Jean-David Beyer wrote:

In 1927 or thereabouts, my grandfather made one of the first television
systems at Bell Labs. They did not have image orthocon tubes, or even
iconoscopes in those days. He invented a way to make sensitive photocell
tubes. They placed these around the studio (which was illuminated with
subdued lighting. They had a carbon arc light that went through a
spinning Nipkow disk (a disk with a spiral of holes in it) and an
optical system so the beam of light scanned the scene and the photocells
picked up the light.

This actually worked, and was a lot cooler than if the entire scene were
illuminated to the level the arc light put out.

And I'll bet was awesome to be there! That's a great example of
inventive thinking.

[.. snip more great stuff ..]

Later, devices called flying spot scanners were made, that generally
used a CRT as the light source. But when my grandfather started out, no
one had put a phosphor at the front of a crt before, and they generally
deflected the beam only along one axis.

My small story: My Uncle, Domina Jalbert worked for fifty years on a
wind lift sail/kite problem - to make one effective without any rigid
stays. At 60-something years old it came to him all at once. He went
into his shop, sewed up a 6' prototype, took it outside and said it
nearly lifted him off his feet. "I knew I had it then". It is known as
the Jalbert Parafoil - the first parasail. Patented 1964.

Here it to our inventive ancestors!