I WITNESS HISTORY

The teenage Billy Tainton was a runner for a silent film company. Upstairs was separate – the laboratory of the man they called the “mad professor”. This Scots chap had invented a thermal undersock, for the frozen footed people of his native Glasgow, his only moneyspinner so far.

Word had it – he shorted out the whole of Glasgow’s Electricity – trying to superheat graphite and turn it into diamonds. Disaster. He invented a glass razor blade – tried it on himself and was rushed to Glasgow Emergency department with severe cuts on his face.

In Hastings, he wired together 100’s of lamp batteries to generate 2000 volts. And set the building on fire. Evicted. The “mad professor” was John Logie Baird. And Billy became the first person in the world to have his moving image electrically transmitted through space.

The Vision from Afar- The Far Vision. Latinised to become Television. Without which the screen, tablet, laptop, smartphone- you are reading this on would never exist.