Colour television was by no means a new idea. In the late 19th century a Russian scientist by the name of A.A. Polumordvinov devised a system of spinning Nipkow disks and concentric cylinders with slits covered by red, green, and blue filters. But he was far ahead of the technology of the day; even the most basic black-and-white television was decades away. In 1928, Baird gave demonstrations in London of a colour system using a Nipkow disk with three spirals of 30 apertures, one spiral for each primary colour in sequence. The light source at the receiver was composed of two gas-discharge tubes, one of mercury vapour and helium for the green and blue colours and a neon tube for red. The quality, however, was quite poor.

In the early 20th century, many inventors designed colour systems that looked sound on paper but that required technology of the future. Their basic concept was later called the “sequential” system. They proposed to scan the picture with three successive filters coloured red, blue, and green. At the receiving end the three components would be reproduced in succession so quickly that the human eye would “see” the original multicoloured picture. Unfortunately, this method required too fast a rate of scanning for the crude television systems of the day. Also, existing black-and-white receivers would not be able to reproduce the pictures. Sequential systems therefore came to be described as “noncompatible.”

An alternative approach—practically much more difficult, even daunting at first—would be a “simultaneous” system, which would transmit the three primary-colour signals together and which would also be “compatible” with existing black-and-white receivers. In 1924, Harold McCreary designed such a system using cathode-ray tubes. He planned to use a separate cathode-ray camera to scan each of the three primary-colour components of a picture. He would then transmit the three signals simultaneously and use a separate cathode-ray tube for each colour at the receiving end. In each tube, when the resulting electron beam struck the “screen” end, phosphors coated there would glow the appropriate colour. The result would be three coloured images, each composed of one primary colour. A series of mirrors would then combine these images into one picture. Although McCreary never made this apparatus actually work, it is important as the first simultaneous patent, as well as the first to use a separate camera tube for each primary colour and glowing colour phosphors on the receiving end. In 1929 Herbert Ives and colleagues at Bell Laboratories transmitted 50-line colour television images between New York City and Washington, D.C.; this was a mechanical method, using spinning disks, but one that sent the three primary colour signals simultaneously over three separate circuits.

After World War II, the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) began demonstrating its own sequential colour system, designed by Peter Goldmark. Combining cathode-ray tubes with spinning wheels of red, blue, and green filters, it was impressive enough that The Wall Street Journal had “little doubt that color television [had] reached the perfection of black and white.” Thus began a long battle between CBS and RCA to decide the future of colour television. While CBS lobbied for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to authorize the Goldmark system for commercial television, Sarnoff warned against using a “horse-and-buggy” system that was noncompatible with monochrome TV. At the same time, Sarnoff whipped his troops at RCA into developing the first all-electronic compatible colour system.

In 1950 the FCC approved CBS’s colour television and corresponding broadcast standards for immediate commercial use. However, out of 12 million television sets in existence, only some two dozen could receive the CBS colour signal, and after only a few months the broadcasts were abandoned. Then, in June 1951, Sarnoff and RCA proudly unveiled their new system. The design used dichroic mirrors to separate the blue, red, and green components of the original image and focus each component on its own monochrome camera tube. Each tube created a signal corresponding to the red, green, or blue component of the image. The receiving tube consisted of three electron guns, one for each primary-colour signal. The screen in turn comprised a grid of hundreds of thousands of tiny triangles of discrete phosphors, one for each primary colour. Every 1/60 of a second the entire picture was scanned, separated into the three colour components, and transmitted; and every 1/60 of a second the receiver’s three electron guns painted the entire picture simultaneously with red, green, and blue, left to right, line by line.

And the RCA colour system was compatible with existing black-and-white sets. It managed this by converting the three colour signals into two: the total brightness, or luminance, signal (called the “Y” signal) and a complex second signal containing the colour information. The Y signal corresponded to a regular monochrome signal, so that any black-and-white receiver could pick it up and simply ignore the colour signal.

In 1952 the National Television Systems Committee (NTSC) was reformed, this time with the purpose of creating an “industry color system.” The NTSC system that was demonstrated to the press in August 1952 and that would serve into the 21st century was virtually the RCA system. The first RCA colour TV set, the CT-100 (see the photograph), rolled off the production line in early 1954. It had a 12-inch screen and cost $1,000, as compared with current 21-inch black-and-white sets selling for $300. It was not until the 1960s that colour television became profitable.

In 1960 Japan adopted the NTSC colour standard. In Europe, two different systems came into prominence over the following decade: in Germany Walter Bruch developed the PAL (phase alternation line) system, and in France Henri de France developed SECAM (système électronique couleur avec mémoire). Both were basically the NTSC system, with some subtle modifications. By 1970, therefore, North America and Japan were using NTSC; France, its former dependencies, and the countries of the Soviet Union were using SECAM; and Germany, the United Kingdom, and the rest of Europe had adopted PAL. These are still the standards of colour television today, despite the arrival of digital television.