Hovhannes Abgar Adamyan born in Baku, in 1879, was an Armenian inventor, electrical engineer, one of the inventors of color television and radiotelegraphy.
He is the author of over 20 inventions (mostly in television and telegraphy), and telegraphy system using an intermediate plate.
Adamyan was born in 1879, in the family of merchant, an Armenian by origin. After graduating from school in 1897, Hovhannes went abroad and studied at the Universities of Berlin and Zurich.
He designed systems of black and white, and color television. Developing theoretical works, Adamyan was the first in the world, who received practical results on color television and firstly represented color television transfers. In March 1908, he patented a two-colored apparatus for signal transmission. He later received similar patents in the UK, France and Russia (1910, “Receiver for the images, electronically transmitted from a distance”). The device comprised two gas pipes (white and red), to transmit signals corresponding color. Despite the fact that the invention has been widely advertised, it could not be a precursor of color television – any color can be represented as a combination of the three primary colors, two is not enough. Besides, the device could not transmit moving images. Much of the documentation and the device itself were lost during the bombing of Munich during the Second World War.
In 1913, Adamyan returned to Russia until his death in 1932 lived in Petrograd (Leningrad). During this time he received 21 patents, two of which relate directly to television. In 1918, he demonstrated the first device in Russia, able to transfer black-and-white image (static figure), which was a big step in the development of television.
In 1925, Hovhannes Adamyan received a patent for a three-color electromechanical television system, i.e. for the device to transfer color images at a distance using a disc with three series of holes. When the disc spins, three colors blended into a single picture. Experienced transmissions have been demonstrated in the same year in Yerevan.
The first experimental color television was shown in London in 1928 based on Adamyan’s tricolor principle and he is recognized as one of the founders of color television. Hovhannes Adamyan died in 1932 in Leningrad and was buried in the local Armenian cemetery. In 1970, his remains were brought to Yereven Pantheon of famous Armenians.
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