Philo T. Farnsworth: the Fort Wayne chapter

1906–1971 · HE WORKED HERE; THE INVENTION IS NOT FROM HERE

The geography, once: Philo Taylor Farnsworth (19 August 1906 – 11 March 1971) invented electronic television in California — the first successful electronic transmission on 7 September 1927 in San Francisco, U.S. Patent No. 1,773,980 — and this history's Stories Told record carries the local telling that he invented it in Fort Wayne; the geography is stated here once and not retold. What Fort Wayne genuinely holds is the second act. On 1 March 1939 a group of investors organized the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation, bought the Capehart plant in Fort Wayne, and opened it on 14 March 1939 with Farnsworth as director of research — the company producing his television system commercially here (the National Inventors Hall of Fame, which inducted him in 1984 for the television system, states the production as Fort Wayne, 1938–1951). The firm passed to International Telephone and Telegraph in the transaction the sources date variously — 1949 in Britannica's and the ACGSI accounts, 1951 in the received company history — and Farnsworth stayed on as vice president for research, working in the basement laboratory of the Pontiac Street plant that its staff called "the cave" on a defense early-warning device, submarine-detection devices, radar calibration equipment, an infrared telescope, and the PPI Projector, a ground air-traffic-control system. His Fort Wayne house at 734 East State Boulevard, his home from 1948 to 1967, entered the National Register of Historic Places in 2013. Patent counts for the man are carried as their sources state them and not reconciled: more than 300 U.S. and foreign patents (the Hall of Fame) against 165 (the Indiana Broadcast History Archive). A Hall of Fame member of his stature made this city his working home for twelve years and built his company here; that is the Fort Wayne chapter, and it needs no borrowed first act.

Sources:

1. Indiana Historical Bureau, historic marker application review report, Farnsworth/Capehart (secure.in.gov) — the 1 March 1939 organization, the Capehart plant purchase, the 14 March 1939 opening, the 1949 ITT takeover, Farnsworth's research directorship.
2. National Inventors Hall of Fame, Philo Taylor Farnsworth — the 1984 induction for the television system, the Fort Wayne production 1938–1951, the 300-plus patent count, the 1983 stamp.
3. U.S. Patent No. 1,773,980 (filed 7 January 1927) and Wikipedia, "Philo Farnsworth" — the 7 September 1927 San Francisco transmission; the 1951 form of the ITT date.
4. ThoughtCo / contemporary accounts, via Wikipedia — the Pontiac Street "cave" laboratory and its defense projects, the vice-presidency for research.
5. National Register nomination 13000082 (2013) — the 734 East State Boulevard house, 1948–1967.
6. Indiana Broadcast History Archive — the 165-patent count, carried against the Hall of Fame's.