14 August 1888
John Logie Baird (JLB) is born
John Logie Baird is born at The Lodge, 121 West Argyle Street in Helensburgh, to Rev John Baird and his wife Jessie Inglis.
1899
Larchfield School and Boyhood
Age 11, Baird attended Larchfield School. Whilst he didn’t enjoy his days at Larchfield, his interest in science and technology was already showing. While at school he purchased a camera, for which he designed a remote control. He also enjoyed other pursuits:
‘I remember one of our favourite outlets for activity was careering from the top to the bottom of one of the main roads on soap-boxes mounted on wheels. These “bogie” races down the steep slope on which Helensburgh is built were dangerous enough even in pre-motor days, but no serious accidents ever occurred.’
1917
Baird Undersock Company
The appalling conditions in the trenches in the First World War meant that soldiers were prone to all sorts of foot infection. The Baird Undersock was a sock dipped in borax. He advertised them in innovative ways: for example sandwich board women (until then businesses had used only men) and a plywood mock-up of an army tank. If he discovered that a shop was not stocking his Undersocks, he would send his friends in to attempt to purchase them, with the result that the shop would conclude that they must be a popular item and so ordered them!
1924
Early Experiments in Television
To succeed with television Baird realised that strong light was essential. He tried to produce this by wiring up a network of batteries. This led to a 2000 volt electrocution and explosion, and Baird was evicted from his lodgings in Hastings, moving to 22 Frith Street in Soho, London. (Pictured, Baird at work in Hastings).
16 March 2025
Silhouettes and Stookie Bill
In March 1925 Baird made the first public demonstration of televised silhouette images in motion at Selfridges in London. Only one person at at time could look down a funnel to see the image.
Baird had to use so many lights, and they gave off so much heat, that it was uncomfortable for a person to sit close to them. The solution was to use a puppet’s head. Baird gave the puppet the name of Stookie Bill, and in fact there were a number of Stookie Bills – one even had to be replaced after the intense heat from the lights caused his hair to go on fire!
2 October 2025
The First Face on Television
‘Funds were going down, the situation was becoming desperate and we were down to our last £30 when at last, one Friday in the first week of October 1925, everything functioned properly. The image of the dummy’s head [Stookie Bill] formed itself on the screen with what appeared to me almost unbelievable clarity. I had got it! I could scarcely believe my eyes and felt myself shaking with excitement.
I ran down the little flight of stairs to Mr Cross’s office and seized by the arm his office boy William Taynton, hauled him upstairs and put him in front of the transmitter. I then went to the receiver only to find the screen a blank. William did not like the lights and the whirring discs and had withdrawn out of range. I gave him half a crown and pushed his head into position. This time he came through and on the screen I saw the flickering but clearly recognisable image of William’s face – the first face seen by television – and he had to be bribed with half a crown for the privilege of achieving this distinction. (John Logie Baird, Television and Me).
This event – the first ever transmission of a proper television picture – is commemorated by a blue plaque mounted on the wall of 22 Frith Street, Soho, London.
26 January 1926
World’s First Television Demonstration
Baird gave the world’s first public demonstration of a working television system that could scan and display live moving images with tonal graduation for members of the Royal Institution and a reporter from The Times in his laboratory at 22 Frith Street.
The Radio News (an American Publication) stated that ‘Mr Baird has definitely and indisputably given a demonstration of real television. It is the first time in history that this has been done in any part of the world.’
8 April 1927 – 24 May 1927
Distance Transmission
Baird Television Development Company floated on the Stock Exchange. On the same day, News broke of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company’s (AT&T) demonstration of TV by sending pictures from Washington to New York over the telephone lines – using Baird’s “flying spot” technique for scanning.
Not to be outdone, on 24 May 1927, Baird sent pictures by telephone from London to the Central Hotel, Glasgow – twice the distance from Washington to New York.
September-December 1927
Phonovision and Noctovision
20 September Baird makes first electronic image recordings onto ordinary 78 rpm gramophone records. He called this system ‘Phonovision’.
30 December Baird demonstrates ‘Noctovision’ (infrared television) to the Royal Institution (Pictured above).
9 February 1928
International Transmission
Baird was the first to transmit pictures from London to New York. The pictures were transmitted from their studio to his engineer Ben Clapp’s house in Coulsdon, where he had a 200′ radio mast in his garden, and they were transmitted from there by wireless using short-wave radio to New York.
Baird and Clapp also made the first successful ship-to-shore TV transmission from the Cunard ship Berengaria. (Pictured, Baird and Ben Clapp).
3 July 1928
Colour Television
Baird made the first public demonstration of colour television. The system used a spinning mirror-drum and revolving disc that alternated blue, green and red filters, and images of flowers and strawberries were used.
The technology of the colour field-sequential system developed by Baird in 1928 went on to be used in the television camera on the Apollo 11 Moon mission in 1969. Electronic colour cameras at that time were too big and heavy to go in the lunar module, so engineers used the earlier mechanical system to produce a smaller, low power camera.
1928
Filming Outdoors
During 1928 Baird worked on filming outdoors. He is pictured here with his lifelong friend Jack Buchanan, who is sitting in the deckchair. Buchanan grew up on the same street as Baird and went on to become an international star of stage and screen. During his lifetime Jack Buchanan was a financial backer of JLB, and after JLB’s death Jack ensured that the new owners of John Logie Baird Ltd continued to pay a pension to his widow, Margaret Baird.
1930-1931
TV Takes Off
In April 1930 Baird puts television in 10 Downing Street, receiving a letter of thanks from Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald.
On 14 July 1930, the first British television drama was transmitted: Pirandello’s The Man with a Flower in his Mouth.
8 May 1931 was the world’s first outside broadcast of people in the street outside Baird’s studio.
1935-1937
Baird and Marconi-EMI
The Television Advisory Committee, under Lord Selsdon, take evidence on the relative merits of the various worldwide ‘high definition’ (240 lines or greater) television systems. They recommend that both the Baird 240-line mechanical system and the Marconi-EMI 405-line electronic system be developed as alternatives for the proposed new London television station.
On 2 November 1936 BBC Television begins broadcasting regular programmes from Alexandra Palace to the London area. The non-compatible Baird and Marconi-EMI systems are used on alternate weeks.
On 30 November 1936 Crystal Palace, where Baird had his premises, was destroyed in a fire, causing major problems for Baird with regard to BBC transmissions.
6 February 1937 The Baird system is abandoned on the advice of the Television Advisory Committee.
16 August 1944
Telechrome
Baird gave the world’s first demonstration of a 600-line practical fully electronic colour television display. A live image of actress and racing driver Paddy Naismith was used to demonstrate this.
Baird also proposed a 1000-line Telechrome system as a new post-war broadcast standard, with picture resolution comparable to today’s HDTV (High Definition Television). These plans did not materialise in the post-war period, and British colour television broadcasts did not officially begin until 1967.
14 June 1946
Death of JLB
In February 1946 Baird suffered a stroke, and he passed away on 14 June aged just 57 at his home in Bexhill-on-Sea in East Sussex, only one week after television broadcasts had restarted after the war.
He is buried in Helensburgh Cemetery.