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Rating: 
Summary:
Who Invented the Remote Control?
Review:
We know the inventor of electric lighting, and we know who turned mass production assembly lines into affordable automobiles. Nicola Tesla invented the alternating current motors we use today, invented radio, invented fluorescent lighting, discovered X-rays, and yet failed to cash in or get credit, and wound up dying at an advanced age in a transient hotel.
This book is the bio of an Philo T. Farnsworth, a young man who walked away from the obscurity of his rural agricultural background into a Teslian style obscurity, after a lifetime of brilliant work.
This American inventor eventually turned to inertial containment as the solution to controlled fusion for electrical power generation.
The account in this book of his fusion work is interesting, and includes a tantalizing incident in which fusion may have been achieved, briefly. Much more important than who invented the intelligence vacuum (TV) vs. who got the credit for it is the discussion of Farnsworth's breakthroughs in fusion and his being frozen out by the US government et al.
The current laser inertial containment research (Sandia Labs' Z-Machine dumps 290 trillion watts of X-rays onto a sample target as of four years ago) owes a debt to Farnsworth. While I personally doubt that fusion will ever reach breakeven regardless of the money poured into it, should it bear fruit Farnsworth will probably get flipped out of the picture.
Rating: 
Summary: The boy who invented television
Review: Paul Schatzkin has done a wonderful and thorough job of tracing the path taken by the American genius, Philo T. Farnsworth, in producing the first usable, all electronic television transmission and public demonstration...P>The details of this final, virutally unknown, saga are almost as sad as that of his television effort.A superb book that covers the full breadth of Farnsworth's life, not just his television effort. Well worth the thrifty price and a joy to read. Richard Hull
Rating:
Summary: Turn off the TV and read this book
Review: The story of television known to most people is a lie. An example of corporate greed kept down the inventor of electronic TV and stifled the potential of one of the greatest minds of the 20th century. Philo Farnsworth is one amazing man and this book fills us with the excitement of his life and discoveries. Whether it was author Paul Schatzkin style or Philo's adventures, I was drawn to keep reading this book long after I should have been asleep.
The triumphs are all marked as well as the tribulations as Philo struggled against the odds as a "lone inventor". You get a sense of how advanced he was in his thinking and how his love of Pem brought him back on track after his disappointments. Philo's life is an inspiration and I feel that Paul Schatzkin captured it well in this book. I fully recommend it to anyone interested in human nature.
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