Kalman Tihanyi’s 1926 Patent Application "Radioskop"
Documentary heritage submitted by Hungary and recommended for inclusion in the Memory of the World Register in 2001.
© Katalin Tihanyi Glass
Kalman Tihanyi ca. 1942.
The television system, which in the wake of the publication of Kalman Tihanyi’s French and British patents of 1928 priority gave new direction to television development, is recognized by historiography as one of the great inventions of the 20th century. This invention, the last of the three "evolutionary leaps" discernible within the developmental history of television, made possible its technical realization and industrial mass-production.
The documentary heritage is the first description by the inventor of his television system, and the only existing complete collection of documents representing the Hungarian patent applications he filed in 1926 under the name "Radioskop". The significance of this document, then, resides in the fact that it is here the inventor first laid out the fundaments of modern television featuring a fully electronic television transmitting and receiving system and introducing, among many novel features, the operating principle of accumulation and "storage" of electrical charges throughout each scansion cycle.