Russia's gift to the Americas

 　　The technology of transmitting images to distant places is not commonly thought of as a postwar invention. The beginnings of television can be traced back to the late 19th century. At that time, many countries, including Russia, conducted experiments. For example, as early as 1880, a student at the University of Zurich, Russian Profilie Bakhmediev (1860-1913, Russian physicist and biologist) had envisaged that still images could be sent through television. In the last 20 years of the 19th century, there were 25 registered patents for the design of the prototype of modern television, of which Russia accounted for 5.

　　The idea of ​​​​creating inventions is often far ahead of the technological power of the time. For example, a postal officer named Alexander Polumodvinov used the concept of "primary colors" in his life. In essence, he already had some ideas of color television. The term "television" first appeared in a Russian scientific report at the Paris International Conference in 1900.

　　In August 1907, the Russian physicist Boris Roeriger (1869-1933) obtained a patent for the invention of the television system. This system was the first to use a device similar to a modern picture tube to receive images. Roeriger's scientific activities are closely related to the Petersburg Institute of Technology. The highly respected professor had the future inventor Vladimir Zvolygin (1889-1982) under his tutelage, and his students were far better than teachers in the development of television.

　　V. Zvorykin was born in 1889 in the ancient city of Murom on the banks of the Oka River in Russia. The father of the future TV engineer, Kuzma Zvorykin, was a local first-class businessman (the old Russian rank according to the size of capital). ), has a straightforward personality, manages grain, owns many ships, and served as the chairman of the local bank in the early 20th century.

　　The old Zvorygin had two brothers, both of whom were extraordinary scientific talents. Nikolai Zvorykin, who died young, was a master of mathematics, and Konstantin Zvorykin (1861-1928) was a professor at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. Before the revolution, he was a famous metal in Russia. Processing specialist, also highly respected under the Soviet regime. It is worth pointing out that the Stalin-era encyclopedias included this Zvorykin, while his nephew, Vladimir Zvorykin, who was far more famous in the West than his uncle, was not considered in the encyclopedia. Obviously, this is because there are "stains" of expatriates in Zvorygin's resume. It was not until the 1980s that the "stains" became clear. Now some reference books can find two Zvorykins. .

　　Vladimir Zvorykin was on his father's boat, helping the pilots repair electrical appliances while still a student at the Murom Physic School (founded in 1862, a secondary school focusing on the natural sciences and mathematics). equipment, while still learning business basics in my father's office. In 1906, the 17-year-old boy was admitted to Petersburg University, but due to his father's insistence, he soon transferred to the Polytechnic. During his time at the academy, he met Professor Boris Roerger.

　　In 1910, under the guidance of his teacher, the college student began to independently experiment with the technology of transmitting images over long distances.

　　In 1912, Zworegin graduated with honors. After two years of internship, he went to study in France in order to further improve. He entered the "College de France" in Paris, where he studied under the famous physicist Paul Langevin. (1872-1948). Everything went smoothly at the academy, and the apprenticeship grades were excellent, but things didn't last long, and the First World War broke out in July 1914. Vladimir Zwolykin returned to his country to be drafted into the army and served in a communications unit in the city of Grodno, near the Polish border. After a year and a half, he was transferred to teach at a radio officer school in Petrograd.

　　On February 23, 1917 in the Russian calendar (March 8 in the Gregorian calendar), the February Revolution that overthrew the tsarist system occurred. A large number of soldiers from the old army turned to the revolution and turned their guns on the tsarist government. On March 15 in the Gregorian calendar, Tsar Nicholas II World abdicate. In the political atmosphere at the time, soldiers sometimes acted aggressively, and Zvorykin, an old officer, was inevitably implicated. A soldier once accused him of "insulting". It is said that the communications officer ordered the poor soldier to read some inexplicable numbers into a small hole (actually a microphone) for a long time, while he was fiddling with food in the next room. Zvorekin was acquitted of the ridiculous charges, but he had to leave school and return to the barracks.

　　Soon, Zvorykin was transferred to the troops stationed near Kyiv. There was also a wave of persecution of officers there. It became fashionable for soldiers to gather to discuss the "current situation", and sometimes private courts were set up according to the needs of the "current situation". Once, on his way back from a front-line meeting, Zvorygin witnessed the soldiers disarming the officers in the carriage. Seeing that the situation was not good, he immediately jumped out of the car and ran away, and then several gunshots rang out behind him.

　　The officer's uniform could no longer be worn. Zvorygin changed into civilian clothes and went to Moscow, ready to join the civil service, but his future was bleak. What made Zvorykin even more embarrassed was that according to the regulations at the time, all old officers had to report to the committee to apply for recruitment. The Red Army means participating in the civil war. But Zvorygin did not have this consciousness, and he did not report. It was soon discovered by chance that the authorities had issued an arrest warrant for him for failing to register with the committee. Zvorygin immediately diverted to Nizhny Novgorod. At this time, he has clearly realized that the motherland has no place for him.

　　Just as Zvorykin was in a dilemma and hesitating about the journey of life, he remembered that not long ago, someone in the city of Omsk in Siberia had invited him to participate in the renovation project of the local radio station. The task was to ask him to go to the United States to purchase the needed goods. equipment. Zvorykin determined the shortest route from Omsk to the United States and set off for Omsk. However, when he arrived in Yekaterinburg in the Urals, the Red Army arrested him and put him in jail "until his identity is identified." It seems doomed. Unexpectedly, the local Czechoslovak Legion launched a rebellion and occupied Yekaterinburg. The Czechoslovaks who stood on the side of the White Army were naturally indifferent to the prisoners of the Red Army, and he was a Russian engineer who never sinned, of course. Will not cause the "allergies" of the Czechoslovaks, so he was acquitted.

　　After being released, he finally came to Omsk, the then independent capital of Siberia. The young radio expert was treated with courtesy and issued the formalities to go to the United States, but he faced a problem: the only way to go to the United States was to take the most difficult northern route, because other routes—— East, West and South have been blocked. The difficulties and dangers of the northern route are like myths: sailing to the Arctic Ocean by boat through the Irtysh River and the Ob River, and then you can only resign yourself to fate.

　　Zvorygin's voyage was through the Irtysh River into the Ob River and out to the sea, crossing the Kara Sea westward to reach the island of Vaigach between the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea. This journey took over a month. Arriving at this deserted island covered with moss and freezing cold is no different than falling into a trap. I did not expect a miracle to happen: the icebreaker, which usually opens the channel from east to west, has moored beside the island. On the way to Arkhangelsk (a port city on the southeastern coast of the White Sea) occupied by the Allied forces, Zvolykin was fortunate to be on this ship, and it took several weeks to reach Arkhangelsk, and via there to Norway. The next route was across the Atlantic via Norway, reaching the United States in late 1918.

　　It stands to reason that if you change someone else, you will definitely be like a bird out of the cage in the United States, and it is time to settle down there. But the Russian officer had his own way of doing things and felt compelled to keep his promise to the Siberian government. In 1919, he resolutely crossed the Pacific Ocean and returned to Omsk via Japan. After reporting the completion of the mission to the authorities, he accepted a new mission and returned to the United States.

　　Zvorykin settled in New York when he first arrived in the United States, thanks to the help of the Russian ambassador to the United States Boris Bakhmediev, a learned fluid dynamicist, Graduated from the Petersburg Institute of Transportation Engineering and the University of Zurich, after the October Revolution, the Bolshevik government did not have time to replace his appointment by the provisional government, and he volunteered to perform the duties of ambassador for five years.

　　By the end of 1919, Zvorygin's situation began to improve, and he was offered a job with the "Westinghouse Electric" Company (also known as "Westinghouse Electric") in Pittsburgh, where he could work on his beloved work in the company's laboratory. "The Thing" - a study of television. Three years later, he designed the prototype of a TV launch tube and proudly demonstrated his device to his boss. Unexpectedly, his creation was not praised but polite advice: do something more useful!

　　The inventor had to take advice and work on the design of more "practical" electronic devices, but he never gave up on television. In 1926 Zvorygin received a Doctor of Philosophy from a local university and a Doctor of Science from the Brooklyn Institute of Technology 12 years later. Thus firmly established their prestige in the field of science. It was around this time that he successfully patented the earliest invention of television, while many others were in his "briefcase" at the time.

　　Radio Corporation of America also played a major role in Zvorygin's success. In 1929, he was transferred from the "Westinghouse Company" to the American Radio Company, and served as the director of the electronic laboratory. He was granted the power of freedom of action and successfully carried out the mass production of picture tubes. The next key problem to be solved was to improve the performance of TV transmitters. Quality, 1931 finally succeeded. Zvorygin raised the quality of the photocell to the required level. At the Congress of the American Society of Radio Engineers held in the summer of 1933, Zvorygin was the first to report on the integrated electronic circuit with these two types of tubes, that is, the overall system of television. That same year, an experimental setup in his lab that could scan 240 lines was effectively operating. A year later, the sharpness of the image improved to 343 lines. In 1936, the United States began to use the system for television transmission, which was a great achievement.

　　Before that, Russian electronics experts came to the United States at the invitation of Zvorykin to inspect their equipment and then invited Zvorykin to visit the Soviet Union. He was invited to visit Moscow and Leningrad, reported his work and learned about the Soviet Union. The achievements have seen their Russian counterparts keep pace with themselves completely on their own. Shortly after Zvorykin's visit to the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union established a design laboratory for receiver and launch tubes. Another year later, when Zvorykin visited the Soviet Union again, he was shocked when he saw a complete set of TV installations equipped with domestic kinescopes and photoelectric cameras.

　　Soon, the Research Institute of Remote Control Technology was reorganized into the All-Soviet Academy of Television Science. In 1935, under the coordination of Zvorygin, the Soviet Ministry of Radio Industry signed a five-year technical cooperation contract with the American Radio Corporation. The Americans supplied broadcasting equipment for the Moscow TV Center, and also accepted 60 Soviet experts to study in the United States.

　　In the 1940s and 1950s, Zvorygin studied electron microscopes and designed a device for blind people to read television. He presided over the Center for Medical Electronics from 1954 to 1962, and he holds more than 120 patents and more than 80 scientific works. He died in 1982 at the age of 93.

　　Russia has not forgotten this famous compatriot, and in 1989 held the 100th anniversary of the inventor's birth. Memorial plaques are mounted on the walls of the house in Murom, his hometown where he was born and spent his childhood. American newspapers once called Zvorygin "Russia's gift to the American continent", but it should be said that it is a gift to the world.