J L Baird Archive

[dave walsh]

The Guardian [p8] reported that a Transatlantic TV related "archive" which appears to have been sold for £78,750 is now subject to an Export Bar so there is an opportunity for a matching offer to keep it in the Uk!

My first thought was that at least JLB is getting recognition,rather than derision, for a change

My second was that someone on here may be the the seller [unlikely I suspect] or might have more info. Can't seem to find out who sold to whom at present.

The Times Scotland has a photo of the cache. Perhaps someone more accomplished than me can link in this and the other reports.

I do have strong views on Baird's treatment in general. I held these before I began to spend time here in Bexhill and found I was just around the corner from where he died in 1946.

Dave W

[HamishBoxer]

The Scottish Exspress also has this in it and pictures.If my July bond comes up I will save it for the Scottish people!

Dont think it has been sold as yet.

[dave walsh]

You might be right but with such an exact price I assumed it must have been in an auction That's a very generous offer David

Normally I would have thought the National Film and TV Museum in Bradford could put their hand in at least, someone else's pocket-especially as I think JLB's Grandson still works there but it appeared to have changed it's name and purpose only to be having problems the last time I looked.

I'm hoping to visit friends in Glasgow soon, see Baird's grave in Helensborough
and places associated with his enemy Reith. Then the remains of the Art School for a little light relief.

Dave W

[HamishBoxer]

It should certainly stay in Scotland and be on display for all to see.Those are my thoughts despite not being born up here.

[dave walsh]

I wouldn't argue with that and preferably[ironically] within a dedicated Centre somewhere in the area of the trendy new[ish] Glasgow BBC HQ. I'm not thinking of a Museum really, more like the study centre/inter-active archive created in Manchester re Anthony Burgess [author and polymath] who was born there.
Dave

[HamishBoxer]

Could not agree more with you.

[Dave Moll]

Originally Posted by dave walsh

Normally I would have thought the National Film and TV Museum in Bradford could put their hand in at least, someone else's pocket-especially as I think JLB's Grandson still works there but it appeared to have changed it's name and purpose only to be having problems the last time I looked.

Last time I looked, it was called The Media Museum, and Ian Baird (indeed grandson of JLB) was still curator of television.

[m0cemdave]

From the picture, that looks like a small cache of papers from the estate of the amateur radio experimenter Ben Clapp - and certainly not worth the extravagant asking price.

[peter_scott]

Originally Posted by m0cemdave

certainly not worth the extravagant asking price.

Certainly doesn't look like a bargain.

Peter

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2...-keep-it-in-uk

[dave walsh]

Sir Isaac Shoenberg's Granddaughter is in the Guardian [letters page] today complaining that the Minister didn't mention her Grandad and his EMI vision [not apparently noticing the pun] in the JLB Archive announcement yesterday. She mentions a conjunction between the 125th anniversary of Sir Isaac's birth and the 80th of Ally Pally. I've written in to point out that a Faraday Medal and Knighthood is a fair amount of recognition. I said, given that very little is generally known about Baird after the 1935 BBC competition he lost to EMI, his probable war work and colour TV system developement it's JLB that deserves further [or perhaps] any honours. I'm not holding my breath for publication though

Dave W

[peter_scott]

There are quite a few unsung heros in the history of television and as a Scotsman I think Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton is probably the most overlooked, certainly in the eyes of the general public.

http://www.scottpeter.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Emitron.htm

Peter

[dave walsh]

Thank's Peter, Campbell-Swinton that's a new one to me! The Scot's have a fine tradition in engineering and innovation.

I'm always interested in coincidence and just came across a book "Restoring Baird's Image" on offer here [but claimed]. it's not the sort of "image" that I'm talking about as it seems to be about reclaiming recordings on disc but all the same I think I met the author of that one showing a video demo of the recordings at a Rally-he told me that his mother lived in Bexhill.

Re the early Baird colour system, I met a very rich elderly business man in Manchester circa 1972 when I was very young. He noticed that I was carrying a 16mm Camera and this developed into him telling told me that he had a colour set in his apartment at Hyde Park Corner in the mid thirties.
As UK Colour TV was still new then I didn't know what to make of it until a BVWS publication in the 90's contained confirmation that it was possible he had a private wire similar to the PO feed into cinemas.!

Dave W

[Brigham]

A A Campbell Swinton's diagram of all-electronic television is staggering. How anyone could see so far ahead in the pre-Great War era defies belief.

Don Maclean's book 'Restoring Baird's Image' does refer to the perception of the Inventor in the eyes of the world. The title is intentionally cryptic. The book is superb, as is the accompanying CD, which includes all of the known recordings of Television from the Low-Definition era.

Ian Baird is one of the most interesting people I have met in the field of mechanical television. Reserved at first, almost to the point of shyness, he opens out into a fount of information, knowledge and personal anecdote of all things Baird-related. His help in my project to re-create a part of his Grandfather's work was invaluable.

Ben Clapp's input to the Baird saga was vital. It was he who provided the wireless side of events, and he who manipulated the 'receiving end' of all the major 'firsts', including the trans-Atlantic demonstration, and that to the 'Berengaria'. His papers ought to remain alongside those of JLB himself, a fact obviously known to the vendor.

[dave walsh]

Thanks for that Brigham. It must have been Don Maclean that I spoke with but I can't recall where it was I will have to check my diaries. I intend to buy the book, especially if it supports Baird on a personal level as well. The BBC4 Documentary included Bexhill and Malcolm Baird [his son] was in touch from Canada with the Bexhill Observer at one point. I don't know if Ian has ever been here? I helped in a campaign to restore the commemerative plaque to the huge building that stands where Baird Court once did.
Dave W

[Gulliver]

Another vote in favour of anybody who has the slightest interest in the dawn of television getting hold of a copy of "Restoring Baird's Image".

A fine book with a good deal of technical information explained in terms that most people should be able to understand.

And a truly great title.

[FERNSEH]

Does any documentation exist about the Baird equipment that was installed in Alexandra Palace? Technical details of the of the intermediate film technique, how the sync pulses were generated and so on.
There is still a few Marconi-EMI Black Books about but I've never come across anything similar for the Baird 240/25 system. Manuals must have been issued for the technicians working at AP.

DFWB.

[peter_scott]

Don't know about original documentation but some nice photos here:
http://colorist.org/wiki/index.php/P...ry_of_Telecine

A not very interesting patent:
http://www.google.com/patents/US2079880

A couple of references at the end of this :
http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~...elevision.html

Peter

[peter_scott]

Not a lot on I.F. www.cdvandt.org/Band1Heft4Juli'39.pdf

[Aerodyne]

AA Campbell Swinton was incredibly far-sighted and was an advocate of all-electronic TV right from the early 1900s and before the CRT was a practical reality. He developed his ideas once the Braun tube metamorphosed into the CRT. His design has the basic features that came to define EMI's late 1930's TV system. He felt that mechanical TV was a blind alley and argued his point in the national press during the 1920s. However and unlike JL Baird he was not a practical experimenter in the TV field, which is why his name isn't well known generally.
There should be more recognition of Baird and his work, IMHO.
http://www.bairdtelevision.com/swinton.html

Tony