Photo Transmitter

W. H. Stephenson Photo Transmitter

The W. H. Stephenson photo transmitter was an experimental wireless picture-transmission device developed in Britain during the early 1920s by W. H. Stephenson in collaboration with G. W. Walton.

Two patents were filed on 18 April 1923 covering the system: British Patent No. 10,585 (“Apparatus for electrically transmitting scenes, &c.”) and British Patent No. 10,572 (subsequently accepted as No. 218,766, “Apparatus for transmitting electrically scenes or representations to a distance”). Both were reported in the Electrical Review in 1923 and 1924. These specifications described an apparatus for the electrical scanning and transmission of visual images over distance, positioning the work within the emerging field of picture telegraphy and television experiments.

In September 1924, contemporary press reports outlined the transmitter’s capabilities. It was claimed to be capable of transmitting photographs at cinematograph speed, i.e. 18 pictures per second, sufficient for persistence of vision. This was presented as a major advance over previous systems that relied on selenium photoelectric cells, whose slow response had long been regarded as the chief obstacle to rapid image transmission. Stephenson and Walton stated that their apparatus employed a new element that replaced selenium, though its details were not disclosed publicly.

The transmitter was thus presented as a potential foundation for practical “seeing by wireless,” exceeding the limitations of earlier slow facsimile-style transmitters, though no evidence survives of it progressing beyond experimental demonstration.

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