Television has made it possible for people around the world to share in many different experiences – sports , music shows , films , and more .
Yet many people would find it difficult to name the inventor of the television .
They might also be surprised to learn that the inventor came up with the idea when he was just fourteen years old .
Today , we explore the life of one of the great inventors of 20th century America : Philo Taylor Farnsworth .
Philo Farnsworth was born in August 1906 , near Indian Creek in the western state of Utah .
The house he lived in for the first few years of his life had no electricity .
But Philo read about electricity and quickly began to experiment with it .
One night , Philo read a magazine story about the idea of sending pictures and sound through the air .
The story said some of the world's best scientists were working on the idea .
It said these scientists were using special machines to try to make a kind of device to send pictures .
Fourteen-year-old Philo decided these famous scientists were wrong .
He decided that mechanical devices would never work .
Philo believed such a device would have to be electronic .
Philo knew electrons could be made to move very fast .
All he would have to do was find a way to make electrons do the work .
Soon , Philo had an idea for such a receiver .
It would trap light in a container and send the light on a line of electrons .
Philo called it “light in a bottle .”
Several days later , Philo told his teacher about a device that could capture pictures .
He drew a plan for it and gave it to his teacher .
Philo's drawing seemed very simple .
But it still clearly showed the information needed to build a television .
Philo's teacher was Justin Tolman .
Many years later , Philo would credit Mr . Tolman with guiding his imagination and helping him open the doors of science .
In September 1927 , Philo turned on a device that was the first working television receiver .
In another room was the first television camera .
Philo had invented the special camera tube earlier that year .
While the image produced on the receiver was not very clear , the device worked .
Within a few months , Philo had found several people who wanted to invest money in his invention .
In August 1930 , the United States government gave Philo patent documents .
These documents aimed to protect his invention from being copied by others .
Still , he became involved in legal disputes with a powerful company at the time known as RCA .
Philo won the disputes but faced many business and financial difficulties in his life .
He developed more than 100 devices that helped make modern television possible .
He also developed early radar , invented the first electronic microscope , and worked on developing peaceful uses of atomic energy .
Philo Farnsworth died in March of 1971 .
He is considered one of the most important inventors of the 20th century .