Charles Francis Jenkins
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Charles Francis Jenkins (August 22, 1867 – June 6, 1934) was an American engineer who was a pioneer of early cinema and one of the inventors of
television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
, though he used mechanical rather than electronic technologies. His businesses included Charles Jenkins Laboratories and Jenkins Television Corporation (the corporation being founded in 1928, the year the Laboratories were granted the first commercial television license in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
). Over 400 patents were issued to Jenkins, many for his inventions related to motion pictures and television . Jenkins was born in
Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...
, grew up near
Richmond, Indiana Richmond () is a city in eastern Wayne County, Indiana, United States. Bordering the state of Ohio, it is the county seat of Wayne County. In the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 35,720. It is the principal c ...
, where he went to school and went to Washington, D.C. in 1890, where he worked as a stenographer.


Motion pictures

Jenkins started experimenting with motion pictures in 1891, and eventually quit his job and concentrated fully on the development of his own
movie projector A movie projector (or film projector) is an optics, opto-mechanics, mechanical device for displaying Film, motion picture film by projecting it onto a movie screen, screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illuminat ...
, the Phantoscope. As the ''Richmond Telegram'' reported on June 6, 1894, about his endeavors to show his parents, friends, and newsmen a gadget he had been working on for two years: a "motion picture projecting box". They gathered at Jenkins' cousin's jewelry store in downtown Richmond and viewed what may have been the first live-action film screening in front of an audience. The motion picture was of vaudeville dancer Annabelle doing a butterfly dance, which Jenkins had filmed himself in the backyard of his Washington boarding house. According to later accounts, each film frame was painstakingly colored by hand. A July 1894 article in the ''Photographic Times'' noted how the Phantoscope had several advantages over Edison's Kinetograph; it was small (5 x 5 x 8 inches), portable and cheap. Although Jenkins had written that he intended to make a nickel-in-the-slot device (comparable to Anschütz's Electrotachyscope and the Kinetoscope), the machine could project its images "upon any size screen" with a
magic lantern The magic lantern, also known by its Latin name , is an early type of image projector that uses pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lens (optics), lenses, and a light source. ...
(comparable to the
Zoopraxiscope The zoopraxiscope (initially named ''zoographiscope'' and ''zoogyroscope'') is an early device for displaying moving images and is considered an important predecessor of the movie projector. It was conceived by photographic pioneer Eadweard ...
that Muybridge used to project traced contours of his chronophotographic pictures). The magazine published a selection of 15 circular frames of the 50 frames movie of a man putting a shot. Jenkins also planned to synchronize the movies to sound recordings with a
phonograph A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration Waveform, waveforms are recorded as correspond ...
(as previously suggested by Wordsworth Donisthorpe, Muybridge and others since very soon after the introduction of Edison's device in 1877). At the Bliss Electrical School, in Washington, D.C., Jenkins met his classmate Thomas Armat, and together they improved the design. They did a public screening at
Cotton States and International Exposition Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...
in
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in 1895 and subsequently broke up quarreling over
patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...
issues. This modified Phantoscope of Jenkins and Armat was patented July 20, 1897. Jenkins eventually sold his interest in the projector to Armat. Armat subsequently sold the rights to
Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, ...
, who marketed the projector under the name Vitascope. It was with this projector that Edison began public showings in vaudeville theaters of filmed motion pictures, with paid admission. In 1898, Jenkins published ''Animated Pictures'', an early overview of the historical development and explanations of the methods and machines.


Television

On June 14, 1923 Charles Jenkins broadcast of the world’s first wireless motion pictures. The inspiration for his invention came from a letter he received from a deaf child who asked if he could create a device that would enable the deaf to see sign language from a distance. This idea led Charles Jenkins to invent the wireless motion picture machine. During the demonstration, attended by representatives from the U.S. Army, the U.S. Navy, and the U.S. Post Office, the machine captured images of live hand movements and transmitted them wirelessly to a receiver in an adjacent room. There, the images were projected onto a viewing screen, allowing Jenkins to fulfill the child’s request. This event marked the first time that motion pictures of any kind had been sent through the air. On June 13, 1925, Charles Jenkins revealed his invention to the world in a highly publicized event. To demonstrate motion, a small model of a Dutch windmill was constructed, and its blades were turned slowly by the wind generated from an electric fan. With the cooperation of the U.S. Navy, this moving image was broadcast from the Naval Radio Station in Bellevue, Washington, D.C., and received by Jenkins' rooftop antenna at 1519 Connecticut Avenue where the images were projected for the public. Charles Jenkins was awarded the U.S. patent "Transmitting Pictures by Wireless" on June 30, 1925 (U.S. Patent Number 1,544,156). In 1928, the Jenkins Television Corporation opened the first television broadcasting station in the U.S., named W3XK, which went on air on July 2 from the Jenkins Laboratories at 1519 Connecticut Avenue in Washington D.C., eventually broadcasting six nights a week at 8pm. At first, the station could only send silhouette images due to its narrow bandwidth, but that was soon rectified and real black-and-white images were transmitted. The Jenkins Television Corporation went public in December 1928 and gained a market value of 10 million, bringing Charles Jenkins both widespread fame and considerable fortune. From 1929 the broadcasts were sent from Wheaton, Maryland. His mechanical technologies (also pioneered by
John Logie Baird John Logie Baird (; 13 August 188814 June 1946) was a Scottish inventor, electrical engineer, and innovator who demonstrated the world's first mechanical Mechanical television, television system on 26 January 1926. He went on to invent the fi ...
) were later overtaken by electronic television such as devised by
Vladimir Zworykin Vladimir Kosma Zworykin (1888/1889July 29, 1982) was a Russian-American inventor, engineer, and pioneer of television technology. Zworykin invented a television transmitting and receiving system employing cathode-ray tubes. He played a role in t ...
and
Philo Farnsworth Philo Taylor Farnsworth (August 19, 1906 – March 11, 1971), "The father of television", was the American inventor and pioneer who was granted the first patent for the television by the United States Government. Burns, R. W. (1998), ''Televisi ...
. In March 1932, Jenkins Television Corporation was liquidated and its assets acquired by
Lee de Forest #REDIRECT Lee de Forest {{redirect category shell, {{R from move{{R from other capitalisation ...
Radio Corporation. Within months, the De Forest company went bankrupt and the assets were bought by RCA stopping all work on electromechanical television.


Other endeavors and personal life

Jenkins also dabbled in automobiles with Jenkins Automobile Company. In 1898, he invented the first automobile with an engine in the front of the car. In 1901 he constructed the smallest car for the 26-inch tall Cuban performer Chiquita Jenkins married Grace Love in 1902.


Bibliography

In 1898, Charles Francis Jenkins published Animated pictures, its copyright has expired, and it is currently in the public domain.


Achievements, awards

Jenkins was awarded the prestigious Elliott Cresson Gold Medal for scientific achievement in 1897 and the Scott Medal in 1913 by the Franklin Institute & Science Museum-Philadelphia. He was the founder and first president of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers (now includes television, SMPTE). Jenkins wrote several books including ''Vision By Radio, Radio Photographs, Radio Photograms'' and ''The Boyhood of an Inventor'', as well as many articles that focused on his inventions, which were published in a variety of national magazines. He received an honorary doctor of science degree from Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana, his alma mater, in June 1929. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, best known for the annual Emmy Awards, commemorates the contributions of Jenkins to the television industry by naming one of the academy's most prestigious awards after him: the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award is a special engineering honor to an individual whose contributions over time have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering. Jenkins was inducted into the
National Inventors Hall of Fame The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) is an American not-for-profit organization, founded in 1973, which recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold a US patent of significant technology. Besides the Hall of Fame, it also operate ...
in 2011. Charles Francis Jenkins died at age 66 in Washington, D.C. He is interred in
Rock Creek Cemetery Rock Creek Cemetery is an cemetery with a natural and rolling landscape located at Rock Creek Church Road, NW, and Webster Street, NW, off Hawaii Avenue, NE, in the Petworth (Washington, D.C.), Petworth neighborhood of Washington, D.C., across ...
. The
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
Liberty Ship Liberty ships were a ship class, class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Although British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost cons ...
was named in his honor.


See also

* Charles Jenkins Laboratories * W3XK


References


External links

*
Case Files from the Franklin Institute on Jenkins's Phantoscope
emphasizing his movie projector development.

emphasizing his television endeavours.


Jenkins marriage

Animated pictures, public domain book, second reprint of 1898 version
*
Vision by radio, radio photographs, radio photograms
' (1925) Washington, D.C.: National Capitol Press {{DEFAULTSORT:Jenkins, Charles Francis 1867 births 1934 deaths American telecommunications industry businesspeople 19th-century American inventors 20th-century American inventors American cinema pioneers People from Richmond, Indiana Businesspeople from Dayton, Ohio Inventors from Washington, D.C. Television pioneers Burials at Rock Creek Cemetery Inventors from Ohio Inventors from Indiana