SCANNING OUR PAST

Electrical Engineering Hall of Fame

VLADIMIR K. ZWORYKIN

I n 1951, the Institute of Radio

Engineers (IRE) awarded its

Medal of Honor to VladimirK. Zworykin (Fig. 1). He was

cited Bfor his outstanding contribu-

tion to the concept and development

of electronic apparatus basic to mod-

ern television.[ He became one of the

select group who received both pres-

tigious awards when the American

Institute of Electric Engineers (AIEE)selected him as recipient of the

Edison Medal in 1952. He was a

leader in the development of elec-

tronic television, incorporating his

inventions known as the iconoscope

and the kinescope (Fig. 2). He also

made important contributions to

medical electronics and applicationsof photoelectricity.

I . EARLY YEARS

Vladimir K. Zworykin was born on

July 30, 1889, in Murom, Russia. His

father operated passenger boats on

the nearby Oka River. In 1912,Vladimir received an undergraduate

degree in electrical engineering at the

technological college in St. Petersburg

(Petrograd). While a student, he

assisted one of his professors, Boris

Rosing, who was experimenting with

a mechanical-scan television system.

Zworykin continued his education atthe College of France, Paris, where he

studied X-ray diffraction in crystals

under the direction of the physicist,

Paul Langevin. In 1914, Zworykin

returned to Russia, where he served

as an officer in the Signal Corps of

the Russian Army during the First

World War.

Fig. 1. Vladimir K. Zworykin (IEEE History Center).

Fig. 2. Zworykin with an iconoscope

(John D. Ryder and Donald G. Fink, Engineers

and Electrons: A Century of Electrical Progress,

New York: IEEE Press: 1984, p. 159).Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/JPROC.2008.2011948

The IRE awarded its1951 Medal of Honor toVladimir K. ZworykinBfor his outstanding

contribution to the conceptand development of

electronic apparatus basicto modern television.[

594 Proceedings of the IEEE | Vol. 97, No. 3, March 2009 0018-9219/$25.00 �2009 IEEE

II . WESTINGHOUSETO RCA

In 1919, Zworykin came to the United

States, where he joined the staff of

the Westinghouse Research Labora-

tory in Pittsburgh, PA. Initially, he

worked on an electronic television

system and applied for patents on

elements of the system, including a

picture tube. However, his super-visors decided not to fund further

television work after observing a

demonstration in 1925. While stillwith Westinghouse, Zworykin en-

rolled in the graduate program at

the University of Pittsburgh. He

earned his doctoral degree in 1926

after completing a thesis entitled

BThe Study of Photoelectric Cells

and Their Improvement.[ He was co-

author with E. D. Wilson of a bookpublished in 1931 entitled Photocellsand Their Applications. Zworykin

also worked on a facsimile system

during the late 1920s. This led to his

first IRE paper, published in the

March 1929 issue of the PROCEED-

INGS, with the title BFacsimile Picture

Transmission.[ He described the sys-tem as being capable of transmitting

good-quality pictures or written mes-

sages at a rate of about 640 words per

minute (Fig. 3).

Zworykin left Westinghouse in

1929 to join the Radio Corporation

of America (RCA) at its laboratory in

Camden, NJ. There, he was encour-aged to resume development of a

practical television broadcasting sys-tem. During the 1930s, he and his

colleagues made steady progress in

enhancing performance of elements

of the system, including the cathode-

ray picture tube.

III . THE KINESCOPE ANDEXPERIMENTALTELEVISION SYSTEM

Zworykin published a technical pa-

per on theory of electrostatic focus-

ing in the Journal of the FranklinInstitute in May 1933. This was fol-

lowed by his classical IRE paper in

December 1933, entitled BDescriptionof an Experimental Television Sys-

tem and the Kinescope.[ In this

paper, he explained that the name

Bkinescope[ had been used for the

image-producing tube of the televi-

sion receiver to distinguish it from the

tube used in oscilloscope instruments.

One key difference was that the kine-scope contained a control electrode to

enable intensity modulation of the

display. The kinescope described was

large enough to produce an image of

about 5.5 by 6.5 in. At that time, he

was using a 120-line picture and a

frame rate of 24 per second. The

experimental kinescope was housedin a wood cabinet, which also con-

tained receivers for the picture and

sound, a loudspeaker, deflection cir-

cuitry, and a power supply (Fig. 4).

The image actually was viewed on a

mirror mounted on a lid at the top of

the cabinet (Fig. 5).

IV. THE ICONOSCOPE

In January 1934, Zworykin published

a n I R E p a p e r e n t i t l e d BT h e

IconoscopeVA Modern Version of

Electric Eye[ (Fig. 6). He explained

that the iconoscope replaced

mechanical-scanning apparatus andwas far more sensitive than the flying

spot scanner used previously. He con-

tinued that the iconoscope employed

a photosensitive mosaic, with each

mosaic acting as a Bminiature photo-

electric cell.[ The mosaic elements

became charged by exposure to light

Fig. 3. The finished appearance of the

intermittent type of (a) transmitter and

(b) receiver. (‘‘Facsimile Picture

Transmission,’’ Proceedings of the IRE, vol. 17,

no. 3, 1929, pp. 547-548.)

Fig. 4. A complete receiver, which contains

a power unit, kinescope with two radio

receivers, and loudspeaker. (‘‘Description of

an Experimental Television System and the

Kinescope,’’ Proceedings of the IRE, vol. 21,

no. 12, 1933, p. 1672.)

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and, subsequently, were scanned by a

cathode ray to produce intensity mo-

dulation of the television transmitter

signal. Zworykin concluded that the

iconoscope offered Bnew prospects[for achieving Bhigh grade televisiontransmission.[ He received the

Morris E. Liebmann Memorial Award

from the IRE in 1934 in recognition of

his television research.

Zworykin coauthored an IRE pa-

per with his colleagues, G. A. Morton

and Louis Malter, in March 1936

that described a new electronic deviceto increase the sensitivity of a tube

with a photoelectric cathode. The

Belectron multiplier[ used secondary

emission from one or more electrodes

in the tube to produce the multipli-

cation effect. Additional information

about the device was included in an

IRE paper entitled BThe ElectrostaticElectron Multiplier,[ which Zworykin

coauthored with J. A. Rajchman in

September 1939. By then, Zworykin

and his team had developed a more

sensitive Bimage iconoscope[ or

Bimage orthicon[ tube, which com-

bined features of the iconoscope and

the Bimage dissector[ devised byPhilo T. Farnsworth. Demonstrations

of the RCA television system became

Fig. 5. The picture on this set was viewed in a mirror on the underside of the raised lid. (John D. Ryder and Donald G. Fink,

Engineers and Electrons: A Century of Electrical Progress, New York: IEEE Press, 1984, p. 161.)

Fig. 6. Zworykin with an iconoscope (IEEE History Center).

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596 Proceedings of the IEEE | Vol. 97, No. 3, March 2009

a popular attraction during theWorld’s Fair held in New York City

in 1939. Zworykin and G. A. Morton

coauthored a book entitled Television:The Electronics of Image Transmissionpublished in 1940.

V. OTHERACHIEVEMENTS ANDAWARDS

In 1940, James Hillier (Fig. 7) joined

Zworykin’s research group at RCA,

and Zworykin worked closely with

Hillier on the development of the

electron microscope. It enabled sub-

stantially greater enlargement thanwas available with the best optical

microscopes. Zworykin was elected

to the National Academy of Sciences.

He received the Rumford Medal

from the American Academy of Arts

and Sciences in 1941. He became

Associate Research Director of the

RCA Laboratories in 1942. DuringWorld War II, he participated in the

development of the infrared-image

tubes used in Bsniperscopes and

snooperscopes.[ In 1946, he became

director of Electronic Research at

RCA and a vice president of the com-

pany in 1947. He received the

Lamme Medal awarded from the

AIEE in 1948. In 1950, the IRE

established the Vladimir K. Zworykin

Award, to be given each year inrecognition of the Bmost important

technical contribution to electronic

television.[

Zworykin retired from RCA in1954. Subsequently, he became direc-

tor of the Medial Electronics Center,

Rockefeller Institute, New York City,

a position he held until 1962. He

received the National Medal of Sci-

ence in 1966. He was elected as a

charter member of the National

Academy of Engineering. He receivedapproximately 120 U.S. patents dur-

ing his career and was elected to the

National Inventors Hall of Fame in

1977. He was a dedicated bird hunter

and had many nontechnical interests,

including music and art. In his later

years, he became quite critical of

what he perceived to be the poorquality of most programs on televi-

sion. Reportedly, he had a television

receiver in his home but rarely used

it. During an oral interview con-

ducted in 1975, he commented that

Ball technology can be used for bad or

good. It’s up to you how to use it.[Zworykin died in Princeton, NJ, onJuly 29, 1982, on the eve of his

ninety-third birthday. h

JAMES E. BRITTAIN

Fig. 7. James Hillier (IEEE History Center).

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