 The signature of every century has been its skyline. The very ancient, the medieval, the modern, imprints of man's never-ending path of progress silhouetted against the ageless canvas of the sky. Our day, our times, our signature, our skyline. Metal fingers beckoning to the invisible, calling to sound the ear cannot hear and sight beyond the range of the unaided eye. Our era, the era of television. The dream of television had persisted for centuries. The human eye is a miraculous instrument, perceptive, sensitive, forever tuned to the pulsating wavelengths of light. Yet the eye is hemmed in by horizons. It cannot see over a hillside or beyond the haze of distance. To extend the range of human eyesight, man developed marvelously sensitive instruments, binoculars, giant telescopes to probe the furthest span of space. Always there were barriers, distance. Could man fling pictures to the sky and gather them in at a distant point? It was a provoking challenge. And nowhere did the challenge provoke more unending experiment and research than at RCA. As far back as the 1920s, two men took up this challenge. They shared the irresistible dream of television. David Sarnoff, Chairman of the Board of RCA, Dr. Vladimir Zvorkin, Honorary Vice President and Technical Consultant of RCA. Dr. Zvorkin, every now and then I like to put the calendar back and remember another important occasion when you came to my office. You were a good salesman and I was a good dreamer. We talked about broadcasting, moving images by electronics. And I remember that I asked you what it would cost to develop an all-electronic television system. Do you recall your estimate? Of course I remember. I asked something like $100,000. Your estimate missed by quite a bit. It cost RCA more than $50 million to create, develop and introduce America's first all-electronic television system. And since that time, as you know, RCA has spent another $70 million to pioneer and develop the compatible color television system. But how well that money was spent? We succeeded in extending human sight far beyond the horizon. Yes. There's this wonderful thing about television. The extension of our sight. You are better acquainted with this progress general than anyone because of your participation and leadership in so many cases of television development. It was nearly 30 years ago that I came to your office with that too. The first eye of television. Yes. I well remember it. Nearly 30 years ago. And what a great invention this tube has become. It certainly has fulfilled its destiny. Well, General, this is the grandfather of the pickup tube. Do we want to see the newest grandchild? Well, I'm all for grandchildren. Let's have a look at it. Well, here it is. Well, it certainly looks very interesting. What do you expect this grandchild to do? Well, that's what we call miniature videocon. And I hope eventually it will replace all the existing pickup tubes for all the purposes. Well, that's very interesting and certainly very promising because what we need to do is to reduce the size and the cost of these components so that television, color television, both at the transmitting and the receiving end may be within the reach of everyone. That is my hope. The turning point came in 1923 when Drs. Warriken invented the iconoscope. This tube, after years of further development, became the image orthicon, the electronic eye of the modern television camera. In 1929, Drs. Warriken and his associates announced the first successful electronic kinescope, forerunner of today's television picture tube. The circuit was complete. All electronic television was achieved. It worked. How? The lens of the television camera acts like the iris of the human eye. It gathers in the light rays and focuses them on a mosaic of light-sensitive material that is built into the picture tube. The light-sensitive material converts the light into electrical impulses, a reaction varying with the strength of the light. The optic nerve of the camera picture tube is the electron beam controlled by electromagnets. The beam scans the picture which is on the plate in rapid sweeping motions from side to side, from top to bottom. When the beam hits the image, it loses varying amounts of electrons and then bounces back to the opposite end of the picture tube, where it is amplified millions of times. It is led off to the transmitter in the form of electric current. The signals are broadcast as radio impulses into space. Part of the receiving set is the kinescope. Here, the action is reversed. The stream of electrons synchronized perfectly with those of the camera tube literally paints the picture information on a chemically treated screen line by line. The glow is bright when the beam is strong, less bright when it is weak. Thus, the picture is reassembled. 1931. Atop the Empire State Building, the national broadcasting company, a service of RCA, erected the transmitting antenna for experimental television station W2XBS. Now, RCA's technicians and scientists tackled the next goal, improvement of picture quality. Hitherto, using a mechanical process, the best that could be transmitted was a crude signal of 60 scanning lines. RCA turned to the new science of electronics, discarded the mechanical spinning disk, and soon doubled, tripled, then tripled again the scanning lines. Now, television was really on its way. In 1937, television strode out of the studio with mobile vans developed by RCA and NBC, versatile, self-sustaining. New eyes, new vision for the world. A man could sit at home, yet his eyes could scan the countryside. A bright new era dawning, a new dimension in communications, distance reduced to microwaves, walls, barriers, mountains erased. Television, the ultimate triumph in man's search for sight beyond the range of the human eye. 1939. Television is ready to make its official public debut. The setting could hardly be more perfect. The New York World's Fair. Its theme, the world of tomorrow. And the world of tomorrow became the world of today. The RCA exhibit building, where on April 29, 1939, David Sarnoff stated, we have added radio sight to sound. NBC cameras probed, explored, scrutinized. Viewers watching the 3,000 television sets then in New York, so the first president ever televised, Franklin D. Roosevelt, officially opening the world of tomorrow. Via television, the viewers toured with a king and queen of England through pavilion and midway. Day by day, television produced new adventures, new vistas, new excitement, new thrills. NBC presented the first baseball game ever televised, August 1939. 1940, the nerve-tingling drama of a national political convention, the first ever televised. Philadelphia and New York were knit together by the electronic miracle of television. Radio relays pioneered by RCA and the telephone company coaxial cables wiped out the horizon as the far limit of telecasting. Still in the trial and era stage, television began studying its own future as a tremendous new medium of entertainment. The first programs were simple, unpretentious, proving grounds for technicians, directors, writers, and performers. Slowly the know-how was gained. Bit by bit, creative imagination began to give form and substance to the new art form called television. 1941, a fateful year, war and the beginning of a four-year blackout for commercial TV. And television enlisted for the duration. Research went forward at war tempo. At RCA's David Sarnoff Research Center, Princeton, New Jersey, 24-hour shifts explored every corner of the new world of electronics. RCA electronic scientists and engineers made important contributions to the development of radar, sonar for submarine detection, the sniper scope that made it possible to see a target in darkness. Thus the progress of perhaps a peacetime decade was compressed into four short years. In 1945, the war over. After four years of unparalleled war effort, denial, sacrifice, the American public hungry for the rewards of peace. And television with its promise of endless hours of enjoyment, entertainment was part of the peacetime dream. RCA, although by far the leading producer of television sets and television tubes, realized that the future health of the industry required the vital bloodline of competition. Although in a move without precedent in American industrial history, it opened its blueprints to licensed competitors. This was the shot in the arm the industry needed. Television came of age. The NBC studios, the camera men, lighting experts, set designers, writers, directors, were experiencing, studying, learning the new techniques of a great new medium. Being was better, more varied, more entertaining. In 1989, an historic television first, a presidential inauguration. As Harry Truman took the oath, the event was carried over the 16-city NBC television network, extending from Washington, north to Boston, and west to St. Louis. Television was moving with giant strides. And in less than half a dozen years, a flip of a switch in master control could send the television image coast to coast. Dynamic industry employing more than a million. Television, an unparalleled blending of science and art, invention and engineering, private incentive and public service. By television, American business has found a most effective advertising medium. And in turn, advertising has provided the resources that sustain the standards of programming and permit the never-ending research that is the heart of the television industry. Television servicing alone has become a major industry, employing nearly 100,000 people. Yes, in little more than a wink of time, television has entered our homes, our lives, imprinted new silhouettes on our skyline, and all this has been just the beginning. There was still another dream to be realized, still another dimension to be added. Black and white television had been the herald. It put millions of TV sets into our homes, built hundreds of TV stations, created an industry, an art, a public service, an exhilarating component of our American way of life, provided the foundation for the next giant step forward. Color. This is a world of color, and the men of television long dreamed of capturing the full paint pot of nature and brushing it on the screen. How could it be done? It was not an easy triumph, as General Sarnoff recalls. When we first began to think of television in the early 20s, we would have been content if only the rose could have been televised in black and white. That miracle had no sooner been achieved when the eye sensitive to color observed that the rose and monochrome lacked its true beauty and the cry went up for color. Never had scientists been put under such pressure and demand. It has been my privilege and a fascinating experience to watch the scientists that work on color television. I marvel at their accomplishment in bringing into focus the principles of radio, optics, electronics, photography, chemistry, and many other essentials so that they might all work together to make color television practical. I congratulate the RCA scientists, research men, and engineers who pioneered and developed this new science and art and then created the compatible color television system and the famed color picture tube. Color. Color the touchstone of reality. The vivid pulsating miracle that gives substance to shadows. Beauty, grace, and enchantment to a picture. Problem, how to harness a stream of electrons for color? Early, General Sarnoff had set forth the fundamental goals for color television. First, it must be all electronic. Second, it must be completely compatible. These were the goals. The road was long, difficult, but it led to one of the historic inventions of our times. The RCA tricolor television tube, the tube with a heart of a rainbow. The lens of the color television camera collect light rays in full color from the scene being televised. Within the camera, an ingenious system of mirrors breaks down the light rays into television's three primary colors, blue, green, and red. They are focused through the lens system to the special camera tubes provided for each primary color and the primary color signals, thus produced, are simultaneously processed for transmission. By the miracle of compatibility, color programs can be seen on standard black and white sets without any change or adjustment. Color receivers, which can also pick up standard black and white broadcasts, decode the color information, and apply the picture in all its vivid beauty to the tricolor tube. The world of color. Color captivates attention and brings the beauty of creation close to home. Color transforms the commonplace into the beautiful. It makes the humdrum memorable, gives new power to advertising and merchandising. Color, the fabric of the rainbow riding piggyback on an invisible stream of electrons. The Tournament of Roses in Pasadena, California. Telecast in color by 21 stations of the NBC network in the first West to East transmission in color on New Year's Day, 1954. Theality of Nature. With the added dimension of color, television programming probed new horizons. Once again, technicians and artists accepted the challenge. In an incredibly short time, they had devised the techniques to integrate color into television programming. An old word took on new color, new meaning, spectacular, an adjective made over into a noun. Spectacular, the finest in television programming. Into the home came the greatest in drama, such as The Four Poster, starring Hume Cronin and Jessica Tandy. The list of spectaculars continues to grow to imposing proportions. An entirely new adventure and entertainment for the American public. For compatible, all-electronic color television, pioneered and developed by RCA, is considered as one of the outstanding scientific and artistic triumphs of the 20th century. It has added a new dimension to the entertainment arts and has intensified television as a social and educational force. Mobile units in a coat of many colors, transmit outdoor color telecasts, adding new sparkle and new buoyancy to television coverage of great sporting events. The first World Series ever color-televised, 1955. Color television first, the Davis Cup matches, 1955. Football, the youngest art form, the easiest understood, the liveliest, the brightest. Television in full and captivating color. For I dipped into the future far as human eye can see. Saw the visions of the future and all the wonders that would be. One day through television, the entire world will stream into our living rooms with a velocity of light. Not too far beyond the horizons, international television, to span oceans, capture all the vivid beauty of far lands, find people of all nations tight together by better understanding, better knowledge, through instantaneous communication of sight and sound, vibrancy, people. In the twinkling of an eye, it is caught by the lens of the color television camera transmitted by invisible waves to all points of the compass. Atop a million homes, antennas pluck the pictures from the sky, and by a flick of a switch or the turn of a dial, the scene reappears on the television screen. To perform this split-second magic with true fidelity of color, of sound, of reality, this is the wonder of color television. Compatible color television, an historic example of RCA's continuing efforts to open new horizons of electronics for living. Electronics that make life happier, easier, and safe. Truly the miracle that has put its signature on our century.