Room 102

This gallery tells the story of how television experiments began in DC in the 1920s and led to experimental television broadcasting with “scanning disc” receivers that used a motor-driven spinning disc to generate the moving images. Visitors see two 1931 television sets plus a demonstration of what the crude images would have looked like. A 1940 RCA TV is one of the very first all-electronic TV sets. Fine examples of 1940s and 1950s black and white TVs are here, as well as early color TV sets. Visitors can watch video clips of early shows such as “I Love Lucy” and Howdy Doody.”