The introduction of Nikola Tesla’s Wardenclyffe Tower took the world by storm. Suddenly, a myriad of items people had never even thought about were available right at their ears, and soon at their doorstep. If you wanted to listen to a radio broadcast from across the world, it was possible, as long as they were using Tesla’s technology. Wireless energy for the appliances in your house? Again, it was possible, as long as you were close enough to one of the towers that had begun to spring up.

The final piece of the puzzle took slightly longer to develop.

When he created the system, Nikola did so with the intent to transmit images already in mind. Still photographs from one screen to another. It was a task at which he succeeded, but that wasn’t enough for people. They wanted images that moved locally first, and then ones that could be transmitted at a distance.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Each country and inventor approached the problem in a different manner. Some used electronic camera tubes, however, that method was quickly ruled out as only a small piece of light was seen at the end result. This did eventually lead to a breakthrough by a Hungarian engineer named Kalman Tihanyi with a ‘Charge Storage’ tube.

However, he would be beaten to the punch by a man named Philo T. Farnsworth, who completed work on his own ‘Image Dissector’ system while in high school. The initial design was completed while he was still a junior in 1923. With the help of the local university, he was able to put together a working model by the time he graduated in 1924 that displayed three equal lines. Two years later, he produced a device that could display a full image.

With that, it was official, Farnsworth had won the race.

The RCA company adopted his designs into their products. However, only a short time later, it would be replaced by the Charge Storage tube that Kalman Tihanyi had created. By the year 1930, the name Philo T. Farnsworth was all but forgotten.

He had won the race but lost the war.