Awards given to baird for his invention?

Answer 1

John Logie Baird was not rewarded well for the development of the world's first operating television system. There appear to be no public awards given to him for any work during his life.

His first public demonstration was in 1925 and the system was used by the BBC in 1929 for the first television broadcasts. The BBC had a virtual monopoly on radio broadcasts and Baird had little choice but to use the BBC in order to see his system go into production on a commercial basis.

As with many first products, others were hard on his heels and in 1929 Philo Farnsworth in America demonstrated the first fully electronic television system. In the mid 1930s, the BBC looked for an improved system. Baird and Farnsworth collaborated to submit a bid for their new television system. It was not selected and the BBC moved to a competitive system.

Baird was largely sidelined by the end of the 1930s and had little involvement with commercial television from then on. It is worth mentioning that despite the fact that his involvement was limited, in 1939 he put forward proposals for a high definition, color and 3D television system. Color became a viable reality less than 15 years later but high definition took more than half a century. 3D is only now making an appearance.

In hindsight, Baird should have been better recognised for his work in his own time. It is only many decades on that we see how inspirational that some of his work has been.