Tube: The Invention of Television (Paperback)

~ David E. Fisher (Author), (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Telling the tale of the corporate revolution that forever changed the nature of the individual is no easy task. Authors David E. Fisher and Marshall Jon Fisher have hidden their sociohistory between the lines of the exciting story of the race to invent television. Eccentric geniuses John Logie Baird (whose only other invention was stay-dry socks) and teenaged Utah farm boy Philo T. Farnsworth struggled with limited resources to produce the first television systems, but their greatest challenge was coming up against the giant corporations that had nearly infinite money and resources. Pitting these lone romantics against the collective will of RCA, Tube turns a history of science into a thrilling page-turner.

From Publishers Weekly

As the authors say in their preface, "[W]ho invented television? Nobody knows." But the genius of several individuals coalesced into today's modern TV. In this personality-driven book, the authors look at the key players and their contributions: John Logie Bair, the eccentric Scot who went from marketing hemorrhoid cream to making the first TV in Britain; Vladimir Zworykin, the Russian immigrant who blazed the trail for RCA; and Ernst Alexanderson, who led RCA to the promised land but lost out to Zworykin. But the two stars are Philo T. Farnsworth and David Sarnoff. Farnsworth was the boy-genius who first visualized TV as a 14-year-old and invented one of the first totally electronic TVs, only to be defeated by corporate in-fighting. "General" David Sarnoff, a Jewish immigrant on New York City's Lower East Side, rose to become the head of RCA, leading it to the vanguard because of his keen perceptions of both radio and television. David Fisher, a professor of cosmochemistry at the University of Miami, and Marshal Joe Fisher, a freelance writer, offer an engrossing, in-depth look at the history of the medium. Photos not seen by PW. 35,000 first printing; major ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (October 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156005360
• ISBN-13: 978-0156005364
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #541,012 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An accessible history of television technology, May 2, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Tube: The Invention of Television (Sloan Technology Series) (Hardcover)

Tube is easily the most accessible history of television's early years (its "prehistory"), and a good read to boot. The great Zworykin/Farnsworth technology battle is pretty well presented, and the men themselves come alive in the text. Color television's development gets easily the best treatment I've seen anywhere in the non-technical press. However, the final chapter on the future of television was mostly worthless; historians (along with most of the rest of us) do not do well in predicting the future. In a few years that chapter probably will be seen as an embarassment which the rest of the book does not deserve

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Close, but no cigar., December 30, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Tube: The Invention of Television (Sloan Technology Series) (Hardcover)

"Tube" is a scholarly rendering of a fascinating, important, but largely untold piece of history. Unfortunately, the authors failed to search beneath the surface of the surviving historical record to find the true facts, and have instead reiterated a false accounting that has been preserved by more than than 60 years of corporate public relations.

"Tube" repeats oft cited historical record that "Vladimir Zworykin became 'the father of television' when he invented as device called the "iconoscope" while working for RCA in 1923." That is a single sentence that manages to embody about four historical innacuracies.

What's worse, repeating this false litany obscures one of the most amazing achievements of the 20th century: that television as we know it emerged whole from the mind of a 14 year old farm boy named Philo T. Farnsworth. The Fishers' book recognizes Farnsworth, but fails to differentiate his achievement from that of Zworykin, or to examine the patent record deeply enough to unveil the true magnitude of Farnsworth's contribution.

Philo T. Farnsworth paved the way for today's living room dreams, but the Fishers' book treats his contribution no better than dozens of volumes that precede it. For the true story, read "The Farnsworth Chronicles" on the web at

http://songs.com/philo

--Paul Schatzkin

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cigars all around for a first-rate book, January 7, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Tube: The Invention of Television (Sloan Technology Series) (Hardcover)

Lively, intelligent, thoroughly researched, Tube is the best history of its kind available. The grousings of certain Farnsworth zealots notwithstanding, the countrified genius of television finally gets his due in this volume. A great read