Ever Heard Of Philo T. Farnsworth???

Philo T. Farnsworth was a Mormon farm boy who just happened to invent the electronic television. He has transformed what we see as media today. Unfortunately he is not a well-known figure in American history like Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison. You will not find his name in any history book, but instead will find Vladimir Zvorykin’s name. Why is this?

At the young age of twenty Philo was creating the television with financial support from local businessmen. Ironically, Vladimir who worked for RCA was also trying to create the television at the same time. When applying the dominant and subordinate groups to this example, it is obvious who was which. Farnsworth was the subordinate because he was part of the white lower class and therefore had no wealth or power. RCA was part of the dominant group because they were a major corporation that included money and power. RCA had so much power that they sent someone to copy the blueprints of Farnsworth’s work. Farnsworth beat RCA against the odds and got a patent for his electronic television. RCA, using their money offered him 100,000 dollars for the patent, but he refused. RCA couldn’t handle the idea of a small town poor man getting credit for the television, so they lied cheated and stole to try to get the claim. Yet, Vladimir is the one who is remembered for the invention. This is because they put a ban on commercial television and his patent would run out and television production would become public. The dominant group eventually destroyed Farnsworth by him suffering from depression and alcoholism because of the stress they imposed on him.

This story proves why the dominant (powerful and wealthy) group always comes out on top no matter how hard the subordinate fights. It also answers the question of why Vladimir goes down in the books as the one who invented the television, because history is written by the powerful. We see this kind of story repeatedly throughout history; the “little” man always loses to the “big” company.