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