This chapter outlines some of the key developments in the history of television prior to the BBC's initial recorded interest in television in 1927. While the focus of this book is the BBC's relationship with television in its early years, it is useful to explore the background and understand that television developed as a technology and a medium in a period of shifting political, economic, social and cultural contexts, not only in Britain but internationally. Detailed histories of the early technology, and the ways in which the specific technology of television developed, have been written by, among others, Burns, Abramson, Winston and McLean, and I will draw on these works and others in this chapter. However, this chapter will not be a detailed technical history – the aforementioned provide this in greater detail and with greater authority. The chapter will, however, consider technical developments and developments in technology within a social and cultural context. The chapter draws on primary source material from the archives of the General Post Office, the BBC, Selfridges, the Marconi Company, and the specialist journals that began to offer their readers insights into the new technology. The three key questions framing this chapter and the next are:

The origins of television

When considering the origin or beginning of television, the precise starting point is difficult, even impossible, to locate.