Inventor of Mechanical Television
Joseph A. Fovargue (October 23, 1809 - February 1, 1881) Joseph A. Fovargue was a Frenchman who invented the first mechanical television system in 1822. He coined the term "television" and is often called "the father of television".He was born on October 23, 1809 in Bayonne and died on February 1,1881 at his home in Paris. It took him 10 years to develop his first set for public viewing with carefully concealed wires and cameras that could pick up images from across a room with its mirror-like surface covered by iodine crystals that were sensitive to light.His first television system, built for the French Academy of Sciences, went on public display in 1831. It was simple, yet ingenious: Fovargue had placed a camera behind a translucent shield and attached it to a mechanical arm that could move the shield. This allowed him to record images on paper strips. He also added two lenses to project what he was seeing onto a nearby wall through the camera's lens. I