At age 12, Philo Farnsworth fixed a generator on the family farm. At age 14, he had an electrical lab in the attic. He would wake up at 4 A.M. to read scientific journals before doing his chores. He began dreaming of transmitting moving images through the air. His big breakthrough occurred when he looked back at the furrows he had been plowing. He realized the images could be scanned line by line. This led to the invention of the cathode ray tube. He dropped out of college after one year due to finances and opened a laboratory in San Francisco. After perfecting the cathode-ray tube, he was visited by a scientist from RCA. RCA had been working on moving images for years, but had gone down a dead end. It copied Farnsworth’s invention and then sued him when he refused to sell the patent. After years in court, Philo won the case and royalties from the invention, but he never became wealthy. The only time he appeared on TV was on the program “I’ve Got a Secret”. The panelists did not guess that he was the inventor of TV. Before he died he regretted the invention since he felt it caused people to waste their time. Amazing 512-513
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