John
Logie Baird
(1888 - 1946)
The youngest of four children of a clergyman, Baird was born
in Helensburgh on 13th August 1888. He worked as a supervising
engineer for an electrical supply company in Glasgow before
being dismissed after a disastrous attempt to make diamonds
out of coal dust led to a major system failure. Following
a spell living with his sister in London, Baird moved to Hastings
to recover from bad health.
In
1924 he was credited as the inventor of television after transmitting
a Maltese Cross onto a screen, however, nobody believed the
newspaper reports.
He
continued his work and later organised 2TV, the first television
station. On 24th May 1927 he successfully transmitted from London
to Glasgow and three months later sent a picture from London
to SS Berengaria which was in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean
at the time.
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