It requires little imagination to see that, if a beam of light is allowed to pass through each point of the original negative in turn, the final picture can be built up from “spots” somewhat in the manner of a half-tone block.
It takes a long time, is rather patched, and is liable to interference; but the whole process is perfectly simple. Consider the great importance of this experiment to Radio Television.
The human eye sees only one point at a time but in the fact that instantaneous vision of a complete picture is not necessary lie our hopes of television to-day.
The eye is a very defective piece of mechanism considered from an optical standpoint. The pointed rays which appear to come from stars show one example of faulty optical construction, however wonderful may be the whole structure. Another property, and a feature of great importance from the aspect of television, is that of retentivity.
We all know that when a lighted cigarette is whirled round in the hand the result appears to be a ring of fire. Our brain assures us that the eye is telling lies and that it is really a moving point. This is because the image is impressed and actually lasts upon the eye or its retina.
This phenomenon is used in every cinematograph; without it the ordinary film would not be practicable. Each picture of an arm about to light a cigarette shows the arm constantly closer and closer, and before one picture has had time to die out the other is thrown upon the screen. The result is an illusion of motion.
To return to the transmission of a photograph, let us imagine that it is sent in a series of spots beginning in the top left-hand corner at 12 o’clock: the bottom spot will probably be completed, at modern sending speeds, by about 12.15, in the case of a picture two inches square.
Clearly all we have to do is to reduce this time to 4/5 of a second altogether, and we shall be again sending the first spot before it has had time to die away from the apparent vision of the observer. In other words, we will see by wireless.
The obvious method of assisting in this speeding up of sending the thousands of spots, would be to graduate them by some means of rotary conversion or to decrease the number of spots. The latter is one method by which practical television can be accomplished to-day.