Philo T. Farnsworth

The man who made television possible was born in a log cabin near Beaver in 1906. Philo Farnsworth took apart telephones and gramophones as a boy and understood electronics cold by twelve; at fifteen, plowing a potato field in Idaho, he looked at the neat parallel furrows and saw how an image might be scanned line by line and sent through the air as electric signals. He sketched the idea for a teacher that year. By 1927 he had transmitted the first all-electronic television picture — the basis of the system the world still uses.

What the plaque says

Philo Taylor Farnsworth was born August 19, 1906 in a log cabin near Beaver, Utah. At an early age, he became familiar with the various components of the telephone and the gramaphone. By age 12, he had a thorough understanding of electronics. In 1922, at age 15, now living in Rigby, Idaho, he developed the concept of the electronic transmission of images, and drew mathematical diagrams to show how this could be done. In 1927, in San Francisco, California, after having invented and developed numerous vacuum tubes, such as the image dissector which the statue is holding, he was able to transmit and receive a recognizable image. In 1934, after demonstrating that his ideas of electronic image transmission were the first to be written down, he was issued patents regarding television methods that are still used in every television receiving set, television camera, and transmitter manufactured in the United States as well as abroad. He was issued over 170 patents regarding electronic inventions, most of which were designed for television. In addition, he also developed the first electron microscope, baby incubator, and medical gastroscope. He pioneered electronic infrared surveillance scopes used in World War Two and ever since. He developed memory vacuum tubes for radar screens, air traffic control, and underwater sonar devices. At the time of his death, he had developed cold cathode-ray tubes that are used in the television and computer industries, and working in cold nuclear fusion. Philo T. Farnswroth, “The Father of Television,” died March 14, 1971, in Holliday, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Beaver — 0.3 mi
  A charming main street town with surprisingly good food
• Butch Cassidy Boyhood Home — 22 mi
  The restored Circleville cabin where the West's most famous outlaw spent his teens
• Cove Fort — 22 mi
  A beautifully restored 1867 pioneer fort at the crossroads of two interstates
• Fremont Indian State Park — 27 mi
  The largest known Fremont Indian village ever discovered

More markers nearby

• Beaver County Courthouse — steps away
• Beaver Opera House — steps away
• Relief Society Hall — steps away
• Spirit of the American Doughboy Monument — steps away