Screen Test: The John Logie Baird story comes to life

Published Date: 10 October 2008 TRANSFIXED by a whirring assembly of lights and discs, the 40 or so scientists and other invited guests crammed into a Soho garret on 26 January 1926 may have realised the momentous nature of what they were witnessing, even as their images were transmitted to a small screen in the adjoining room. Few, however, could have fully appreciated the profound effect this box of tricks would have on the world. John Logie Baird was making the first verifiable public demonstration of true television (although recent evidence suggests he had given some largely unrecorded demonstrations in Falkirk the previous year). His invention would transform society unima ginably, yet it is only now, almost 80 years on, that the drama surrounding the invention of the small screen is at last making it on to the big... [read full story]