<P> On December 25, 1925, Kenjiro Takayanagi demonstrated a television system with a 40 - line resolution that employed a Nipkow disk scanner and CRT display at Hamamatsu Industrial High School in Japan . This prototype is still on display at the Takayanagi Memorial Museum at Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu Campus . By 1927, Takayanagi improved the resolution to 100 lines, which was unrivaled until 1931 . By 1928, he was the first to transmit human faces in halftones . His work had an influence on the later work of Vladimir K. Zworykin . By 1935, Takayanagi had invented the first all - electronic television . His research toward creating a production model was halted by the US after Japan lost World War II . </P> <P> Herbert E. Ives and Frank Gray of Bell Telephone Laboratories gave a dramatic demonstration of mechanical television on April 7, 1927 . The reflected - light television system included both small and large viewing screens . The small receiver had a two - inch - wide by 2.5 - inch - high screen . The large receiver had a screen 24 inches wide by 30 inches high . Both sets were capable of reproducing reasonably accurate, monochromatic moving images . Along with the pictures, the sets also received synchronized sound . The system transmitted images over two paths: first, a copper wire link from Washington to New York City, then a radio link from Whippany, New Jersey . Comparing the two transmission methods, viewers noted no difference in quality . Subjects of the telecast included Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover . A flying - spot scanner beam illuminated these subjects . The scanner that produced the beam had a 50 - aperture disk . The disc revolved at a rate of 18 frames per second, capturing one frame about every 56 milliseconds . (Today's systems typically transmit 30 or 60 frames per second, or one frame every 33.3 or 16.7 milliseconds respectively .) Television historian Albert Abramson underscored the significance of the Bell Labs demonstration: "It was in fact the best demonstration of a mechanical television system ever made to this time . It would be several years before any other system could even begin to compare with it in picture quality ." </P> <P> In 1928, WRGB (then W2XB) was started as the world's first television station . It broadcast from the General Electric facility in Schenectady, NY . It was popularly known as "WGY Television". </P> <P> Meanwhile, in the Soviet Union, Léon Theremin had been developing a mirror drum - based television, starting with 16 - line resolution in 1925, then 32 lines and eventually 64 using interlacing in 1926 . As part of his thesis on May 7, 1926, Theremin electrically transmitted and then projected near - simultaneous moving images on a five - foot square screen . By 1927 he achieved an image of 100 lines, a resolution that was not surpassed until 1931 by RCA, with 120 lines . </P>

When was television made available to the public