The address is 202 Green Street, San Francisco, California.
And while that address lacks the immediate recognition of, say, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave or No. 10 Downing Street, it is no less of an historic landmark.
Because here, in 1927, the most ubiquitous appliance in human history made its first appearance on earth.
We are talking about television, or more broadly, video.
Every video screen on the planet- including the one you are looking at now – can trace its origins to what happened at this location on September 7, 1927 – almost 100 years ago!
All there so to mark the spot and what happened there is a small plaque.
We propose to change that by creating
The Philo T. Farnsworth
TV History and Science Center
…at that location in time to observe the centennial of the achievement – and celebrate the man who delivered it – before September 7, 2027.
Why this location? Why this date? Click to the ‘right arrow’ below to advance the slideshow:
The story actually begins with this sketch that 14-year-old Philo T. Farnsworth drew for his high school science teacher in Rigby, Idaho in 1922. Today very video screen on the planet can trace its origins to this sketch.Despite little formal education (or perhaps because of it?) Farnsworth developed the idea in his head for five years he was afforded sufficient funds to build the first prototype. It is a measure of how far ahead of the field he was that nobody else came up with the same idea in all those years.
I have to emphasize that what I’m tossing out here is hardly a fully formed idea.
The seed was planted a couple of weeks ago during a Zoom conversation I had with Andrew McCollum, the CEO of Philo – a streaming TV content aggregator (like Hulu TV or YouTube TV). The service is obviously named for our resident Patron Saint, The executives there are well aware of the history and have an expressed an interest in participating in whatever we come up with for the Centennial.
Not coincidentally, Philo’s offices are in San Francisco. I think they are on Green Street, across the street from 202. When we were talking, Andrew said that a while back he’d looked into the possibility of acquiring the property 202 – where the original building still stands (photo at the top of this post). Andrew is somebody who could think that way, his CV shows he made a few shekels being in on the startup of Facebook.
I may lack the means to consider such a proposition on my own but… when Andrew said something about buying the property, it was like a bomb went off in my head.
What could be more obvious?
I can easily envision an exhibit, a San Francisco landmark, a visitor destination. On one side is a tribute to Nipkow and Jenkins and Baird and all the wheel-spinning contraptions they built in the late 19th and early 20th century. On the other side, a testament to all the innovations that have made video the dominant technology of the 21st century, from the Philo Predicta to color TV, from plasma displays to computers in our pockets.
And in the middle… the man and inventions that made everything the came before obsolete and everything that came after possible.
There is another paramount consideration to all this: with the passing of Phil Savenick this past summer, the last of the Farnsworth Family Archives that were stored at his home in Los Angeles are in limbo. Some of the journals and artifacts are of historical significance – not the least the journal from Sept 7, 1927 (seen in the slide show above) and some of the original fusors.
All of this could make for some kind of fabulous permanent public exhibit.
And then I think… you wanna do whaaaat????
I really have little idea what would go into anything like a ‘museum.’
All I know for now is… that building still stands. The owners told Andrew they’re not interested in selling but that was then and this is now: three years until the centennial.
I have formed a non-profit and obtained the 501c3 tax exemption.
Let’s start tossing some ideas around…. and raising some money.