Invention of the High Resolution Television System

20-03-1926 (Hungary)

1 sheet with 14 attached drawings; 21 × 34 cm

National Archives of Hungary
HU-MNL-OL – K 603 – T –3768

On 20 March 1926, Kálmán Tihanyi (1897 – 1947), a physicist, electrical engineer and inventor, submitted a patent application for a high resolution television system under the designation of Radioskop. The documents pertaining to this submission - one letter plus several folios with technical drawings - are today recognised as testimonies of a crucial moment in the creation and development of television systems.

Tihanyi was born in Zbehy, Slovakia (Hungarian: Üzbég), Kingdom of Hungary (now Zbehy, Slovakia), and graduated in 1917 at the School of Electrotechnical Studies in what is today Bratislava, Slovakia (Hungarian: Pozsony, German: Pressburg).

Systems for image transmission using cathode ray tubes had been discussed by several inventors earlier, but no truly efficient system had been produced because fundamental design issues were still to be resolved. The crucial step forward was provided by Kálmán Tihanyi in 1926 when he proposed a system operating on the basis of continuous electron emission.

Tihanyi’s dedication to the subject continuous and he submitted many other patent applications for television-related inventions,including a flat-screen plasma-type television, which could be hung on the wall and an infrared television camera in 1929, which was used for many years in military and civil applications.

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