. That's what Orderly Meds is for. This fall, choose healthier habits for yourself with a visit to orderlymeds.com.
You don't need to visit with a physician in person to become eligible. Orderly Meds has a simple. Virtual process. Connect with licensed medical professionals who can determine whether a GLP-1 treatment may be appropriate for you wherever you are. Getting started from the comfort of home online.
Change your habits and consider a new approach to feeling your best. Visit orderlymeds.com to learn more. That's orderlymeds.com. Orderlymeds.com. Gain confidence and choose better habits this fall.
Compounded medications are not FDA approved. Eligibility required and determined by licensed. Individual results may vary. See website for details. This is Hoda Kotb from Joy One Hundred One with Hoda Kotb.
Have you started your holiday shopping yet? This time of year always feels like the list just keeps growing—gifts for family, gifts for friends, stocking stuffers, plus all the everyday things you still have to buy, like groceries and gas. That's why being a little strategic about the spending on gifts and those everyday needs is key. With the Chase Freedom Flex card, you can be a little savvier. Finding the right gift feels good.
And maximizing cash back feels even better. Freedom Flex offers plenty of ways to earn more. You get five percent cash back on popular rotating quarterly categories, three percent on dining and drugstores, and one percent on all other purchases.
So while you're checking names off your holiday list, those gifts can be a treat for you too. This holiday season, let Freedom Flex reward you. More ways to earn, more ways to get rewarded. So sign up for the Chase Freedom. Flex card.
Learn more at chase dot com slash get flex. This is a paid collaboration with Chase Freedom Flex. Cards issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank, and a member FDIC. Subject to credit approval. Offer subject to change.
Terms apply. All right, quick quiz for the hiring managers out there. What's worse, being understaffed or being poorly staffed?
Well, that's a trick question because both are recipes for chaos. Either way, just say to yourself, "This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs." You'll get matched with candidates that meet the skills, certifications, and everything else you're looking for. Or go a different way and get no traction. Seriously, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are ninety-five percent more likely to report a higher than non-sponsored jobs. It really is a no-brainer.
Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. And listeners of this show will get a seventy five dollars sponsored job credit to help your job get the premium status it deserves at Indeed. dot com slash podcast.
Just go to Indeed. dot com slash podcast right now. Indeed. dot com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply.
Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. And we continue with our American stories, and the story of the farm boy who invented TV. And telling the story is Daniel Stashower, author of *The Boy Genius* and *The Mogul: The Untold Story of Television*. Let's pick up where we last left off.
Here again is Daniel. Rosing had this idea that a picture could be sent from one place to another, and he imparted that idea to his brilliant young pupil Vladimir Shvorekin. The October Revolution came along. Shvorekin could no longer continue with the work in Russia as he intended to. He came to the United States, and after bouncing around for several years, started to work at Westinghouse.
Which was one of the RCA royalty partners in 1923, which was one year after Farnsworth, who'd had his idea of electronic television pictures, had told his high school teacher about it. Justin Tollman, Schvorrakin, working in the Westinghouse lab. Actually, managed to give his supervisors a demonstration of a very primitive electronic television transmission. Schwarzen was thrilled. He thought that this was the the greatest thing that he'd managed to accomplish, and he was sure that his supervisors would be carried away with enthusiasm to get television up and running.
He had managed to broadcast the faint image of a cross. At the end of a glowing glass tube, and his supervisor took a look at it and said, "We have to put this guy to work on something more useful." Farnsworth had been working whatever odd jobs he could find. At one point, he was sweeping streets in Salt Lake City. A pair of professional fundraisers came through. They were raising money for a community chest fundraising campaign in Salt Lake, and they were hiring local kids to help them map out a business survey, so they would know how to best coordinate their efforts.
One of the people who signed on was Philo, and his and his friend Cliff Gardner. They started to work for these, for these two men.
Well, one night after work at the community chest campaign, a man, George Everson, who was one of the two fundraisers, said to Farnsworth, "You're a very bright young man. Why aren't you in college?" Farnsworth explained that he'd had to drop out, but. He said he had this great idea. It was a very interesting invention. Then almost immediately he regretted that he'd said as much as that, because Farnsworth was very, very protective of this idea of television and lived in horror of the day when he was going to pick up a magazine and see that somebody else had the same idea.
Somebody else had been able to patent it before him.
Well, Everson got interested in this. A couple of nights later, he took Farnsworth out and asked to hear more about the idea. And as was always the case, when Farnsworth started talking about the idea, he suddenly became this brilliant orator, and managed to persuade Everson and his partner Leslie Gorel that he had the idea, this idea that was going to take the world by storm. Everson said to him, "Well, I have six thousand dollars in a special savings account." And I've been saving it for something like this. I've been meaning to take a wild flyer on something, and this is as wild an idea as I can possibly imagine.
I'm going to stake you to the six thousand dollars. If we lose the money, I won't squawk.
Well. Everson lost the money. They spent that much money and much, much more before any money started coming in. But he never squawked, and that's how Farnsworth got his start. But almost from the moment that Everson said, "Here, let's go.
Let's start working on this idea of yours." Farnsworth realized, well, we're not going to get it done in Salt Lake City, Utah. Let's go to California, which happened to be where Everson and Gorell, the fundraisers, were going next on their fundraising campaign, because that was where he was going to have access to research facilities and equipment that he just couldn't get otherwise.
So they moved first to Hollywood, and then when the money ran out in Hollywood. Everson managed to get them backing by a group of San Francisco bankers, and they set up shop in a tiny little lab on Green Street in San Francisco. When he first signed an agreement, for one of his early agreements with Everson and some of the backers. He wasn't even legally entitled to sign his own contract. Everson had to be appointed Farnsworth's guardian and sign the contract on his behalf.
By the time they got to Green Street in San Francisco, where the really important early work on television was done, Farnsworth was barely 21. The Farnsworth family had a retreat in Maine. It was a very isolated spot, and Farnsworth loved it. And he had worked himself so hard in this relentless pursuit of television that his health was beginning to suffer. And in Maine, he could regroup; he could get his balance back.
He built himself a nice laboratory. Still, a very young man in the 1930s. This is a man still in his early 30s, but. He he liked to say that his small size enabled him to operate like a speedboat among their juggernauts. But he added, a speedboat eventually runs out of gas, and unfortunately, that is what happened not only to Farnsworth's company, but to Farnsworth himself.
He used himself too hard. He never. Took a break. He just couldn't shut it off. He prided himself as a young man.
He could go to bed thinking about a problem, and he would wake up in the middle of the night. Eureka! I have the answer. He would go back to work, but that took a toll. It took a terrible toll.
Very early on, by the following year. It had multiplied many times over, and Sarnoff's vision, as spelled out in the Radio Music Box memo almost a decade earlier, came to pass. Radio had made its way into the American home, and was generating huge profits for companies like RCA, General Electric. Kay Park was a was a company in. In Fort Wayne, very very big in the manufacture of radios, and much later in the story.
Farnsworth and his backers managed to get the money together to to buy the facility. They were going to follow the RCA model and manufacture radios, sell radios to generate income that they would use to pour into television research and production.
So the Farnsworth company bought Kaypart. They moved their base of operations to Fort Wayne, and things appeared to be going. Very well. It looked as if this was going to work. All of this was happening in the late 30s, and unfortunately, when World War II came along, the Farnsworth Television and Radio Company did a very distinguished job of wartime production.
Winning several government commendations for their for their work in aiding with the war effort, but then when the war effort was finally over, they had a very hard time switching gears, getting back into peacetime production and following their original vision of radio and television production. And you've been listening to Daniel Stashower tell one heck of a story. The story of radio, the story of television, also the story of this guy named Shorkin from Russia, who fled during the revolution. And was at Westinghouse trying to project images, move them. Look, he was trying to do TV.
The Westinghouse folks thought he could be put to better use. And then we get back to Farnsworth, who, well, investors are nosing around, and one named Everson asked him, "Why aren't you in college?" And Farnsworth almost pitched him his idea, but he was worried, like any inventor, about what might happen. Might someone steal it? Everson took a flyer, a six thousand dollar flyer, real money in those days. Lost it, as we learned, without a squawk.
And then they uprooted themselves from Utah and hit Hollywood and ultimately San Francisco bankers. And it took getting into the radio business itself to make money, get the capital, and then pour that money into the development of the television. When we come back, when we come back, the story of. Philo Farnsworth continues here on Our American Stories. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans.
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Let's pick up where we last left off. The 1939 World's Fair, where RCA, in general, and David Sarnoff, in particular, intended to raise the curtain on television.
Now, at that point. They were at the end of a long and protracted legal battle with Philo T. Farnsworth, and also that same year, nineteen thirty-nine, an agreement was hammered out whereby RCA was going to have the right to use Farnsworth's patent technology. And what you have to understand about that is that in Sarnoff's fifty-year career at RCA, the company had never. Ever paid to use a patent owned by an outside inventor.
Sarnoff liked to say, "We don't pay royalties; we collect royalties." He had his own inventors. He had his own patents. Whatever patents he couldn't buy, he would find a way to get around. The only exception. In fifty years, was Farnsworth, and this was so devastating to the RCA lawyer that as he put his name to the agreement with Farnsworth's lawyer, there were tears in his eyes.
But nevertheless, 1939, it looked as if an agreement was coming with Farnsworth and Sarnoff, ahead of the rest of the industry. Wanted to announce television was here. RCA was going to bring it to you, and he seized on the 1939 World's Fair as the stage on which to do it. RCA had a great big exhibition hall. Sarnoff himself took the stage.
There were RCA microphones and a big banner, and he said, "Now we add radio sight to sound and television." Supposedly, was on the way. The following week, you could buy a television in a New York store at prices ranging from nearly four hundred dollars to one thousand dollars. The price turned out to be way, way too steep. High-definition television—at least you know it's going to work. This, nobody had seen it before.
Nobody knew whether it was going to work or not. And for a time, television came to be known as Sarnoff's folly. Because, as he liked to say, he'd spent fifty million dollars on television before he ever saw a dime.
Well, in 1939, he hadn't even seen the dime yet. The televisions were coming off the assembly line in Camden, New Jersey. Nobody was buying them. Sarnoff cut the prices. Nobody was buying them.
Then, the year was 1939. America entered World War II. And television went into mothballs for the duration of the war. In World War II, Sarnoff, he actually went overseas without knowing what his job was going to be, and Eisenhower personally charged him with coordinating radio communications for the Allied invading forces on D-Day. It was a job that Sarnoff did with.
This was a point in Tsarnov's life when he knew perfectly well how to give orders, how to get things done, and he knew just about all there was to know about electronic communication. He did the job. He did it very, very well, and he was made a brigadier general. It's hard to put an exact figure on it, but there was a payment of about a million dollars and an agreement to pay royalties to use Farnsworth technology in RCA television sets. It is difficult to say how much that would have amounted to, but since America entered World War II almost immediately thereafter, it didn't amount to anything.
Because Farnsworth's early patents had been nailed down in the early 1930s, and a patent of this type only had a useful life of 17 years. When television finally got off the ground in 1946, 1947, these important early patents of Farnsworth were coming up for expiration. He never benefited to the extent that he should have. But from the earliest days, the technology that went into The television camera, too, particularly, was a blending of Farnsworth's best work with the best work of Vladimir Zworykin, who was the man who was making it work at RCA. But unlike many of the other business adversaries that Sarnoff had come across in the course of his long career, he always had a grudging respect for Farnsworth.
Some of that was legally motivated, because it was clear. At one stage, that Sarnoff was was going to have to come to an accommodation with Farnsworth, and in public addresses and things, Sarnoff began to say, "Outside of the Radio Corporation of America, no one has done more than this splendid young man, Philo T. Farnsworth." But they could not be said to be friends. He was. Unfortunately, not in good health, and his doctors, recognizing that he was having a hard time relaxing, prescribed things that made him dramatically worse.
He began to have a problem with alcohol, and he was prescribed some chloral hydrate, which just made things very much worse. Another doctor told him, "Gee, maybe a finger habit will help to soothe your nerves. Why don't you take up?" Smoking, so suddenly Farnsworth not only drinks but he also smokes, addictively. Another prescribed some painkillers because he was beginning to have stomach problems, which eventually led to very serious ulcers. For a time, he had a had a problem with with painkillers, but he never stopped working, and he never lost the conviction that he was going to be able to help humanity.
With one of his ideas, and if it wasn't going to be television, in later life he fastened onto the idea of finding a peaceful application for atomic energy. He envisioned a grapefruit-sized power pack that would help to power a house for its entire lifetime. He imagined that entire cities could be cheaply, cleanly, and economically fueled by atomic energy. And it is the measure of the high regard with which he was held in the scientific community that these ideas were taken very seriously. Unfortunately, as with television.
Nobody ever put up quite enough money, and Farnsworth himself, once again, had to find the money to try and make it work. He wound up cashing in his own life insurance policy, mortgaging his own house, but he wanted to make this thing happen. Every country in the world has someone that they throw up as the father of television. And all of them have some claim or had a hand in the development of television. In my own house, there has been a debate about who is the father of television.
My two-year-old son and I were squarely behind Philote Farnsworth. My wife, who was born and raised in Scotland, will swear up and down that it was a man named John Logie Baird, who was a very important figure. In the development of television, but what John Logie Baird and many others around the world were working on was a mechanical television technology, and it was Farnsworth's particular genius to realize, at the age of 14, that wasn't going to work. You had to do it electronically. He would sum it up in a single phrase later on.
He said, "For television to work." It must have no moving parts. For that reason, and also because he managed to nail down the early crucial patents on what became the electronic television technology that developed into television as we know it today, for my money, the father of television is Philo T. Farnsworth. And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to Daniel Stashower, author of *The Boy Genius* and *The Mogul: The Untold Story of Television* and what a story you heard!
Fascinating that RCA and David Sarnoff, this remarkable CEO who rose up the rank of this company that dominated radio and then introduced TV to the world, would give royalties to this young guy. Philo Farnsworth. There was a saying in the legal department there: "We don't pay royalties at RCA; we sell royalties." But there was that exception. And then came the 1939 World's Fair, and there was Sarnoff and RCA debuting the TV. But the price was too high; the American people weren't ready for it.
And the TV sets came out of their Camden factory, but couldn't find buyers. And after World War II, well, the rest is history. And the question becomes, who's the real father of TV? And of course, we know where the author comes down, and that is simple. As Farnsworth said and knew at a young age, for the TV to work, it had to have no moving parts.
He nailed down early crucial patents, all dedicated to the idea of the electronic image. The story of the farm boy who invented TV. The story of Philo Farnsworth here on our American stories. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years, and now it takes form in a.
New way: the 2026 semi-quintennial coin and medal program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov/semiqu. That's usmint.gov/semiqu.
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