It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Marion Leyer’s beloved husband John. Marion was for many years a key person in the production field at both TVW Channel 7 and NEW Channel 10 in Perth. Both came to Australia after the war and experienced great success in their respective fields. John Leyer was born in Berlin in 1937. The family came to Perth when John was just 16 in 1953. He spent time in a holding camp in Northam, until the family gained lodgings in West Perth. It was at this time that John first met the girl who would later be his wife, a 12 year old Marion Greiling. ...

This article will try to remain non-technical, though it is important to know what forms of knowledge were required for television to happen. The sources of these discoveries are often buried in ancient history and the many efforts of numerous people that were made over the centuries. Part 1 deals with the sources of our early knowledge. The stepping stones needed for civilisation to make progress, which date back to the ancient Greeks, for without mathematics we would not have made advances in architecture, engineering, chemistry, electronics, optics, and hence the industrial and computer...

PART 2 This part shows how imagination played an important role in not only arriving at new concepts but predicting where the future may lead. The science fiction of yesteryear soon became the reality of today as the properties of light were explored and substances that reacted to it led to photography and the electric light, and as the properties of magnetism and electricity became understood, then more creative uses for these phenomena were found. During the Age of Enlightenment (17th and 18th centuries) scientific thought, skepticism and intellectual interchange were promoted and superstition...

PART 3 This part tells how all the ingredients gradually came together for television to become a reality. The discovery of cathode rays, wireless propagation, the gadgetry and people who made it all happen. The Cathode Ray Tube In 1838, the English scientist Michael Faraday (1791–1867) discovered cathode rays. His main discoveries include those of electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and electrolysis. Diamagnetism ventures into quantum mechanical effects that explain levitation and other oddities. He also laid the foundations for electricity generation and electric motors and popularised...

PART 4 This part tells how some of the early devices were primitive, being made from bicycle parts, until overtaken by advances in the electronics field. There were many people who contributed to the development of television and it was not alway fair in who benefited most from the discoveries. As isolated as Australia was in the very early days, news of these discoveries reached here and the locals began experimenting. John Logie Baird Low technology – Low definition Baird television camera basics During this bitz of electronic development in Russia, Hungry and America,...

PART 5 This part explains how the competition between the mechanical method of sending images soon gave way to the superior electronic system, with practical applications gradually becoming mainstream as broadcasting organisations embraced this new field. Cathode Ray Tube technology gains prominence Manfred von Ardenne (1907–1997) a German research and applied physicist and inventor gave the world’s first public demonstration of a television system using a cathode ray tube (CRT) for both transmission and reception at the Berlin Radio Show in August 1931. Rather than use the CRT as a...

PART 6 This part tracks how television has evolved since the end of World War II with its spread through Britain, the United States and Europe until politicians in Australia started to take notice and contemplate how it should be introduced here. When it arrived in the capitol cities between 1956 and 1959, all licences were grant to newspaper publishers. The Labor party was keen for Australia to adopt a regime similar to the BBC, whilst the Liberal and Country party government introduced a hybrid of commercial and government broadcasting institutions. Australian workers at first enjoyed the opportunity...

PART 7 – The long and winding path that led to television This part explores how television came to Western Australia and the battle to get enough viewers to make the industry viable. It really was the pioneering days, as the exchange of programs between other countries, with different television systems, was fraught with technical problems. The industry changed greatly as governments changed rules for operating television stations and new technological developments reduced the isolation Western Australia experienced. The early isolation enabled the local stations to maintain a high level...

Part 1 starts when Perth was still referred to as the Swan River Colony. Western Australia had been a penal colony from 1850 to 1868, receiving over 9,000 convicts transported over 43 ocean voyages. The colony’s first cultural centre was The Swan River Mechanics’ Institute, established in 1851. As well as housing an extensive library, and various specimens of our natural history, the Institute also provided a venue for entertainment. The population of Perth tripled in a decade to 27,553 in 1901, as a result of the gold rushes in Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie from 1892–93. This led to...

Entertainment was evolving beyond live performers on a stage. A spate of inventions led to the recording of performances both in sound and picture. These innovations started a revolution in the way we amuse ourselves. No longer were people dependant on the family piano or folk enjoying a sing along, for we could now enjoy the work of musicians and actors from around the world.     Though the phonograph (record player or gramophone) was conceived in 1877, it would be many more years before the recording industry became a major factor in home entertainment, hence live music remained...