References of the abstract :
The Promised Ubiquity – Revisiting the Formative Years of Television (1877-1926)
John Logie Baird’s invention of television did not emerge from nothing. When he gave his first demonstrations in 1926, the idea of seeing by electricity was already half a century old. This idea took shape from 1877 onward, stimulated by the invention of the telephone, the discovery of selenium’s photosensitive properties, and the Siemens brothers’ proposal of an “electric eye”. From the outset, this prospect, promoted by both the specialised and mainstream press, took on an international dimension, in Europe, Russia, and the United States.
The major works on the formative years of television were written at the end of the 20th century by engineers (George Shiers, Albert Abramson, Russell Burns). Research conducted since the publication of their seminal works has led to a significant re-evaluation, characterized by three key factors:
• Access to period publications facilitated by the digitization of newspapers and patent archives, documents produced by inventors, etc.
• The emergence of issues arising from recent technological developments has brought to light trends that had been overlooked by traditional historians, such as early hypotheses regarding the digital transmission of wireless transmission of pictures.
• The rise of new approaches (media archaeology, sociology of invention, theories of the screen, etc.) that focus on the social aspects of inventions, the nature of inventors' relationships with the scientific community and the public, the forms of imagination that develop around announced inventions, the integration of technological advancements into literature, painting, and film, and the phenomena of irrationality that are stimulated by technological innovations or sometimes hinder them.
From this perspective, we will examine some examples of media discourse and manifestations neglected by engineering historians: the forward-looking considerations of the inventors themselves, hoaxes, cartoons, the statements of writers, journalists, photographers, politicians, as well as the place of women in this new technological imaginary.
