HISTORY
The first day of demonstrations was Monday, 16 March. The same newspaper reported: ‘There was given yesterday the first public demonstration by the inventor, Mr. John L. Baird, of an experiment in television. The demonstration, which was watched by hundreds of people in the Palm Court, was entirely successful and created a great deal of interest.’ Only one person at a time could look down the funnel and see the images transmitted by means of the apparatus which to the non- expert appeared to be constructed largely of cardboard and powered by means of a bicycle chain. Three visitors in particular recorded their impressions... The first seems to have been Dr. Alexander Russell, F.R.S., principal of Faraday House and past president of the Institute of Electrical Engineers, who contributed an anonymous article about the invention in the distinguished scientific journal Nature, in which he concluded, ‘Mr. Baird has overcome many practical difficulties, but we are afraid there are many more to be surmounted before the ideal television is accomplished.’ The description of the apparatus includes a new feature at the receiving end, a neon tube which ‘causes light to appear on a screen in positions corresponding to the part of the object being dealt with.’ The second visitor was a stunningly attractive, dark-haired music student from South Africa. Just turned eighteen, she had been dragooned into attending the demonstration by her authoritarian mother. Margaret Baird recalled: My mother and I were in London at the time I was a student at the Royal College of Music. My mother read about the demonstrations in the paper, as she was always interested in anything new, and we went to Selfridges. I must have seen John Logie Baird and his invention. ... Of him at that time I have no recollection. The invention had the effect which all mechanical things have on me and gave me a feeling of bewilderment and faint nausea. The third visitor was P.R. Bird, assistant technical editor of the Popular Wireless and Radio Review, who gave a full account of the demonstration in the issue of 23 May 1925, illustrated with cutaway drawings of the system. He wrote: At first the inventor was invisible hidden behind his invention, which was spread out over half a dozen tables, and overflowed a floor space about the size of an ordinary room. Across the middle of the space
A Simple Televisor can be seen at centre, with discs displayed on either side. Above is a sign that reads BUILD YOUR OWN TELEVISION APPARATUS. Television magazines (the debut March issue) are arranged vertically. Image source: Television, April 1928
The Selfridges Demonstrations
Bosdari, allowing Anthony and his brothers to use the title of Count. Bosdari later became the General Manager of British Brunswick Ltd., giving a demonstration of the Panatrope the following year. The Panatrope was one of the earliest fully- electric gramophones, as distinct from the traditional mechanical and acoustic wind-up models. It featured an electric tonearm with a magnetic pickup head, which converted stylus vibrations from a gramophone record into electrical signals, allowing for amplified sound playback through a loudspeaker. In Baird’s demonstration for Selfridge and Bosdari, he used a paper mask as the test subject. This was made to wink by covering the eyeholes with white paper, and it could be made to open and close its mouth by covering and uncovering the slot corresponding to the mouth opening.25 The television transmitter apparatus in operation at 22 Frith Street in early 1925 as would have been demonstrated for Selfridge and Bosdari. The ‘mask’ is visible at centre. To the right of it is the large double-8 lens disc, a smaller light interrupter disc, and the large ‘monitor’ disc, white at its outer edge, that was perforated with 16 rectangular holes. In the foreground is a wooden box with what looks like a drainage tube. Image source: Tiltman, Baird of Television, 1927
With Selfridge and Bosdari both having apparently been impressed by the demonstration in the cramped Frith Street rooms, a formal arrangement was made with Selfridges. Baird recalled: I was offered twenty pounds a week for three weeks to give three shows a day to the public in Selfridges store. I accepted the offer and spent a very tiring three weeks demonstrating to long queues of spectators, most of them ordinary shoppers, but also a number of scientists who had come specially to see the show. By looking down a funnel arrangement they were able to see outlines of shapes transmitted only a few yards by a crude wireless transmitter. The demonstrations commenced at 11.30, 2.30 and 3.15. Baird would also answer questions from the public. The television demonstrations were part of a series of various other special birthday displays. A newspaper announced: ‘The biggest free show in London this week and next is Selfridges, Oxford-Street, where the 16th anniversary of the foundation of this giant store is being celebrated simultaneously with the opening of the new building at the corner of Orchard and Oxford-streets.’
SEPTEMBER 2025 Volume 47 No.3
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