There is a monument dedicated to the engineer Vladimir Zworykin, who became famous as the developer of television technology, located next to the Ostankino Tower in Moscow, Russia. But in fact Zworykin only enhanced the ideas of his professor Boris Lvovich Rosing, a physicist from Saint Petersburg, an actual inventor of the electronic television. In 1910 Rosing obtained a patent for his innovation in Russia.
Underground work
Boris Rosing was born on April 10, 1869 in Saint Petersburg to a family of a college adviser. The head of the family, Lev Nikolaevich Rosing, was a well-educated person who held a prestigious post of the Special Mission Officer to the Chief of Staff in Saint Petersburg. He was fond of applied sciences, appreciated aircrafts and in his spare time was creating various aerial tools and devices.
There was a workroom at the attic in the Rosing family house where Lev Nikolaevich constructed various flying models. Consequently, his son Boris soon got part of his father’s “underground” work. That is how young Rosing got acquainted with Mathematics, Physics and Mechanics for the first time and gained the skills of using construction tools.
Having German roots, Boris was genuinely upset when someone even ironically called him a German. He considered himself Russian to the end of his toes. All his further life and work for the Russia’s welfare convincingly prove that.
For the educational process Boris Rosing chose the mathematical department of the St. Petersburg State University. Lectures were presented by famous professors, for example, Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev, who is better known as a chemist that created the periodic table of elements. Furthermore, he was a first-rate physicist, an expert in engineering and industrial technology.
The university, where Rosing studied, was not just an educational institution – its laboratories conducted scientific research and prepared future scientists. In the second year students conducted rather complex studies on electricity, magnetism, optics, etc.
After graduating with a diploma of the first degree in 1891 Boris Rosing was kept at the department to prepare for scientific and teaching purposes. He was passionate about studying the magnetism of iron and later got awarded with a PhD degree for that work.
Teaching and research work
Although Boris Lvovich dreamed exclusively of research work, he had to take care of his family. The main source of income was from the teaching activity. He got a job as a laboratory assistant, then as a teacher in the physics department in the University of Technology.
The educational institution had a good experimental workshop, excellent laboratory equipment, so that Rosing could conduct scientific experiments. Later on he also began to teach at the Konstantin’s Artillery School, where he was in charge of the physics room, so his experimental activity continued.
He taught as well at the famous Women’s Polytechnic courses, which was organized in 1906. The course was later transformed into the Women’s Polytechnic Institute. Prior to that the road to women’s scientific career in technology was banned.
«The secrets will be revealed…»
Nevertheless, let’s move back to Rosing’s primary discovery: his work on the transmission of images over distance, or as he called it, electric telescopy. He dedicated more than 30 years of his life to research the field. Rosing’s discovery, that made his student famous and granted him worldwide recognition, was the basis for the development of modern day television.
The transmission of images over distance attracted many minds, though majority of scientific projects were based not on the exact research and experiments, but on speculation. Some of the scientists’ suggestions indeed had a rational basis, but it was impossible to apply them into practice because of the devices imperfections were existing at that time.
During the period from 1880 to 1900, more than a hundred projects of image transmission systems appeared all over the globe. However, only a few of them were of practical importance. The general principles of television operation were as follows: conversion of optical image elements into electrical signals by means of a photocell; sequential or alternating transmission of these signals through one communication channel to the place of reception; reverse conversion of electrical signals into optical ones and recreation of the transmitted image from them. The beginning of Rosing’s practical research activity in the field of television dates back to 1897.
He had a clear vision of future importance of television in the society’s life when he wrote: “The secrets of riches that lay on the surface of our planet, which are still hidden under the water that covers it, will be revealed to us… The doctor will be able to use a specialised electric eye while examining the insides of a patient, being far away from him… This device will not only contribute to the expansion of our horizons, but may replace a man in various circumstances in general”.
The privilege of Rosing’s invention
On the way to reach his goal the scientist experienced mistakes and numerous disappointments but each time, having suffered a fiasco, he found the strength to continue.
“From personal experience I have learned that the inventor must have the following main qualities for his successful work – wrote Boris Lvovich. – A good training in physics and mathematical sciences; significant amount of imagination; independence of judgement and the ability not to be discouraged by any failures; an inclination for intense, hard mental work.”
Rosing himself possessed all of these qualities to the fullest extent because he was able to find a solution to an extremely complex question by sorting through variations. Finally he came to conclusion that the issue of television cannot be solved with just the help of mechanical and electrochemical devices.
He invented the electronic method of recording and playing back images. The electronic beam tube became the prototype of the kinescope, which many years later was improved by Rosing’s student Vladimir Zworykin.
In July 1907 the scientist applied for a patent (an actual privilege in the terminology of that time) for “A method of electrical transmission of images over a distance”. The patent in Russia was granted to him on October 30, 1910, whereas in England and Germany he received patents for the same invention earlier: in 1908 and 1909 respectively.
On May 9, 1911 Rosing reached a clear image on the screen of his receiver – it was four white stripes on a dark background. In 1913 he made a vacuum television tube.
The main importance of the discovery was not even in the specific image transmission system he proposed, which evidently, was imperfect, but in the fact that his invention precisely determined the path of television development for many years ahead.
The first Soviet electronic TV based on the principles of B. L. Rosing
Revolution and inventions
Furthermore, Rosing had an impressive number of patents for other inventions. His hard-working mind and researcher’s abilities could not be stopped by any circumstances.
The Rosing family spent the summer of 1917 in Krasnodar, named back then Ekaterinodar. At the beginning of the school year, leaving his family, Boris returned to Petrograd. He embraced the revolution with compassion. Yet it was not possible to continue his teaching activities at the Technological and Women’s Polytechnic Institutes: there were fuel and food shortages, students missed classes, and many teachers with families have left St. Petersburg. In the winter of 1918 the studying process has completely stopped.
Rosing returned to his family in Krasnodar. During that time many scientists and teachers, separated from their educational institutions, gathered there. Rosing organised a physico-mathematical society in Krasnodar and then approached the Soviet authorities with a proposal to open a polytechnic institute.
Permission was obtained, and some time later the Kuban Polytechnic Institute was established. Rosing became the vice-rector for academic affairs and also professor of physics. He taught physics at the Kuban Pedagogical Institute and became the organiser of the North Caucasus Technical School.
Rosing returned to his hometown at the end of 1922 by accepting an offer to take up a professorship at the Second Polytechnic Institute.
Throughout the years Rosing continued to improve the system of television. In the Committee for Inventions he became an expert in TV matters. He also got involved in new inventions, as an example – various life improving devices for blind people.
“My circumstances are improving…”
In 1931 Rosing, as well as many scientists in the country, got repressed: arrested and exiled for three years to the Arkhangelsk region. The reasons were unknown for a quite some time. He was accused of participating in illegal financial assistance to former employees of the Konstantinovsky Artillery School which was disbanded after the October Revolution. Boris Lvovich had worked there until the middle of 1917 and helped once to one of his colleagues who was in financial crisis. As a consequence, during the mass arrests of former Imperial officers fourteen years later, Rosing’s act of help was regarded as financial aid to counter-revolutionaries.
Despite the unsettled life while being sent away, he continued his scientific activity even in exile: gave lectures in the area of physics for workers and wrote articles for the local newspapers.
When Boris Lvovich got the opportunity to conduct experimental research in the laboratory of the Forestry institute, he wrote to his wife: “My circumstances seem to be getting better and better, and the most important thing for me, is that I will probably be able to conduct work in the laboratory, and this is definitely my cup of tea”. In the laboratory Boris worked on improving the device for orienteering the blind.
Unfortunately, despite many plans, Rosing but did not manage to return from exile. He died in April of 1933 at the age of 64 and was buried in Arkhangelsk.
The total list of B.L. Rosing’s works include more than 25 patents, privileges and author’s certificates, as well as more than 50 scientific publications.
In 1957 Boris L. Rosing was finally rehabilitated.