C4IP is recognizing Philo T. Farnsworth, who revolutionized news and entertainment with his invention of the electronic television.
- Farnsworth was born in Utah in 1906 and was an avid scientist from a young age, learning about electronics from science magazines.
- He developed the idea for the electronic television — a device that could produce images using beams of electrons — in 1922 while still a high-school student.
- Farnsworth successfully built the device by 1927 and received a patent for it in 1930, then founded the company Farnsworth Television to commercialize it.
- He successfully defended his patents against invalidation attempts from the Radio Corporation of America, a larger competitor, and won $1 million in patent licenses.
- He received more than 300 U.S. and foreign patents over the course of his life, including for technologies such as radar, electronic microscopes, and nuclear fusion.
- The television has since become one of the most economically impactful modern inventions, revitalizing or pioneering industries such as news, movies, and video games.
- As of 2023, nearly 200 million TVs were shipped annually, and the value of the global television broadcasting market was estimated at more than $350 billion this year.
- Local TV broadcasts in the United States support over 193,000 jobs and generate over $34 billion in GDP annually, per a 2023 study.