Mei Man: I drew Superman during the Great Depression

Chapter 241 The Invention of Television

Positive world, Overland Limited (Overland Premium Express).

With the sound of the roaring train, Ke Lin looked at the Huzhong Station which was getting farther and farther behind him, and silently retracted his gaze.

From Salt Lake City, the train is less than a day's drive away from the terminal in San Francisco. Driving on the rugged railroad tracks, even on the train, Colin can still feel the shaking of the train.

The Overland Line is the most important part of the continent, but also the most difficult to lay.

In the past, the shortest journey from New York to San Francisco was 6 months.

After the railway is completed, the journey only takes 7 days.

In the era of lack of modern machines, only manpower and simple tools were used to dig the road and complete the rendezvous of the two railways.

Every spike on the railway was stained with the blood and tears of Chinese laborers.

However, this period of history was deliberately ignored, and none of them were invited to the completion ceremony.

There is no trace of them in the famous photo of the steam locomotive "facing east and west".

When the golden steel nails that symbolized the successful confluence of the two railways were hammered into the sleepers, they were even more abandoned by their employers. The Central Pacific Railway Company even refused to transport them back to San Francisco, but let them go back on foot, so many people were hungry. Die en route or be killed.

Someone once described: "Under every sleeper on the American railway, lies the corpse of an Irish worker."

But in fact, under the sleepers of the Pacific Railway, there are not only the corpses of Irish workers, but also the corpses of more Chinese workers.

On the Overland line to San Francisco, Colin's mood was a little silent.

The construction of the Overland Line railway was already more than [-] years ago. At that time, most of the workers who participated in the railway construction had passed away long ago, but the railway they built was still transporting the trains of the Pacific Railway Company day and night. .

……

The train from Salt Lake City to San Francisco took 19 hours to reach the end of the trip.

"Whoo~"

After getting off the train, Colin also adjusted his originally silent mood.

After all, his trip to San Francisco wasn't about railroad history.

Because it was the terminal station, there were extraordinarily many passengers getting off this trip.

Many homeless people who climbed on the truck also got off the train one after another, looking at the new environment in front of them.

Coming out of the San Francisco train station, Colin quickly found a man holding his name in the crowd.

The man was wearing a slightly baggy suit, which set off his thin body even thinner. He was wearing a white bowler hat, and holding a sign, he kept looking at the people passing by in front of the station.

"Mr. Colin Luper?"

Noticing Ke Lin's gaze on the sign in his hand, the man immediately stepped forward and asked a question in a probing tone.

"it's me."

Nodding his head, Colin admitted his identity, and at the same time greeted the man in front of him.

"Mr. John Daly."

Hearing Colin pronounce his name accurately, John Daly immediately knew that the other party was the client he was waiting for.

Quickly put away the put away sign, and at the same time forced out a smile and replied: "You can just call me John."

"After receiving a letter from Mr. Colin Luper intending to go to San Francisco, I have been waiting at the train station three days ago..."

"Sorry, the trip was delayed due to the sandstorm."

"Sandstorm, I've heard about it too. I heard that the whole of New York was covered in yellow sand."

As a private detective, John Daly is fairly well-informed, even he has heard a little about the sandstorm incident in New York City.

While speaking, John Daly reached out to take the suitcase in Colin's hand.

"Let me take it myself. There are a lot of things in the suitcase. I'm afraid you won't be able to carry them."

The latter put his arm back slightly, avoiding John Daly's outstretched arm.

"Can't hold it?"

Hearing Colin's refusal, John Daly raised his eyebrows slightly under the bowler hat, looked at the ugly suitcase in front of him, and couldn't help but say.

"Mr. Colin Luper, don't look at my thin appearance. In fact, I worked in the San Francisco Police Department before becoming a private detective. I am more powerful than I imagined."

As he spoke, John Daly deliberately raised his arms in a bodybuilding pose.

Colin smiled at this.

Seeing that the client was unwilling to let go, John Daly no longer forcibly snatched the suitcase from the other party's hand.

Take Colin to a car that looks old and wait until he gets in.

John Daly stepped on the accelerator and drove towards the city.

The train station is still about [-] minutes away from the city by car. Although there is a tram nearby, even the locals may not be able to understand the complex traffic situation in San Francisco.

What's more, as a big client, John Daly couldn't let Colin take the tram to downtown San Francisco alone.

"...For this period of time, Ferro Farnsworth has been staying in his own company, rarely going out, and even the places he goes out are some factories, nothing too special. "

Driving the car to downtown San Francisco, John Daly began to report his findings to Colin.

Private detectives have a long history, and the most famous in the United States is the "Pinkerton National Detective Agency" established by Alan Pinker.

Even the word "private eye" (private eye), which is often used in English to refer to private detectives, represents Pinkerton's logo-a wide open eye and "We Never Sleep" slogan.

Of course, what made Alan Pinker most famous was that on the eve of the outbreak of the Civil War, Lincoln took the train to Washington to take office, passing through Baltimore, and Pinkerton's detectives promptly exposed a local conspiracy to assassinate the president.

Lincoln was so impressed with them that Detective Pinkerton was responsible for the security of the presidential train during the war.At the same time, he also instructed Alan Pinkerton to form the famous "Secret Service". In addition to being responsible for protecting the personal safety of the president and other government officials, he also directly participated in military intelligence collection and counterintelligence work.

Later, the functions of these two parts were separated from each other. The former exists today, and the latter is the predecessor of the CIA and the FBI.

……

Influenced by detective comics, during the period of the Great Depression, bounty hunters sprung up like mushrooms after a spring rain, but the vast majority of them were just half-dumbs who didn’t understand anything, and many of them were simply unemployed wanderers. Chinese.

Private investigators like John Daly with rich investigation experience are in the minority.

And the Philo Farnsworth that John Daly said was also the key to Colin's trip to San Francisco.

Two years earlier, the year following the Great Depression, the U.S. government had granted Ferro Farnsworth a patent certificate giving him all patents for the legal use of televisions.

However, the future life of Ferro Farnsworth, who holds the TV patent, did not go smoothly.

On the contrary, his whole life was tormented by this patent.

In the current period, although Philo Farnsworth owns the patent for televisions, manufacturers who are interested in making televisions in this era seem to be only interested in mechanical televisions that are destined to be eliminated, and almost no one appreciates Farnsworth inventions, with one exception, the Radio Corporation of America.

As for RCA, Colin was not worried about the company's troubles with his meeting with Ferro Farnsworth.

Because RCA never thought of obtaining the legal patent rights for television from Philo Farnsworth from the beginning to the end.

……

Knowing the situation of Ferro Farnsworth from John Daly, Colin went directly to him without too much delay.

Standing in front of the address given by John Daly, he reached out and knocked on the door.

tuk tuk-

"who is it?"

Hearing a knock on the door from outside, a slightly tired voice came from inside.

Click.

Immediately afterwards, there was a series of hurried footsteps.

The door opened, and a man with glasses and a high forehead appeared at the door, looked at Colin and asked, "May I ask who you are?"

"Is that Mr. Ferro Farnsworth?"

Seeing the man coming out of the room, Colin compared the information he got from John Daly, and introduced himself: "I am Colin Luper, the New York "Messenger Daily" and the mechanical The boss of the factory, the purpose of coming this time is for the TV patent in your hand..."

In the distance, in the car.

"Can't hold it?"

John Daly looked at Colin in front of Ferro Farnsworth, and turned his head to look at the suitcase the other party left in the car.

The conversation between Colin and himself in front of the station sounded, and he couldn't help reaching out to the back seat of the car.

"I want to see how much you weigh"

Holding the handle of the suitcase with one hand, John Daly said with a look of disbelief.

"Um?!"

However, in the next second, the heavy weight from the trunk caused an instant change in the expression on John Daly's face in the car.

……

"I'm Filo."

Hearing Colin's introduction, Jacob was not too surprised.

Ever since he got the patent for television, there have been occasional visitors like Colin.

However, most of them never appeared again after seeing his prototype.

Over the past few years, Ferro Farnsworth has been trying hard to industrialize his television invention and make it as popular as a radio, but he has never been able to achieve it.

However, Ferro Farnsworth is not too frustrated about this, because as long as the invention right of television is in his hands, he has the confidence to industrialize it.

"This is the television I invented..."

In Ferro Farnsworth's laboratory, Colin also saw the prototype invented by the other party.

In a way, Ferro Farnsworth is indeed a complete genius. The inspiration for television was born as early as when he was fourteen years old, and after that, Ferro Farnsworth Taking this inspiration as the road, he finally successfully invented a special video tube to receive the picture and play the TV.

This kind of electronic TV, which is different from mechanical TV, later became the mainstream of mass TV.

However, unlike the smooth process of invention, Ferro Farnsworth's process of industrializing his invention was extremely bumpy.

Especially after Ferro Farnsworth met his lifelong enemy-RCA.

In the next ten years, the two became entangled with each other because of patent matters.

At that time, the most famous sentence of the American Radio Corporation was: "We only charge patent fees, and never pay patent fees."

"Although most factories are currently optimistic about the prospect of mechanical TVs, I don't think so. The speed of mechanical operation will never be fast enough to clearly capture and reproduce electronic signals transmitted through the air. The device that was made was able to do this..."

This was an idea Philo Farnsworth had established at the age of fourteen, and it was the key to his invention of the electronic television.

In the laboratory, Ferro Farnsworth showed Colin the television camera he invented, and the pictures captured by the camera through the operation of the machine were presented on the TV screen.

That's right, in addition to the television, Ferro Farnsworth is also the inventor of the television camera.

Even, the heavy TV camera Colin saw in front of him was the world's first TV camera invented by the other party.

"...For this period of time, I have been working hard to adjust the electronic equipment and photocells, and finally I can make the pictures captured by the camera appear more clearly on the TV screen. At the same time, this is not the final result. If Given me a little more time, I can make a much clearer TV picture."

Ferro Farnsworth is very confident in his invention. He looked at Colin who was attracted by the TV screen in front of him, and couldn't help introducing it with eloquence.

"I'm sure, Mr. Ferro Farnsworth, whether it's television or video camera, it's an invention beyond the ages."

Nodding his head, as a latecomer, Colin naturally understands the importance of the TV.

Its popularity ended the era of broadcasting. Even though it gradually weakened under the impact of the Internet, it still occupies an important position in human inventions.

Facing Colin's affirmation, Ferro Farnsworth couldn't help but smile.

Although in his later years, Ferro Farnsworth began to criticize TV, thinking that what the TV station did had changed his original intention of inventing this machine at that time, thinking that it was an invention that wasted people's time, and even once banned children from watching television.

But at least for now, he's proud of it.

But, unfortunately, the purpose of Colin's coming here is not just to admire this invention, he wants to obtain a patent for the production of TV, and turn it into another source of "faith" besides comics and radio dramas. channel.

"I don't know, Mr. Ferro, do you know a man named Zorigin?"

(End of this chapter)