How the first Soviet TV contributed to the development of television technology

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Television has become so firmly and tightly embedded in our everyday life that it is simply impossible to imagine the life of a modern person without a television.

It is all the more interesting to learn about how and where it all began. A trial batch of Soviet TV sets (B-2 brand, 20 pieces), developed by engineer Anton Yakovlevich Breitbart, was released on May 10, 1932 at the Leningrad Comintern plant. A month before the release, the announcement was published in the Pravda newspaper, the status of which emphasized the importance of the future technical novelty.

The TV was black and white and had no sound. On a tiny screen the size of a matchbox (thanks to a magnifying glass built into the body, an image of 16 × 12 mm was enlarged to 3x4 cm), the viewer could see a picture that was not distinguished by high definition at a frequency of 12.5 frames per second. The B-2 was truly a TV set for personal use - because of the minimal screen size, only one person could use it. The practical use of the first Soviet TV was only possible with radio equipment. To view the image, it was necessary to connect the miracle of technology to the radio receiver that has already become familiar to many, and in order to also hear the sound at the same time, it was required to connect the B-2 to another radio apparatus. In fact, the first Soviet TV was a miniature set-top box to it.

After the successful release of a test batch, serial production of the B-2 began the following year. The brand lasted until 1936, but only a little over 3,000 units were produced, most of them in the last year. Despite the very high price for the first Soviet TV, demand clearly outstripped supply: the B-2, with a cost of more than 200 rubles per year of discontinuation from production, never stale on the shelves. Although, of course, on a national scale, the number of the first domestic televisions was a drop in the sea of undivided domination of radio.

Despite the fact that in the pre-war era televisions remained an outlandish rarity for most Soviet people, the triumphal procession of television was launched. Soon after the launch of the B-2 into serial production in large cities of the Soviet Union, regular television broadcasting began (Moscow, Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Odessa). Since the frequency band of the TV signal made it possible to transmit it through conventional broadcasting stations, TV broadcasts could be received over a very long distance - up to 2-3 thousand km. Well, the simplicity of the design of the TV, multiplied by its minimum circulation on a national scale, caused a real surge of creative engineering thought in the country: Soviet kulibins for receiving a TV signal began to make artisanal analogs of the B-2. This was prompted by the very form of its release: some of the TVs in the final years of their production went on sale in the form of kits for self-assembly.

The state tried to help craftsmen in their quest to get their own TV. So, the magazine "Radiofront", popular among radio amateurs, in 1935 posted on its pages a detailed description of the B-2 TV set for self-assembly. Although the image quality of the first domestic televisions left much to be desired, the beginning of the Soviet television era was laid.

It is worth emphasizing that the success in winning the minds and hearts of Soviet citizens by "seeing at a distance" in the 1930s became possible in many respects due to the fact that television in the USSR began as mechanical. Unlike completely electronic modern television, which broadcasts on ultra-short waves and operates only within the line of sight from the transmitter antenna to the receiver antenna, mechanical vision (as television was sometimes called in those years when the term itself was not yet established) was carried out on medium and long waves, which made it possible, with the help of only one television center in Moscow, to receive television broadcasts in almost any corner of the Soviet Union. As a result, interest in television, and hence the need for it, has expanded from year to year both in quantitative and geographical terms. And although the age of mechanical television turned out to be short-lived, the B-2, the pioneer of domestic televisions, made an important contribution to the history of the development of domestic television technology.

Television has become so firmly and tightly embedded in our everyday life that it is simply impossible to imagine the life of a modern person without a television. It is all the more interesting to learn about how and where it all began. A trial batch of Soviet TV sets (B-2 brand, 20 pieces), developed by engineer Anton Yakovlevich Breitbart, was released on May 10, 1932 at the Leningrad Comintern plant. A month before the release, the announcement was published in the Pravda newspaper, the status of which emphasized the importance of the future technical novelty.

The TV was black and white and had no sound. On a tiny screen the size of a matchbox (thanks to a magnifying glass built into the body, an image of 16 × 12 mm was enlarged to 3x4 cm), the viewer could see a picture that was not distinguished by high definition at a frequency of 12.5 frames per second. The B-2 was truly a TV set for personal use - because of the minimal screen size, only one person could use it. The practical use of the first Soviet TV was only possible with radio equipment. To view the image, it was necessary to connect the miracle of technology to the radio receiver that has already become familiar to many, and in order to also hear the sound at the same time, it was required to connect the B-2 to another radio apparatus. In fact, the first Soviet TV was a miniature set-top box to it.

After the successful release of a test batch, serial production of the B-2 began the following year. The brand lasted until 1936, but only a little over 3,000 units were produced, most of them in the last year. Despite the very high price for the first Soviet TV, demand clearly outstripped supply: the B-2, with a cost of more than 200 rubles per year of discontinuation from production, never stale on the shelves. Although, of course, on a national scale, the number of the first domestic televisions was a drop in the sea of undivided domination of radio.

Despite the fact that in the pre-war era televisions remained an outlandish rarity for most Soviet people, the triumphal procession of television was launched. Soon after the launch of the B-2 into serial production in large cities of the Soviet Union, regular television broadcasting began (Moscow, Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Odessa). Since the frequency band of the TV signal made it possible to transmit it through conventional broadcasting stations, TV broadcasts could be received over a very long distance - up to 2-3 thousand km. Well, the simplicity of the design of the TV, multiplied by its minimum circulation on a national scale, caused a real surge of creative engineering thought in the country: Soviet kulibins for receiving a TV signal began to make artisanal analogs of the B-2. This was prompted by the very form of its release: some of the TVs in the final years of their production went on sale in the form of kits for self-assembly.

The state tried to help craftsmen in their quest to get their own TV. So, the magazine "Radiofront", popular among radio amateurs, in 1935 posted on its pages a detailed description of the B-2 TV set for self-assembly. Although the image quality of the first domestic televisions left much to be desired, the beginning of the Soviet television era was laid.

It is worth emphasizing that the success in winning the minds and hearts of Soviet citizens by "seeing at a distance" in the 1930s became possible in many respects due to the fact that television in the USSR began as mechanical. Unlike completely electronic modern television, which broadcasts on ultra-short waves and operates only within the line of sight from the transmitter antenna to the receiver antenna, mechanical vision (as television was sometimes called in those years when the term itself was not yet established) was carried out on medium and long waves, which made it possible, with the help of only one television center in Moscow, to receive television broadcasts in almost any corner of the Soviet Union. As a result, interest in television, and hence the need for it, has expanded from year to year both in quantitative and geographical terms. And although the age of mechanical television turned out to be short-lived, the B-2, the pioneer of domestic televisions, made an important contribution to the history of the development of domestic television technology.