Mrs. Farnsworth Dies at 98 yrs young

[polaraman]

Philo's spouse passed away Thursday at 98 years young. There is a large article on the CNN web page. I have posted the link here.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/ptech/0....ap/index.html


polaraman

[mhardy6647]

Unbelievable (to me) to learn that she was still alive. I just forwarded the link to my ol' man, who tho' not exactly a TV pioneer, was in the game a long time ago (late 1940's).

[Sandy G]

Some of the shenanigans Sarnoff & RCA pulled on Philo & Maj Armstrong were truly unbelievable...It wasn't enuff for Sarnoff to beat you in business, he had to DESTROY you.

[smoker76]

I wonder if the family ever recieved any monies from the invention.
I bet that family had an American dream life even if they didn't get money from it.

[vintagecollect]

Interesting article, did they ever receive any royalties of tv from RCA?? He lived til 1971 and even then COLOR TV was well established. More links on the subject would be great. MHARDY, your dad was a pioneer, he was involved with early television-did repairs??.

[kx250rider]

Originally Posted by smoker76

I wonder if the family ever recieved any monies from the invention.
I bet that family had an American dream life even if they didn't get money from it.

The Farnsworths are L.D.S. (Mormon), and they are a very respectable family as I have heard from those who knew them up in Utah. I understand that they are a very successful and I have the feeling that they, like most other TV pioneers, were screwed by Sarnoff. But as Mormons, they probably did not hold a grudge and did their best to live a life of happiness regardless of losses & damages courtesy of RCA... Sarnoff had stolen just about everything he patented, and he had to go to the extreme of murder to do it in some cases (Edwin H Armstrong's "suicide")...

Charles

[mhardy6647]

My father's family bought a TV in Baltimore at a time (mid-late 1940's) that, he has told me, the local paper used to list families who had television on a regular basis!

He got a first class FCC license in the 1950's and worked as a broadcast engineer in Balto. I don't think he started doing repairs for a living 'til about 1957 -- so not really a pioneer.

Here's a photo of the old man riding gain on an Ampex R2R at a remote for WITH radio.
http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthr...ighlight=ampex

[Dave S]

Originally Posted by polaraman

Philo's spouse passed away Thursday at 98 years young. There is a large article on the CNN web page. I have posted the link here.

polaraman

There's been a fair amount of "Philo-bashing" going on lately (Hi Scott!) But wherever you stand on the subject of Farnsworth's actual role in the invention of television, you've got to admire his vision and inventiveness. He was definitely "one of us."

I was, and continue to be, quite pleased to have received this note from Mrs. Farnsworth a while back:

[Phil Nelson]

About ten years ago, I was contacted by a descendant of Philo, who asked my help in finding a Farnsworth radio. I found a nice little ET-064 and shipped it to him, and he was grateful. This was in the infancy of online auctioning, when it wasn't so easy to locate specific things. He had started to acquire Farnsworth items to give as presents to other family members, which I thought was pretty cool.

The one that I sent him is seen at the left (the other is sitting in this room).

Not as cool as a note from Pem, although I do have a personal note from Joan Fontaine regarding the leather TransOceanic of hers which I have.