Charles Francis Jenkins
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John Scott Medal (1913) |
Charles Francis Jenkins (August 22, 1867 – June 6, 1934) was an American engineer who was a pioneer of early cinema and one of the inventors of television, though he used mechanical rather than electronic technologies. His businesses included Charles Jenkins Laboratories and Jenkins Television Corporation (the corporation being founded in 1928, the year the Laboratories were granted the first commercial television license in the United States). Over 400 patents were issued to Jenkins, many for his inventions related to motion pictures and television .
Jenkins was born in Dayton, Ohio, grew up near Richmond, Indiana, where he went to school and went to Washington, D.C. in 1890, where he worked as a stenographer.
Motion pictures
Jenkins started experimenting with motion pictures in 1891, and eventually quit his job and concentrated fully on the development of his own movie projector, the Phantoscope.
As the Richmond Telegram reported on June 6, 1894,[1] about his endeavors to show his parents, friends, and newsmen a gadget he had been working on for two years: a "motion picture projecting box". They gathered at Jenkins' cousin's jewelry store in downtown Richmond and viewed what may have been the first live-action film screening in front of an audience. The motion picture was of vaudeville dancer Annabelle doing a butterfly dance, which Jenkins had filmed himself in the backyard of his Washington boarding house.[2] According to later accounts, each film frame was painstakingly colored by hand.[3]
A July 1894 article in the Photographic Times
At the
In 1898, Jenkins published Animated Pictures,[5] an early overview of the historical development and explanations of the methods and machines.
Television
Jenkins moved on to work on television. He published an article on "Motion Pictures by Wireless" in 1913, but it was not until December 1923 that he transmitted moving silhouette images for witnesses, and it was June 13, 1925, that he publicly demonstrated synchronized transmission of pictures and sound. He was granted the U.S. patent No. 1,544,156 (Transmitting Pictures over Wireless) on June 30, 1925 (filed on March 13, 1922).
His mechanical technologies (also pioneered by
In 1928, the Jenkins Television Corporation opened the first television broadcasting station in the U.S., named W3XK, which went on air on July 2 and first sent from the Jenkins Labs in Washington and from 1929 on from Wheaton, Maryland, five nights a week. At first, the station could only send silhouette images due to its narrow bandwidth, but that was soon rectified and real black-and-white images were transmitted.
In March 1932, Jenkins Television Corporation was liquidated and its assets acquired by Lee de Forest Radio Corporation. Within months, the De Forest company went bankrupt and the assets were bought by RCA stopping all work on electromechanical television.
Other endeavors and personal life
Jenkins also dabbled in automobiles with Jenkins Automobile Company. In 1898, he invented the first automobile with an engine in the front of the car.
Jenkins married Grace Love in 1902.
Bibliography
In 1898 Charles Francis Jenkins published Animated pictures, its copyright has expired and it is currently in the public domain.
Achievements, awards
Jenkins was awarded the prestigious Elliott Cresson Gold Medal for scientific achievement in 1897 and the Scott Medal in 1913 by the Franklin Institute & Science Museum-Philadelphia. He was the founder and first president of the
Jenkins wrote several books including Vision By Radio, Radio Photographs, Radio Photograms and The Boyhood of an Inventor, as well as many articles that focused on his inventions, which were published in a variety of national magazines.
He received an honorary doctor of science degree from Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana, his alma mater, in June 1929.[8]
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, best known for the annual Emmy Awards, commemorates the contributions of Jenkins to the television industry by naming one of the academy's most prestigious awards after him: the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award is a special engineering honor to an individual whose contributions over time have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering.
Jenkins was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2011.[9]
Charles Francis Jenkins died at age 66 in Washington, D.C.[8] He is interred in Rock Creek Cemetery.
The
See also
References
- ^ Martin, Steve (June 7, 2010). "Projecting the future". Palladium-Item. pp. A3, A4. Retrieved December 30, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
- Richmond Palladium. p. 7. Retrieved December 30, 2021 – via Hoosier State Chronicles.
- ^ "First 'Movie' in U.S. Produced in Richmond by Use of Trolley Wire and Pail of Water". Palladium-Item. March 17, 1919. p. 10. Retrieved December 30, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Photographic Times and American Photographer. Scovill Manufacturing Company. July 1894.
- ^ Charles Francis Jenkins. (1898). Animated pictures: an exposition of the historical development of chronophotography, its present scientific applications and future possibilities, and of the method and apparatus employed in the entertainment [!] of large audiences by means of projec. United States Patent and Trademark Office Scientific and Technical Information Center (STIC).
- ^ "Charles F. Jenkins - Ohio History Central". www.ohiohistorycentral.org.
- ISBN 0-87413-347-5.
- ^ a b "Charles Francis Jenkins, Inventor, Former Richmond Resident, Dies at Capital". Palladium-Item. June 6, 1934. p. 1. Retrieved December 30, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Charles Jenkins". National Inventors Hall of Fame. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
External links
- Charles Francis Jenkins at IMDb
- Case Files from the Franklin Institute on Jenkins's Phantoscope
- Biography emphasizing his movie projector development.
- Biography Archived August 23, 2009, at the Wayback Machine emphasizing his television endeavours.
- W3XK
- Various biographic excerpts
- Some images Archived April 28, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
- Jenkins marriage Archived May 21, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
- Animated pictures, public domain book, second reprint of 1898 version