Look at your modern-day TV, and you see nothing less than a technological miracle.
Scientists began experimenting with the concept of television more than a century ago. But decades would pass before the Radio Corporation of America brought it to the public at the 1939 World’s Fair. More time passed before TV sets were in stores – and even then, it took awhile until most people had one. In 1950, fewer than 10 per cent of Americans owned a television. By 1959, that number had grown to 85 per cent.
During the ’50s, TVs were expensive, screens were small and the picture wasn’t always crystal clear.
What’s more, early TV programmes were in black and white; colour wasn’t in wide use until the mid-1960s.
Viewers didn’t have a lot of choice, either. Instead…
