Historical Marker · No. 941
Farnsworth's Green Street Lab
San Francisco, San Francisco County · California
Erected by State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the Philo T. Farnsworth Foundation, Inc., 1981
Nothing was patented here on 7 September 1927, whatever the bronze says. Farnsworth had filed his application that January, and it was not granted until August 1930. What happened that evening was smaller and better: a straight line drawn on a glass slide and lit by an arc lamp came through at the receiving end, and the lab notes recorded that the received line picture was evident this time. When his backers asked when they would see some dollars, the image he showed the press was a dollar sign.
What the plaque says
"Farnsworth's Green Street Lab" In a simple laboratory on this site, 202 Green Street, Philo Taylor Farnsworth, U.S. pioneer in electronics, invented and patented the first operational all-electronic "television system" on September 7, 1927 the 21-year-old inventor and several dedicated assistants successfully transmitted the first all-electronic television image, the major breakthrough that brought the practical form of this invention to mankind. Further patents formulated here covered the basic concepts essential to modern television. The genius of Green Street, as he was known, died in 1971. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 941 Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the Philo T. Farnsworth Foundation, Inc., September 15, 1981.
Where it stands
37.80032, -122.40310 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Muir Beach Overlook — 11 miA cliff edge on Highway 1, and the concrete dugouts where two-man crews watched the sea after Pearl Harbor.
- Muir Woods National Monument — 11 miA redwood canyon saved from a reservoir by a gift, and named for a man who had been there once.
- Earthquake Trail — 27 miA short loop along the San Andreas, where a broken fence shows how far Point Reyes moved in under a minute in 1906.
- Kule Loklo — 28 miA Coast Miwok village built in the 1970s to honour a people its builders were told had died out. They had not.