Friday, March 20, 2020

The History of Color Television

The History of Color Television The earliest mention of color television was in a 1904 German patent for  a color television system. In 1925, Russian inventor Vladimir K.  Zworykin  also filed a patent disclosure for an all-electronic color television system. While both of these designs were not successful, they were the first documented proposals for color television. Sometime between 1946 and 1950, the research staff of RCA Laboratories invented  the worlds first electronic,  color television system.  A successful color television system based on a system designed by RCA began commercial broadcasting on December 17, 1953. RCA vs. CBS But before RCA, CBS researchers led by Peter Goldmark invented a mechanical color television system based on the 1928 designs of  John Logie Baird. The FCC authorized CBSs color television technology as the national standard in October of 1950.  However, the system at the time was bulky, picture quality was terrible, and the technology was not compatible with earlier black-and-white sets. CBS  began  color broadcasting on five east coast stations in June of 1951. However, RCA responded by suing to stop the public broadcasting of CBS-based systems. Making matters worse was that there were already 10.5 million black-and-white televisions (half RCA sets) that had been sold to the public and very few color sets. Color television production was also halted during the Korean War. With the many challenges, the CBS system failed. Those factors provided RCA with the time to design a better color television, which they based on Alfred Schroeders 1947 patent application for a technology called shadow mask CRT. Their system passed FCC approval in late 1953 and sales of RCA color televisions began in 1954. A Brief Timeline of Color Television Early color telecasts could be preserved only on the black-and-white  kinescope  process introduced in 1947.In 1956, NBC began using color film to time-delay and preserve some of its live color telecasts.  A company named Ampex  made a color videotape recorder in 1958 and  NBC used it to tape  An Evening With Fred Astaire,  the oldest surviving network color videotape.In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower visited the NBC station in Washington, D.C. and gave a speech discussing the new technologys merits. His speech was recorded in color, and a copy of this videotape was given to the Library of Congress.NBC  made the first coast-to-coast color broadcast when it telecast the  Tournament of Roses Parade  on January 1, 1954.The  premiere of Walt Disneys Wonderful World of Color in  September  1961 created a turning point that persuaded consumers to go out and purchase color televisions.  Television broadcasting  stations and networks in most parts of the w orld upgraded from black-and-white TVs to color transmission in the 1960s and 1970s. By 1979, even the last of these had converted to color, and by the early 1980s, black-and-white sets were mostly small portable sets  or those used as video monitor screens in lower-cost consumer equipment. By the late 1980s, even these areas switched to color sets.

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Words Beginning With For- and Fore-

Words Beginning With For- and Fore- Words Beginning With For- and Fore- Words Beginning With For- and Fore- By Maeve Maddox English has several words that begin with the prefixes for- and fore- Sometimes the prefix means â€Å"before† or â€Å"in front of.† Sometimes it means â€Å"outside,† a meaning derived from an Old French element related to modern French hors, as in the French borrowing hors d’oeuvre, â€Å"outside the main course.† Perhaps the most frequently misspelled of this category is the word found at the beginning of many books: Foreword. A book’s foreword is a preface, a brief essay not necessarily essential for the understanding of the text of a book and commonly written by someone other than the author of the text. Confusion arises from the existence of the adjective forward. As an adjective, forward is used to describe something that is in front of or ahead of something else. On a ship, things located towards the front are said to be forward, for example, the â€Å"forward hold.† A â€Å"forward child† in a positive sense is a clever child, precocious for its years. In a negative sense, a â€Å"forward child† is like the ones on television who exchange quips, insults, and double entendres with adults; again, the sense is that the child is ahead of its years. The three verbs forecast, foretell, and foresee all mean â€Å"to predict† or â€Å"to prophesy,† but have different connotations: The weatherman forecast showers for Monday. (prediction based on analysis of data) The gypsy foretold Gwen’s marriage to a rancher. (prediction based on mysterious knowledge) Harold’s business experience enabled him to foresee the consequences of his partner’s decision. (prediction based on personal experience) Some other verbs beginning with fore- in which the sense is â€Å"happening before† are: forebode: to announce beforehand. Forebode and forbid come from OE verbs with similar meanings. Forbid now means â€Å"to command a person not to do something.† Forebode means to announce ahead of time. The word forbode carries a connotation of dread, for example, â€Å"Vanishing act of middle class forebodes turbulent time.† The verb bode, on the other hand, means simply â€Å"to predict† or â€Å"to give promise of something† and may be used in either a positive or a negative context: Stephen Colberts Super-Charming Late Show Appearance Bodes Well for His New Gig. Scottish independence does not bode well for its economy foreordain: to determine in advance. â€Å"His hostility drives the drama in the first act, and his frenetic dancing in the second makes his demise seem foreordained.† forewarn: to warn or caution in advance. This quotation from Charles Kingsley has become a proverb: â€Å"To be forewarned is to be forearmed,† (i.e., knowledge of what is about to happen is like having a weapon with which to defend yourself). In the following nouns the prefix has the sense of â€Å"before†: forelock: A lock of hair growing from the fore part of the head, just above the forehead. In old novels you’ll find references to farm workers and other social inferiors touching or tugging their forelocks to show respect to their superiors: â€Å"There was plenty of bobbing from the girls and pulling of forelocks from the boys.† The expression â€Å"to take opportunity by the forelock† means to take advantage of a situation as aggressively as possible: â€Å"He seized opportunity by the forelock and secured the best aid possible in his business† forefather: an ancestor, one who has come before. foresight: The action or faculty of foreseeing what must happen. For example, â€Å"[Jacob Little] had unusual foresight, which at times seemed to amount to prescience.† In the following verbs, the prefix is from the French borrowing that meant â€Å"outside†: forbear: to abstain or refrain from â€Å"The defendants were asked to forbear to arrest Mr. Swift.† forswear: to swear falsely; to abandon or renounce â€Å"As waggish boys in game themselves forswear, So the boy Love is perjured everywhere.† A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I, i, 240-241. forfeit: to lose the right to; give up â€Å"The execution of a murderer does not violate his right to life, because he forfeited that right when he committed a murder.† John Locke forget: to lose remembrance of forgive: to give up resentment forsake: to give up, renounce foreclose: to preclude, hinder, or prohibit (a person) from (an action). Although spelled fore-, the prefix in foreclose has the â€Å"out† meaning, as in â€Å"to shut out.† Finally, there are two words that look almost alike, but have quite different origins: forebear (noun): An ancestor, forefather, progenitor (usually more remote than a grandfather). This noun is formed from the prefix fore- (before) and an old word, beer. This beer has nothing to do with the beverage. Instead, it comes from the verb to be. A be-er is one who exists. A forebear existed before you did. forbear (verb): to abstain or refrain from something. â€Å"Woman, forbear that weeping!† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Using "a" and "an" Before WordsHyper and HypoSupervise vs. Monitor