<P> The basic idea of using three monochrome images to produce a color image had been experimented with almost as soon as black - and - white televisions had first been built . </P> <P> Among the earliest published proposals for television was one by Maurice Le Blanc in 1880 for a color system, including the first mentions in television literature of line and frame scanning, although he gave no practical details . Polish inventor Jan Szczepanik patented a color television system in 1897, using a selenium photoelectric cell at the transmitter and an electromagnet controlling an oscillating mirror and a moving prism at the receiver . But his system contained no means of analyzing the spectrum of colors at the transmitting end, and could not have worked as he described it . An Armenian inventor, Hovannes Adamian, also experimented with color television as early as 1907 . The first color television project is claimed by him, and was patented in Germany on March 31, 1908, patent No 197183, then in Britain, on April 1, 1908, patent No 7219, in France (patent No 390326) and in Russia in 1910 (patent No 17912). </P> <P> Scottish inventor John Logie Baird demonstrated the world's first color transmission on July 3, 1928, using scanning discs at the transmitting and receiving ends with three spirals of apertures, each spiral with filters of a different primary color; and three light sources, controlled by the signal, at the receiving end, with a commutator to alternate their illumination . The demonstration was of a young girl wearing different colored hats . Noele Gordon went on to become a successful TV actress, famous for the soap opera Crossroads . Baird also made the world's first color broadcast on February 4, 1938, sending a mechanically scanned 120 - line image from Baird's Crystal Palace studios to a projection screen at London's Dominion Theatre . </P> <P> Mechanically scanned color television was also demonstrated by Bell Laboratories in June 1929 using three complete systems of photoelectric cells, amplifiers, glow - tubes, and color filters, with a series of mirrors to superimpose the red, green, and blue images into one full color image . </P>

Which network pushed for the earlier introduction of color tv and use of vhf