Television

This paper gives an outline of a new television system developed in the laboratories of RCA Victor Company, in Camden, N. J.The system is truly electrical and employs only electronic devices, without a single mechanically moving part.The translation of the visual image is accomplished by means of a vacuum tube called the iconoscope. This tube is a virtual electric eye and consists of a photo-sensitive mosaic corresponding to the retina of the human eye, and a moving electron beam representing the nerve of the eye. The image is projected optically on the mosaic and transformed within the tube into a train of electrical impulses, representing the illumination of individual points of the image.The reproduction of the image is accomplished by means of another vacuum tube, the kinescope, which transforms the electrical impulses back into the variation of light intensity through the bombardment of a fluorescent screen by the moving electron beam.The movement of the electron beams in both tubes, which is responsible for both transformations, is linear and divides the picture into a series of parallel lines. The movements are synchronized so that the instantaneous position of the beams with respect to a point in the picture is always identical. The synchronization is transmitted together with the picture signals, and operation of the receiver is completely automatic.The sensitivity of the iconoscope, at the present time, is approximately equal to that of a photographic film operating at the speed of a motion picture camera, permitting the transmission of outdoor scenes. The resolution is high, much higher than necessary for television images of the highest quality.The paper describes the theory of the system, its characteristics, mode of operation, and includes photographs of images obtained on the fluorescent screen of the receiver.     

On electron optics

For many experiments in physics and in some engineering applications, it is necessary to produce electron bundles, or as they are often called, “electron beams” of considerable intensities.Various methods have been used for directing a cloud of electrons evaporated from an emitting surface into a beam and then concentrating this beam to a desired degree. The concentration of electron beam in high vacuum depends entirely upon fields of force, either electric or magnetic, while in low vacuum or in rarified rare gas it depends also upon the action of the field of ionized gas molecules.In high vacuum the fields of force act upon the electron beam in a manner similar to the action of lenses upon a beam of light. An improperly shaped field produces effects similar to spherical aberration in poorly corrected lenses; non-uniform velocity of electrons in the beam results in effects similar to chromatic aberration of light.This optical analogy is not perfect.In the case of the electron beam the velocity varies continuously throughout most of the path and indices of refraction employed usually are greater than in the optical case. Moreover, space charge in beams of high intensity limits the concentration attainable; consequently, even theoretically, an electron beam can never be brought up to a mathematical point as in the case of light optics. Many secondary effects are present which complicate the problem still further.In focusing electron beams, both electrostatic and electromagnetic methods have been used extensively. The electrostatic method, however, seems to be preferable, especially when the beam is to be deflected. Precautions should be taken not to destroy the focusing of the beam during deflection.