NAT GEO documentary 2015 - Farnsworth vs Sarnoff - American Genius

NAT GEO documentary 2015 - Farnsworth vs Sarnoff - American Genius

[ music ]

- How do I look?

- Every age is defined
by its innovations.

The greatest advances are born
out of fierce struggles

between rivals.

- It is with a very deep
sense of humility

that I come to this moment
of announcing the birth

in this country of a new art so
important in its implications,

that it is bound to affect
all society.

And now, ladies and gentlemen,
we add sight to sound.

- Move, move, move, move.

- Hey, watch it, kid.

- Television is an art that
shines like a torch of hope

to a troubled world.

- The television is one of
the most revolutionary

inventions of our time.

- Get away.

- Take it easy.

- Hey, watch it.

- But the story of its
creation is the ultimate

David and Goliath tale.

A decades-long battle between
one of the biggest media moguls

in the world and a one-time
farm boy from Idaho driven

to turn a childhood vision
of the future into reality.

Their rivalry would bring an
already rich man even more

wealth and power,

and push the other
to the brink of insanity.

But together, they brought
the world into the home,

and connected humanity
like never before.

- I am glad--

- In the early 20th century,
a new invention has captured

the imagination of the world.

- I want to say--

- A device known as the radio.

- Radio changed America.

All of a sudden,

the nation can participate in
a single event at the same time.

Before this,

if a big event occurred
in Washington,

people on the West Coast would
hear about it hours later,

days later.

Radio brings the nation
together in real time in a way

that had simply not been
possible before.

- One man sees the potential
of the budding radio industry,

and wants to dominate it.

- Thank you.

- Good morning.
How are we today?

- Oh, Mr. Sarnoff.
- Yes.

- The lawyers are right here.
- They are.

- Mr. Sarnoff.
- Yes.

- The annual report's ready.

- I don't like that title.

Change that right away, please.
Thank you.

Good morning, gentlemen.
- Yes, sir.

- His name is David Sarnoff.

And he's the general
manager of RCA,

the leading radio broadcast
company in America.

- Sarnoff was an ambitious
and very driven man.

He wanted to climb as far
in this business that he loved

as he could,

and he never let any
obstacles stop him

from pursuing his goals.

- RCA manufactures radios and
owns over 2,000 radio patents.

Sarnoff believes the patents
are where the big money

is to be made.

- What do you see, gentlemen?

- I see the parts to a radio.

- What I see is the technology
that goes into the radio.

75% of all radios were sold
by other companies.

That's how we make our money,
license the patents.

We turn our competitors
into customers.

Every time they sell a radio,
we make money.

- Sarnoff was able to create
power for himself and RCA

by taking all the inventions
in the radio world

and putting them together
into one asset,

so anyone who made a radio had
to license the patents from him.

He was a genius because he saw
the whole ecosystem of radio.

That it wasn't just
a technological invention,

it was an entire industry.

- It's my honor to introduce
tonight's main speaker.

Today, radio is a
household word.

For those of us in the industry,
he is not just a leader,

he is radio.

Ladies and gentlemen,
I give you David Sarnoff of RCA.

- As radio's popularity surges,
RCA's profits soar.

David Sarnoff has built
a media empire.

But nearly 2,000 miles away,

a teenage farm boy
is formulating an idea

that could make radio obsolete.

- Schemes to create television
are not new,

though every previous
attempt has failed,

as the greatest minds in history

have tried to perfect
this technology.

- 14-year-old Philo Farnsworth
has a knack for electronics.

But he is also a dreamer.

- Philo Farnsworth was
the son of a potato farmer.

He was shy and withdrawn.

But he had some kind
of inner drive.

He was always tinkering
with crystal radio sets,

and he was looking up to the
heroes of the age like Edison,

Tesla, Ford,
the Wright Brothers.

- Farnsworth dreams of adding
moving images to the radio

by capturing a picture
electronically,

as a microphone does with sound.

But he can't figure out how
to make his dream a reality,

until inspiration comes from
an unlikely place,

the plow lines of his
father's field.

- Farnsworth had the natural
talent for science,

and it suddenly occurs to him
that it would be possible

to build a device that would
scan an image line by line,

the same way your eye scans
the pages of a book.

- Farnsworth's inspiration
soon turns to an obsession.

Between schoolwork
and farm work,

the teenager refines his idea.

A device that could
electronically scan an image

dozens of times per second,
then transmit that picture

across the airwaves
at the speed of light.

- Time doesn't exist when
you're creating.

24 hours feels like an hour,
and the next thing you know,

a whole day has passed.

That's creativity.

Nothing else matters.

- You're the only person I know
who might understand this idea.

- Farnsworth shares
his idea with his

high school science teacher,
Justin Tolman.

- You came up with
this yourself.

- Yes.

- It was unbelievable to a man
of science like Justin Tolman

that a kid would have this
miraculous breakthrough

that scientists around
the world hadn't conceived of.

- Be careful who you
trust with this.

- For the next four years,

Farnsworth finetunes his design,

leaving Idaho,
and relocating to California

with his new wife, Pam.

Farnsworth sets up
a small laboratory,

determined to make his
dream a reality.

- It sends images through
the air without wires,

and it's called television.

Now, the key is--

- In a stroke of good fortune,
the Crocker Family,

one of the original investors in
the Transcontinental Railroad,

gets wind of Farnsworth's
idea and wants to invest.

- $25,000 and 60% share.

- But I only asked
for a 49% share.

- 25,000 for 60.

- It was a difficult decision
that he had to face,

which was I need to raise money
to build my television

to get it out into the world.

And the only thing he could do
was give up partial ownership

of his baby.

- The investment is enough for
Farnsworth to jumpstart

his small lab and build
a prototype of his television.

- It takes an entrepreneur
and perhaps a team of people

that get behind an idea,
and push it and push it.

They push to get
the capital to fund it.

They push against competition
that wants to crush it.

- Okay. This should do it.

All right, Cliff.

Let's get that curtain shut.

- Farnsworth is ready to put
his prototype to the test

and glimpse the future.

- All right, hit it.

We've got to get something here.

Hold on.

Okay, try it now.

Still not seeing anything.

Shut it down.

- Farnsworth's first attempt
is a failure.

And his dream of creating
a working television

hangs in the balance.

In less than 10 years,
David Sarnoff has built RCA

into a radio empire.

But in San Francisco,

a young inventor named Philo
Farnsworth has built a prototype

of a television,

a machine that could crush
radio's supremacy.

There's just one problem.

It doesn't work.

- Farnsworth needed a way for
the negatively charged electrons

that got shot across
the cathode ray tube

to stick to the surface
of the screen.

- Positive and negative.

Opposites, they attract,

so the coating needs to be
the most positive element.

- Farnsworth focused,
finally, on cesium,

which was the most photo-
positive element he could find.

And that was really a big part
of the breakthrough that made

television work.

- With his design reconfigured,

Farnsworth is ready to show
his investors exactly

what they've been waiting for.

- Gentlemen.

Now, you asked me when you
would see dollar signs

in this gadget.

Cliff?

Look right here.

- It says something about
Farnsworth's conviction

and the force of his personality
that he was able to get this

up and running.

One of his investors said
the ideas in this boy's head

will astonish the world.

- This is going to make
us a fortune.

We just have to pick
the right time to sell.

- Sell?

- Let's just see what kind
of offers we can get.

- Farnsworth said no, no, no,
I'm an inventor.

I'm going to use the money
from licensing the patents

to create more inventions
and refine the invention.

He wanted to be
in control of it.

He wanted to be the Edison
of television.

- Farnsworth needs to convince
his investors

that they'll make more money if
they hold onto his invention.

- Why don't we invite
the newspapers? Hm?

A demonstration.

- Farnsworth called
a press conference,

and the San Francisco Chronicle
came and snapped a photo

of this young genius
and his amazing light machine.

- While Farnsworth applies
for a patent,

the news of his television
quickly spreads

throughout the country.

- Thank you, Diane.

- And lands on the desk
of David Sarnoff.

- Sarnoff's reaction was
a little bit of panic,

because he was
the radio monopoly.

And in one sense,

television could disrupt
the market for radios.

People might stop buying radios
if they read that

in the near future, I could
see pictures on this thing.

- If Sarnoff can pantent
television first,

then RCA could own
this new technology.

Just like they do radio.

- He had a very keen awareness
of how important it was

and how much power having
a patent could give you

in shaping the course of future
technological development.

- But to compete with the minds
like Philo Farnsworth,

Sarnoff will need someone
equally as brilliant.

And he finds his man
in Vladimir Zworykin.

- Zworykin was a Russian
engineer who was working

at Westinghouse in Pittsburgh
who had early designs

on electronic television,
as well.

- Zworykin has filed
for patents on his own

electronic television system,

but he hasn't been able to
produce a design that works.

- Here, it will capture the
image and send it wirelessly.

- Sarnoff offers Zworykin
four times the budget

of Farnsworth to bring
television to life.

- David Sarnoff knew
that television

had to be invented at RCA,

and he needed to take
credit for the invention,

whatever the cost.

- The race to invent
television has begun.

This is going to make
us a fortune.

- In the late 1920s,

television is on the cusp
of becoming a reality.

And radio giant David Sarnoff
wants this new technology

under the control of RCA.

But by August, 1930,

Philo Farnsworth is already
way ahead of him.

Three years earlier,

the young inventor submitted
a patent for his design,

and finally, it's been approved.

According to the
United States government,

Philo Farnsworth is the inventor
of electronic television.

His patents will last
for 17 years,

and now he's in reach
of his ultimate goal,

a television in every
American home

with the Farnsworth name on it.

- Is that it?

- David Sarnoff has spent
$100,000 to recruit

Vladimir Zworykin to develop
a television for RCA.

- Well, we just need to
figure out a way to keep

the negative charge from
building up on the screen.

- In other words, his works,
and ours doesn't.

- Sarnoff refuses to be beaten
to the most important invention

of the 20th century.

So, he makes a bold move
to put television

at the forefront of RCA.

- It's impossible to boil David
Sarnoff down to one thing.

He's either a
corporate visionary,

or the most ruthless robber
baron you can possibly imagine.

- Despite the fact that
Farnsworth owns the patent,

Sarnoff announces that RCA
will invest $1 million

in developing a television.

- David Sarnoff thought that
if he couldn't buy up

the patent outright,
he would steal it.

And if he couldn't steal it,

he would find a way to
delay progress to give

his own team time to do the
same thing in a different way.

To his way of thinking, that
was how the game was played.

- Farnsworth can see
the race is heating up,

and if he wants to compete,
he has to move fast.

- Farnsworth faced a choice.

Either he could raise
massive amounts of capital

and begin manufacturing
televisions himself,

or he could license his patents
and begin working with

a radio company that
knew how to manufacture

this kind of equipment.

- In an effort to get his
television to market before RCA,

Farnsworth turns to
a Philadelphia-based

radio manufacturer
called Philco.

But just when Farnsworth
is starting to make progress,

he is blindsided by the power
of David Sarnoff.

Philco, like almost every
other radio manufacturer,

has to license radio
patents from RCA.

- I want you to look
at the numbers.

- And when David Sarnoff learns
of their television partnership

with Farnsworth,

he decides to flex
all of his muscle.

- What Sarnoff ends up doing,
essentially, is pressure Philco

to get out of television
by saying if you keep working

with Farnsworth,

we will stop allowing you
to use RCA's radio patents.

- Philo? Philo.

- Philco's backing out.

- What?

- Sarnoff's aggressive tactics
have backed Farnsworth

into a corner.

If Farnsworth is going to win,

he'll have to find a way
to strike back.

- We're going to sue him.

- Philo.

- David Sarnoff has blocked
Philo Farnsworth

from manufacturing
his television.

But Farnsworth
isn't backing down.

Now, in a bold move,

the young inventor will
meet Vladimir Zworykin

and the best lawyers RCA's
money can buy in court

to determine who the
invention of television

really belongs to.

[ gavel pounding ]

- Was television invented
by Mr. Zworykin,

working with brilliant minds
in the world's finest

research facility?

Or was it invented
by a 15-year-old farm boy?

- RCA mobilized the strength
of its full legal department,

and they had some of the best
lawyers in the country.

Farnsworth had what he felt
was the right on his side.

- They will have no choice.

- The case rests on
who had a design

for working television first.

Vladimir Zworykin
filed his patent in 1923,

while Farnsworth submitted
in 1927, four years later.

If RCA can prove Zworykin's
original design was functional,

Farnsworth could
lose everything.

- The question at stake
was who described

in their patent applications a
working television system first.

And this was pretty
hard to figure out.

So, they had to hash all
this out in patent court.

Technical experts had to go
through all the evidence.

- It is our belief that if
this court is able

to answer this question
successfully by laying out

an accurate chronology,

it will have no choice
but to find for my client.

- The hearing drags on
for 15 bruising months.

Farnsworth's legal fees
reach $30,000,

over half a million dollars
in today's money.

And the ordeal is
taking a brutal toll.

- The fighting back and forth
between his operation and RCA,

it's proven a real physical
and emotional strain.

He turns to alcohol.

- David Sarnoff knows
he has time on his side.

The longer deliberations last,
the longer he can keep

Farnsworth away from his lab
and his invention.

- The court cannot be allowed
to distract us from the essence

of this case.

- It's very much a
David and Goliath scenario.

Farnsworth doesn't
have deep pockets,

and Sarnoff knows he can spin
this out as long as he has to.

- With no hard evidence
to prove that he came up

with television first,

the case is turning
against Farnsworth.

But he has one last hope.

- The plaintiff calls
its next witness.

How do you know Mr. Farnsworth?

- I was his teacher
in high school.

- And how did you come
to learn of his idea?

- One day after science class,
he explained it to me.

- And you evaluated the idea,
and judged it to have merit.

Is that correct?

- As best I could.

- Where was your
training in physics?

- I studied chemistry,
and taught it.

- But no training,
no background,

but you come here and testify
that what Mr. Farnsworth

told you in 1922,

when he was 15 years old,
matches his patent from 1930.

- I have proof.

He not only told me
about television,

he drew me a picture.

- Tolman's testimony proves
that Farnsworth conceived

of a working television
one year before Zworykin.

- This was an amazingly
dramatic moment for Farnsworth,

because Mr. Tolman remembered
this kid as the smartest student

he's ever had.

So, this was a very powerful,

emotional statement of his
teacher coming to his defense

to hopefully win
this landmark patent war.

- In fact, Farnsworth's
childhood sketch is remarkably

similar to his actual plans.

On July 22nd, 1935,

Farnsworth is awarded priority
of invention.

He's free and clear
to pursue his dream

to make and sell televisions.

But his victory is short-lived.

- Okay, next.

- Mr. Sarnoff,

we have a rigorous appeals
strategy planned.

- Keep him busy,
file junctions, delay him.

- For how long?

- For years.

Until his patents expire.

- Despite the ruling,
Sarnoff refuses to admit defeat.

By applying legal
pressure and leaning on

political connections,

he's determined to keep
Farnsworth from manufacturing,

buying time for Zworykin
to build a working television

for RCA,

one that isn't dependent
on Farnsworth's patents.

- Sarnoff brings his power
to bear to suppress

any business advantage
that Farnsworth might have had.

Basically, he's trying to
cut off any flow of money

and essentially tighten
the noose around Farnsworth.

- Farnsworth has developed
a 10-inch television

with 343 lines of resolution.

He's won the right in court
to manufacture it

and make a fortune.

But at every turn,
he's blocked by David Sarnoff.

- Farnsworth had
a lot going for him.

He had a working
television system.

He had the patent rights to
produce this television system

and earn money from it.

But he couldn't do it.
Farnsworth was powerless.

- While David Sarnoff
keeps Philo Farnsworth

from manufacturing
his invention,

the media mogul begins
laying the groundwork

for his television empire.

He builds a new lab
in the center of Manhattan,

and begins conducting tests
from a transmitter

atop the Empire State Building.

Sarnoff has a grand plan
to launch America's

first television network,

called the National Broadcasting
Company, or NBC.

But he can't do any of it
unless Vladimir Zworykin

can build him
a television that works.

- Mr. Sarnoff.

- Where's your team?

- It's Sunday.

- I need you to get me a
television that I can sell.

- The tycoons
of the 19th century,

the Vanderbilts,
the Morgans,

the Carnegies,

Sarnoff definitely saw
himself as one of those people.

When he saw a technology
that he felt had potential,

he was willing to put
in as much money,

time, manpower,
resources as necessary

to bring it to fruition.

- Zworykin rises
to Sarnoff's challenge,

steadily improving their
prototype's resolution,

line by line.

- Zworykin was a very,
very talented,

very accomplished scientist,

and Sarnoff had the good
sense to supply him

with the tools he needed
and let him get on with it.

And Zworykin did.

- Zworykin gets his television
up to 441 lines of resolution

and 30 frames per second,
the same as Farnsworth's.

Sarnoff has spent the modern
equivalent of $165 million

to finally match his rival.

Farnsworth has spent less than
a tenth of what Sarnoff has,

but the physical and mental
toll has been high.

- By 1939, Farnsworth
had been working 18 hour days

for 15 years,

and he was driving
so hard at it,

and he was compensating
by drinking heavily.

He wasn't getting sleep.

He had ulcers.

He had all kinds of
personal problems.

- There was an enormous
cost to Farnsworth

of the ongoing struggles,
but he always rallied.

He always came back.

And as bad as things got,
he never gave up.

- As Farnsworth continues
to labor on his dream,

Sarnoff is ready to go public
with Zworykin's creation,

at the Greatest Show On Earth,
the 1939 New York World's Fair.

With its theme,
The World of Tomorrow,

it would draw 44 million people.

The world is about to be
introduced to television.

- How do I look?

- Good, sir.

- It's important.

- It is with a very deep
sense of humility

that I come to this moment
of announcing the birth

in this country of a new art so
important in its implications,

that it is bound to
affect all society.

Television is an art that
shines like a torch of hope

to a troubled world.

And now, ladies and gentlemen,
we add sight to sound.

- Move, move.

- Get away.

- Hey, watch it, kid.

- It is with a very deep
sense of humility

that I come to this moment
of announcing the birth

in this country of a new art so
important in its implications

that it is bound
to affect all society.

Television is an art that
shines like a torch of hope

to a troubled world.

- David Sarnoff has beaten
Philo Farnsworth in the battle

to introduce America

to the technological
marvel of television.

- Get away.

- Hey, watch it, kid.

- Even though the courts
named Farnsworth the creator

of television, it's Sarnoff
who's getting all the credit.

- Farnsworth was powerless to
overcome that kind of publicity.

- Farnsworth was essentially
done in by the power

of his own invention.

The hidden power of television
was you could create an image

that was perceived as reality,
and you could not overcome that.

- Despite his public victory,

Sarnoff isn't satisfied
with his current model.

Vladimir Zworykin keeps working,

and develops a second
television that's far superior

to the first.

The only catch is that it uses
elements of Farnsworth's design.

To put the best television
on the market,

Sarnoff will need to do the one
thing he swore RCA never would.

- Sarnoff tells his lawyers
that they need to go

and purchase the rights to
use Farnsworth's patents,

something that RCA
had never done.

They're used to having
other people pay them

patent royalties.

This was a complete reversal

of their normal
business practice.

But they had to do that.

- It's the payout that
the inventor has always wanted.

But before Farnsworth
is able to meaningfully

advance his design,
fate intervenes.

- Yesterday,
December 7th, 1941,

a date which will
live in infamy,

the United States of America

was suddenly and
deliberately attacked

by naval and air forces
of the Empire of Japan.

- Suddenly, television is the
last thing on American minds.

- When the US got involved
in the war,

all manufacturing
in the United States

had to be dedicated
to wartime equipment,

so television was literally
put on hold for six years.

Farnsworth's patents
expired in 1946,

so he was not able to earn
royalties from his invention

in time for this incredible
explosion of television

taking over America.

- By the time the war ends,

Farnsworth's patents
are no longer valid.

Now anyone can use
the technology he devised.

- Thank you.

Make an appointment, please.

Make an appointment.

- David Sarnoff
seizes the moment.

RCA develops its first consumer
TV since the end of the war,

and sells nearly 10,000
in its first year.

- Television did what radio
had already been doing,

but did it better.

So, now, not only could you
hear what was happening,

you could see
what was happening.

You could be there.

- Sarnoff's TV network, NBC,

has been broadcasting
experimentally since 1937.

Now it's ready for primetime,

and television enters
its Golden Age.

- He is taking his time--

- Television unified
the world in a way

that it never had before.

For the first time,

instead of just hearing of what
was going on someplace else,

you could now see, live, what
was going on half a world away.

This was an amazing,
almost magical ability

granted to us
by this technology.

- In a matter of three years,

the number of televisions
in American living rooms

climbs from 40,000
to over nine million.

And RCA's profits increase
from nine million in 1940

to nearly $50 million
just 10 years later.

It isn't long before television
takes over as the most

popular form of
entertainment in America.

- Perigee plus 00085.

- In 1969, television cements
its place in human history

when the world watches an
unprecedented broadcast

from outer space.

- That's one
small step for man,

one giant leap for mankind.

- That looks beautiful
from here, Neil.

- One of the 600 million people
watching the historic event

is Philo Farnsworth.

- To setting up the flag, now.

I guess you're about the only
person around that doesn't have

TV coverage of the scene.

- That's all right.
I don't mind a bit.

- Farnsworth created
television, really,

to bring people together
around powerful images.

And watching the lunar
landing on his sofa,

which was broadcast to the
biggest audience ever assembled

in the history of the world,

it was really a final moment
of redemption for him.

This is why he did it.

This makes it all worthwhile.

- Sarnoff may have been the one
to introduce the world

to electronic television,

but history would go on to
recognize Philo Farnsworth

as the true creator of one of
the most significant inventions

of the 20th century.

- How is the quality on your TV?

- Beautiful.
Just beautiful.