Home-made equipment for 30-line television reception, unknown maker, British, 1929-35. Comprises Nipkow disc, neon lamp, viewing lens, phonic-wheel unit, home recorded discs of signals, square punch for Nipkow disc).

Home-made equipment for 30-line television reception, unknown maker, British, 1929-35.

When television was in its infancy some people made their own televisions receivers using equipment like this. A Nipkow disk was a key part of the system. In the camera it was an image scanning device formed of a metal or plastic disk with a series of holes punched around the edge. As light from the image passed through the holes in the spinning disk, falling onto a light sensitive component, the signal for transmission was created. At the receiving television the signal was converted back into light and passed through holes in a similar spinning disk to recreate the image.