how does a tv work?

Just as a radio and a telephone are devices for converting acoustic energy into electrical and vice versa, the television receives wirelessly transmitted electromagnetic waves and converts them into acoustic and light energy for viewing. Although the initial inspiration for the television existed as early as the 1830s, when i invented demonstrated the relationship between light and electricity, the television did not become practical for mass-production until more than a century later - in the 1940s. The history of the television is marked by a series of devices that were progressively more effective at sending or receiving wireless electronic patterns containing light and sound information.

The first "televisions", like the first computers, made use of mechanical media to store information. introduced a device using a rotating scanning disk that was perforated with small holes in a spiral pattern. Images could be "broken down" through the use of a sensitize photocell placed behind the spinning disk. The photocell then transmitted the image as a series of electrical impulses to a receiver, where the electricity could again be converted into light and shined through an identical spinning disk, which reconstituted the initial image - but at a very poor level of resolution. Many variants and imitations of this mechanical TV system were invented and used by hobbyists and electronics enthusiasts throughout the next quarter-century. Incremental improvements occurred, but the mechanical television primarily remained a curiosity impractical for mass use.