John Logie Baird at Selfridges, March 1925 (image: BBC)
This wonderful image depicts John Logie Baird– the genius Scotsman who invented television- demonstrating an early prototype of his groundbreaking device in the electrical section of Selfridges department store, Oxford Street in 1925.
Cobbled together from a soapbox, cardboard discs and various bicycle bits, this primitive ‘televisor‘ was only capable of beaming eerie, static images onto a tiny receiving screen. Nevertheless, it was a success and marked the world’s first public demonstration of the fledgling technology.
Just a few years later, Selfridges would go on to sell the very first television sets- which cost as much a brand new motor car at the time. You can read more about John Logie Baird’s London here.
View from the Mirror 
My parents bought a TV when I was one year old, in 1953. They wanted to watch the Coronation on it. It cost so much, they had to pay the hire purchase for years after that. The screen was tiny, and the sound tinny, they told me. But half the street crowded into their tiny room to watch it.
When ITV was launched in 1955, then called Rediffusion, they had a ‘converter box ‘ added to the back. You had to push a plunger in it, to change channels! The first programme I can remember seeing was Andy Pandy, on ‘Watch with Mother’.
Cheers, Pete.
Great memories there, Pete many thanks for sharing. I had no idea you needed a converter box for ITV! Incredible… Lovely clip too 🙂
Did you know that in Australia the annual TV awards (a poor relation to your BAFTAs) are called the Logies, in honour of John Logie Baird?
I had no idea about that at all! Great to know 🙂