John Logie Baird

It is regarded by some as Man’s greatest invention, possibly more life-sustaining than fire and certainly more entertaining than the wheel; it is regarded by others as the Anti-Christ; and it began with Helensburgh-born John Logie Baird.

The very first television picture was transmitted by him in 1926 from one room to another. In 1927 he successfully sent a moving image along telephone wires from London to Glasgow, and the following year he achieved the first trans-atlantic television broadcast.

Baird also applied his genius to many other revolutionary electronic signal fields such as fibre-optics and, during the war, radar.