Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton
Encyclopedia
Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton, FRS (1863, Kimmerghame House
, Berwickshire
– 1930, London
) was a Scottish
consulting electrical engineer. He described an electronic method of producing television
in a 1908 letter to Nature
.
(1878–1881).
He was one of the first to explore the medical applications of radiography
, opening the first radiographic laboratory in the United Kingdom in 1896. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1915.
Campbell-Swinton wrote a letter in response to an article in the 4 June 1908 issue of Nature
by Shelford Bidwell
entitled "Telegraphic Photography and Electric Vision". Even as early as 1908, it was recognized that "The final, insurmountable problems with any form of mechanical scanning were the limited number of scans per second, which produced a flickering image, and the relatively large size of each hole in the disk, which resulted in poor resolution".
Campbell-Swinton's letter was published in the 18 June 1908 issue of Nature. The name of the article is "Distant Electric Vision". He wrote:
"This part of the problem of obtaining distant electric vision can probably be solved by the employment of two beams of cathode rays (one at the transmitting and one at the receiving station) synchronously deflected by the varying fields of two electromagnets placed at right angles to one another and energised by two alternating electric currents of widely different frequencies, so that the moving extremities of the two beams are caused to sweep simultaneously over the whole of the required surface within the one-tenth of a second necessary to take advantage of visual persistence. Indeed, so far as the receiving apparatus is concerned, the moving cathode beam has only to be arranged to impinge on a suitably sensitive fluorescent screen, and given suitable variations in its intensity, to obtain the desired result."
He gave a speech in London in 1911 where he described in great detail how distant electric vision could be achieved. This was to be done by using cathode ray tube
s (CRTs) at both the transmitting and receiving ends. This was the first iteration of the electronic television which is still in use today. When Swinton gave his speech others had already been experimenting with the use of cathode ray tubes as a receiver, but the use of the technology as a transmitter was unheard of.
In 1914 he once again described his system in his presidential address to the Roentgen Ray Society and in 1921 a book was published describing it in some detail. He himself described his system seven years later in the June 1928 issue of Modern Wireless, "Television by Cathode Rays".
By this time, although electromechanical televisions were still being introduced, inventors Philo Farnsworth
, Vladimir Zworykin
and Hungarian Kálmán Tihanyi
were already working separately on versions of all-electronic transmitting tubes.
Kimmerghame House, Berwickshire
Kimmerghame House is a 19th-century mansion in the Scottish Borders, located south-east of Duns by the Blackadder Water. It is the home of the Swintons of Kimmerghame. The house was designed in the Scottish Baronial style by David Bryce in 1851...
, Berwickshire
Berwickshire
Berwickshire or the County of Berwick is a registration county, a committee area of the Scottish Borders Council, and a lieutenancy area of Scotland, on the border with England. The town after which it is named—Berwick-upon-Tweed—was lost by Scotland to England in 1482...
– 1930, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
) was a Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
consulting electrical engineer. He described an electronic method of producing television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
in a 1908 letter to Nature
Nature (journal)
Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
.
Biography
Campbell-Swinton was educated at Cargilfield Trinity School and Fettes CollegeFettes College
Fettes College is an independent school for boarding and day pupils in Edinburgh, Scotland with over two thirds of its pupils in residence on campus...
(1878–1881).
He was one of the first to explore the medical applications of radiography
Radiography
Radiography is the use of X-rays to view a non-uniformly composed material such as the human body. By using the physical properties of the ray an image can be developed which displays areas of different density and composition....
, opening the first radiographic laboratory in the United Kingdom in 1896. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1915.
Campbell-Swinton wrote a letter in response to an article in the 4 June 1908 issue of Nature
Nature (journal)
Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
by Shelford Bidwell
Shelford Bidwell
Shelford Bidwell was an English physicist and inventor. He is best known for his work with "telephotography", a precursor to the modern fax machine.-Private Life:...
entitled "Telegraphic Photography and Electric Vision". Even as early as 1908, it was recognized that "The final, insurmountable problems with any form of mechanical scanning were the limited number of scans per second, which produced a flickering image, and the relatively large size of each hole in the disk, which resulted in poor resolution".
Campbell-Swinton's letter was published in the 18 June 1908 issue of Nature. The name of the article is "Distant Electric Vision". He wrote:
"This part of the problem of obtaining distant electric vision can probably be solved by the employment of two beams of cathode rays (one at the transmitting and one at the receiving station) synchronously deflected by the varying fields of two electromagnets placed at right angles to one another and energised by two alternating electric currents of widely different frequencies, so that the moving extremities of the two beams are caused to sweep simultaneously over the whole of the required surface within the one-tenth of a second necessary to take advantage of visual persistence. Indeed, so far as the receiving apparatus is concerned, the moving cathode beam has only to be arranged to impinge on a suitably sensitive fluorescent screen, and given suitable variations in its intensity, to obtain the desired result."
He gave a speech in London in 1911 where he described in great detail how distant electric vision could be achieved. This was to be done by using cathode ray tube
Cathode ray tube
The cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen used to view images. It has a means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam onto the fluorescent screen to create the images. The image may represent electrical waveforms , pictures , radar targets and...
s (CRTs) at both the transmitting and receiving ends. This was the first iteration of the electronic television which is still in use today. When Swinton gave his speech others had already been experimenting with the use of cathode ray tubes as a receiver, but the use of the technology as a transmitter was unheard of.
In 1914 he once again described his system in his presidential address to the Roentgen Ray Society and in 1921 a book was published describing it in some detail. He himself described his system seven years later in the June 1928 issue of Modern Wireless, "Television by Cathode Rays".
- "Surely it would be better policy if those who can afford the time and money would abandon mechanical devices and expend their labours in what appears likely to prove the ultimately more promising method in which the only moving parts are imponderable electrons."
By this time, although electromechanical televisions were still being introduced, inventors Philo Farnsworth
Philo Farnsworth
Philo Taylor Farnsworth was an American inventor and television pioneer. Although he made many contributions that were crucial to the early development of all-electronic television, he is perhaps best known for inventing the first fully functional all-electronic image pickup device , the "image...
, Vladimir Zworykin
Vladimir Zworykin
Vladimir Kozmich Zworykin was a Russian-American inventor, engineer, and pioneer of television technology. Zworykin invented a television transmitting and receiving system employing cathode ray tubes...
and Hungarian Kálmán Tihanyi
Kálmán Tihanyi
Kálmán Tihanyi , was a Hungarian physicist, electrical engineer and inventor. One of the early pioneers of electronic television, he made significant contributions to the development of cathode ray tubes , which were bought and further developed by the Radio Corporation of America , and German...
were already working separately on versions of all-electronic transmitting tubes.