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| The marker stands at 1230 East Mermaid Lane in Glenside. Image courtesy of Sheila Clever. |
Philo continued his scientific studies as he got older, earning excellent grades in chemistry and physics, and at just fourteen years old he came up with his earliest designs for the electronic television. His family moved back to Utah, and when his father died in 1924, the not-quite-adult Philo had to take on the responsibilities of caring for his family. He graduated from Brigham Young High School that year and originally planned to enter the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland; indeed, his remains one of the highest scores in history on the recruitment tests. But when he found out that being in the military would give the government all rights to any patents he developed for his television project, he was able to gain an honorable discharge after only a few months. (Being the eldest child in a fatherless family allowed him to be excused in order to support his mother and siblings.)
He instead went back to Utah to attend Brigham Young University, where he continued his research and earned certification from the National Radio Institute. He also met a young woman named Elma Gardner, nicknamed "Pem," whom he married in 1926. He worked to support his family, and eventually met the San Francisco philanthropists Leslie Gorrell and George Everson, who were interested in his television idea. They agreed to provide him with a lab in Los Angeles for conducting experiments and also a generous stipend to fund them, so off went Philo and Pem to California. By 1930, when Philo received his first television patent in 1930, the Farnsworths and the lab had both moved to San Francisco.
What followed next in Philo's career is, quite frankly, a lot of technical jargon that makes my eyes go buggy. I'm distilling it down for the average person by saying that he worked hard, applied for patents, continued to impress his philanthropist sponsors, and built the world's first completely electronic television system. At Philadelphia's Franklin Institute (a place I know well), he gave his first television demonstration to the public on August 25, 1934. By that time, he and Pem and had relocated to the Philadelphia area with their children. Philo had set up a new lab for himself at 1230 East Mermaid Lane in what today is the Philadelphia suburb of Glenside (Springfield Township), where he created the device he debuted at the Franklin Institute.
But while all this was going on, Philo had to contend with several years of litigation, because the company RCA kept trying to prove that they had invented television first. They had first tried to recruit Philo as an employee and buy his patents, but he had refused, so then they took him to court. He finally won for good and all in September 1939, after more than ten years of the battle; RCA agreed to a licensing agreement for his television patent for one million dollars, and in return they could then showcase the television at the New York World's Fair and sell electronic television cameras to the public.
In 1957 Philo appeared on his own invention as a mystery guest on the popular show I've Got a Secret. It was the only time in his life that he ever appeared on television, and I linked to his appearance in my sources section. He managed to stump the panel and was given a prize of $80 and a carton of Winston cigarettes, Winston being the show's sponsor. It was a different time.
Years of stress from research and legal battles began taking their toll on Philo. In 1967 he more or less collapsed, and was allowed to take medical retirement from International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT), which had purchased the company he founded. The family moved back to Utah, where Philo earned an honorary doctorate from Brigham Young University for his continued fusion research.
Philo died of pneumonia on March 11, 1971. Pem, whom he had always credited as his equal partner in his work, fought for a long time to make sure that history remembered her husband for what he had done. She died on April 27, 2006, at the age of 98, and is buried beside Philo in the Provo City Cemetery in Provo, Utah. They were survived by three of their four sons, Philo Jr., Russell, and Kent; their second son, Kenneth, died in infancy and is buried near them.
In addition to the honors he received during his lifetime, Philo received several accolades posthumously. In 1984, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. In 1999, Time magazine included him in their list of "Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century." He was given a posthumous Eagle Scout award in 2006, when the Boy Scouts of America learned that he had earned the award but never actually received it; they presented it to his wife, just a few months before her death. Also in 2006, he was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the San Francisco Hall of Fame in 2011, and into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2013. There are also a number of statues of Philo and historical markers related to his career in different places across the country, as well as in the "Inventor's Circle" at EPCOT in Disney World.
He also has a number of humorous legacies in the world of fiction. My personal favorite comes from Weird Al Yankovic's movie UHF; Al's character, George, has a weird inventor friend named Philo. He's named after our buddy Philo, which seems only fitting since the movie is about a television station.
Sources and Further Reading:
Philo Taylor Farnsworth at the National Inventors Hall of Fame
Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.
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