An inventor who held more than 150 patents in the U.S. and nearly 300 abroad, Philo Farnsworth is most famous for his invention of electronic television. In court hearings, it was determined through the testimony of his chemistry teacher that the young Philo, at age 15, had invented an all electronic television system in high school, which won him a patent case against giant RCA, who claimed they first invented the system.

From that point on, Farnsworth was an unstoppable genius in the field of the electronic image. When he was youngster, he would read about electricity, something he didn’t have on his family’s Utah farm. But, when the family moved to Idaho, they had a small generator plant on the farm that Philo was put in charge of. In his teens, he even won a national contest for inventors, which gave the world a taste of what he had his mind set on doing.

When he read about scientists who were attempting to send images by mechanical means, Farnsworth realized there was a better way, electronically, and became obsessed. His high school teacher, Justin Tolman, supported the young inventor’s ambitions and even let him experiment in his classroom. Upon completing high school, Farnsworth took physics courses and later attended Brigham Young University. His professors were astounded at his knowledge in theories of electronic imagery that they gave him free reign in the chemistry and glass labs where he came up with a cathode ray tube which became the basis for his television system.

Philo Farnsworth then moved back to Salt Lake City where he was acquainted with business associates and investors George Everson and Leslie Gorell, who thereafter invested money into Philo’s research. With other backing, he started a lab in San Francisco and was given a year to show what he could do. The day after getting married, he went to San Francisco to continue his research. Just before the year deadline, Farnsworth had created the first electronic television image of his wife. Stunned with this invention, his investors formed Television Laboratories, Inc. and made Farnsworth vice president.

After winning against RCA for patent rights, his system was first released in Europe and Great Britain. Following, it was released in the United States. Among the hundreds of other patents Farnsworth filed, he invented modern radar, electronical surveillance systems, and the electron microscope. During World War II, his patents assisted with the war effort, and before his death, he was intent on studying the possibilities of atomic energy