The first TV set I can remember was born before I was. It was in a huge mahogany box and had a mirror in the lid. The picture tube sat face-up in the huge cabinet and we watched the reflection in the mirrored lid. 13 fine-tune knobs took care of horizontal hold, vertical hold, widening the picture, squeezing it down from the top and bottom, diagonal distortion, and contrast plus volume and some I have forgotten. I was the only one other than my Dad who ever mastered the mighty brute, but what an educa ion I got from it. Now, I have its descendant in my pocket with a 2" tube - in color.

sounds like a good Alexander topic, this one...

You mean you're thinking of taking up studying as well?

I sure hope it appeals to someone. I did not want to write a book in here all by myself.

A bit of correction before the world descends on me. Television was not a post WW2 invention. It was in working order in the 30's and transmissions were broadcast on a somewhat erratic schedule, mostly to test the equipment. Full fledged commercial TV did not happen for mass audiences until after the war, but I was watching the liberation of concentration camps live and direct as my horrified mother tried to get me into another room and onto more wholesome persuits. I can still see the images...

I remember being positioned directly in front of our mammoth console constantly fiddling with the horizontal hold.

Oh yes! The memories....Kids have no idea how lucky they are. Actually, this monitor is doing a bang-up job, too. Have not had to fiddle with the adjustments for weeks! No more flip...flip...flip...flip...

They already had tv during the Olympics in Berlin in 1936 - only prototypes and not for the masses, who by that time still had to get a radio, anyway... But still, there it was! The first proper broadcast was in London, but this factoid walked in without a date written on the forehead, and it doesn't know where it's from, either. Yes, the flip-flip-thing! Drove you mad, didn't it? Actually, I never noticed it doesn't happen anymore... Just goes to show nobody ever really notices improvements (doesn't go for anything Mr. Rolnad does, though).

I love Leni Riefenstahl's old films. The conditions under which they were make were appalling, of course, but the woman is an artistic genius.

She was, indeed, and is still so considered. Her abberation must have been her employer's idea, which she carried out in inspired ways...I would be interested in more of her inner workings and what was driving her thinking and creativity!

I think she was simply selfish as an artist and as a person. Didn't give a damn about anything but the art, felt no responsibility outside it.

How does a television work? If you've ever looked at the back of a TV on the inside, you know that there is a metal coil which is very hot. An electric current runs through the coil, and the high temperature forces the electrons to jump off (this is known as thermionic emission). Magnets are positioned along the sides of the electrons' direction of motion, which alter their trajectory by applying varying voltages in order to hit specific parts of the TV screen. The inside of the screen is covered with phosphorus compounds, and when the electrons strike it, the phosphor glows, producing red, green, or blue light. The hundreds or even thousands of bits of phosphor are called pixels, and together they form the images you see.