As part of the Television Committee's brief was to advised the Postmaster General (PMG) on the relative merits of the several systems of television, it was necessary for the committee to consider not only British television developments but also those of other countries. Hence, on 18 May 1934, letters were sent to the Telegraph Administrations of France, Germany, Italy and to the Federal Radio Commission, US, requesting infor mation on a number of questions regarding their country's television schemes. Since the responses to these questions were made by the heads of the appropriate government departments it may be assumed that their replies were factually correct and not subject to the exaggerations and distortions which sometimes coloured the statements and views of inventors and newspaper reporters. For this reason, and to provide an overview of the position of television in the summer of 1934, in the USA, Germany, France and Italy, details from the responses are presented in this chapter.

Inspec keywords: history; television

Other keywords: US; France; Germany; Italy; UK; government; British television developments

Subjects: Other general electrical engineering topics