Zvorykin Russian history in faces. Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin

Vladimir Kuzmich Zvorykin is called “Russian gift to the Americans.” He left for the USA at a young age, but did not stop being a Russian scientist. Zworykin invented the first electronic transmitting tube (iconoscope) and television receiving tube (kinescope). Zworykin also worked on the creation of electron-optical converters, improvement of the electron microscope, and many others.

Little Vladimir was born on July 30, 1889 in the city of Murom into a wealthy merchant family. Since childhood, the boy was interested in Electrical Engineering and was distinguished by his love of books. In his memoirs, he wrote about his childhood: “My father tried to interest me in his affairs even when I was still a mere child, taking me with him on the ship and on other short business trips, which I liked.

When the weather was bad, my father would invite me into his office so that I could watch him receive business visitors. Of course, I didn’t understand their conversations, but I liked watching what was happening.”

In 1906, Zvorykin graduated from the Real School and entered St. Petersburg University. But after some time, the young man transferred to the St. Petersburg Technical Institute at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. Vladimir Kuzmich wrote about this time: “When I was a student, I studied with professor of physics Rosing, who, as you know, was the first to use a cathode ray tube for receiving television images. I was very interested in his work and asked permission to help him. We spent a lot of time talking and discussing the possibilities of television. Then I realized the shortcomings of mechanical scanning and the need for electronic systems.”

Zworykin spent his whole life remembering the house in which he grew up: “The house in which I was born belonged to our family for several generations. It was a large three-story stone building, too large even for our large family. In practice, we occupied only the second floor, the rest of the house was empty and we children had a lot of free space for playing hide and seek.... The house was located on a large square, facing two churches. Every Saturday a market was held on the square, where peasants brought their goods. The Saturday view from our windows of the square and bazaars was a source of entertainment...”

In 1912, after graduating from college, the young man went to France, to the College de France for an internship. During the First World War, Zworykin returned to his homeland and fought for more than a year with the rank of officer in wireless telegraph units. After some time, Zvorykin received an appointment to the Petrograd Officer Electrical Engineering School.

At the end of the summer of 1917, Vladimir Kuzmich went abroad. He understood that in Russia he did not have the opportunity to engage in the research that interested him in the field of television. It was not only impossible to work in Russia, but staying here for the merchant’s son turned out to be mortally dangerous. After the revolution, life in the country changed beyond recognition. It was difficult to survive in the atmosphere of chaos and bloody events, especially since Zvorykin came from a wealthy family.

Subsequently, when Vladimir Kuzmich found himself on a business trip in Russia in 1933, he found out what happened to many close and dear people. His teacher, Professor B.L. Rosing, was exiled to the North, where he soon died. Cousin- A.K. Zvorykin - was arrested in 1928 on charges that he was the son of a merchant of the first guild, his family had a house at their disposal before the revolution and he studied abroad and knows foreign languages. Soon my brother died on Solovki, in the camp. Sibling Vladimir Kuzmich, Nikolai, a hydraulic engineer, was arrested in the early 1930s. If Vladimir Zvorykin had not left Russia, it is likely that the same fate would have awaited him. But he managed to leave his homeland, which had become hostile.

First, Zvorykin went to London, then settled in the USA. At first, he could not find a decent job for himself; he worked in accounting at the Russian embassy. Soon Zvorykin learned English and, thanks to the assistance of Russian emigrants, got a job at Westinghouse Electric. Zvorykin spent a long time lobbying management for the opportunity to engage in research in the field of television. This topic interested him for a long time. But his superiors did not give him such an opportunity. As a result, Zvorykin even left the company, but returned after a while because no one took his ideas seriously.

Vladimir Kuzmich continued to work at Westinghouse Electric, and in free time nevertheless, he continued to conduct experiments on “far-sighting,” as he then called the topic of his research. And very soon, in 1923, Zvorykin demonstrated to the leadership the transmission of images at a distance. Subsequently, he recalled this episode: “The demonstration was impressive, the transmitted image was a cross. The same cross was visible in the receiving cathode tube, only less contrasting and sharp.” However, despite the lack of special entertainment, the installation was obvious. The company's management reacted with interest to what they saw. But I still did not consider it advisable to spend working time on such research.

In 1926, Vladimir Kuzmich graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, received a Doctor of Philosophy degree, and after some time received a Doctor of Science degree from the Brooklyn Polytechnic University. He also became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and many other academies and scientific societies. But Zworykin did not give up his inventive activity. He has filed several patent applications in the field of television. However, for some reason they were not considered or were done extremely slowly. For one patent application, the inventor received a patent only after 15 years.

In America, Vladimir Zvorykin did not feel like he belonged. The atmosphere of a foreign country weighed heavily on him. He suffered greatly when his wife, Tatyana Vladimirovna, died, leaving two children. Vladimir Kuzmich married for the second time in 1951. His wife was a Russian emigrant, Ekaterina Andreevna Polevitskaya. Interest in television among the world community arose completely unexpectedly. In the 1920s in different countries experiments were conducted in this industry around the world. Westinghouse Electric management commissioned Zworykin to produce a detailed summary of the achievements of the case. In 1927, Vladimir Kuzmich went on a business trip European countries. He visited Belgium, Germany, France, England. During the trip, Zvorykin learned a lot of new, useful formations.

In 1928-1929, he designed a television receiving tube with electrostatic focusing. This device became the predecessor of modern picture tubes. And the word “kinescope” itself appeared thanks to Vladimir Kuzmich, who proposed a strange term for the name of receiving television tubes. The word consists of two Greek words: “kineo”, which translated into Russian means “set in motion” and “skopeo” - “look”. The management of Westinghouse Electric has already provided Zworykin with more opportunities for research and experimentation in the field of electricity. Equipment and staff were provided to the scientist. During 1929, Vladimir Kuzmich designed several televisions and other television equipment, in particular a radio transmitter.

During this period, Zvorykin decided to leave Westinghouse Electric to start his own business. However, he did not have enough funds, and so the inventor went to work at RCA - Radio Corporation of America. It was within the framework of this corporation that Vladimir Kuzmich designed picture tubes, which brought him worldwide fame.

It so happened that in 1931, almost simultaneously, two engineers living in different countries filed patent applications for the same invention - a transmitting television tube (“iconoscope”). There was very little difference in the timing of filing patent applications. These inventors were Vladimir Zvorykin and Semyon Kataev from Russia.

Zvorykin submitted his application on November 13, 1931. On November 26, 1935, he received a US patent. But Kataev was the first to apply. This was taken on September 24, 1931. He received the copyright certificate on April 30, 1933.

It is interesting that both inventors did not argue about who was the first to create the device. They became friends and met several times.

The method of operation and structure of the tube, which was called the “iconoscope,” are very interesting. The main component of the device was a mosaic photocathode - a mica plate, on one side of which there are millions of light-sensitive elements. These could be silver particles coated with cesium. Each element was a tiny cathode, forming a capacitor in connection with a nearby but mica-separated metal coating deposited on the plate on the other side. The result is a dielectric with two conductive plates.

This is where charges accumulated. The scanning electron beam ran around the mosaic, discharging the microcapacitors. And amplified electrical impulses entered the circuit. This increased the power of video signals.

In the second half of the 1930s, Zvorykin began solving problems of electron optics. Under his leadership, a night vision device was created that operated in the infrared range. The scientist also continued to work on improving television equipment. His laboratory also developed such electron-optical instruments as a supericonoscope, orthikon, vidicon, electron microscope, etc. By order of the military departments, on-board television devices were created for targeting bombs and missiles, and devices for radar systems.

In 1954, Zworykin retired as director of electronic research at RCA, but for a long time he was a consultant to the company. D. Sarnov, president of the corporation, wrote about the inventor: “His brilliant mind never waits for others. He never stops creating and innovating. Even fifteen years after his so-called retirement, following a remarkably productive career, he created more than many people do in a lifetime.”

In 1957, Zvorykin patented a device that provides a color image of active living cells on a screen in ultraviolet radiation. This was the beginning new milestone scientific research. Vladimir Kuzmich also improved the electron microscope used for medical and biological research.

In 1967, Zworykin was awarded a medal from the National Academy of Sciences of the United States for his contributions to the development of instruments for science, technology and television and for promoting the use of electronics in medicine. In addition, the scientist had many other various awards. In 1977, Zvorykin was elected to National Gallery glory of inventors.

Vladimir Kuzmich Zvorykin received more than 100 patents for various inventions throughout his life. Among them were photocells, microscopes, electronic systems management vehicles and much more. When the scientist was 90 years old, he said about himself: “I’m still learning.” And this is true. Until the end of his life, Vladimir Kuzmich showed interest in different areas science. They made more than 80 scientific publications. Vladimir Kuzmich Zvorykin lived a long, fruitful life. He died in 1982.

Discoveries and inventions of Russia, Slavic House of Books

Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin, was born on July 30, 1889 in the Russian city of Murom and died on July 29, 1982 in Princeton, New Jersey, USA. He is a Russian-American engineer and inventor of the iconoscope (the first electronic transmission television tube) and the kinescope, as well as the author modern television- one of the main inventions of the twentieth century.

Becoming

Volodya was born in large family a wealthy merchant who owned steamships, traded bread and was the chairman of the Murom Public Bank. The children of Kozma Zvorykin, contrary to popular belief, followed not only the trading path, but also found themselves in science. The elder brother Nikolai Zvorykin became a civil engineer (he built hydroelectric power stations in Georgia), two sisters studied to be doctors, and one became a paleontologist.

Volodya Zvorykin was very fond of physics as a child, and after graduating from the Murom Real School in 1906, he entered the St. Petersburg technological institute, where from 1910 to 1912 he spent most of his time in the laboratory of physics teacher Professor Boris Rosing. It was Boris Lvovich who fascinated the 20-year-old boy with experiments in the field of “far vision” with a television system consisting of a rotating mirror drum for scanning an image and a cathode ray tube for displaying it.

In the spring of 1912, he graduated with honors from the St. Petersburg Institute with a diploma in electrical engineering, which gave him the right to an internship in one of the foreign laboratories. Therefore, in 1912-1914 he went to France, where he continued his studies at the Collège de France with the famous physicist Paul Langevin.

During the First World War, he served in the signal troops, and then worked as a teacher at a radio school in Petrograd. Then turbulent fate threw him around Russia, and in 1919, during his second business trip to the United States, he decided to remain there in exile. In 1920, he took a job at the Westinghouse Electric Corporation in Pittsburgh, where he took up his favorite topic - transmitting images over a distance. One day, having demonstrated his prototype electron tube to the chief manager of the company, he unfortunately did not find understanding of this project among his superiors, and continued development on his own.

As time went on, he continued to work on his idea, and in 1923 he created and filed a patent application for television operated entirely on an electronic principle (other television systems, such as Rosing, relied on mechanical devices like rotating disks and mirror drums to capture and image playback.)

Invention of television

One day, by chance in 1928, he met an emigrant from Russia, David Sarnov, who was the vice president of the Radio Corporation of America. D. Sarnov, who became the president of RCA in 1930, appointed Zvorykin as head of the RCA electronics laboratory. The next step in Vladimir Kozmich’s research was a business trip to Paris.

At the end of 1928, to study television research carried out in partnership between Westinghouse and the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), Zworykin traveled to Europe to the Paris laboratory of Eduard Belin. There he was particularly impressed by the cathode ray tube designed by Fernand Holweck and Pierre Chevalier. The Holweck-Chevalier tube used electrostatic fields to focus a beam of electrons.

Zvorykin's revolutionary enthusiasm for the development and creation of a new tube and electronic television was not shared by the majority of Westinghouse executives, but despite this, in January 1929 the historical meeting Vice Presidents of the companies (Westinghouse and RCA) Sam Kinnear and David Sarnoff, where David Sarnoff asked how much time and money it would take to bring electronic television to the market. Zworykin said two years and $100,000 (as time has shown, he greatly underestimated the scale of the project), and D. Sarnoff convinced S. Kinnear to provide Zworykin with the necessary resources.

By the end of 1929, Vladimir had perfected his cathode ray receiver, the "kinescope", which had an image large and bright enough for home viewing; however, the television system he developed still used a mechanical device, a rotating mirror, as part of the transmitting device.

A total of six picture tubes were assembled; one was at Zworykin's home, where late at night he received test television signals from the Westinghouse radio station, KDKA, in Pittsburgh. In 1930, Westinghouse's television research was transferred to RCA, and Vladimir Zvorykin became head of the television division at RCA's laboratory in Camden, New Jersey.

In April 1930, Zworykin visited the San Francisco laboratory of inventor Phil Farnsworth, a visit organized by Farnsworth supporters who wanted to make a deal with RCA. Three years ago, Phil Farnsworth already conducted the first successful demonstration of an all-electronic television system. What was particularly impressive was the transmission tube, the image diffuser, and he was inspired by it to improve upon his earlier tube camera, the “iconoscope,” for which he filed a patent in 1931.

RCA kept Vladimir Zworykin's developments secret, and it was only in 1933 that the man who created television was able to report the existence of the iconoscope.

Vladimir Zvorykin’s consultations played a major role in the creation of television broadcasting systems in Europe. Zvorykin also came to the USSR at the invitation of the Soviet government, and as a result - the conclusion of an agreement with RCA, its subsequent implementation, and the commissioning in 1938 of the first electronic television transmitting station (television center on Shabolovka) in Moscow.

The production of TK-1 televisions with a kinescope, which was created by Zvorykin, was mastered. The TV operated on 33 radio tubes and was manufactured under an American license and using their documentation.

The TV was expensive, and it was usually purchased by clubs, red corners, etc. The TK-1 TV was intended for group viewing. To set up the TV for high-quality viewing, you had to adjust 14 knobs, which required certain skills and technical knowledge. Therefore, the first televisions were serviced by employees of television centers.

By the end of 1938, the industry produced about 200 televisions, and by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War their number was up to 2000.

It was not until 1939, at the New York World's Fair, that RCA introduced regular electronic television broadcasting to the public.

V.K. Zvorykin owns more than 120 patents for various inventions.

Other developments in electronics were aimed at improving the scanning electron microscope. Also, the developed electronic image camera, sensitive to infrared light, was the basis for a night vision device. Zvorykin was developing television-guided bombs, all of which were first used in battles in World War II.

Named honorary vice president of RCA in 1954, from then until 1962 Zworykin also served as director of the medical electronics center at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York (now The Rockefeller University).

Main published works: "Television - the electronics of image transmissions" (1940),
"Electron optics and electron microscope" (1945, "Photoelectricity and its applications" (1949), "Television in science and industry" (1958).

In 1966, the National Academy of Sciences awarded him the National Medal for scientific merits. He was also the founding president of the International Federation of Medical Electronics and Biological Engineering, a recipient of the UK Faraday Medal (1965) (read more in Faraday Michael) and a member National Hall USA glory since 1977

It was 85 years ago, on April 7, 1927, that the American scientist Herbert Ives managed to organize the first public television broadcast over a long distance. Then viewers in New York saw an image of the future US President, still only Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, transmitted from New Jersey. The Americans were terribly proud of their new product and somehow did not particularly spread the fact that its father was a Russian with an unpronounceable surname - Zworykin.

I just want to start this story with the words: “In the glorious city of Murom, there lived a rich merchant Kozma Alekseevich. He had a beloved child - his son Volodymyr.” Well, if you want, then let’s start like that, and then we’ll move on as we do today. For the story is about the man who created our electronic today.

Vladimir, in the family of a grain merchant, owner of the Oka Shipping Company Zvorykin, chairman of the board of the Murom Public Bank, merchant of the first guild Kozma Zvorykin, was the youngest of seven children. However, it was with him that my father pinned all his business hopes. The eldest son Nikolai did not show any interest in the affairs of his father’s company and was completely passionate about science, just like his uncles, Nikolai Alekseevich, who died early, and Konstantin Alekseevich, who later became a famous scientist and metallurgist. Five daughters did not count, so when on July 29, 1888, the wife brought the merchant his long-awaited second son, he considered him a gift from God and already early childhood began to get involved in business, mainly shipping business. The smart boy liked this, although he was more interested not in boring office books, which meticulously listed cargo, routes, income and expenses, but in sophisticated ship technology. As a boy, he already repaired ship alarms, ran electric bells he made at home, and tried to understand the operation of machines and mechanisms.

In 1906, Vova graduated from the Murom Real School and left his hometown for St. Petersburg. Where he quickly entered St. Petersburg University. The father, who learned about this, became seriously alarmed, suspecting that this son would also be drawn into science, and demanded that he transfer to a more down-to-earth Technological Institute. The young man did not dare to disobey his parent. It cannot be said that the translation was to his detriment. In any case, he met one of the Russian enthusiasts who was trying to learn how to transmit images over a distance, Professor Boris Lvovich Rosing, there.

Work in the field of “far vision” even then excited the minds of many scientists in all parts of the world. The most promising was considered “mechanical television,” in which rays of light hit a photocell through a special “Nipkow disk” with holes cut in a spiral. With its help, the image on the screen was also formed. The disadvantage of the design was the extremely low clarity, which depended on the number of holes. However, Rosing adhered to a different, extremely dubious and unpromising concept of “electronic television”. It was clear to all scientists that a “point” pulse of millionths of a second could not cause any noticeable result in a photocell, and it was precisely such pulses that the “electronics engineers” were based on. They diligently tried to strengthen the signal, assuring everyone that only with the help of their technology it was possible to achieve high definition images. Trying hard, but to no avail.

By the end of his studies, Volodya Zvorykin became Professor Rosing’s favorite student and spent almost all his time in his laboratory. In 1912, he graduated from the institute with excellent grades, received a diploma of “technological engineer” and the right to continue his studies abroad. His father demanded his return to Murom, but Rosing advised the promising young man to go to Paris, to the College de France to the famous physicist Paul Langevin. Zvorykin listened to the professor.

But I didn’t manage to study in France for a long time. In 1914, the war began, Volodya returned to Russia and was immediately mobilized into the army. At first he was sent to the Signal Corps in Grodno, where he arrived with a radio transmitter he had built with his own hands, but after a year and a half he was promoted to second lieutenant and transferred to the Petrograd Officer Radio School. By that time, he had already married Tatyana Vasileva, a student at the dental school. After the February Revolution, the young officer was almost court-martialed following a denunciation from a soldier who claimed that he had abused his subordinates, forcing them to “talk into a box with a hole.” Fortunately, the members of the tribunal knew a little about radio electronics and knew that the “hole” is also called a “microphone.”

The situation became increasingly tense. In order to do what he loved, Zvorykin was first forced to transfer to Kyiv, then, after leaving military uniform, move to Moscow. Vladimir’s wife left for Berlin, but he decided not to leave his homeland, hoping for a quick end to the “troubled times.” In Moscow, as a former officer, they first tried to draft him into the Red Army, and when he did not appear at the commissariat, they decided to arrest him altogether. Having learned from a policeman he knew that a warrant had been issued for him, Vladimir decided not to play with fate and escape to Omsk, the Siberian capital white movement.

On the way, in Yekaterinburg, he was arrested and put in prison as a “suspicious person.” Fortunately, the city was soon captured by the Czechs, who had no complaints against Zvorykin. In Omsk, the White Guard government greeted the young radio engineer cordially. Communication issues were a priority, and Zvorykin was immediately provided with documents for a trip to America, where he was instructed to purchase the equipment necessary to build a powerful radio transmitter. The scientist-engineer, who temporarily turned into a sales agent, got down to business with enthusiasm. And the first thing was to get to America. Since all normal routes were blocked by the Bolsheviks, Zvorykin had to first move north, along the Irtysh and Ob, through the Kara Sea, to the island of Vaygach, from there on an icebreaker to Entente-occupied Arkhangelsk, there obtain a visa and sail further, through Norway, Denmark and England. The whole journey took several months. Having quickly completed all the given instructions, despite his disgusting knowledge of the English language, Vladimir returned to Omsk in 1919, but through Japan, Vladivostok and Harbin, thus circumnavigating the globe.

By that time, Admiral Kolchak had settled in the capital of Siberia. A brilliant military leader, he was a useless administrator, and therefore all the authorities, with their huge bureaucratic system of office work, were exactly copied by him from those that operated in the empire destroyed by the Bolsheviks. But what at least somehow worked in peacetime conditions was completely unsuitable before wartime. Nevertheless, officials in the Omsk ministries worked calmly and leisurely for six hours a day, went to theaters in the evening, intrigued for “warm” places and were in no hurry to show any initiative in any case. Every case dragged on for many weeks and months, while the Bolsheviks made decisions almost instantly. It’s funny and sad: as it turned out later, Zvorykin’s business trips were a waste of money and time, since the necessary radio station in Siberia already existed at that time, but officials did not even ask the question of finding the necessary facility.

Soon after arriving in Omsk, Zvorykin was again provided with documents, instructions and again sent to the United States. True, they didn’t give me the money, promising to transfer it at the first opportunity. It took him a month and a half to get to New York, arrived there on June 19, immediately began active work, and on August 1, almost by accident, he learned that he had been fired for a month “for idleness.” As it soon became clear, the Minister of Trade and Industry Tomashevsky, who sent Zworykin on a business trip, was dismissed, and now the official who had caught him was urgently changing his team. Outraged by such injustice sales agent wrote in his defense: “At the very high energy For my part, I could only arrive in New York on the evening of June 19th and send the first telegram with information to Omsk on June 27th...

Dismissal from Civil service clearly discredits my name, I will allow myself to briefly outline below the history of my business trip and my work and ask for an investigation to be ordered against me and, in the absence of any crimes of an official or other nature on my part, for the rehabilitation of my name... First of all “, dismissal from the Civil Service under the pretext of clearly disrespectful conduct, without trial or investigation, as is known, has a certain imprint that leaves a stain on a person and which can only be washed away either by a judicial investigation or by annulment.” Zvorykin was supported by employees of the Russian missions, who saw how diligently the young agent carried out the assignments assigned to him. Finally, in early October, the case was decided in his favor. They even decided to transfer Vladimir to the supply department of the Northern Sea Route, which was a clear promotion. But at the end of October, the Kolchak government fell, and this was the end of Vladimir Zvorykin’s trading activities. There was no one to buy for, and Vladimir happily remembered his engineering education.

The Russian ambassador, the famous hydrodynamics scientist Boris Aleksandrovich Bakhmetyev, helped him get a job at the Pittsburgh research laboratory of Westinghouse Electric. The engineer moved to Pittsburgh with his wife and newborn daughter Nina, who had come to join him. In the laboratory, Vladimir remembered his television past and by 1923 he had made the first transmitting electron tube, which he called an “iconoscope.” He decided not to amplify the weak signal, but to accumulate charge. To do this, Zvorykin, together with his assistants, manually “paved” the receiving element with microscopic capacitors. Now the resulting charge was already enough to transmit the image, but the quality left much to be desired. To such an extent that Zworykin himself, always distinguished by an enviable sense of humor, called his “television” “elevision”. But the scientist firmly believed that all this was just the beginning and all the shortcomings could be overcome, with proper funding. However, his superiors did not think so and, coldly assessing the results of many years of work, ordered him to abandon his useless projects and do something more useful for the company. The inventor had to agree and from now on, during working hours, he would work on equipment for sound cinema. But he nevertheless filed a patent application, first for the transmitting “iconoscope”, and a year later for the receiving “kinescope”.

In 1924, Zvorykin received American citizenship and entered the University of Pittsburgh as an applicant. Since for this he had to be under the age of 35, he knocked off one year in the entrance documents. As a result of this simple hoax, Americans celebrated the 100th and 120th anniversaries of their hero a year later than expected. In 1926 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in physics for his work in the field of photovoltaic cells. Soon the scientist managed to create a high-speed fax in his laboratory. But his thoughts were still directed towards television, for the creation of which he lacked just a little - money.

In 1928, Zvorykin finally managed to find a wealthy investor. He became a millionaire, vice-president of the newly created Radio Corporation of America (RCA), conditional Russian emigrant David Sarnov. Conditional - because his parents brought him to the United States as an 8-year-old child. Many years later, seeing Zvorykin off to retire, he said: “27 or 28 years ago I first met this young man who spoke with the same terrible accent as today. He enthusiastically told me about the cathode ray tube he had invented, about the great prospects and possibilities of using it in practice - about the creation of electronic television... I admit, I understood almost nothing from that first story about his invention, but I was very impressed by this man... just fascinated by his persuasiveness. I asked:

Taking into account everything you say, how much money would you need to allocate to put your ideas into practice? How much money do you need to spend to get a really working television system?

He looked at me slyly, took a deep breath and answered very confidently:

I think $100 thousand would be enough.

I already understood then that a working television system, of course, costs 100 thousand. Just how right he was became clear only now. We spent nearly $50 million before we made even one penny back from selling the first televisions. But who today can say that we spent this money in vain? I can confidently say that Zworykin is the best seller of ideas I have ever known.”

Soon Zvorykin already went to work at RCA, and moved with his family to the city of Camden (New Jersey). By that time, his wife gave him another daughter, Elena. However, the family idyll did not last long: in 1930, Vladimir divorced Tatyana. But research work developed with increasing success. Already by the beginning of the 1930s, Zvorykin managed to convince the majority of “television people” that the most promising was the completely electronic television he created and patented. The main turning point was a lecture on electronic television systems that the scientist gave in June 1933 at a conference of the American Society of Radio Engineers.

Doctor Zvorykin began to be invited to give lectures at leading universities in the world, and soon was invited even to the USSR. Where they made it clear that if he stayed, he would not only be forgiven for his counter-revolutionary past, but would also be provided with everything a scientist could wish for. He was taken around the country and had meetings with leading scientists and politicians. Lavrentiy Beria, who was then only the first secretary of the Communist Party of Georgia, having learned that the scientist wanted to look at the Black Sea, provided him with a military aircraft for this. In the USSR, Vladimir met with his sisters, from whom he asked for advice on whether he should stay in the Land of the Soviets. To which one of their husbands gave the scientist very sensible advice. The gist of it was that as long as Vladimir had an American passport in his pocket, they would fiddle with it and please him. But after he exchanges it for a “red-skinned passport” the situation can change dramatically. Therefore, it is best for Volodya not to tempt fate and return to the USA. Time has shown how right this relative was.

In 1933, Zvorykin created the first high-definition television system with a 240-line scan. This crazy figure was increased to 343 lines within a year, and in 1936 regular television broadcasts designed for Zavorykin systems began in the USA. In 1935, Vladimir visited the USSR again. Now the result of the trip was the conclusion of an agreement on the supply of television equipment between RCA and the People's Commissariat of the Electrical Industry.

But, of course, living on television, Zvorykin lived not only on it. In 1938, he, together with Canadian scientist James Hiller, created the first high-resolution electron microscope. During World War II, his laboratory was engaged in the creation of television guidance systems for aerial bombs and night vision devices. Together with the father of computers, John von Neumann, he tried to develop computational methods for predicting weather and dreamed of combining a television and an electronic computer.

For his participation in the New York fund for helping victims of the war in the USSR, the FBI, during the period of rampant McCarthyism, deprived him of his international passport, making him virtually prohibited from traveling abroad for some time. US intelligence agencies considered the scientist an agent of Moscow and for a long time tapped his phone, trying to convict him of counter-American activities. In the USSR, on the contrary, he was considered an “American henchman.”

In 1951, Dr. Zvorykin married for the second time, now to Ekaterina Andreevna Polevitskaya, a professor of microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania. In fact, their romance lasted for more than two decades, but the lovers could not formalize their relationship, since Catherine’s first husband did not give her a divorce. In 1954, Vladimir resigned as head of the RCA laboratory and became interested in medical electronics. This obviously could not have happened without the influence of his beloved wife. Having become director of the Center for Medical Electronics at the Rockefeller Institute in New York, he created many electronic medical devices: microscopes, endoscopes, radiosondes. Many scientists believe that it was Zvorykin’s work at this center that marked the beginning of this scientific direction like bioengineering.

Together with his wife, he visited 8 more times Soviet Union, met with relatives, talked with scientists, gave lectures. And he suffered greatly from the fact that he was not allowed into Murom, which was closed to foreigners. Finally, in the late 1960s, while visiting Vladimir, he simply “got lost,” took a taxi and headed back to his hometown. TO why home, to the old church of St. Nicholas Embankment, to the cemetery where the parents are buried...

Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin died in 1982, on his birthday. He turned 94 years old. A few hours before his death, he gave his last telephone interview, in which he said that he was dying of old age. His wife survived him by a year.

Zvorykin owns 120 patents. He wrote more than 80 scientific works, was an honorary member of many academies and scientific societies, holder of many orders and medals. In 1967, US President Lyndon Jones awarded the Russian-speaking American the US National Medal of Science. In 1977, the name of Vladimir Zvorykin was included in the US National Chamber of Fame for Inventors. In the American ranking “1000 years - 1000 people” his name is included in the top hundred, along with the names of Peter I, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Lenin, Stalin and Gorbachev.

And his biggest mistake, although already in his later years, he called the invention of... television.

“I created a monster capable of brainwashing all of humanity,” he said. - This monster will lead our planet to unified thinking... You evaluate reality by those you see on the screen, who you listen to.

Sometimes you argue with them, object and even seem to win the argument. But this is only an appearance. The main one is the invisible one who presses the buttons. It is he who determines who to show and what to say to achieve his goals. From hundreds of speakers, he, invisible, chooses those who need him, and not you, me or the truth. He chooses those who drag you into talking about nonsense instead of discussing the essence of the matter. ... I would never let my children even go near the TV. It's terrible what they show there. ... Although, of course, there are details in it that worked out especially well for me. The best one is the switch.

Outstanding American engineer of Russian origin, “father of television” Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin(1888-1982) was born in an old and wealthy merchant family. His father, Kozma Alekseevich, was a merchant of the first guild, was engaged in the grain trade, owned a shipping company, and headed the Murom Public Bank. The Zworykin family had seven children (two sons and five daughters); Vladimir was the youngest. Because Kozma Alekseevich was busy, the children saw their father infrequently; Household affairs were managed by my mother, Elena Nikolaevna, who also came from the extensive Zvorykin family.

Vladimir Zvorykin visited primary school, then - real school. He studied easily and with enthusiasm. Already in early years Vladimir Zvorykin had a penchant for technology. In high school, he especially liked physics. Since his older brother Nikolai did not have special interest to entrepreneurship, then his father involved Vladimir in the family business from the age of 10, giving him instructions. After graduating with honors from a real school in 1906, Vladimir Zvorykin studied for some time at the physics department of St. Petersburg University, but was soon transferred to the St. Petersburg Technological Institute. Here he made a fateful acquaintance with the inventor of television, Professor Boris Lvovich Rosing, whose assistant in experiments with “electrical foresight” he was for about two years. Television became Zvorykin’s dream and his life’s work.

In 1912, V.K. Zvorykin graduated with honors from the Technological Institute and received the right to an internship in Europe. The father, of course, wanted his son to continue the family business, and it was decided that this would be the case - only later. The internship began in Paris at the Collège de France with the outstanding physicist Paul Langevin and continued in Berlin at the Charlottenburg Institute, but the First world war. Through Denmark, Zvorykin came to Russia, where he was drafted into the army. For a year and a half, Private Zvorykin served at a military radio station in Grodno, then received an officer rank and became a teacher at the Officer Electrical Engineering School in, and was a military representative at the Petrograd plant. Russian society wireless telegraphs and telephones" (ROBTiT). Since the fall of 1917, Zvorykin served in an artillery unit, which was stationed near Kyiv before being sent to the front.

The Civil War began, and in April 1918 Zvorykin arrived in Murom, where sad news awaited him - the family house was requisitioned, his father died (a few months later his mother would also die). His reluctance to participate in the Civil War and the need to put his ideas into practice led him to the decision to leave Russia. Zvorykin with great difficulty reached, which was the center of the White movement. In Siberia, he was tasked with restoring trade ties with a number of foreign countries and purchase machinery and equipment, including for the radio station in Omsk. Zvorykin went on a business trip - he got to the North, then on an icebreaker to Arkhangelsk, and from there to New York. In the spring of 1919, Zvorykin, having completed his assignment, returned to Omsk through the Pacific Ocean, Japan and Vladivostok, where he received a new assignment and again left for the USA.

During the second business trip, the Kolchak government dismissed Zvorykin from service. From now on, his fate was connected with America. One of the problems was that Vladimir Kozmich practically did not own English. His strong Russian accent remained with him throughout his life. V.K. Zvorykin first worked as an accountant in New York, then, from 1920, in Pittsburgh at the Westinghouse research laboratory, where he began working on the creation of an electronic television system. He called the electronic transmitting television tube “iconoscope” (from the Greek words “ikon” - picture and “skop” - to see), and the receiving tube - “kinescope” (from the Greek “kineo” - to move).

In 1924 Zvorykin became a US citizen, and in 1926 he was awarded academic degree Ph.D. Meanwhile, the management of the Westinghouse company did not see any prospects for Zvorykin’s work in the field of electronic television. At the beginning of 1929, V.K. Zvorykin met with an emigrant from Russia, David Sarnov, vice president of RCA (Radio Broadcasting Corporation of America), who believed in the success of television. Vladimir Kozmich went to work at RCA as the head of the television laboratory in Camden (from 1934 he became the head of the electronics laboratory, from 1947 - vice president of RCA). In 1933, together with his group of specialists, he completed the development of an electronic television system and spoke in Chicago at the annual conference of the American Society of Radio Engineers with a report on the iconoscope. After this, the name Zvorykin became widely known throughout the world.

In 1936, the first electronic television suitable for practical application, and in 1939 D. Sarnov organized regular television broadcasting in the USA. In 1941-1942, V.K. Zvorykin, together with the RCA laboratory, moved to Princeton (New Jersey). In 1954, he became honorary vice president of RCA and director of the Center for Medical Electronics at the Rockefeller Institute in New York.

For my fruitful activity Zvorykin was awarded many awards and prizes. A significant part of his ideas were implemented. He played important role in the development of color television, electron microscopy, fax communications, night vision devices, remote control, medical electronics, etc. As a scientist, Vladimir Kozmich distinguished himself with great spirit creativity, broad imagination and intuition. He always worked with great enthusiasm and perseverance.

V.K. Zvorykin visited the USSR several times (the first time in 1933). Thanks to agreements with RCA, in 1938 the Soviet Union put into operation the first electronic television transmitting station and began production of TK-1 televisions. In 1967, Zvorykin managed to visit his native Murom, which was closed to foreigners.

V.K. Zvorykin was married twice: the first wife was Tatyana Vasilyeva, the second wife was Ekaterina Andreevna Polevitskaya; daughters: Nina and Elena. In his home life, he largely remained a Russian person. He loved receiving guests, skating, and hunting. One of his hobbies was flying an airplane. In the last years of his life, Zvorykin began to have a somewhat negative attitude towards his brainchild - television, believing that it leads to unified thinking. V.K. Zvorykin died in Princeton. His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered over his beloved Taunton Lake, not far from his country home.

Climbing to the Olympus of Glory! Born in Murom in the family of a merchant of the first guild, Kozma Zvorykin, who traded bread, owned steamships and was the chairman of the Murom Public Bank. After graduating from the Murom Real School, in 1906 he entered the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology. He graduated with honors in 1912 with a diploma in industrial engineering.

fled from civil war through Yekaterinburg to Omsk, the capital of the white movement in Siberia, where he was engaged in the equipment of radio stations, worked with foreign suppliers, and went on business trips. In 1919, during his second business trip to New York, the Kolchak government fell, that is, there was nowhere to return, and Zvorykin became an employee of the Westinghouse company, where he took up his favorite topic of transmitting images over a distance, but did not find understanding from his superiors (partly from -due to the language barrier), and continued development independently. In 1923, Zvorykin filed a patent application (US Patent of) for television, carried out entirely on an electronic principle.

In 1928, he met with Russian emigrant David Sarnov, vice president of the Radio Corporation of America. D. Sarnov, who became the president of RCA in 1930, appointed Zvorykin as head of the RCA electronics laboratory. In 1929, Zworykin developed a high-vacuum television receiving tube kinescope, and by 1931 he completed the design of the transmitting tube of the iconoscope. In June 1933, Zworykin spoke at the annual conference of the American Society of Radio Engineers, where he introduced those present to the newly created electronic television system.

In 1933 and subsequent years, Zvorykin visited Europe several times, including visiting the USSR. His consultations played a major role in the creation of television broadcasting systems in Europe. As a result of the implementation of the agreement concluded with RCA, the USSR put into operation the first electronic TV transmitting station in Moscow in 1938, and the production of TK-1 televisions with a Zvorykin kinescope was mastered. In the 1940s, Vladimir Kozmich, together with J. Hillier, developed a scanning electron microscope. During the Second World War he was involved in the development of night vision devices and television-guided bombs.

For years he was subjected to surveillance and wiretapping by the FBI. In the 1950s and 1960s, Zworykin concentrated his attention on the field of medical electronics, where he successfully applied his experience in the development of television equipment and other devices. V. K. Zvorykin owns more than 120 patents for various inventions. He received large number various awards. In particular, in 1967, US President Lyndon Johnson awarded him the US National Medal of Science for scientific achievements for 1966. In 1977 he was elected to the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Main works: Television the electronics of image transmissions (2nd edition in 1954, translated into Russian in 1956 and published in the USSR), Electron Optics and the Electron Microscope (1945). Photoelectricity and Its Applications (1949). Television in Science and Industry (1958)

People's TV The KVN-49 TV was very popular among the population and it could rightfully be called a people's TV. About half of the TVs produced were subject to repairs during the warranty period, and therefore the abbreviation “KVN” in relation to this TV was popularly deciphered as “Bought, Turned on, Doesn’t work” or “Spun Vertanul Doesn’t work.” One of the main disadvantages of the TV was the low sound quality, accompanied by noise and wheezing. This was a consequence of an unsuccessful audio path design chosen during the design.

Technical parameters The TV could receive three existing TV channels, with video signal carrier frequencies of 49.75 MHz, 59.25 MHz and 77.25 MHz. Receiver type single-channel (no separate HF audio path) direct amplification receiver, intermediate channel frequency soundtrack is obtained as a result of the beats of the carrier frequencies of image and sound. This solution made it possible to simplify the design of the TV, which uses only 16 radio tubes. The high-frequency amplification stages use pentodes of 6 lamps 6AC7 (6Zh4) and 6AG7 (6P9) in the output stage of the video amplifier. The audio channel uses a 6SJ7 (6Х8) pentode detector, a 6Н7 (6Н7С) double triode and a 6V6 (6П6С) beam tetrode preliminary and final amplifiers. Rated output power 1 W. The scanning uses 3 lamps, double triodes 6N8M (6N8S) for synchronization, a vertical scanning output stage and a horizontal scanning master oscillator. A G-807 beam tetrode is used as a horizontal scanning output lamp. The high-voltage kenotron 1Ts1 (1Ts1S) is used to rectify the high voltage supply to the kinescope anode. The power rectifier uses a 5U4G (5Ts3S) kenotron. The TV uses the LK-715A kinescope (in the new designation 18LK1B) with a round screen with a diameter of 180 mm without an ion trap. Focusing and deflection of the electron beam is carried out by magnetic fields.

In later modifications, 18LK5B picture tubes were used. The focusing-deflection system (FOS) consists of three coils: horizontal, vertical and focusing. The image size on the kinescope screen is 140×105 mm, with horizontal clarity of 400 TV lines in the center of the screen. To increase the size of the image, the plant produced a separate attached magnifying glass or plastic lens, filled with distilled water or glycerin. The power consumed by the TV from the network (110, 127, 220 V 50 Hz) is 216 W for “KVN-49-A” and “KVN-49-B”, 200 W for “KVN-49-4”. TV dimensions 380×490×400 mm, weight 29 k