American comics: You're asked to fish, but you catch a Superman template?

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During his visit to the laboratory, Roosevelt's gaze quickly fell upon a strangely shaped television set.

"This is...."

Faced with Roosevelt's question, Ferro Farnsworth looked hesitantly at Xu Fu, who was standing to the side.

"These are the latest advancements in factory production of televisions capable of reproducing color images."

Stopping where Ferro had left, Xu Fu began to explain.

Chapter 885 is not very clear.

"Color television?"

At the same time, Roosevelt, sitting in his wheelchair, timely showed a surprised expression.

"There's no problem with that."

Xu Fu nodded and passed the nod to Ferro Farnsworth in the lab, who immediately turned on the color television prototype in the lab, still somewhat dazed.

"Friends, I want to tell you what we've done over the past few days, why we did it, and what we plan to do next..."

When the television was turned on, after a brief bounce, a colorful Superman logo flashed on the screen, followed by an image of Roosevelt sitting by the fireplace.

Since this was only a prototype, the color image on the entire television was not very clear.

However, upon seeing himself on television, Roosevelt couldn't help but move his wheelchair closer.

Not only Roosevelt, but everyone who visited the laboratory was stunned by the scene before them.

It's important to understand that in an era when even color images in movies weren't fully widespread, a television capable of displaying a color world would leave a deep enough impression on people to spark their imaginations.

“A remarkable invention, Mr. Ferro.”

As Roosevelt reviewed the recordings of his speeches and fireside conversations playing on color television, he looked at Fellowes Farnsworth standing nearby.

"Actually, this isn't just my problem."

In response to Roosevelt's praise, Ferro quickly grasped his hand and said, "During this process, Mr. Xu Fu also put forward many design ideas, especially in providing color picture tubes. If it weren't for Mr. Xu Fu's help, I might not have been able to produce color televisions so smoothly."

Historically, it took about 20 years for black-and-white television to develop into color television.

It wasn't until the invention of the H. Lowe three-color tube and the Lorenzo one-color tube that color television truly took shape, and it took another ten years for color television to become widespread.

In other words, if history had unfolded normally, humanity would have spent thirty years making countless efforts before the invention of color television.

Xu Fu's appearance undoubtedly shortened this process considerably.

The color prototype currently used by the TV factory is a three-beam color picture tube, also called a shadow tube. This is a picture tube developed in the past, which consists of four parts: a fluorescent screen, a shadow, an electron gun, and a glass body.

Xu Fu's patent for picture tubes is his independent property.

This is why Ferro said that the invention of color television would not have been possible without Xu Fu's help.

Since the technology for manufacturing picture tubes was entirely based on futuristic technology, the picture tube itself may not have been anything special, but when it was combined with a television set, it became the prototype of color television.

In fact, Xu Fu had his own ideas about the patent for the telescope.

If he loses the patent lawsuit against American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), he can use that patent to launch a new generation of color televisions, thus crushing ABC's older television patents.

By the way, I mistakenly thought he was the father of color television.

Of course, this was just a counterattack that Xu Fu was preparing. The failure of the American radio company was already a foregone conclusion, so Xu Fu was not in a hurry to launch his own color TV.

After all, it is still quite difficult to fully realize color television at present.

It is not only limited by the complexity of vacuum tube technology, but also by the design of multi-tube circuits, especially the production of fluorescent screens, which require a lot of money and experiments to reproduce in this era.

The color television produced at the Messenger television factory still managed to fool Xu Fu using his [thermal vision] ability.

This means that obtaining color tubes under normal conditions is extremely difficult.

Even if it was hardly ever produced, it would still have increased the overall cost of television sets, given that televisions were already expensive at that time.

This is why Xu Fu did not introduce color television into commercial production, but only kept a prototype in the laboratory.

After all, in the history of television, color was just an afterthought; for two or three decades before the advent of color, black and white was the mainstream.

Although he was very interested in the development of the television industry, he did not have the idea of ​​going from black and white television to color television overnight.

Applications that originate from change.

Especially at that time, even television programs were not perfect, and television sets were not widespread.

Sometimes, the best isn't the best. In terms of viewing convenience, color television is naturally much better than black and white television, but considering the cost of color images, even if Xu Fu wanted to promote it, radio stations might not be able to afford the cost of producing color programs or dramas.

So, to put it another way, the first thing Xu Fu must do now is to expand the television market.

Only when the entire television market matures can the transition from black-and-white television to color television be successfully completed.

Because by then, neither radio stations nor listeners will be able to escape this new entertainment industry.

...

"...I could clearly see the momentary shift in President Roosevelt's expression as he watched the recording of his fireside speech and conversation on color television, exclaiming: 'The future will be the century of television.' And as this great president said, Mr. Xu Fu's invention of color television has become an indispensable part of modern life. Perhaps President Roosevelt foresaw this at the time and uttered such a remark." (Excerpt from a column in *The Messenger World*.)

Chapter 886 The Television Industry

"At 2 p.m. on April 3, 1933, President Roosevelt visited the Messenger Television Factory in Brooklyn.... When he saw the color televisions in the factory's laboratory playing clips of his speeches and fireside chats, he exclaimed: 'The future belongs to television!'"

"He watched television clips repeatedly for a long time in front of the color television before reluctantly leaving. It is said that when President Roosevelt left, Mr. Xu Fu presented him with a color television set... President Roosevelt specially placed it in his office in the White House, and whenever he had free time, he would turn on the television and watch the clips..."

Roosevelt's visit to the Messenger television factory served as a wake-up call to stimulate the development of the television industry.

On the very day the report was published in the Messenger World, the factory sold hundreds of televisions, and demand still exceeded supply.

Market commentary indicates that public interest in the new machine remains strong, especially after Roosevelt's "promotion," which has drawn interest from many who were previously uninterested in the industry. In New York, the primary buyers of televisions are upper-class members of society who were unaffected by the Great Depression.

"Mr. Xu Fu, you must take a look at this..."

At the Pulitzer Mansion, Lois Walton handed the newspaper to Xu Fu.

"American Radio Corporation, which owns the best television sets in the world."

On the front page of the newspaper Louise handed her, an advertisement for a television set from the American Radio Corporation was printed in large print.

Although American Radio Corporation lost out to Dewey's evidence in the television patent lawsuit, this was clearly not enough to force them to give up their fight for the television patents.

In fact, following the initial patent lawsuit, American Radio Corporation (ARPC) filed numerous smaller lawsuits, and there were rumors that there was an attractive feeling within the company that it intended to repeat what it had done in the Ferro-Farnsworth patent lawsuit, using these lawsuits, large and small, to hinder Xu Fu's development in television.

On the other hand, radio companies continued to argue that they had the right to produce and develop televisions because the issue of television patents was still unresolved.

Unlike Ferro Farnsworth, Xu Fu had enough capital to fight against RCA and would not be passive.

In fact, following the patent lawsuit, Dewey also filed several lawsuits against the radio company.

"Forget it."

Looking away from the newspaper, Xu Fu said to Lois, who was standing in front of him, "Our priority now is to produce enough television sets for New York City and the whole of America. As for American Radio Corporation..."

Let them produce televisions if they want to.

For others, the development of the television industry might involve huge profits, but for Xu Fu, this was the least important aspect. From the beginning, his focus in promoting television development was seeing the enormous influence behind the industry and using its growth to gain more [faith].

Of course, not caring is one thing, but suffering a loss is another.

The American radio station confidently asserted that it only collects royalties and never pays them.

Xu Fu will then make them eventually pay the television royalties they owe, and every television they produce now represents a large amount of future royalties.

Television production is proceeding smoothly, and the factory's production line has reached an optimal stage after this period of deployment.

From initially producing only a few dozen units per day to now producing around fifty or sixty, Xu Fu even intends to open a new production line as television sales increase.

However, like radio, television is merely a listening medium.

The media behind television or radio are the ones who produce and broadcast the truly engaging programs.

The development of television programs has been much slower than that of the booming broadcasting industry, mainly due to television being a relatively new industry, but also due to the caution of radio stations.

Currently, radio remains the primary mode of listening in the market.

This is mainly due to the size of the market share of radio stations themselves.

Because of the Great Depression, many people abandoned their previous forms of entertainment and chose cheaper ways to pass the time.

Radio programs became widely known because, according to statistics, more than 40% of American households owned a radio after the Great Depression.

Moreover, the number of radio stations available for listening increased from 500 in 1924 to 1200.

That was the golden age of radio's prosperity. Radio stations developed rapidly, and due to its widespread adoption, radio replaced newspapers and books as the new entertainment industry. In this environment, it was unrealistic to expect radio stations to abandon their promising programs in favor of the uncertain future of television.

Radio flourished amid the turmoil of the Great Depression, an opportunity shaped by history.

If television is to replace radio, the first thing that must be decided is its high price, which is determined by production costs and cannot be changed even by Xu Fu. The material cost of assembling a television in a factory is much higher than that of a radio.

Before the television industry truly flourishes, broadcasting is destined not to invest heavily in it.

Even CBS only sees television as a direction for development, while the vast majority of radio stations still focus on broadcast programming.

After all, the transition from radio to television has taken a long time.

Even if Xu Fu insists on doing so, it will still take at least two or three years to conduct a comprehensive study of the television system.

This is also one of the reasons why Xu Fu did not stop the theft of American radio and television production patents; he knew he needed these patents to help promote the maturity of the television system.