Charles Francis Jenkins facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Charles Francis Jenkins
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Frontispiece of Animated Pictures, 1898
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| Born | August 22, 1867 Dayton, Ohio, U.S.
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| Died | June 6, 1934 (aged 66) Washington, D.C., U.S.
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| Resting place | Rock Creek Cemetery Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Education | Bliss Electrical School |
| Occupation | Engineer |
| Engineering career | |
| Projects | Over 400 patents related to a variety of inventions |
| Significant advance | Motion picture projector and television |
| Awards | Elliott Cresson Medal (1897) John Scott Medal (1913) |
Charles Francis Jenkins (born August 22, 1867 – died June 6, 1934) was an American engineer. He was a very important person in the early days of movies and television. Jenkins helped invent television using mechanical parts, not electronic ones like we have today. He started companies like Charles Jenkins Laboratories. In 1928, his company got the first license to broadcast television in the United States. Jenkins invented many things, and he received over 400 patents for his ideas. Many of these were for his work on movies and TV.
Jenkins was born in Dayton, Ohio. He grew up near Richmond, Indiana, where he went to school. In 1890, he moved to Washington, D.C. There, he worked as a stenographer, which means he wrote down what people said very quickly.
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Motion Pictures: How Movies Started
Jenkins began working with moving pictures in 1891. He loved this work so much that he quit his job. He then focused completely on creating his own movie projector. He called his invention the Phantoscope.
The First Public Movie Show
On June 6, 1894, the Richmond Telegram newspaper wrote about Jenkins' new invention. He had been working on a "motion picture projecting box" for two years. He wanted to show it to his family, friends, and reporters. They all met at his cousin's jewelry store in downtown Richmond. There, they watched what might have been the very first movie shown to an audience.
The movie showed a dancer named Annabelle doing a butterfly dance. Jenkins had filmed her himself in the backyard of his Washington home. People later said that each frame of the film was carefully colored by hand.
Improving the Projector
In July 1894, an article in the Photographic Times magazine talked about the Phantoscope. It said Jenkins' machine was better than Thomas Edison's Kinetograph in several ways. The Phantoscope was small, easy to carry, and cheap. Jenkins had planned to make a machine where people could put a coin in to watch. But his machine could also project images onto any size screen using a magic lantern. This was similar to how Eadweard Muybridge showed his famous moving pictures. Jenkins also wanted to add sound to his movies using a phonograph.
At the Bliss Electrical School in Washington, D.C., Jenkins met a classmate named Thomas Armat. Together, they made the Phantoscope even better. They showed their improved projector to the public at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta in 1895. After this, Jenkins and Armat had a disagreement about who owned the patent for the invention. They decided to go their separate ways.
Jenkins later sold his part of the projector to Armat. Armat then sold the rights to Thomas Edison. Edison called the projector the Vitascope. This Vitascope was the machine Edison used to start showing movies in vaudeville theaters. People paid money to watch these films.
In 1898, Jenkins wrote a book called Animated Pictures. It was one of the first books to explain how movies developed and how the machines worked.
Television: Pictures Through the Air
After his work on movies, Jenkins started focusing on television. In 1913, he wrote an article called "Motion Pictures by Wireless." But it wasn't until December 1923 that he successfully sent moving silhouette images to people watching. On June 13, 1925, he publicly showed how he could send both pictures and sound at the same time. He received a U.S. patent for "Transmitting Pictures over Wireless" in June 1925.
Jenkins used mechanical ways to create television. Another inventor, John Logie Baird, also used similar mechanical methods. However, their mechanical television was later replaced by electronic television. Inventors like Vladimir Zworykin and Philo Farnsworth developed the electronic TV we know today.
The First TV Station
In 1928, the Jenkins Television Corporation opened the first television broadcasting station in the U.S. It was called W3XK. The station started broadcasting on July 2. At first, it sent signals from Jenkins Labs in Washington. From 1929, it broadcast from Wheaton, Maryland, five nights a week.
When it first started, W3XK could only send silhouette images. This was because its signal had a narrow bandwidth. But soon, they fixed this, and the station began sending real black-and-white images.
In March 1932, the Jenkins Television Corporation closed down. Its assets were bought by the Lee de Forest Radio Corporation. However, just a few months later, the De Forest company went bankrupt. Then, RCA bought their assets. This stopped all work on mechanical television.
Other Inventions and Life
Jenkins also worked on cars with his Jenkins Automobile Company. In 1898, he invented the first car that had its engine in the front. In 1901, he built a very small car. It was made for a Cuban performer named Chiquita, who was only 26 inches tall.
Jenkins married Grace Love in 1902.
Achievements and Awards
Charles Jenkins received many honors for his scientific work. In 1897, he was given the important Elliott Cresson Gold Medal. In 1913, he received the Scott Medal from the Franklin Institute & Science Museum in Philadelphia.
He was also the person who started the Society of Motion Picture Engineers. He was its first president. This society now includes television and is known as SMPTE.
Jenkins wrote several books, including Vision By Radio, Radio Photographs, Radio Photograms and The Boyhood of an Inventor. He also wrote many articles about his inventions for national magazines.
In June 1929, Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, gave him an honorary doctor of science degree. This was his old college.
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences gives out the Emmy Awards every year. They honor Jenkins' contributions to television by naming one of their top awards after him. The Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award is given to someone whose work has greatly improved television technology over time.
In 2011, Jenkins was added to the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Charles Francis Jenkins passed away at age 66 in Washington, D.C. He is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery.
During World War II, a Liberty Ship was named SS C. Francis Jenkins in his honor.
See also
- Charles Jenkins Laboratories
- W3XK
