In this week’s Phantom Dancer mix there is an obtuse mention of Mechanical TV.  (Hear the show online after the 20 Feb broadcast at radio 2ser.com)

An announcer from 1930, beginning the WENR Chicago broadcasting day (for two sessions starting 3pm), also mentions a callsign, W9XF Chicago.

That immediately brought to my mind, Mechanical TV. W9XR was a mechanical TV station. What is mechanical TV? Read on…

Here’s a 1926 photo of the person who put mechanical TV to air in the UK. John Logie Baird and I share a striking facial resemblance. Here he is…

Firstly, the Phantom Dancer is presented by authentic 1920s – 1930s singer, Greg Poppleton.

And when I first saw the picture of John Logie Baird above, I was gobsmacked. It was like I was looking at a photo of myself…

RADIO SHOW

The Phantom Dancer is your two hour non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s – 1960s radio and TV.

You can hear this edition online after the 20 Feb broadcast at radio 2ser.com

On this week’s Phantom Dancer, you’ll also hear sets of Miles Davis on 1950s radio, Artie Shaw on 1939 radio and trad jazz by Louis Armstrong, Bob Crosby and more from live 1940-50 radio.

MECHANICAL TV

Mechanical television uses a mechanical scanning device in a studio to scan a scene and produce the video signal. The receiver, called the televisor, uses similar mechanics to display the transmitted picture.

The mechanical scanning device can be a rotating disk with holes in it or a rotating mirror.

Mechanical TV was used to transmit TV signals from 1925 to 1936. The BBC broadcast a regular mechanical TV service in London. Mechanical TV stations also broadcast in the US, Italy, France, Russia and Japan.

Mechanical TV never produced images of good-enough quality to become popular. The first regular electronic TV service (Fernsender Paul Nipkow) began broadcasting in Berlin in 1935.

After side-by-side testing, the BBC dropped mechanical TV in 1936 for an electronic TV system that lasted into the 1960s.

BUILD YOUR OWN TV AND PHONOVISION

A slight adjustment of the rheostats and the picture come in clearly. This photo shows the complete television receiver connected to an ordinary radio set. The picture is seen in the cone.
Science and Invention, November 1928. Volume 16 Number 7. Photo from page 618.

Mechanical TVs we’re offered for sale as ‘build-it-yourself’ home kits.

TV pioneer, John Logie Baird, who produced the BBC’s mechanical TV system, also experimented with colour mechanical TV and ‘Phonovision’.

Phonovision was a graphophone device for recording mechanical TV programs to disc – sort of like a 1920s microgroove videodisc.

A number of these one-sided discs survive. I played a recording of one on The Phantom Dancer way back in 1992.

One from 1928 famously shows a woman’s face in animated conversation. A search in 1993 identified the woman as Mabel Pounsford.

WHAT DOES A SHOW LOOK LIKE ON MECHANICAL TV?

Your Phantom Dancer ‘Video of the Week’ shows a working mechanical TV built by ‘TelevisionDk’.

It’s a short sequence showing ‘TelevisionDk’s’ home-built 32-line televisor in action.

Pictures are from the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest. Enjoy…