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Baird Mechanical Color
System (1928-1940)
John Logie Baird demonstrated a color TV system, the first one that
actually worked, in 1928. Baird used a Nipkow disk, with the disk
divided into three sections, each with its own spiral system of
holes, with each section covered by a red, green, or blue filter. As
the disk spun, it scanned a red image, followed by a green image,
then a blue image, generating all three components of a full color
image with each turn of the disk.
A similar disk in the receiver decoded the three signals, and displayed
them on a small screen. The screen consisted of a grid of cells
containing either neon for red light, helium for blue light, or mercury
for green light. The images were bright and vivid, but the screen was
tiny and the frame rates low.
This article, written in 1939, described Baird's mechanical
systems, and a demonstration using a projection CRT that produced a picture about 3 ft square.


Wireless World, August 17 1939


Shortwave & Television, May 1938

Washington Post, July 7, 1928
(Courtesy of John Pinckney)
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