In an narrative exchange between the Sarnoff and Farnsworth, Sarnoff asserts that the picture Farnsworth had attained is of "no practical value" because "it needed too much light."

When Farnsworth counters that Zworykin didn't have a picture at all, Sarnoff says "he solved your light problem and filed a patent four years earlier."

The play doesn't exactly go off the rails here, but it's starting to wobble. The introduction of the "light problem" is a red herring, one of the issues promoted over the years by RCA to make a case for its own belated -- and nominal -- contributions to the art.

What the play fails to assert effectively is that Farnsworth's invention "proved the principle' of electrical scanning, thus paving the way for all future improvements. Considering the mechanical contraptions that preceded it, Farnsworth's system was a breakthrough of epic proportions, the innovation that spawned an entire industry.

Yes, in the early days there were issues of light sensitivity, but Farnsworth was responsible for just as many innovations that solved that problem as any other engineer or laboratory.

Sarnoff tells Harbord he wants to buy the Audion Tube, and a discussion ensues re: the cost benefits of such a transaction.

Sarnoff justifies the proposition with the suggestion that "RCA shouldn't be be paying patent royalties, we should be collecting them."

The paternity of the Audion Tube (the basic, three-element amplifier/rectifier that made broadcasting possible) and its underlying circuits -- and the patent litigation around those issues -- are among the most complex and arcane issues in the history of radio.

However, the issue of patent ownership -v- licensing is really the issue at the very heart of this particular drama. Sarnoff's statement that RCA 'should' be collecting royalties instead of paying them was in fact an iron-clad policy that prevented RCA from doing business with Farnsworth (or anybody, for that matter) on reasonable terms.

Sarnoff takes lunch with Walter Gifford, his rival at AT&T. RCA now controls the Audion tube, which Sarnoff uses as leverage in his negotiations with Gifford. Sarnoff wants AT&T out of the broadcasting business.

Both RCA and AT&T were subject to federal scrutiny for their monopolistic practices. In 1926, a compromise was arranged by Owen Young, the Chairman of RCA, whereby AT&T surrendered its broadcasting interests to RCA in exchange for exclusive right to connect by wire the many radio stations that would form a new network, the National Broadcasting Company.

The formation of NBC was both a victory and a defeat for Sarnoff, who would have to rely on advertising to make the new company self-sufficient.

RCA did wrap the Audion tube into its patent portfolio, and also controlled the heterodyne and super heterodyne circuits, invented by Edwin Armstrong, which are fundamental to radio broadcasting.

However, the battle over "frequency modulation" -- FM -- was another epic struggle in which Sarnoff tried to crush a brilliant inventor who dared to stand in the path of Sarnoff's quest for Global Domination.

The play hinges its dramatic turn on Farnsworth's "very serious light problems," implying ultimately that Farnsworth had no solution to this simple "engineering" issue.

Actually, many -- if not most -- of the improvements to the first system that found their way into television cameras in the 1940s and 50s started as innovations in Farnsworth's lab.

Zworykin applied for a patent for an electronic television system in 1923, but as of 1930 (and beyond) the actual patent remained un issued, as is typically the case with inventions that cannot be "reduced to practice" -- i.e. made to work.

But the suggestion that Sarnoff/RCA saw merit in Zworykin's un issued patent is valid, and the words "priority of invention" will prove important in both the play and the history -- though for different reasons.

It is important to note that Zworykin was still employed at Westinghouse, in Pittsburgh PA, when Sarnoff learned of Farnsworth's developments.

In 1929, Sarnoff met with Zworykin and offered underwrite his work, but Zworykin remained under Westinghouse's roof until the middle of 1930.

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