It seems hard to imagine a time before there was television. It is such an ingrained part of nearly everyone’s life now. As of 2013, 79 percent of households on the planet had at least one television in them. Even those households without television are likely not ignorant of its existence and have probably seen television in public places. So, how did an invention of such worldwide importance come into being? The history of television starts farther back in time than you may think. Here’s the story of the television.
The word “television” is a combination of two ancient Greek words meaning “far” and “sight,” so, in other words, television means to be able to see things from a far away distance. The modern word was first used in 1900 in a paper by Russian scientist Constantin Perskyi that he presented at the First International Congress of Electricity. At the time, television was just a theoretical concept as a means for transmitting still photographic images over telegraph lines. The commonly abbreviated term “TV” didn't come into use until 1948. Once television was invented and started broadcasting, the term “television set” was used until the abbreviated “TV” came into common use...