Charles Jenkins Laboratories was founded in by

Charles Francis Jenkins 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, though he used mechanical rather than electronic technologies. His businesses inc ...

, developer of the Phantoscope, the first commercial tv station W3XK and the first commercial

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, ...

company.

History

in 1890 moved to Washington, D.C., to work as an Steganographer, then he experimented with motion pictures and in 1890 developed a movie projector called the Phantoscope, the laboratory was created years after it.

Transmission of Pictures over Wireless

In March 13, 1922 Charles Jenkins filed the U.S. patent No. 1,544,156 for Transmition of Pictures over Wireless, it was granted on June 30, 1925.

W3XK, the first commercial TV station in the US

In 1928 Charles Jenkins was granted the first commercial

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 ...

and In July 2, 1928 Jenkins Television Corporation started to operate W3XK, the first TV station. first aired from Jenkins Labs in Washington and from 1929 on from

Wheaton, Maryland Wheaton is a census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, situated north of Washington, D.C., and northwest of downtown Silver Spring. Wheaton takes its name from Frank Wheaton (1833–1903), a career officer in the Uni ...

, five nights a week. At first, the station could only send silhouette images due to its narrow

bandwidth Bandwidth commonly refers to: * Bandwidth (signal processing) or ''analog bandwidth'', ''frequency bandwidth'', or ''radio bandwidth'', a measure of the width of a frequency range * Bandwidth (computing), the rate of data transfer, bit rate or thr ...

, but that was soon rectified and real black-and-white images were transmitted.

Jenkins Television Corporation

In December 1928, Charles Jenkins founded in New Jersey the Jenkins Television Corporation to produce and manufacture Radiovisors. 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 RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

stopping all work on electromechanical television.

W2XCR

The Laboratories also operated experimental station

W2XCR W2XCR was founded in 1931 in Long Island City, New York by the radio station WGBS (now WINS). During the early part of 1931, but before the call letters were changed to WINS, the station began experimenting with mechanical television broadcasting, ...

, it operated a Jenkins mechanical scanner through the experimental transmitter, W2XCR. The station broadcast using both 48-line, 15 frame/s, and 60-line, 20 frame/s standards during 1931.

Closure

Charles Jenkins Laboratories closed after Mr. Jenkins died in 1934.

References

Defunct companies based in Maryland History of television in the United States Defunct television broadcasting companies of the United States {{US-media-company-stub