New York Times best-selling author and historian Andrew Carroll is a dogged researcher. During a trek through all 50 states to gather information for his new book Here Is Where: Discovering America's Great Forgotten History, he found the Idaho farm where 14-year-old Philo Farnsworth was inspired to help create the television set. This discovery sent Carroll to Hollywood in search of the apartment where an older Farnsworth conducted experiments that that lead to its creation.
In 1926, Farnsworth and his wife, Emma, lived at 1339 North New Hampshire Avenue and Carroll says this is where he performed "the first inventions to create television." People who live in the neighborhood today had no idea until Carroll's recent appearance.
Eric Ando Terharutunyan, next door neighbor to the secretly-famous residence, was ecstatic upon hearing the news. “TV was invented in your house!” he exclaimed to his neighbor. Being a part of history, regardless of how small it is, excites people.
Did Carroll find the place where television was born? Not quite, as there were other contributors elsewhere, but he proved that instinct and determination can help you find some of the world's treasures in the most unlikely places.
[via SCPR]
