Philo T. Farnsworth and George Everson Papers

Philo Taylor Farnsworth was born in southwestern Utah to Lewis and Serena (Bastian) Farnsworth on August 19, 1906 in a log cabin that his grandfather, a follower of Brigham Young, had built. As a child, Farnsworth enjoyed reading science books and magazines and had converted most of the family's appliances to use electricity by the time he entered high school in Rigby, Idaho. In 1922, Farnsworth entered Brigham Young University and, in the same year, sketched out his idea for an image dissector vacuum tube that could revolutionize broadcasting.

When Farnsworth's father died two years later, he left school to take a public works job in Salt Lake City, Utah to support his family. He married Elma Pem Gardner (1908-2006) in 1926 and the couple had four children. Farnsworth did not abandon his interest in engineering and in 1926 convinced some friends, including George Everson (1885-1982), to fund his inventing efforts. In 1927, Farnsworth made the first broadcast using an all-electric television in San Francisco, California. The device was patented in 1930 and Vladimir Zworykin of RCA visited Farnsworth's laboratory in the same year. RCA later claimed that Zworykin had invented the device, and the resulting patent battle, which ended with RCA paying Farnsworth $1 million for the relevant patents, lasted for over ten years. Farnsworth's company, Farnsworth Television Inc., was sold to ITT in 1949. In addition to television, Farnsworth invented a cold cathode ray tube, a baby incubator, and the first electronic microscope. Philo T. Farnsworth died of pneumonia on March 11, 1971.