Cable Television : Innowiki

Cable television brings television channels to customers without antennas. Later versions bring more channels than analog antennas provided.

Walson owned a small company, Service Electric, located in a mountainous region in Pennsylvania. Frustrated that buyers of his televisions could not receive a signal he climbed a mountain and installed an antenna at the top. Eventually, with more antennas, cables, and amplifiers, he delivered a high-quality signal to his customers.

Walson expanded his cable system, eventually adding better equipment including microwave transmitters.

While simply trying to improve his own service, Walson created an enormous market. Miraculously, his cable service still exists in 2018. Service Electric remains a private company, run by his grandson, with estimated 2017 revenues of $51 million. In contrast, Comcast – the largest US cable TV provider – had 2017 revenues of $84.5B.

Random Posts

Semiconductors
Semiconductors are solid-state electronic replacements for vacuum tubes. They vastly enhanced productivity and lowered cost. Semiconductors also lowered the amount of electricity computers, or any equipment that ran on tubes, required. In 1947, John Bardeen, William Shockley, and Water Brattain co-invented the semiconductor while working at Bell Labs for which they were awarded the Nobel … Continue reading "Semiconductors"
Cash Register
Cash registers help deter theft and led to modern bookkeeping. Ritty was a saloon owner who had problems with employee theft. He invented and patented the cash register, calling it the “Incorruptible Cashier” and created a company to sell it. There was little interest and he tired of simultaneously running two businesses, one manufacturing and … Continue reading "Cash Register"
Color Movies
Though not the first color movie, The Wizard of Oz left an indelible mark. Swapping from the old world of black and white to color the world flew over the rainbow. Movies have never been the same since. Kalmus, an MIT alum, created a process for color movies and ramped up a company, Technicolor. Initially, … Continue reading "Color Movies"
Fourdrinier Paper Making Machine
Fourdrinier machines transform wood pulp into enormous rolls of paper. They vastly reduced the manufacturing cost and, subsequently, the price of paper. Even the smallest Fourdrinier machine is massive and requires an enormous amount of water. Frenchman Louis Roberts invented the papermaking machine. His friend and confidant, Sealy Fourdrinier, patented and commercialized the technology in … Continue reading "Fourdrinier Paper Making Machine"
Credit Union
Let it not be forgotten that a credit union is, above all else, an association of people, not dollars. Alphonse Desjardins Banks at the turn of the 20th century were for rich people. A.P. Giannini founded his Bank of Italy, later renamed Bank of America, in 1904 as a bank for everybody else. But it … Continue reading "Credit Union"
Adding Machine
Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician who lived in the 1600s. He is most known for his work in geometry and statistics but is included here for building the first non-abacus adding machine. Going back briefly, the abacus dates back to at least 300BC. Our earliest cutoff date for innovations is the printing press or … Continue reading "Adding Machine"
Internal Combustion Engine
Few innovations throughout history are as important as the internal combustion engine. In 1807, the Niepce brothers received a patent on an internal combustion engine but failed to commercialize it. The brothers also invented photography. The first known working internal combustion engine (ICE) belongs to Lenoir. He converted a steam engine to burn coal gas … Continue reading "Internal Combustion Engine"
Photocopiers
“Xerography was an invention we didn’t know we needed until, suddenly, we didn’t know how we lived without it.” Carlson biographer David Owen Chester Carlson Chester Carlson had a childhood nobody would want to copy. His father was perennially ill and poor. Mom, dad, and young Chester lived in a leaky hut in Mexico until … Continue reading "Photocopiers"
Virtualization
Virtualization enables the separation of an operating system and the physical device, the chips that it runs on. An imperfect but close enough metaphor is auto rental. Rather than purchasing a car, that may be too big for many tasks and too small for others, a user can rent just the right size car or … Continue reading "Virtualization"
Gas Mask
Gas masks lower the risk of damage for firefighters and soldiers. Garret Morgan, the son of freed slaves, developed an early gas mask for use in fires. Hoses dragged along the ground where air was cleaner, because smoke rises. There was also a 15-minute air supply for when air became hopelessly polluted. Patented in 1914, … Continue reading "Gas Mask"
In-Vitro Fertilization
In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) allows eggs to be fertilized outside the womb. In a controlled environment, fertilization is more likely to be successful. In 1936, In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) was first performed on rabbits by Dr. Gregory Pincus of Harvard University. He announced his invention and mentioned it might someday work on humans. Rather than celebrate the … Continue reading "In-Vitro Fertilization"
Touchscreen
Touch screens existed in science fiction long before they entered the real-world. Star-Trek: The Next Generation made extensive use of what today are modern touch screens decades before they became common. Johnson described the touch screen in a seminal paper. Johnson himself never actually created nor patented a touch-screen. Sam Hurst at the U. of … Continue reading "Touchscreen"
Automobile Assembly Line
Assembly lines leverage standardized parts to break auto assembly into discrete components, each that can be done by a small number of people (often just one). Standardized parts evolved into standardized jobs. Ransom Olds, inspired by a musket factory that used standardized parts with workers each focused on one part, created the first auto assembly … Continue reading "Automobile Assembly Line"
Electricity Factory & Distribution Network
After inventing the long-lasting light bulb, Edison needed an electrical grid to deploy his innovation. Remember that, at this time, all electrically powered devices ran off batteries. Background The Edison Electric Illuminating Company, founded after the light bulb company, funded both an electrical generation station, grid, and all supporting equipment. Edison innovated better dynamos, circuits, … Continue reading "Electricity Factory & Distribution Network"
Precision Guided Munitions
“In the past, wars’ slaughter has been largely confined to armed combatants. Obviously the airman, riding so high above the earth that cities look like ant hills, cannot aim his deadly cargo at armed males. All below will be his impartial target.” Major Gen. James Fechet, US Army Air Corps, 1933 Precision Guided Munitions (PGM’s) … Continue reading "Precision Guided Munitions"

Leave a Reply Cancel reply