As many radio outlets celebrate their centenary in the past year or so, it might surprise you to know that television is also marking 100 years of existence. Not that there were any stations on the air at the time. 

But January 26th, 1926 marked the first time a TV signal was sent out as an experiment. The man behind that test, John Logie Baird, managed to send a single image to a set he built, with all of 32 lines of video.

"The first television used a mechanical approach... A disk with holes spun in front of an object and picked up light from this object strip by strip. The flashes of light were captured and converted into electrical signals. These signals were sent to a receiver that had a similar disk, which recreated the image."

So who was the first true TV star? It was a dummy named "Stooky Bill." (Pictured below.)

Why not use a human being? 

"They had to use spotlights so strong that living people couldn't stand in front of them. So Baird made a doll, called Stooky Bill, which stood in front of the camera.”

Baird could never have imagined the idea of streaming or HDTV, although he did manage a colour transmission test after that first effort. So happy birthday to a technology that changed all of our lives. 

I wonder where Stooky Bill is today.

TV turns 100: John Logie Baird launched a new era