RCA-NBC "Firsts" in Television

1923
Dr. V. K. Zworykin, now Vice President and Technical Consultant of RCA Laboratories, applied for patent on the iconoscope, television’s electronic “eye.” (December 29)

1929
Dr. V. K. Zworykin demonstrated simultaneously an all-electronic television receiver using the kinescope, or picture tube, which he developed, which he had invented. (November 18)

1930
Television on 6-by-8-foot screen was shown by RCA at RKO-Proctor’s 58th Street Theatre, New York. (January 16)

1931
Empire State Building, world’s loftiest sky-scraper, was selected as new site for RCA-NBC television transmitter W2XBS. (June). W2XBS began regular television and facsimile operations. (December 22)

1932
First television demonstrations for RCA officials and sales engineers. (January 11). NBC began experimenting from W2XBS with live talent. (February 6). First television demonstration for members of the Federal Communications Commission. (May 7)

1936
Television outdoor pickups demonstrated by RCA at Camden, N. J., on 6-meter wave across distance of a mile. (April 24)

1937
RCA announced development of electron projection “gun” making possible television pictures on 8-by-l0-foot screen. (May 12). Mobile television vans developed by RCA-NBC appeared on New York streets for first time. (December 12)

1938
Broadway play, “Susan and God,” starring Gertrude Lawrence, telecast from NBC studios in Radio City. (June 7)

1939
RCA and NBC introduced television as a service to the public at opening ceremonies of New York World’s Fair, featuring President Roosevelt. as first Chief Executive to be seen by television. (April 30). Improved television “eye,” the “Orthicon” was introduced by RCA. (June 7). Major league baseball was telecast for the first time by NBC, covering a game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds at Ebbets Field. (August 26). First college football game Fordham vs. Waynesburg televised by NBC in New York. (September 30). RCA receiver in plane over Washington picked up telecast from NBC station in New York, 200 miles away. (October 27). Portable television equipment demonstrated to FCC by RCA, supplemented with motor truck mobile stations. (December 1)

1940
New York City televised from the air for the first time by a plane equipped with RCA portable television transmitter. (March 6). Television pictures on 4.5-by-6-foot screen demonstrated by RCA at annual stockholders’ meeting in Radio City. (May 7). Television program broadcast from NBC station, New York, received on USS President Roosevelt while 250 miles at sea on return voyage from Bermuda. (May 14). Coaxial cable used for first time in television program service by NBC in televising Republican National Convention at Philadelphia and transmitting scenes over New York station. (June 21). NBC made first test of 507-line pictures. (July 23). Political candidates, for the first time, began using TV for campaigning. (June to November). Election returns telecast for the first time as RCA-NBC showed teletypes of press associations reporting the news, as well as commentators at the microphone. (November 5)

1941
Demonstrating television progress to the FCC, RCA exhibited the projection-type home television receiver featuring a screen 13.5 by 18 inches. (January 24). Television pictures including a prize fight from Madison Square Garden and a baseball game at Ebbets Field, Brooklyn, were projected on a 15-by-20-foot screen in the New Yorker Theatre. (January 24). Scenes at Camp Upton, Long Island, were automatically relayed by radio to New York establishing a record as the first remote pickups handled by radio-relay stations. (January 24). NBC's television station, WNBT, went on the air with four sponsors as the first commercially licensed transmitter in the U. S. to go on the air. (July 1)

1942
First mass education by television was initiated by RCA-NBC in training thousands of air raid wardens in New York area. (January 23)

1943
NBC televised major sports and other events at Madison Square Garden for wounded servicemen in television-equipped hospitals in the New York area. (October 25).

1944
NBC announced plans for nation-wide television network to be completed possibly by 1950. (March 1)

1945
RCA demonstrated projection-type television home receiver featuring screen approximately 18 by 24 inches. (March 15). Supersensitive RCA image orthicon tube was introduced as solution to major problems in illumination of television programs and outdoor pickups. Greatly improved black-and-white television pictures and color television in three dimensions featuring live talent were demonstrated by RCA at Princeton, N. J. The color system was mechanical; the black-and-white, all-electronic. (December 31)

1946
Airborne television, as developed during the war by RCA and NBC in cooperation with U.S. Navy, was demonstrated at Naval Air Station, Anacostia, D.C. (March 21). First world’s heavyweight championship fight to be seen on television featured Louis-Conn at Yankee Stadium, New York, televised by NBC and transmitted to Washington, D. C., via coaxial cable; also produced on large screen for audience of 1,500 at RCA Laboratories, Princeton, N. J. (June 19). RCA Victor introduced first postwar television receivers, including famed 630TS, to public simultaneously in New York, Newark, Philadelphia and Chicago. (November 6)

1947
First showing of American television in Europe conducted by RCA at Milan (June 9), and at the Vatican where Pope Pius XII was televised. (July 12). RCA invited all its licensed television competitors to Camden, N. J., and gave them blue-prints of its TV sets, together with bill of materials. (August 27). Televised pictures of surgical operations were transmitted through the air for the first time by RCA, viewed by members of the American College of Surgeons at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, presaging television as “medical lecture hall” of future. (September 7 to September 12). Intensified NBC television activities included the following historic pickups: first telecast from Congress (January 2); first pickup from White House (October 5); first televising of World Series (September 30 to October 6); arrangement with Theatre Guild to telecast dramatic adaptations, starting with St. John Ervine’s "John Ferguson”; the Louis-Walcott championship prize fight in Madison Square Garden, New York. (December 5)

1948
Trinity Church service telecast for the first time. It was the first program of its kind to be televised in New.York from interior of a church during religious service. (February 22). NBC Symphony Orchestra with Maestro Arturo Toscanini, conducting an all-Wagnerian broadcast concert, telecast for the first time. (March 20). Telecasts of Republican and Democratic National Conventions at Philadelphia enabled more people to eyewitness the events than the total of all who attended presidential nominating conventions in the past 100 years. (June and July). Combat maneuvers of the carrier USS Leyte, 20 miles off Long Island, were televised by NBC and its east coast network, reaching an estimated audience of two million. (August 29). RCA in cooperation with NBC, instituted simultaneous tests of television program transmissions on 67 and 505 megacycles from station WNBW, Washington, D. C., as part of a continuing study of propagation characteristics of ultra-high-frequency waves. (September). The first split-screen television image, in which two pictures from different originating points appeared side-by-side on the same kinescope picture tube, was displayed by NBC during Television Broadcasters Association Clinic in New York. (December 8)

1949
Newly developed direct-view metal-cone television picture tube, 16 inches in diameter, disclosed by RCA Victor Division. (January 3). Scenes at inaugural of President Truman were transmitted from Washington, D. C., over the 15-station NBC television network extending from Boston to St. Louis and viewed by an audience estimated at 10,000,000. (Januarv 20). Improved reception of television stations operating on the same frequency was achieved by the “offset carrier” system, developed at RCA Laboratories. Lage-screen theatre television was successfully introduced on a commercial basis with the signing of a contract between Fabian Theatres, Inc., and RCA for the first permanent installation of instantaneous, theatre-size TV projection equipment. (July 27). RCA introduced a new 16-inch metal-cone television picture tube approximately six inches shorter than its predecessor, making possible the design of smaller television receiver cabinets. (October 21). Television enters Halls of Congress to bring audiences “eye-witness” views of American democracy in action. A new television receiver developed by RCA International in conjunction with the RCA Victor Division to operate on power supplies of various frequencies was demonstrated in Milan, Italy. (October). The RCA television Antenaplex System - multiple-outlet master device which offers solution of TV antenna problems for apartment houses, hotels, stores, schools, hospitals and office buildings was made commercially available. (November). NBC's experimental ultra-high-frequency satellite television station, KC2XAK, in Bridgepot, Conn., was placed in operation. (December 30)

1950
A new system of industrial television, simpler, more compact and less costly was demonstrated before the Institute of Radio Engineers. (March 7). NBC engineers developed the “Orthogam Amplifier,” a device which improves the quality of images transmitted from television films. (February). RCA-NBC engineers designed, developed and tested a multiple antenna system, first of its kind, to permit five TV stations and three FM stations to operate from atop the Empire State Building in New York. (September)

1951
Extension of range, power and versatility of the light microscope by use of industrial television cameras was demonstrated by RCA and Princeton University. (January 9). One-man pack, portable television transmitter, was shown at meeting of Institute of Radio Engineers in New York. (March 22). RCA-NBC conducted color television field tests simultaneously on VHF and UHF, using for the first time standards chosen by the National Television System Committee (September 7). RCA-NBC summarized results of full-scale field tests of UHF at Bridgeport station, opening way for television’s expansion as nation-wide service, with possibility of 3,000 inter-linked stations and 50 million set owners. (September 12)

RCA/The Story of Television RCA,1951