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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1994-12-21, Page 5Arthur Black THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1994. PAGE 5. In praise of Mister Philo T. Farnsworth If I was to say to you "let us now praise famous men" you wouldn't have much trouble coming up with a half dozen or so names, right? We've got an impressive list to choose from - Einstein, Edison, Nureyev, Picasso, Bertrand Russell and Churchill come immediately to mind - and that's without even venturing out of this century. The same applies to famous women: Marie Curie, Eleanor Roosevelt, Georgia O'Keefe, Indira Ghandi, Virginia Woolf and our own Roberta Bondar to name but six sterling females off the top of my head. But what if I was to tell you there is one man who has probably had more of a direct impact on your life than all of the above put together - and what if I was to tell you that you've almost certainly never even heard of him? Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce Mister Philo T. Farnsworth. I know...it sounds like the kind of name you'd hear in a comedy sketch on Hee Haw, but Philo T. Farnsworth was a living, International Scene By Raymond Canon~ Few bad, cheques from Czechs I recall vividly my first (and only) sojourn in what was then Czechoslovakia. The country was in the grips of a Stalinist regime and we spent an inordinately long time at the border being verified. On the way to Prague we ran into a road block where our passports were looked at once again. The only light moment came when the officer in charge of the road-block asked me if I knew Rocket Richard. Not wanting to disappoint him, I replied in the affirmative and said he was one of the greatest hockey players I had ever seen. That got us on our way but, other than the fact that we celebrated Canada Day at the Canadian Embassy in Prague where the ambassador was my former boss in Ottawa, I cannot say that there were any great moments in the country. It was something of a pity since Prague itself is a very pretty city with loads of history and I am sure that there would have been any number of places that we could have visited. All my thoughts about the country came back with a rush the other day when one of my friends asked me if I had any opinions about the progress of the countries in Eastern Europe as they move from a planned to a free market economy. As a matter of fact, I did have a few thoughts and I replied without hesitation that it was certainly the Czech Republic which, having separated from the part known as Slovakia (perhaps I should say it was the other way around) had gone on to make impressive changes to the extent that the majority of the corrections arc already in place. Before 1 go into details, I should say that The Czechs have always been the most western thinking of that part of Europe. As breathing, human. A farm boy from Idaho, as a matter of fact. You probably never heard of Farnsworth, but you certainly do know his work. Farnsworth is the man who gave us television. Photographing images and transmitting them by air waves wasn't an idea that originated with Farnsworth. Inventors in France and Britain and the U.S.A, had been toying with the theory of television for a good half century before anyone actually sat down and tried to make a working TV set. A German inventor came up with an 'imaging machine’ away back in 1884. In 1927, a British tinkerer managed to transmit a wavery, almost unrecognizable image from Glasgow all the way to London. But television as we know it wasn't possible until a 21-year-old Idaho Mormon constructed, tested and finally patented a 'scanning cathode ray tube*. Philo T. Farnsworth did just that in 1930. That same year, an engineer working for RCA, the Radio Corporation of America, managed to put together a vastly superior automatic camera. Just a few months later, W2RBX, the world's first experimental television station went on the air in New York. If you'd been one of the very few lucky souls with a functioning television transmitter back then, you would have heard far back as the 19th century they had a highly developed industrial sector and, by the 1930s had one of the most developed economies in the world; in addition they were the only democracy in central Europe. Some older readers may recall that all this stood for naught when they were first sandbagged by the Germans and then sold down the river by France and Britain. Not being in a position to fight the Nazis on their own, Czechoslovakia did the only thing it could and capitulated allowing themselves to be occupied by the Germans. In 1948 it was the turn of the Russians and that was the situation which we found when we crossed the German-Czech border on our way to Moscow. The country may have been at that time much more Stalinist than, say, Poland but, when the time did come to throw off the communist yoke, the Czechs knew what to do. Some things were already in place; one of which was the relatively low foreign debt. Then, too, the post-communist government was prepared to act boldly; it could almost be said that there was a certain instinct for doing what had to be done. In 1991 prices were liberalized and subsidies were all but removed. The government reduced its spending far more than the neighbouring countries of Poland or Hungary which were going through the same process. So successful have the Czechs been that Prague is predicting that it may be able to balance the budget this year. Canada should be so lucky! The government also wasted little lime in privatizing as much of the state-owned economy as possible. When the start was made, less than two per cent of the country's assets was in private hands. Already the figure is close to 80 per cent. It was done so quickly that one might be excused for thinking that the Czech government believed that any private owner was belter than leaving the enterprise in the hands of the - and seen - Kate Smith warbling When The Moon Comes Over The Mountain. The era of television was bom. Think for a moment of the TV moguls who owe their careers, not to mention their fortunes, to Philo. Think of the hundreds of millions of dollars that are generated by and for NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, CBC, CTV to name just a few of the communications giants on this continent. Would you care to guess what the very first image was that Philo chose to transmit as a test pattern back on that fateful day in 1930? Well, he had to pick a symbol he knew would have instant recognition. Philo may have been a hick but he was nobody's fool. He chose the dollar sign. Just think of it - if one Idaho ploughboy had stuck with the family farm instead of monkeying around with a lot of wires and tubes, we might never have had Bonanza. No Start Trek. No Live With Ralph Benmurgui. But for Philo T. Farnsworth, we might never have heard of Milton Berle, or Roseanne or Geraldo. If Philo T. Farnsworth had been conveniently trampled by a runaway horse in 1926, we wouldn't know the meaning of Andy Rooney, The Home Shopping Channel, Anthony Robbins Informercials or Dialing For Dollars. You owe us big time, Philo. state. One of the more innovative methods used was a voucher scheme which would permit any private citizen, for the equivalent of a week's wages, to buy a book of vouchers which could be used to bid for shares in any firm which was slated to be privatized. Something that the Prague government did not count on was the split of the country in two, with the poorer Slovak section in the east deciding that it could do better on its own than sticking with the Czechs. There were, to be sure, some short term costs to the Czechs but, as the Slovaks had been something of a drain on the public purse, the resulting Czech Republic was not forced to enter into costly support programs for the eastern part of the former Czechoslovakia. In addition, people are discovering today something that we found out much earlier. Prague is a very attractive city and in a short time it has become one of the leading tourist attractions in Europe. I hope to be one of those in the next year or so; I would like to take part of my annual trip to Europe to see for myself; I fully expect not to be disappointed. I would not be honest if I left the impressions that there are no major problems for the Czechs to overcome. The banking system, for one, needs to be modernized and the low wages and exchange rate of the currency are bound to cause some sleepless nights among government officials. However, if the high level of leadership that has served the country in the last few years can be maintained, there is little reason why the Czechs cannot continue the success story they have demonstrated to dale. Support local merchants Shop at home The Short of it By Bonnie Gropp My most precious Christmas gifts The best gift that 1 ever got Really didn't weigh a lot. It didn't have a ribbon 'round, And it sometimes made a terrible sound. - Christmas song Santa has always been pretty good to me. I wasn't spoiled by any means, but each year Santa did always manage to bring me that one special gift, the one that has reserved a spot in my memory forever. I still remember at the age of five, receiving my collie; he was stuffed, but it was the only pet at that time I could expect to see under my mother's roof. Then there was my baby doll, which brought out dormant yearnings in that same mom, who cuddled it every night before tucking me into bed. And I'll never forget the walking doll. With chestnut curls, and a dress of velveteen and lace, she was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Unfortunately, she was so big that by the time I was tall enough to walk with her, she had long since lost my interest. There have been many special gifts over my lifetime of Christmases but the most precious never came gift wrapped, nor did I find them under my tree. The first arrived 20 years ago, actually a little too close to Christmas for comfort. The mother of a toddler, I was expecting my second child the first week of December 1974. I had always been an early shopper, but that year I felt an even greater urgency to have my presents bought, wrapped and under the tree by the end of November. Dam good thing it was, too, as my special little bundle of joy, who was obviously not feeling the same urgency, delayed her arrival until Dec. 17. My doctor then believed in fairly lengthy recuperation in the hospital, thus it was that I arrived home the morning of Christmas Eve. Now, as I noted before, I was not new to the fascination of being a parent; like most parents I consider all my children gifts; but there was something very magical about an infant at this time of year. Perhaps it's a restoration of faith, a new life during the perfect season to have that belief rejuvenated. All I knew was that our newest blessing had put more Merry in my Christmas. Even her big brother seemed more captivated by her than with any of the presents under our tree — though the John Deere combine did come in a close second. The next most precious Christmas gift I have ever gotten (and I mean 'next' strictly in a chronological sense, not as a matter of preference) came 12 years ago, with the birth of our fourth child — also due the first week in December, also not in a hurry. Though our bouncing baby boy did arrive in plenty of time for me to gel home for Christmas, the big concern this time was that I wouldn’t be there for his oldest sister's birthday. Fortunately, after assuring the doctor that I would have plenty of help at home, her new brother and I were able to be with her on her special day. And, as it was the first time, the baby of the family was the hit of the Christmas season. With birthday celebrations squeezed in amidst the glad tidings you can imagine the festive season is a busy one al our home. But every yulclide which passes brings back to me those wonderful holidays of the past when our Christmas was further blessed by the arrival of a new baby.