John Logie Baird Learn English through story level 3

john logie baird the man who invented

the television

i had an illness when i was a child and

i had to live

a quiet life technology became my hobby

we could send voice messages could i

invent a system for sending pictures

i decided to try to do it

i had a serious illness when i was two

years old

and i couldn’t do sport i began to play

with technical things

i had a friend who lived across the road

and i built a phone that connected home

with mine

we sent messages to each other and had

great

fun i was 12 years old at the time

at school i wasn’t a very good student

he doesn’t learn very quickly my teacher

told my mother

but i worked hard and finished school

then i entered university to study

electrical engineering

but i couldn’t finish my studies because

the first world war started

my health was poor so i didn’t fight

during the war

i worked as an engineer at clyde valley

electricity in glasgow

my job was to repair the machines there

but i wasn’t interested in repairing

things

i was interested in making them

i enjoyed doing experiments

one day one of my experiments went wrong

and the lights went out in some parts of

glasgow

i lost my job

i decided to try a new place and a new

way of life in 1919 i traveled

to the island of trinidad in the west

indies

life was quiet on the island the weather

was so sunny

that i felt much better there i started

new experiments with sounds and pictures

my neighbors heard strange noises in my

house

they also saw lights that turned on and

off

he’s doing some kind of magic they

thought

the local people were afraid of me after

a year on the island i decided that

trinidad wasn’t the best

place for my experiments and i sailed

back to england

i asked myself we have cameras to take

pictures

we have radios to send messages is it

also

possible to send pictures

i wanted to invent a system for sending

images from one place to another

and i started to work on my system

my first invention was a basic machine

i did more experiments and on the 2nd of

october 1925

i showed my television in selfridges

a large store in london

it was the first public presentation of

my experiment

in 1927 i started a company

bailed television limited i also got a

patent for my invention

and sent television images over 438

miles

it was a very exciting time

i borrowed some money and did more

experiments

my television became better each day

1930 people could watch the first

play on television next year

they could watch a horse race the darby

i did many things in a short

period of time but i also had

a big debt my company sold

10 000 televisions in the uk

but i needed to sell more televisions

i wanted to pay off my debt

in 1931 i received an invitation to

visit the usa

i sailed there with my girlfriend and

future wife

margaret albu

i knew that i could sell a lot of

televisions in the usa

but there was a depression at the time

in the uk the situation wasn’t any

better

in 1936 the british broadcasting

corporation

the bbc didn’t choose my system

to send television programs

then the second world war started in

1939

it was a very difficult time for my

company

during the war london wasn’t a safe

place to live

so i moved my family to cornwall

i stayed in london because i had to work

for the government

i had to help with the use of radar

systems

and secret codes and messages

there were many difficult days during

the war

and i made several long journeys to

visit my family

after the war i decided to make a new

start

i started a new company john logie

baird limited and worked very long hours

i wanted to invent color television

but my health wasn’t good and in 1946

i had a heart attack and i never

recovered

the television was a very important

invention that changed

education and entertainment it changed

people’s lives

a lot of people use my invention

think about the number of people around

the world

who watch television every day