大学入学共通テスト2022(R)⑦第５問

ー Who invented television? It is not an easy question to answer. In the early
years of the 20th century, there was something called a mechanical television
system, but it was not a success. Inventors were also competing to develop
an electronic television system, which later became the basis of what we have
today. In the US, there was a battle over the patent for the electronic
television system, which attracted people’s attention because it was between
a young man and a giant corporation. This patent would give the inventor the official right to be the only person to develop, use, or sell the system.

ー Philo Taylor Farnsworth was born in a log cabin in Utah in 1906. His
family did not have electricity until he was 12 years old, and he was excited to
find a generator – a machine that produces electricity – when they moved into
a new home. He was very interested in mechanical and electrical technology,
reading any information he could find on the subject. He would often repair
the old generator and even changed his mother’s hand-powered washing 
machine into an electricity-powered one.

ー One day, while working in his father’s potato field, he looked behind him
and saw all the straight parallel rows of soil that he had made. Suddenly, it
occurred to him that it might be possible to create an electronic image on a
screen using parallel lines, just like the rows in the filed. In 1922, during the
spring semester of his first year at high school, he presented this idea to his
chemistry teacher, Justin Tolman, and asked for advice about his concept of
an electronic television system. With sketches and diagrams on blackboards,
he showed the teacher how it might be accomplished, and Tolman
encouraged him to develop his ideas.

ー On September 7, 1927, Farnsworth succeeded in sending his first
electronic image. In the following years, he further improved the system so
that it could successfully broadcast live images. The US government gave
him a patent for this system in 1930.

ー However, Farnsworth was not the only one working on such a system. A
giant company, RCA (Radio Corporation of America), also saw a bright future
for television and did not want to miss the opportunity. They recruited
Vladimir Zworykin, who had already worked on an electronic television system
and had earned a patent as early as 1923. Yet, in 1931, they offered
Farnsworth a large sum of money to sell them his patent as his system was
superior to that of Zworykin’s. He refused this offer, which started a patent
war between Farnsworth and RCA.

ー The company took legal action against Farnsworth, claiming that
Zworykin’s 1923 patent had priority even though he had never made a
working version of his system. Farnsworth lost the first two rounds of the
court case. However, in the final round, the teacher who had copied
Farnsworth’s blackboard drawings gave evidence that Farnsworth did have
the idea of an electronic television system at least a year before Zworykin’s patent was issued. In 1934, a judge approved Farnsworth’s patent claim on
the strength of handwritten notes made by his old high school teacher,
Tolman.

ー Farnsworth died in !971at the age of 64 . He held about 300 US and
foreign patents, mostly in radio and television, and in 1999, TIME magazine 
included Farnsworth in Time 100 : The Most Important People of the
Century. In an interview after his death, Farnsworth’s wife Pem recalled Neil 
Armstrong’s moon landing being broadcast. Watching the television with her,
Farnsworth had said, “Pem, this has made it all worthwhile.” His story will
always be tied to his teenage dream of sending moving pictures through
the air and those blackboard drawings at his high school.