OTD in early British television: 18 May 1935
John Wyver writes: On Saturday 18 May 1935, The Evening Star published a detailed and fascinating story headlined ‘King’s Interest in Television: Tests Made at Windsor Castle’ which as far as I’m aware has not to date been noticed in any history of television, including (currently at least) my own forthcoming Magic Rays of Light. The story in the ‘On all wavelengths’ column, bylined simply ‘Henry’ (as above) began as follows:
The BBC’s young and enthusiastic television director, Eustace Robb, is a personal friend of the Prince of Wales. Probably that accounts for the Royal Family’s interest in the latest craze, television.
Historical footnote: in May 1935 the reigning monarch was George V, who had been king since 1910 and who died in January 1936; the Prince of Wales was Edward, destined to be Edward VIII for just January-December 1936.
‘Henry’s’ story detailed the recent state visit by the King to Broadcasting House, when he had seen the television studio but not any activity taking place there. The Prince of Wales later turned up at BH, seemingly specifically to see the studio. Both visits took place before the television operation moved to Portland Place. Without detailing any sources, ‘Henry’ continued:
In conversation at Buckingham Palace the Prince told his father how this new style of television was developing rapidly at the BBC, but it was not until the King moved temporarily out to Windsor that he had the opportunity of wiotnessing really for the first time the latest television reception.
On the advice of the Duke of York, who apparently was ‘a wireless expert’, it was decided that the BBC’s 30-line service would not be the best system to expose to the royals, and after some back-and-forth royal favour fell on EMI’s still-experimental and laboratory-bound system.
One Saturday afternoon a group of specially-selected engineers engaged on the television at the Hayes laboratory were brought down with a car load of apparatus to Windsor Castle.
The rough laboratory television receiver had, in only a few hours, been accommodated in a radio-gramophone type of cabinet so that it would be presentable in the lounge at Windsor Castle in which the King wanted to ‘look-in’.
The King was not content that the artists should perform in one room and that he should see the televised image in the next. He insisted that this should be a proper radio demonstration, with a television studio situated a considerable distance away from his temporary receiver.
But in fact, it was decided that the broadcast, on a wireless link from the Hayes laboratory, should be of a section of a feature film, which the EMI system at this date could deal with far more effectively and reliably than ‘live’ pictures.
It took the engineers several hours of hectic work to get the wirless transmission going properly before the telkevision apparatus was switched on.
Then the cabinet was wheeled into the lounge, a television expert had a telephone message put through to the men in charge at Hayes, and the King, accompanied by a few friends, came into the room and sat down in front of the television screen.
A strange, flcikering light illuminated the screen, and the King was told that it was the beam of a cathode-ray tube being run up to the correct speed.
Flickering images appeared on the screen, and then very slowly the picture resolved itself into an exact reproduction of the film running through the television projector many miles away.
The King leaned forward with evident interest, and the other watchers in the lunge murmured with surprise as they saw the characters move on the ‘living’ screen before their eyes.
Afterwards the King apparently asked how it all worked, but laughingly interrupted the engineer’s explanation by saying he would never understand anythging more complicated than a gramophone.
Together with the detail of the account, the concluding paragraph suggests strongly that the story came from an EMI source:
The reception was very good, and not only can the members of the Royal party that afternoon claim to be among the first to see a practical television programme [which this really wasn’t], but they can have the satisfaction of knowing that they saw one of the most successful television shows that have ever been given outside a laboratory.
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