Literary and historical notes of a young technician. Vladimir Zworykin

Vladimir Kozmich Zworykin was born on July 30, 1889 in the Russian city of Murom and died on July 29, 1982 in Princeton, New Jersey, USA. He is a Russian-American engineer and inventor of the iconoscope (the first electronic transmitting television tube) and kinescope, as well as the author modern television one of the most important inventions of the 20th century.

Formation

Volodya was born in large family a wealthy merchant who owned steamships, traded in bread and was chairman of the Murom Public Bank. The children of Kozma Zworykin, contrary to popular belief, went not only along the trading path, but also found themselves in science. The elder brother Nikolai Zworykin became a civil engineer (he built hydroelectric power plants in Georgia), two sisters trained as doctors, and one became a paleontologist.

Volodya Zworykin was very fond of physics as a child, and after graduating from the Murom Real School in 1906, he entered the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology, where from 1910 to 1912 he spent most of his time in the laboratory of a physics teacher, Professor Boris Rosing. It was Boris Lvovich who fascinated the 20-year-old youth with experiments in the field of "far-sight" with a television system consisting of a rotating mirror drum for scanning an image and a cathode-ray tube for displaying it.

In the spring of 1912 he graduated with honors from the St. Petersburg Institute with a degree in electrical engineering, which gave him the right to an internship in one of the foreign laboratories. Therefore, in 1912-1914, he went to France, where he continued his studies at the Colege de France with the famous physicist Paul Langevin.

During the First World War, he served in the signal troops, and then worked as a teacher at a radio school in Petrograd. Then a troubled fate threw him across Russia, and in 1919, during his second business trip to the United States, he decided to stay in exile there. In 1920, he took a job with the Westinghouse Electric Corporation in Pittsburgh, where he took up his favorite topic - image transmission at a distance. Once, having demonstrated to the general manager of the company his prototype sample of an electronic tube, he unfortunately did not find understanding of this project from his superiors, and continued to develop on his own.

As time went on, he continued to work on his idea, and in 1923 he created and filed a patent application for television, carried out entirely on the principle of electronics (other television systems, such as Rosing, relied on mechanical devices like spinning disks and mirror drums to capture and reproduce the image.)

The invention of television

One day, by chance, in 1928, he met an emigrant from Russia, David Sarnov, who was vice president of the Radio Corporation of America. D. Sarnov, who became president of the RCA company in 1930, appointed Zvorykin the head of the RCA electronics laboratory. The next step in Vladimir Kozmich's research was a business trip to Paris.

At the end of 1928, to study television research conducted in partnership with Westinghouse and the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), Zworykin went to Europe to the Paris laboratory to Eduard Belin. There he was particularly impressed by the cathode ray tube designed by Fernand Holweck and Pierre Chevalier. The Holweck-Chevalier tube used electrostatic fields to focus the electron beam.

Zworykin's revolutionary enthusiasm for the development and creation of a new tube and electronic television was not shared by most Westinghouse executives, but despite this, in January 1929, the historic meeting VPs (Westinghouse and RCA) Sam Kinnear and David Sarnoff, where David Sarnoff asked how much time and money it would take to bring electronic television to market. Zworykin said that two years and 100,000 dollars (as time has shown, he greatly underestimated the scale of the project), and D. Sarnoff convinced S. Kinnear to provide Zworykin with the necessary resources.

Towards the end of 1929, Vladimir improved his cathode ray receiver, the "kinescope", which had an image large enough and bright enough for home viewing; however, the television system he developed still used a mechanical device, a rotating mirror, as part of the transmitter.

A total of six kinescopes were assembled; one was at Zworykin's home, where he received test television signals late at night from the Westinghouse radio station, KDKA, in Pittsburgh. In 1930, Westinghouse's television research was taken over by RCA, and Vladimir Zworykin became head of the television division at the RCA laboratory in Camden, New Jersey.

In April 1930, Zworykin visited inventor Phil Farnsworth's laboratory in San Francisco, a visit initiated by Farnsworth supporters who wanted to make a deal with RCA. Three years ago, Phil Farnsworth had already made the first successful demonstration of an all-electronic television system. And what was most impressive was the transmission tube, the image diffuser, and he was inspired by it to improve his earlier camera tube, the "iconoscope", on which he applied for a patent in 1931.

The RCA company kept the developments of Vladimir Zworykin a secret, and only in 1933 the man who created television was able to report the existence of the iconoscope.

Vladimir Zworykin's consultations played a big role in the creation of television broadcasting systems in Europe. Zworykin also came to the USSR, at the invitation of the Soviet government, and as a result - the conclusion of an agreement with RCA, its subsequent implementation, and the commissioning in 1938 of the first transmitting electronic television station (TV center on Shabolovka) in Moscow.

The production of TV sets "TK-1" with a kinescope, which was created by Zworykin, was mastered. The TV worked on 33 radio tubes and it was manufactured under an American license and using their documentation.

The TV was expensive, and it was usually purchased by clubs, red corners, etc. The TV "TK-1" was intended for collective viewing. To set up the TV for high-quality viewing, 14 knobs had to be adjusted, which required certain skills and technical knowledge. Therefore, the first televisions were serviced by employees of television centers.

By the end of 1938, about 200 TV sets were produced by the industry, and by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War their number was up to 2000 pieces.

Only in 1939 at the New York World's Fair did RCA introduce regular electronic television broadcasting to the public.

VC. Zworykin owns more than 120 patents for various inventions.

Other developments in electronics have focused on improving the scanning electron microscope. Also, the developed electronic imaging camera, sensitive to infrared light, was the basis for the night vision device. Zworykin was engaged in the development of television-guided aerial bombs, all of which were first used in battles in World War II.

Named an honorary vice president of RCA in 1954, from then until 1962 Zworykin also served as director of the medical electronics center at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York (now Rockefeller University).

Major published works: "Television - the electronics of image transmissions" (1940),
"Electronic optics and electron microscope" (1945, "Photoelectricity and its applications" (1949), "Television in science and industry" (1958).

In 1966 National Academy Sciences awarded him the National Medal of Scientific Merit. He was also Founding President of the International Federation of Medical Electronics and Biological Engineering, recipient of the Faraday Medal of Great Britain (1965) (read more at Michael Faraday) and a member of the US National Hall of Fame since 1977.

V. Zworykin

Vladimir Kozmich Zworykin was born 17 (29) July 1889 in the city of Murom, Vladimir province, in a merchant family.

Father - a merchant of the 1st guild Kozma Zvorykin, who sold bread, owned steamships and was the former chairman of the Murom Public Bank. In his autobiography, V. Zvorykin himself characterizes his father as a man of progressive ideas, who, moreover, was the head of Murom for one term.

• From childhood, the father tried to accustom his children to socially useful work, writes Zworykin. He himself, according to him, from his youth showed interest in technology. After graduating from the Murom real school, in 1906 he entered the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology. Takes part in student unrest. Moreover, being caught while distributing leaflets calling for democratic reforms and elections to the second Duma, he spends two weeks in prison with his student friends. Student time for the future engineering genius is also significant for the fateful meeting with Professor Boris Rosing, the author of pioneering works on electronic transmission of images at a distance. The young engineer begins to pay much attention to work as Rosing's assistant in a special laboratory. Apart from scientific ideas Rosing, the autobiography tells, the student Zworykin is greatly impressed by his foreign trip to the industrial plants of Germany, Belgium, France and England, which took place under the auspices of the International Chamber of Commerce.
• Having received an electrical engineer diploma in 1912, Zworykin went to study at the Paris College de France with the outstanding physicist Paul Langevin. Then, despite his father's attempts in absentia to involve his son in the common Murom business, he continues his studies at the University of Berlin. Shortly after returning to Russia via Denmark and Finland during World War I, Zworykin is drafted into the army. For a year and a half in Grodno, he has been responsible for the establishment and equipment of radio stations. He meets the February Revolution in Petrograd with the rank of lieutenant, working as a teacher in an officer radio school.
• After the October Revolution, the Bolshevik government nationalized the father's business and the magnificent family house above the Oka River in Murom. The established scientific and industrial ties have been destroyed.
• The talented young man recalls that he “had friends in a large cooperative organization that had its offices in America and Siberian city Omsk. He managed to get an invitation from these friends to go there to carry out an official assignment. Stocking up with a lot of official papers, he goes to Siberia. Wandering around Russia (by train to Nizhny Novgorod, then along the Kama by steamboat to Perm, from there again by train to Yekaterinburg and again by train to Omsk), the young man eventually arrives at a meeting with representatives of the Siberian government of Russia. The government sends him to the United States to negotiate the supply of radio equipment. Since Omsk was cut off from all sides, except for the north, by warring factions, Zvorykin joins the Arctic expedition and is melted down within a half-moon across the Kara Sea by a steamer along the Irtysh and Ob rivers to Vaygach Island. At the end of the journey, he reaches the radio station located between the islands of Vaygach and New Earth and built in order to report on the ice situation in this part of the ocean. After waiting for the icebreaker, a few weeks later Zvorykin gets to Arkhangelsk, occupied by the troops of the Allied Entente. Having received visas and making stops along the way in Norway, Denmark and England, on the eve of 1919, he finally gets to the USA.
• “Shortly after arriving, I found the office of a cooperative organization, to which I was indebted for a business trip and a trip,” the researcher recalls. There, a young engineer is studying radio equipment. But “in the spring, an order was received from the Siberian government for me to return to Omsk. They needed a radio specialist, in addition, I had to bring some parts of the radio equipment. And he goes back. The main map of his route is as follows: Seattle - Yokohama - Vladivostok. And in January 1919, Zworykin symbolically closes trip around the world, returning to Omsk, this time through Pacific Ocean, Japan, Vladivostok and Harbin. An adventure that seemed so incredible that initially Albert Abramson, the biographer of the outstanding inventor, did not believe in the authenticity of Zworykin's story.
• After some time, Zworykin - already during the reign of Admiral Kolchak - leaves for the USA again. This time free from obligations to anyone.
• Arrives without recommendations, besides practically without owning English language. As news from his homeland, he brings with him a jar of myrrh - consecrated oil used in church services, which the Russian Orthodox Church asked me to pass it on to the head of the Russian Church in the USA.
• The future world genius was lucky: having felt his potential, Zvorykin was initially taken under guardianship by the Russian ambassador to the USA B.A. Bakhmetiev. (The fate of Bakhmetyev himself is noteworthy: the United States is in no hurry to recognize the Bolshevik government. And Bakhmetyev, a former professor at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, still manages the activities of the Russian embassy, ​​information bureau, and purchasing commission in the United States.) Zvorykin is enrolled in the staff of the purchasing commission, based in New York. In the autobiography, the manuscript of which is kept in the Pittsburgh Museum, one can read: "... He worked as an accountant."
• The newly minted emigrant persistently sends dozens of letters to various companies offering his services as a specialist in radio electronics. As a result, he is invited to work at the Westinghouse Research Laboratory (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). (I worked for this company. large group emigrants from the former Russian Empire. In particular, Stepan Timoshenko, a specialist in the strength of materials, whose books have been translated into many languages.) The desire to work in the specialty of a young radio engineer is so great that, according to historians, he was not embarrassed by the salary, half that of the purchasing commission. It was not immediately possible for Zworykin to engage in television in the Pittsburgh laboratory. He worked fanatically: the Westinghouse guards were ordered by management to send the scientist home if the windows of his laboratory were lit after 2 a.m.
• In 1923, Zworykin finally got the opportunity to start implementing the idea of ​​​​creating electronic television. And in the same year, he draws up a patent application in which he fully described the electronic television system. The US Patent Office refused Zworykin on the grounds that the photosensitive plate for the transmitting tube (that is, the camera) described in the application does not exist in reality and there are great doubts about the possibility of its creation with existing conditions. Then he takes a time out and completely switches to the official task of Westinghouse - the development of photocells, which began to be actively introduced in engineering and industrial construction. It was this, as he himself admitted, uninteresting work that made his name known both in Pittsburgh itself (in 1926, the University of Pittsburgh awarded him a doctorate) and beyond.
• At the same time, the inventor did not stop doing his work related to television.
• “By that time,” he later recalled, “I realized that working on an idea that could lead to commercial success needs to be camouflaged until the opportunity for profit is clear to business people.” In order to move from experiments to pilot production, a representative of big business was needed.
• And such a representative appeared in the person of compatriot David Sarnoff, president of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). Sarnov was born in a poor Jewish family town of Uzlyany (modern Belarus) and was brought to the USA by his nine-year-old parents. David Abramovich spoke both Russian and English perfectly; was a fully assimilated American. Behind Sarnov's back is the path from an ordinary employee of the Marcorni company to the head of a huge corporation.
• After talking with Zworykin, he, unlike other American bosses, believed in his ideas and long years became his chief and patron. Sarnov subsequently recalled that, in response to a question about the estimated cost of the project, Zworykin requested a "modest" $100,000. In fact, the design work cost a hundred times more, and the company began to receive its first income from television when the total investment exceeded $50 million. In 1929, Zworykin began work at the RCA branch located in Camden, New Jersey. In 1931, he created the final design of the transmitting tube iconoscope, which became the basis of the future electronic television system. After a series of practical tests carried out in Camden, a 2.5 kW TV transmitting station is being installed on the very tall building New York - Empire State Building. The factories of the RCA company begin to produce TV sets with a Zworykin-designed kinescope. Residents of New York and the surrounding area within a radius of up to 100 km become the first subscribers of electronic television. By 1933, Zworykin and his employees were completing the creation of an electronic television system. The birth of the TV can be dated back to the same 1933, when Vladimir Zworykin spoke at the annual conference of the American Society of Radio Engineers. In his report "Iconoscope - modern version electric eye”, the scientist summed up many years of work. He invented a device capable of transmitting the resulting image of an object to the screen of a cathode ray tube, that is, a kinescope. The new development has become one of the most outstanding inventions of its time and is deservedly called the "miracle of the twentieth century."
• For the sake of objectivity, we note that not only Zworykin claimed the title of the inventor of television. In the late twenties, yesterday's schoolboy Philo Farnsworth, a self-taught from Idaho, with the support of patrons Leslie Gorell and George Everson, who founded his own laboratory in San Francisco, is developing a signal transmission system at a distance. Farnsworth's contribution to the creation of electronic TV is "weighty and undeniable," writes the contemporary Russian magazine Popular Mechanics. But the Image Dissector of the 1928 model, developed by him, was of little use for creating television equipment. Zworykin managed to do what both Philo Farnsworth and his no less talented associate and competitor, the Hungarian Kalman Tihanyi, who filed an application for his invention with the US Patent Office in 1928, failed. All issues related to the recognition of the priority and authorship of Vladimir Zworykin are described in detail in the book by Albert Abramson, a researcher in the history of television. It also says that RCA President David Sarnov, in order to avoid conflicts in this issue and guided by commercial interests, bought Farnsworth's patents for $1 million. He also acquired a patent and a Hungarian inventor.
• In the second half of the 1930s, the threat of war became more and more obvious. Many leading American corporations receive military orders. During these years, Zworykin mainly deals with the problems of electron optics, working together with I. Langmuir, J. Morton, L. Malter ... Research in the field of electron-optical transformations led to the creation of a night vision device operating in the infrared range. During the Second World War, night vision devices designed by Zworykin were used by the US Army to equip tanks and vehicles, as well as as sights. It was he who developed the first televised bomb, which had an iconoscope that broadcast a picture to the operator. A little later, it was his laboratory that prepared a night vision device, which was immediately adopted by snipers, tankers and operators. Albert Abramson, in his voluminous study, writes a lot about guided missiles and underwater torpedoes, developed with the active participation of Vladimir Zworykin. The list of application of inventions is endless.
• Years of living in the United States did not smooth out the homesickness. Vladimir Zworykin aspires to Russia. For the management of RCA, Zworykin's trip to the USSR is seen as an opportunity to receive Russian orders for his products: the United States was going through a severe economic crisis - receiving orders for products from other countries was welcomed. Zworykin himself dreamed of meeting his sisters and brother. A few months before his first trip to the Soviet Union, the company was paid an official visit by representatives of the Soviet Union, specialists in the field of radio electronics S.A. Vekshinskiy and A.F. Shorin. In a private conversation, the renowned engineer was assured that the Soviet government "will provide him with the most favorable conditions for work and life and guarantee protection from any persecution associated with his pre-revolutionary past." In August 1933, Zworykin was in Russia. The report "Television with the help of cathode tubes" in the hall of the Leningrad NTO of electricians gathers a huge number of specialists. A year later, Zworykin again goes to Russia. RCA concludes in 1935 a solid agreement with the People's Commissariat for the Electrical Industry of the USSR, according to which the Soviet state was supplied with "technological documentation and materials, equipment for the production of electrovacuum devices, equipment for equipping the first Soviet center for electronic TV, etc."
• In the USSR, Vladimir Zworykin was always welcomed warmly. “Bolsheviks,” writes V.P. Borisov, - they forgave the talented scientist everything: and officer shoulder straps, and cooperation with Kolchak, and flight to the USA ... "The Stalinist USSR began industrialization: here they were purposefully interested in acquiring the latest technologies, including the purchase of television equipment. Moreover, the inventor receives a reception from the People's Commissar for Communications of the USSR Rykov.
• The first Soviet TV "VK" was created precisely according to the developments of Zvorykin. By the end of 1936, the Leningrad Institute of Telemechanics, transformed by that time into the All-Russian Research Institute of Television, completed the development of an electronic television system. March 10, 1939 began regular TV shows from the Moscow Television Center on Shabolovka, and in 1954 on Kuntsevsky radio engineering plant Mass production of television receivers was launched in Moscow.
• ... The famous inventor was able to visit his homeland again only in 1959. In 1945, he was actually banned from traveling abroad, refusing to issue a passport. Until the end of the 50s, Zworykin did not travel. One of the chapters of Albert Abramson's monograph contains detailed information about how the FBI was actively interested in Zworykin since 1943. Why from now on? In 1943, Zworykin, who by that time had moved with his laboratory to the scientifically most prestigious city of Princeton, was approached by activists of the Fund for Relief of the Victims of the War in Russia, which was raising funds to purchase and send food and clothing to the population of the USSR, offering to head the New York branch of this fund. In principle, Zworykin, who had not previously joined any parties and movements and was not engaged in any public activity, agreed this time. The American Foundation for the Relief of the Victims of the War in Russia, as it became known later, was one of the first on the list of suspicious organizations of the FBI and was repeatedly subjected to searches in its own headquarters. At the same time, Vladimir Zworykin in 1943 agrees to head the list of leaders of the New York Science Committee of the American-Soviet Friendship Council.
• In 1951, after many years of bachelorhood, he marries Ekaterina Polevitskaya, an emigrant from Russia. The history of their union is significant - the acquaintance took place twenty years before the marriage. Zworykin was fascinated by the beauty and charm of Polevitskaya, she was married. A marriage proposal followed when Zworykin learned that Ekaterina Polevitskaya had become a widow. And although both newlyweds had crossed the sixty-year milestone by that time, they lived in love and harmony for more than thirty (!) Years. An energetic and erudite wife, a doctor by profession, greatly influenced the determination of Zworykin's further professional interests. After retiring in 1954 at the age of 65 as director of the RCA Electronics Laboratory, his scientific and inventive interests shifted mainly to the field of medical electronics.
• Zworykin's merits are so highly valued that he is awarded the position of honorary vice president of RCA. “The concept of resignation has nothing to do with Vladimir Zworykin,” Sarnov said in his closing speech at a Princeton University conference specially organized in honor of the outstanding inventor. - A scientist like Zworykin never retires. His talent does not fade. The imagination and creative instinct of a real scientist lead him to even more extensive knowledge. In the same year, Zworykin began work as director of the Medical Electronics Center at the Rockefeller Institute in New York. For research chemical reactions inside living cells, a talented inventor soon created a unique microscope that reproduces color image objects on the television screen. Further development of integrated microelectronics allowed the scientist to implement the idea of ​​endoradio sounding together with physicians. The probe for this method is a miniature tablet-radio transmitter, with which "it is possible to obtain data on acidity and other indicators of the internal environment."
• Together with the outstanding mathematician J. von Neumann, Zworykin is developing a new method for forecasting weather changes using meteorological rockets and computer data processing. Then he takes on the problem of improving traffic safety on expressways and, as a result, creates an experimental model of a radio-controlled safe car. It is significant that in 1954 our eminent compatriot accurately predicted that a person would see the surface of the Moon and other planets precisely with the help of a television set, which would be delivered there on board an interplanetary spacecraft.
• In addition to working at the Rockefeller Institute, the scientist and inventor begins teaching as a visiting professor at the University of Miami. The International Federation of Medical Electronics and Biological Engineering is created, Vladimir Zworykin is elected president of the federation.
• In 1967, the Zvorykins arranged an Intourist visit to Vladimir. We went together to admire the cathedrals. Then, having caught a taxi, they waved to the closed city of Murom. Thanks to his courage, after fifty years, Vladimir Zworykin is back in his hometown near the house where he spent his childhood and adolescence.
• He died in 1982 in the USA.

Today, hardly anyone imagines life without television. We learn from TV programs last news, have fun watching numerous games and shows, cartoons, documentaries and feature films. You can even learn using transmissions educational plan. However, few people know that all this became possible thanks to the only person in the world - Vladimir Kozmich Zworykin - the true inventor of television as such. Let's figure out who this man was and how his fate developed, based on objective historical facts.

Zworykin Vladimir Kozmich: a brief biography of a descendant of a Murom merchant

If you look at the Academic Encyclopedia of the United States, and even better, in the Grolier (electronic version), you will find that in America the inventor Vladimir Zworykin is called the "father of television." This statement is completely true. Its merits can hardly be overestimated, because thanks to them today there is a TV in almost every home.

Since the seventeenth century, mankind has begun to think about transmitting images at a distance. Already by the nineteenth century, more than seven different systems of this kind were known in the world, which, unfortunately, turned out to be either difficult to implement or inoperable. Only in 1907, Boris Lvovich Rosing managed to develop a cathode ray tube and a receiver for it. It was this man who became the teacher of the inventor of television Zworykin.

Brief description of the activities of the creator of the TV

In early childhood, little Volodya Zworykin could not even imagine what awaited him in the future. From an early age he was interested in "wires", as his father used to say. The guy studied hard, showing extraordinary abilities, and at the university he met his inspirer Rosing. The young man was greatly impressed by his research and a trip to various enterprises in other countries, where he was sent by the International Chamber of Commerce. After studying abroad, Vladimir Kozmich returned home, where he was caught by the February Revolution.

As a result, the entire inheritance of his father ended up in the hands of the proletariat, and Zworykin himself decided to emigrate. The choice fell on the United States, where, after long efforts, he finally got. Having no funds, practically not knowing English, Vladimir Zworykin got a job in the research laboratory of the Westinghouse Corporation. There he was engaged in the development of the latest photocells for engineering and construction, which made him famous, but he never left developments on television tubes. Understanding what Zworykin invented, we must not forget about this.

After joining RCA, he finally managed to make his dreams come true. He patented new equipment, and the company's factories began to produce the world's first televisions equipped with kinescopes. The first Soviet TV called "VK" was also designed by Zworykin. However, he did not stop there: the great scientist has more than a hundred various patents and research articles on his account.

Birth of future US pride

The father of the future inventor of television Zvorykin was a wealthy man, a merchant of the first guild, a grain merchant and a ship owner. Kozma Alekseevich had the company "Shipping Company on the Oka Zvorykinykh" and was the head of the board of a public bank. On June 17, 1889, the youngest (seventh) child of Kozma, named Volodya, was born in the family's estate in Murom.

On this baby screaming in diapers, Kozma Alekseevich pinned colossal hopes. His eldest offspring, Nikolai, was never interested in the family business at all. He was only interested in science. Another son, Kostya, later became a metallurgist. Daughters did not count, since they were only supposed to have a profitable marriage.

Childhood and youth of the inventor

The elder Zworykin made every effort to educate and develop his son, intending to transfer management of affairs to him in old age. The boy turned out to be smart, quick. Already in the Murom real school, it became clear that he would be an excellent technician. He studied perfectly, and in his spare time he repaired the wiring on his father's steamers. At the age of sixteen, Vladimir entered the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology, graduating with honors.

In that educational institution budding student Volodya met his first inspiration, professor of physics Boris Lvovich Rosing. He already then had several patents (privileges) on "methods of electrical transmission of pictures at a distance." By the twelfth year of the twentieth century, Volodya short leg met with the teacher, he immediately appreciated the enthusiastic young man. He disappeared for days in the laboratory, where he could be found at any time.

Interesting

While serving in the army and studying at the officer's radio school, Vladimir Kozmich was almost put on trial. One of the soldiers wrote a denunciation against him, allegedly he forced juniors to speak into a “box with a hole”. Fortunately, the members of the commission knew a little about radio engineering, so he managed to avoid the tribunal.

After receiving his diploma, Zworykin found himself at a crossroads: his father insistently demanded that he return to family business, but Rosing predicted a great future and recommended going to Paris. The College de France and the physicist Paul Langevin welcomed him with open arms. Things could go, but the war broke out. and had to go home. He has already rushed to the front line near Grodno with his own developed and assembled radio transmitter. Six months later he was sent to Petrograd, where there was a radio school for officers.

Becoming a television pioneer

The war raged, he first went to Kyiv, and then, leaving military service, moved to Moscow. But there was no peace there either. As a former tsarist officer, they tried to draft him into the Red Army, but Zworykin was no longer going to fight. At his own peril and risk, he rushed to Omsk, the White Guard capital. There he was welcomed cordially and even helped to make papers for traveling to the United States to purchase parts of the radio station. Since all normal routes had already been blocked by the Bolsheviks by that time, they had to get around in a roundabout way, through the island of Veygach and Arkhangelsk.

First work and justification in the United States of America

In the nineteenth year, he came back to Omsk, where by that time Kolchak was standing. But he returned already through Japan, rounding the Earth. It turned out that Volodya wandered across the ocean in vain, since the radio station was available on the spot, but negligent officials did not even know about its existence. Soon he was again handed the documentation and sent on a new business trip to America, but they promised to send money after him, and upon arrival he suddenly discovered that in Omsk he had already been fired with the wording "for idleness."

Vladimir Kozmich was indignant, began to demand a trial, to swear. He achieved success, but Kolchak's government soon crumbled to dust, and his career was on public service sunk into oblivion. Vladimir Zworykin was left in the United States without work and livelihood. No one knows how things could have turned out if it weren't for the ambassador tsarist Russia in America - Boris Alexandrovich Bakhmetiev. He helped financially and also got a job at the large Westinghouse Electric laboratory in Pittsburgh. There he settled and returned to his favorite job, because he was an engineer, and the laboratory with everything necessary equipment gave just unlimited possibilities.

The invention of the electronic television and other discoveries

Already by the twenty-third year, Vladimir managed to create a transmitting tube, which he decided to call an iconoscope. He decided that it was not worth amplifying the output signal if he could accumulate charge. Things went smoothly when he used capacitors. The quality of the picture was ridiculously low, and the author of the project himself frankly skeptically called it "television". Not impressed by the work of the Russian inventor, the authorities ordered to get down to business - to work with sound film projects. However, in the same year he received a patent for an iconoscope, and a year later - for a receiving kinescope.

In 1924, Vladimir Kozmich achieved citizenship and entered the University of Pittsburgh. They accepted there up to thirty-five, so I had to carefully “knock off” my years. Two years later he was already a doctor of science in physics in the field of photocells. There he managed to develop and launch the first electronic high-speed fax. But he did not want this at all - he needed money for television. They appeared unexpectedly, together with the millionaire David Sarnov in the twenty-eighth. He was also a Russian emigrant, but left his homeland at the age of eight. Zworykin requested one hundred thousand dollars for development. In reality, it took about fifty million, but Sarnov never regretted the investment - they returned to him a hundredfold.

Pittsburgh had to leave, there were not enough opportunities, and David called to his corporation. The Zvorykin family moved to Camden, New Jersey. There, Vladimir got a job at the Radio Corporation of America, where he made his main discoveries, designed the long-awaited televisions, and was even able to put them on the conveyor. In the middle of the summer of 1933, he lectured at a meeting of the American Society of Radio Engineers. It has become turning point, he began to be called to performances around the world. At the same time, he was invited to the Soviet Union, promising to "forget" about his counter-revolutionary past, as well as about the "shameful" flight abroad.

At home, he was greeted like a real king: Lavrenty Beria himself shook hands, allocated a plane for a trip to the Crimea, offered to instantly organize all the documentation, equip the laboratory and create ideal conditions for work. The Union even released a "Zvorykin TV", called "VK". However, Vladimir Kozmich did not dare to change his American passport to a Soviet one. He returned to the States and continued his work, and already in the fortieth almost accidentally decomposed the light beam into red, green and blue. This became the starting point new work- Color television as we know it clearly loomed ahead. Then, together with the researcher James Hillier, he developed a sensitive electron microscope, and during the years of World War II he even worked on the creation of an aerial bomb equipped with a "television" system and night vision systems. Subsequently, he helped John von Neumann to connect his computer and his television, creating the first computer.

Public recognition in the US and the world

In the fifties, after the end of the Great Patriotic War, Zworykin dreamed of visiting his homeland, but his passport was canceled. The American intelligence services considered him an agent of Soviet intelligence, and the Union was firmly convinced that he was an "American henchman" filled to the brim with imperialist ideology. Therefore, the next time he did not manage to visit the “house” and see his relatives soon.

In 1954, he retired and took up medical research for his own pleasure. Moreover, he managed to develop many useful technology: from endoscopes to heavy duty microscopes and even radiosondes. It’s impossible to say that he was underestimated, at different times he received many state awards in America.

• In 1934, Vladimir Zworykin was awarded an award from the Institute of Radio Engineering called the Morris Liebmann Prize.
• The American Academy of Arts and Sciences awarded him the Rumfoord Prize in 1941.
• The Franklin Institute of Philadelphia awarded Zworykin the Howard Potts Medal in 1947.
• A year later, he was awarded the Lamme Medal, which was awarded by the American Institute of Electrical Engineers for outstanding achievement.

But he was recognized not only in the States, but also far beyond their borders. In 1980, a new award for achievements in science and culture was presented by the private German foundation Eduard-Rhein-Stiftung. It was Vladimir Zworykin who became the first owner of the Ring of Honor of Eduard Rein. After him, only nine people in the world received the same award, including the German electrical engineer Walter Bruch, the Japanese engineer Ibuka Masaru, and even the first woman cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova.

Personal life and death of the father of television: memorialization

WITH early childhood Vladimir Kozmich's life was eventful and difficult. He traveled a lot around the world, visited many countries, and in his declining years even managed to become disillusioned with his invention - television. In an interview, he frankly said that he released "a monster that can brainwash all of humanity." It was no longer possible to stop the running flywheel, the inventor had no control over it.

Wives and children

IN personal life Zworykin was no less "lucky" than at work. He married for the first time in 1916, before October revolution. His heart was captivated by a graduate of the dental school, Tanechka Vasilyeva, about whom little is known. Despite the fact that the marriage lasted fourteen years, it is difficult to call him happy. In the seventeenth, Tanya left for Berlin, from where Volodya took her to America only in the twentieth, and then he was constantly on the road. In the thirtieth year, he filed for divorce, so that "a demanding family would not interfere with doing science." Tatyana gave birth to a wife of two lovely daughters.

• Nina (1920).
• Elena (1927).

Vladimir was not destined to remain alone until the end of his life, and the second love story in his life turned out to be much more romantic than the pragmatic first marriage. He met his second wife around the same time that he divorced his first. Ekaterina Andreevna Polevitskaya was a professor of microbiology, and above all, she was "deeply" married. The husband resisted, and for two decades he did not give a divorce to a woman, but in the fiftieth year he died, after which Vladimir Kozmich decided to marry without delay. It is clear that at this age the children of the spouses did not appear.

Death and the memory of the creator of the TV

Having lived a long and eventful life, Vladimir Zworykin, the inventor of television, the electron microscope and many other devices, died on July 29, 1982. He was a full ninety-two years old, but until the last moment he remained in his right mind and memory, wrote scientific works, articles in magazines and just memoirs. It is believed that his ashes were scattered over the American lake Taunton lake, not far from the country house. How true this is is not known for certain, but there is no reason not to believe this version.

There are five books written by Vladimir Kozmich, published in the period from thirty-six to fifty-eight. In two thousand and thirteen in Moscow, a monument was erected to him on the Ostankino pond, and a little later another monument was erected in the homeland of the inventor in Murom. Available Memorial plaque on the building of the real school, which he graduated from, and also a street in the town of Gusev is named after him. In two thousand and ten, the screens came out documentary about this great man called "Zworykin-Muromets", directed by Russian researcher, actor, TV presenter and journalist Leonid Gennadyevich Parfenov.

Zworykin Vladimir Kozmich - scientist, inventor in the field of electronics. Zvorykin owns the invention of the "miracle of the XX century" - electronic television. His innovative ideas were also used in the creation of electron microscopes, photomultipliers and electron-optical converters.

Born on July 30, 1888 in Murom, Vladimir province. After graduating from a real school, he entered St. Petersburg University in 1906, but at the insistence of his father, he soon moved to Institute of Technology. Here a meeting took place, which largely determined the scientific interests of Z.: he met Professor B. Rosing, the author of innovative works on electronic transmission of images over a distance. In 1912, Zworykin graduated from the Technological Institute, having received a diploma with honors, which gives him the right to go on a scientific internship in one of the European laboratories. During the year, Vladimir Kozmich studies X-ray diffraction at the College de France, then travels to Germany to take a course in theoretical physics at the Charlottenburg Institute.

The 1st World War interrupted Zworykin's scientific studies, he returned to Russia, where he was drafted into the army. For a year and a half he served in the signal troops in Grodno, then worked in an officer radio school in Petrograd. In 1917, on the instructions of the Provisional Government, he set up a radio station for communication between the Tauride Palace and Kronstadt, then returned to work at ROBTiT again. At the end of the year, the plant was evacuated to Moscow: the Germans were breaking through to the capital, and this important defense enterprise had to be transferred from Petrograd to a safer place.

In 1919 he emigrated to the USA. Zvorykin was given the opportunity to try his hand at Westinghouse Electric in Pittsburgh. Having gone headlong into experiments, he set about implementing the long-cherished ideas of electronic television. By 1923, Zvorykin created a television device based on an original transmitting tube with a mosaic photocode. The capabilities of the developed apparatus were, however, still very limited. Gradually moving towards the intended goal, by 1929 he designed a high-vacuum receiving tube - a kinescope, developed a number of other elements for electronic television equipment. The fundamental invention of Zvorykin, which makes it possible to solve main problem in the development of television technology, was the creation of a transmitting cathode ray tube with charge accumulation and high light sensitivity. Zvorykin received in 1931 a special cathode-ray tube with a mosaic photosensitive structure - an iconoscope. After successful tests of the iconoscope, Zvorykin, together with his assistants, set about developing the television system as a whole. In 1933, a television system was created with a decomposition of 240 lines, in 1934 - of 343 lines with interlaced scanning. In 1936 television broadcasts using such a system were launched in the USA.

In the second half of the 1930s, Zworykin dealt mainly with the problems of electron optics. Starting from 1939, Zworykin, together with his assistant J. Hillier, was engaged in the development of electron microscopes, achieving significant results in a short time. During the Second World War, night vision devices designed by Zworykin were used by the US Army to equip tanks and vehicles, as well as as sights.

In 1954, Zworykin retired from the position of director of the RCA electronics laboratory. His merits are so great that he is awarded the position of honorary vice president of RCA. Zworykin set about active organizational and scientific activities. He was director of the Center for Medical Electronics at the Rockefeller Institute, founding president of the International Federation of Medical Electronics and Biological Engineering, and a member of medical electronics professional groups established in the United States and France.

Vladimir Kozmich was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Academy of Engineers, the American Philosophical Society, an honorary member of many academies and scientific societies. He owns over 120 patents and over 80 scientific papers. Z. was called "a gift to the American continent." He has been awarded more than 30 awards (including the US National Science Medal, the Pioneer Award of the American Industrial Association, the Presidential Diploma of Honor, the Order of the Legion of Honor of France, etc.). inventive and scientific activity Z. was noted by entering his name in the American National Gallery Glory to the inventors.

Share with friends: In Russia, almost everyone knows who invented the radio - our Popov and the Italian Marconi. However, not all of us can name the inventor of television. Up to now, offensively little has been written and told about this brilliant scientist in our country. Is it because in the years civil war he emigrated to the USA and made all his technical inventions abroad?
Father is a merchant, uncles are scientists
The emigration to America of the inventor of television was not accidental. By the revolutionary standards of 1917, his origin clearly let us down. Father - Kozma Alekseevich - was a merchant of the first guild, a steamship owner and a merchant. In his homeland, in the city of Murom, he was a respected person, so in 1903 he was elected chairman of the Murom Public Bank.
Two brothers of Kozma Alekseevich became scientists. One, Nikolai, had the title of master of mathematics and physics, was a student of Stoletov himself. And, perhaps, he would have achieved a lot in science, but he died early. Another uncle of the "father of television", Professor Konstantin Alekseevich, taught at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute. He became widely known for his fundamental works on the theory of metal cutting and mechanical engineering technology. Moreover, Vladimir Kozmich's brother, Nikolai, was rightly considered a qualified engineer. He worked in Georgia for many years, supervising a number of projects for the construction of hydraulic structures. But somehow there was a small glitch in the work. And then in the USSR there was another fight against "pests". Nikolai and his subordinates were put on trial. However, what is surprising is that after the successful commissioning of the hydroelectric complex, the entire team of designers was released.
The life of the protagonist of this essay, Vladimir Kozmich Zworykin, born in 1889, was also full of sharp turns.
bumps of fate
However, at first nothing foreshadowed "bumps" on the life path of Vladimir Kozmich. After graduating from a real school in Murom, he went to St. Petersburg, entered the university, then transferred to the Institute of Technology. It was 1906, the second year of the first Russian revolution. Like many students, Vladimir got involved in the political struggle: he often attended rallies, participated in student strikes. But science called to itself! In addition, he ended up in the laboratory of Professor Rosing.
The life of Rosing, an outstanding scientist, ended tragically. In 1931, he ended up in Stalin's millstones. He was arrested and sent to Arkhangelsk for 3 years, where he died two years later.

Vladmir Kozmich Zworykin with an iconoscope

Boris L'vovich Rosing was once one of the first researchers in the electronic transmission of images over long distances. For the first time, the scientist demonstrated his invention to colleagues on May 9, 1911. And soon he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Russian Technical Society for this. According to historians of technology, Rosing's achievements played a fundamental role in the creation of modern television. And all these years, his assistant was Vladimir Zworykin, who, after graduating from the institute with honors, went to Paris to continue his studies with the famous physicist Paul Langevin.
And then the First World War began. Zworykin served in Grodno as an officer in the signal troops. Then he was sent for scientific research to Petrograd, where he almost became a victim February Revolution. One of the soldiers complained that “this Zworykin” was mocking him: he made him speak numbers into the “hole” (microphone) for a long time, while he himself was digging in some box in another room. Fortunately, everything was sorted out at the tribunal and Zvorykin was released.
October 1917 found him in Moscow. The Bolsheviks obliged everyone former officers join the Red Army, which Zworykin did not want to do. He decided to make his way to Omsk, the then capital of independent Siberia. Vladimir Kozmich knew that they needed specialists in modern radio communications. However, in Yekaterinburg, he was arrested by the Bolsheviks. Surely they would have been shot, but at that moment the White Czechs entered the city, and Zvorykin managed to get to Omsk.
From here, the scientist was sent to the United States to conclude contracts for the purchase of the latest equipment. He coped with the task of the Siberian government. In 1919 he was again sent to America. This time, Zworykin decided not to return to his homeland, because he realized that the Siberian government was about to cease to exist.
In the home of Edison
At first, things did not go very smoothly in America. True, Zworykin managed to get a job in the laboratory of one company, where he created electronic device with original transmission tube. But this device did not satisfy the management of the enterprise. "Do something more useful," the scientist was told. However, Vladimir Kozmich continued to engage in “far-sight” in his spare time and in 1929 patented a kinescope, the principle of operation of which has been preserved to this day!
In 1929, in the USA, Zworykin met a man who immediately appreciated the prospects of the Russian inventor's research. It was David Sarnov, who offered Zworykin to move to his company, and when the transition took place, he created excellent working conditions for Vladimir Kozmich. Thanks to this, already in 1931, Zworykin created a tube with charge accumulation. The inventor called it "iconoscope" ("icons" from Greek - image; "scope" to see). Two nodes - an iconoscope and a kinescope - became the main nodes in the electronic television system.

Inventor at the electron microscope

In 1936, regular television broadcasts began in Germany and Great Britain. By the way, the 1936 Summer Olympics were broadcast on television from Berlin. And in 1938, David Sarnoff announced that television had become technically feasible in every home. Sarnov stood in front of a television camera at one of the pavilions of the New York World's Fair and broadcast: "Now we are adding an image to the sound."
Other inventions of Zworykin
Vladimir Kozmich Zworykin is not only the inventor of television. For example, he invented instruments that allowed American pilots to successfully bomb Berlin in 1944 in dense fog. After the war, the scientist was already developing color television. In addition, he was engaged in work on the creation of photocells, photoelectronic multipliers and electron-optical converters for night vision devices. Zworykin is also known as the inventor of the world's first electron microscope. He worked fruitfully in the field of medical electronics. In particular, he created a device for diagnosing internal organs. In total, Vladimir Kozmich has 120 inventions.
Did Zworykin want to return to his homeland? He had such an idea. In 1933 and 1934 he even visited the Soviet Union. He made presentations, got acquainted with the developments of Moscow and Leningrad laboratories, after which he seriously considered leaving the United States. His relatives dissuaded him: as soon as he becomes a citizen of the USSR and not an American subject, he will immediately be reminded of the White Guard past, emigration and so on. There was no hope for the humanity of the Stalinist regime, even in relation to a brilliant scientist.
Vladimir Kozmich Zworykin and died in America in 1982.