W3XK: America's first television station

August 13, 11:13 AMDC Broadcasting ExaminerTom Buckley

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 Jenkins TV Receiver Kit

     The first television station in the US and possibly the world began regular operations on July 6, 1928 here in Washington DC.  From a laboratory at 1519 Connecticut Ave NW, Charles Francis Jenkins broadcast "radiomovies" five nights a week over station W3XK.

     This was not television as we know it today, but rather mechanical television, which used spinning disks and large amounts of light to create images.  The pictures at first were rather crude silhouettes, then with more bandwidth, improved somewhat to become recognizable halftones.  Complete receivers were not readily available, most were sold as "RadioVisor" kits to be assembled by radio amateurs and hobbyists.  A more powerful transmitter of 5000 watts and 60 lines of resolution was soon constructed in nearby Wheaton, Maryland and hundreds of reception reports were received from viewers, some as far away as England.  Similar mechanical television experiments were also being conducted in Great Britain by inventor John Logie Baird.

      Other inventors continued to work on competing television ideas, most notably Philo Farnsworth in San Francisco.  On September 1, 1928, he held a press demonstration of the first fully electronic television system.  The limitations of mechanical TV soon became clear as the all-electronic systems began to take shape.   According to an article on the Museum of Broadcast Communications website, the high cost of RadioVisors, limited program offerings, and mediocre image quality led to the demise of Jenkins Television in March 1932.  Jenkins Laboratories continued to do television research until the founder's death in 1934.

     All but forgotten in television history, Charles Francis Jenkins was one of the country's most prolific inventors earning over 400 patents, with over 75 for mechanical television alone.  He was present at the birth of both motion pictures and television, the first person to make television a reality, and he paved the  way for the future medium's success.