1907-1915

The quest for home video
Urban Spirograph

Theodore Brown and his Spirograph invention.

The earliest example of a 'video' disc to reach the market. The device was patented in the UK in 1907 by Theodore Brown (1870-1938), who sold his rights to the American-born entrepreneur Charles Urban. Its right to be regarded as a proto-video disc is based on simple principles: it is a flat disc, carrying moving picture images, that can be readily reproduced.
        The 10-inch disc, packed in a paper sleeve like those of 78rpm records,  contained a spiral of 1,200 images which, at 16 fps would give a running time of 1.25 minutes. As well as the central hole for the spindle, a pin engaged with a second hole and the hand-cranked projector was driven by a system of gears  that maintained synchronisation between the disc and the lens/light assembly.
    Urban marketed the system in 1915 in the USA (a projector is in the Smithsonian) and several hundred titles were offered. It made no apparent impression on the market.

 

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