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<\/a>Reproduction of an early prototype television by Baird. \u00a0 Hastings Museum<\/p><\/div>\n
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<\/a>A view of the Country Park – where Baird was inspired to invent television.<\/p><\/div>\n
But we have Baird’s own word that it was in Hastings that he convinced himself that he could build a working television. \u00a0\u00a0In his autobiography Baird describes how, at the beginning of his stay in Hastings, he walked over the cliffs to Fairlight Glen<\/a>. \u00a0During the walk he thought about his early experiments with television, and how these could be developed further. \u00a0 On his return to Linton Crescent, he announced to his friend and supporter ‘Mephy’, that he had thought of a means of ‘seeing by wireless.’<\/p>\n 21 Linton Crescent. Here Baird announced his intention to develop television.<\/p><\/div>\n Hastings celebrates Baird’s presence with street names, a permanent exhibition in the town’s museum and a cosmetically re-branded Wetherspoons, but otherwise seems overly modest or indifferent. \u00a0\u00a0The site of his workshop in Queens Arcade remains although only a plaque marks the spot. \u00a0\u00a0His home on Linton Crescent also has a Blue Plaque.<\/p>\n Blue Plaque at 21 Linton Crescent<\/p><\/div>\n But Baird, who originally came, as did so many, for his health, only stayed in Hastings for around 18 months, and seems to have had a difficult time there, and received only a little encouragement from the good burghers. \u00a0He was evicted from his home in Queens Arcade, which he was using as a workshop, after an explosion caused by a short-circuit damaged the apartment and severely burnt him.<\/p>\n He was frequently laughed at, and treated with suspicion as a crank. \u00a0\u00a0In a scene worthy of the slapstick comedies so beloved of the English, a public confrontation with his irate landlord ended when Baird split his trousers, much to the amusement of a crowd in the street.<\/p>\n Queens Arcade – Baird was evicted from his workshop here (and split his trousers in the street.)<\/p><\/div>\n I can’t help wondering if among the boys ridiculing Baird was Alan Turing, later to be a code-breaker, mathematician and the Godfather of computing, who was at school in nearby St Leonards at the time. \u00a0In any case, it seems to have been an unhappy time for Baird and he soon decamped back to London, where he improved his apparatus into a fully working, though still only a crude, proof-of-concept, prototype.<\/p>\n Of course, Baird didn’t invent television either. \u00a0His basic design was based on a German patent from 1889 and, in the end, his electro-mechanical system was soon replaced by an electronic version.<\/p>\n Another claimant to the appellation ‘Birthplace of Television’ would be Rigby in Idaho, where a young student, Philo Farnsworth, outlined a design for an all-electronic television to his teacher in 1920. \u00a0But, of course, he didn’t actually build it at the time and we have no way of knowing if he would have succeeded had he tried.<\/p>\n Rigby, Idaho is a little less reticent about its role.<\/p><\/div>\n What makes the claim more worthy though, is that Farnsworth later went on to become one of the most important pioneers in the development of what we would today recognise as television, and by 1927 had demonstrated his system, albeit with only a static image.\u00a0 Having said that, Baird also went on to play a major role in the development of British television, The problem for Rigby’s claim though, is that Farnsworth did his work in California, whereas Baird both invented and built his Televisor here in Hastings.<\/p>\n Worth noting is the big difference in the support given to both inventors. \u00a0 Baird struggled to raise \u00a3200 and became entangled in endless recriminations with creditors, whereas Farnsworth received $6,000 from philanthropists even before he built a prototype; a disparity many contemporary British engineers would recognise as all too familiar.<\/p>\n An Early Baird Televisor next to a later Baird CRT TV<\/p><\/div>\n I can’t help feel that there might be a lesson in Baird’s rather troubled and frustrated life –\u00a0not everything worth doing is best done by you. \u00a0\u00a0Pursuing an idea which requires more input, technical or financial, than you can provide is not always a good thing. \u00a0\u00a0He arrived in Hastings having made a fair amount money in trade, which he had mostly lost pursuing inventions and somewhat madcap schemes. \u00a0\u00a0He began with a determination “I must invent something.” and had tried glass razor blades (dangerous) and pneumatic boots (unusable and dangerous.) \u00a0\u00a0By all accounts, Baird then decided to be the progenitor of television, even though he didn’t really have the skills or means. \u00a0 And although in some ways he succeeded, his system was never a success. \u00a0\u00a0He also struggled for years with financial problems and, in the early stages at least, struggled for money and came close to bankruptcy.\u00a0\u00a0 His determination to be involved in television meant he spent too much of his own money to leave his family well supported.<\/p>\n Baird And Those Perennial TV Favourites – A Pair Of Dummies<\/p><\/div>\n Television was an idea whose time had clearly come – it awaited only some technical developments in electronics and sufficient investment of money and expertise to bring it to fruition. \u00a0\u00a0As so often in science and technology, the circumstances meant that its introduction was almost inevitable. \u00a0\u00a0But Baird was neither in the right place nor the right time, nor even the right person to do so.<\/p>\n Baird eventually retired to nearby Bexhill in 1945, shortly before his death a year later. \u00a0\u00a0Alas nothing remains of his last days other than a few building and street names.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>