Philo Farnsworth missed nothing by being born in a log cabin in Utah. His grandfather was a follower of Brigham Young, but young Philo was a follower of science. By the his early teenage years he learned the fundamentals of electric motors, applying one to the home’s washing machine. In high school in Idaho, Philo first sketched out his ideas for a vacuum tube “image dissector,” and at the tender age of 20 he co-founded Crocker Research Laboratories, which he later renamed Farnsworth Television, Inc. in 1929.

On this day, September 7, in 1927 Philo Farnsworth replaced the spinning-disk method of television image production with his complete electrical, moving-parts-free electronic version. This was the very first all-electronic TV.

Philo’s invention was helped along by concurrent advances in Britain, which had created the first “high-definition” picture; and in the U.S., which created color broadcasting in 1941. During WW II he helped with the development of radar and blacklighting (for night vision), and lived to see his electronic television penetrate nearly every home in the country and broadcast events live from around the world.