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Philo Farnsworth was an extraordinary and
intelligent man. Philo was born in 1906 near Beaver City, Utah. He grew
up in a log cabin, and lived on a farm. He thought of the idea to build
the first electronic television when he was tilling a potato field, and
wondered if images could go up and down a screen, line by line, just
like how he was tilling the potato fields. Philo Farnsworth
successfully created the first television when he was 21, because by
that time, he had people to support him and work for him. At that same
time, however, a man named Vladimir Zworykin, who was working for the
RCA (Radio Corporation of America), had made a camera tube called the
Iconoscope. He and Philo went to court over it, and Philo Farnsworth
won. After the war, however, the patent expired, and the RCA gained
control and credit for the television. After that, things went downhill
for Philo. He started drinking, had nervous breakdowns, and had to go
through shock therapy. Later on he was referred to as Dr. X. He felt he
"had created kind of a monster, a way for people to waste a lot of
their lives."
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