Rene Barthelemy

Rene Barthlemy was born in Nangis, near Paris, on March 10, 1889. As an outstanding student of the Electricity High School, now known as SUPELEC, he became chief of the new research laboratory of television in 1928, created by Jean Le Duc upon the request of Mr. Ernest Chamom, chairman of the Compagnie des Compteurs.

At CDC he produced 30 line Nipkow disc television receivers. At that time Marius Lamblot and Dimitri Strelkoff were his close assistants. Inspired by the work of the Swedish physicist Ekström, he developed a mirror drum 30 line mechanical camera. This camera was used in CDC's first public demonstration of television on April 14, 1931 in the Electricity High School in Malakoff. At the time, thousands of people tried to attend the event, causing large traffic jams.

During his experiments, Barthelemy dealt with the problem of synchronization, making several advances in that area. By the end of 1934 his work with 60 line technology allowed the first official television broadcasting by France, which took place on April 26, 1935, under control of the Minister of P.T.T., Georges Mandel. These transmissions were from the P.T.T. TV studio on the rue de Grenelle in Paris. From that time, television in France became government operated.

On December 2, 1935, Barthelemy broadcast his first 180 line television programs, using a mechanical camera and electronic receivers. The following year will be the end of the mechanical era of the television and the birth of the electronic cameras and receivers.

In 1937 Barthelemy developed the Emyvisor CRT televisor sold by Emyradio.

In the following years, Rene Barthelemy, a formal member of the Academy of Sciences, continued, in spite of poor health, to continue developing television technology.

He died on February 12, 1954.