In this thesis, I seek to understand what shaped the development of television, tracing the technology back to its earliest roots. In existing literature, the history of television in its formative years (before World War II), has largely been presented in technologically deterministic terms, culminating in the ‘goal’ of adding ‘sight to sound’ – producing a wireless set with pictures. Most of the existing literature focuses on ‘hero’ figures such as British inventor John Logie Baird and his electro-mechanical television systems, or on corporate narratives such as that of RCA in the United States in developing all-electronic television. In contrast to such an approach, I will concentrate on the transnational networks linking individuals and companies, and on the common external factors affecting all of them. Some networks could operate simultaneously as rivals and collaborators, as was the case with companies such as Marconi-EMI in Britain and RCA in the United States. Senior managers and researchers such as Isaac Shoenberg at Marconi-EMI and Vladimir Zworykin at RCA played significant roles, but so too did relatively obscure figures such as Russian scientist Boris Rosing and British engineer Alan A Campbell Swinton. I will draw on newly available sources from Russia and the USSR, on over-looked sources in Britain and the United States, and on replicative technology to re-examine the story. The new material, coupled with the transnational networks approach, enables fresh insights to be gained on issues of simultaneity of invention and on contingency in the development and initial deployments of the technology. By using these fresh primary sources, and by re-interpreting some aspects of the numerous existing secondary sources, I will show that the ‘wireless with pictures’ model was not inevitable, that electro-mechanical television need not have been a technical cul-de-sac, and that in Britain at least, it was the political desire to maintain and extend the monopoly of the BBC, which effectively funnelled the technology into the model so familiar to us today.

This Critical Review discusses the significance of the author’s published works and their impact on the history of the emergence of British television between 1926 and 1936. Although events in television within this period have since been well-documented, the related debates have tended to be specialist in scope and restricted to technology-centric or institution-centric viewpoints. Within this period of complex, rapid technological change, the author’s published works introduce the principle of embracing multiple disciplines for comparative analysis. The author’s application of that principle opens up long-established views for further debate and provides a re-assessment of early British television within a broader context. The rewards of this approach are a view of events that not only avoids nationalistic bias and restrictions of a single institutional viewpoint, but also tackles the complex inter-dependencies of technology, of service provision and of content creation. These published works draw attention to the revolutionary improvements that enabled the BBC’s 1936 service and the re-definition of television, yet also emphasise the significance of the previous television broadcast services. The most important innovation within these works has been the author’s discovery and in-depth study of artefacts from that earlier period. His recovery, analysis and presentation of video recordings of historic early television from 1927-1935 is original and remains unique. It has had a significant impact on the field of Media Archaeology, where Ernst considers the book Restoring Baird’s Image as a ‘seminal’ work and the overall restoration project ‘a brilliant case of “Digital Humanities” research’ (Appendix 2). The author’s curation of content from the period 1927-1935 enhances our understanding of a time where previously no direct television footage was thought to exist. The author extends his forensic-level investigative ‘hands-on’ techniques from this recovery to the analysis of the surviving artefacts from the time of John Logie Baird’s claimed first demonstration of television in 1926. The results clarify not only the functions of the equipment but also the circumstances and validity of the event, and hence its true place in the history of television.

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1999. / Bibliography: leaves 83-88.

No description available.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of this study was to investigate the nature and purpose of migrant social in Marconi Beam Informal Settlement, and Joe Slovo Park. The study found that migrant social networks served both economic and cultural functions. Through their social networks migrants seek to maximise their remittances to their areas as well as to convey information about the availability of jobs and housing conditions in the city. Newly arrived migrants depend on their kin and village mates for food, shelter, and sense of belonging in an environment that can otherwise be hostile. Similarly in times of crisis such as redundancy, property losses migrants can call on the support within their immediate area of residence or from other members based in their rural areas of origin. Furthermore, migrants visit their rural areas of origin to partake in marriages, initiation ceremonies, and funeral service. And many of the migrants who die in the city are transported to the rural areas for burial. Migrant social networks demonstrate the complex interconnectedness of the urban and rural spheres of life in both the economic and cultural aspects of life. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie het die aard en doel van sosiale netwerke onder migrante werkers in die Marconi Beam informele nedersetting en Joe Slovo Park ondersoek. Daar is gevind dat hierdie netwerke ekonomiese en kulturele funksies vervul. Op ekonomiese vlak fasiliteer die netwerke die twee-rigting vloei van goedere en dienste tussen stedelike huishoudings en die landelike tuiste. D.m.v. netwerke onder migrante werkers word inligting oor die beskikbaarheid van werk, behuising en dies meer versprei. Gebasseer op die ideologiese aanname dat die landelike tuiste meer belangrik is as die stedelike huishouding, word materiële goedere en geld, wat in die stad verdien word, na die landelike tuiste oorgeplaas. Daarmee saam word stedelike uitgawes tot In minimum beperk. In die geval van gebeurlikhede kenmerkend van die stedelike situasie, soos verlies van werk of eiendom, wend migrante werkers hulle na die landelike tuiste vir hulp en ondersteuning. Op In kulturele vlak besoek migrante die landelike areas om deel te neem aan begrafnisse, troues en inisiasie seremonies. Baie van diegene wat tot sterwe kom in die stad, word na die landelike areas oorgeplaas vir hul begrafnis. Hierdie besoeke dien as bewys van die migrant se lojaliteit teenoor die landelike tuiste en gemeenskap. In die geheel gesien bevestig die sosiale netwerke onder migrante werkers die inter-afhanklikheid van die stedelike en landelike lewenssfere.

The work is dedicated to the personality Jaromír Neumann as an expert of Venetian painting in our country, whose approach is documented on a number of paintings from several institutions, which autorship determinated. Specifically, the images of the Prague Castle Picture Gallery, National Gallery in Prague, Olomouc Picture Gallery and significant Titian painting of Kroměříž Picture Gallery, which concentrated his interest for a long time. These are the works of painter's family Bassano, Paolo Veronese, Jacopo and Domenico Tintoretto, Bonifazio Veronese, Rocco Marconi, Pordenone and Titian. More generally, the work deals with issues of connoisseurship and restoration, but is not the purpose of extensive analysis, the more necessary as outlined in the context of the theme of the work. The result should be the definition and specification process of Neumann's autorship determination and the pursuit of affect key points that form its determination.

This dissertation is a historical evaluation of the movement of the English courts from the doctrine of pith and marrow to the Catnic test in the determination of non-textual infringement of patents. It considers how and why the doctrine was replaced with the Catnic test. It concludes that this movement occurred as a result of the adoption by a group of judges of literalism in the construction of patents while another group dissented and maintained the correct application of the doctrine. Although the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords initially approved the literalist approach, they, after realising its untennability, adopted the dissenters’ approach, but, ultimately, adopted the Catnic test in which features of the dissenters’ approach were included. The dissertation concludes that the doctrine of pith and marrow, correctly applied, should have been retained as the Catnic test creates uncertainty and confusion. / Mercantile Law / LL.M.

This dissertation is a historical evaluation of the movement of the English courts from the doctrine of pith and marrow to the Catnic test in the determination of non-textual infringement of patents. It considers how and why the doctrine was replaced with the Catnic test. It concludes that this movement occurred as a result of the adoption by a group of judges of literalism in the construction of patents while another group dissented and maintained the correct application of the doctrine. Although the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords initially approved the literalist approach, they, after realising its untennability, adopted the dissenters’ approach, but, ultimately, adopted the Catnic test in which features of the dissenters’ approach were included. The dissertation concludes that the doctrine of pith and marrow, correctly applied, should have been retained as the Catnic test creates uncertainty and confusion. / Mercantile Law / LL. M.