John Logie Baird Television Centenary Trust

09/06/2026

British television presenter Leslie Mitchell's achievements were recognised with this John Logie Baird medallion in 1964 as part of the Baird Festival of Television held in London at the Royal Albert Hall. The Festival was sponsored by Radio Rentals and directed by Michael Haymen. Dozens of celebrities were present, some of whom received similar Baird medallions, all presented by my grandmother, Margaret Baird. My father, Malcolm Baird, was also in attendance. Leslie Mitchell married Inge Mitchell in 1966. The accompanying pin must thus be from 1966 or later.

25/04/2026

23/04/2026

Save the date! On Saturday 25th April the Helensburgh JLB TV 100 Festival with music and community stalls will be on in Colquhoun Square during the day, and that evening there will be a fantastic free concert held at Helensburgh Parish Church!

Lomond and Clyde Community Orchestra Helensburgh Orchestral Society Helensburgh-Dorian-Choir Helensburgh Oratorio Choir

08/04/2026

Exhibition opens tomorrow!

22/03/2026

Baird visited New York in 1931 when American radio broadcasters were interested in adopting his television systems for broadcasts and cinema television in the Greater New York area. For various reasons, these plans did not come to fruition. It is quite likely that he visited Radio Row.

I have in my own collection some of the television sets pictured, including a 1948 Sentinel 400TV, 1948 Motorola VT73, and a 1948-49 RCA 8T243. The latter were also assembled in Canada and arguably the first 525-line TV sets manufactured in Canada. These can be identified by their double-D screen instead of a rectangular screen, or more obviously by the 'made in Canada' badges.

22/03/2026

TV is 100 years old this year. My father wrote this article ten years ago for TV is 90 and it was subsequently published in four or five places. Most of this still applies. How do you think TV has changed in the past 10 years? Say so in the comments.

A website about television history

14/03/2026

Osglim neon lamps were used in Baird's 1930-32 'Tin Box' Televisor and similar home receivers to create the light. These glowed orange, and were behind the rotating Nipkow disc; viewed from the other side of the disc through one or two lenses.

This very unusual neon lamp has turned up - with an angled plate instead of the usual vertical plate. Angling the lamp's plate electrode approximately 30 degrees (or similar off-vertical angles) was primarily a technique to improve image clarity and reduce scanning artifacts.

The neon discharge tended to cling to the edges of the plate or concentrate in specific areas depending on the current. By tilting the plate relative to the rotating disc, the viewer would see the glow through a slightly foreshortened perspective. This helped ensure that the scanning holes 'saw' a more uniform and consistent light source across the entire height of the scanned frame, rather than being subject to the uneven glow patterns often found on the flat face of the electrode.

09/03/2026

A new acquisition - the 1948 Baird Portable model T163. These compact sets were designed and built after John Logie Baird's death but when Helensburgh-born actor Jack Buchanan still owned the company (John Logie Baird, Ltd). These sets proved very popular, and ended up in other parts of the country as the television transmitter network expanded.

The 405-line black and white TV's selling feature was its relatively low price of about £58 and built-in aerial. "Portable" meant moveable to different rooms inside the household, not for an outdoor purpose. It has a 9" G.E.C. 6503 picture tube, and this one has the walnut cabinet (mahogany was also available).

Thanks to Harry Moore for the press clipping and Radiomuseum.org for the circuit schematic.

03/03/2026

This short film shows the television apparatus as demonstrated by John Logie Baird to forty scientists of the Royal Institution over 100 years ago, on 26 January 1926—the first public demonstration of a working television system. It has been filmed in what appears to be an attic room in Motograph House, after JLB left his earlier laboratory premises at 22 Frith Street. It will be the subject of an upcoming article.

John Logie Baird reconstructing his experiment to transmit a television signal for the first time. Not certain when this reconstruction was filmed but likely...

24/02/2026

The IEEE International Conference on Communications is coming up in late May and it will be happening in Glasgow. Click here for details.

24–28 May 2026 // Glasgow, Scotland, UK