Discovery. Do you know that?...

Many readers will be surprised to find out that Tashkent is the fatherland of the first electronic TV in the world. Here, in the first period of recovery of the country from war devastation, enthusiasts and real hermits of their pursuit, people whose names by right occupy a place in history, but are wrongly forgotten without any advantages, premiums and privileges, underfed and dressed in old shabby clothes worked for the glory of the Homeland.

Grabovskiy Boris (1901-1966), son of the famous Ukrainian poet, and Popov Viktor (1895-1965), from a family of workmen, Piskunov Nikolay (1886-1941), descending from a rich family and the future officer Belyanskiy Ivan (1907-1979) stood at the origins of the world famous device. Exactly this small collective, developing the ideas of the Portuguese A. de Payva, German P.Nipkov, Russian P.I. Behterev, physicians B.L.Rosing and K.F. Braun, could work out and construct a device under the name of "Telephot" which was capable of carrying out the transmission and reception of images on distance.

And although V. Popov and N.Piskunov with time transferred to teaching, B.Grabovskiy and I. Belyanskiy carried their work to its conclusion. We will not cite texts of documents, sending the interested readers to the collection of documents "B.P.Grabovskiy - inventor of the telephot", which was published by "Uzbekistan" publishing house in 1989.

Most important is that the story repeated which happens with all inventors: young scientists very often did not find support in the power structures, worked practically without pay or invested their money and for the sums of money received on legal grounds barely escaped being brought to trial. Fortunately, there were people who understood inventor needs.

One of these people was the chairman of the Central Executive Committee of Uzbekistan - Yuldash Akhunbabaev. He was the one who tried to provide support to the beginner inventors, having found out about the works of a new direction. By the order of the highest official of the Republic a quite large sum of money for those times was provided - 300 rubles (for this, later on there was an attempt to call to account the inventor duet). The specialists of the experimental station of the Central Asian region of communication were recruited in the affair. The head of the Republic even wrote a solicitation to Moscow, expressing a request to support the undertaking that was precious for science, technology and country as a whole.

Many facts of active work can be brought. To those readers, who have a wish to find out in more detail about this story, I point out an address: Central State Archives of Uzbekistan, 2, Chilanzarskaya Street, Tashkent.

The assemblage and tests with the device were carried out in summer 1928 at the experimental station of the Central Asian region of communication and in the house where the inventors lived with their families. Many inhabitants of our city have been at this place more than once earlier and continue to come to the region of "Pakhtakor" subway station and certainly do not even suspect that here, at the place of the first Tashkent television tower the event of universal importance took place. Maybe this is why the Tashkent TV center is located right on the place where the small but famous house stood. The city address sounded like this: Sheyhantaur, Bala-mosque, 74. By the 1950s the address changed: 199, Navoi Street. This house still existed in 1969, but it was demolished during reconstruction.

The tests passed with variable success. Sometimes they managed to make the electron-beam tube work, sometimes its working condition disappeared, sometimes it reappeared. In the most successful moments they managed to transmit the image of I.Belyanskiy and then B.Grabovskiy's wife, Lidiya. This happened on 26^th of June 1928. Already on the 4^th of August the transmitter apparatus (motion picture camera) and the receiver is set up on the street and they manage to film and transmit the image of a tram, moving along the present Navoi Street. It was tremendous success! Even the mistress of the house shed a tear, sincerely aching for each success or loss of her guests during the experiments.

The most pleasant and surprising fact is that when the private secretary of Yuldash Akhunbabaev came from Samarkand, which was then the capital of our country, he entered the flat, which was occupied by the inventors. He wanted to know how work was progressing. This fact became known to the local people very quickly. After this, the authority of two scientists grew among the population.

Concerning Yuldash-ata, we must say that he was a very democratic and approachable leader, sensitive and understanding person. Having come from common people, he understood more than the officials from Moscow. Unfortunately, he could not achieve only one thing - permission from OGPU (future MIA (Ministry of Internal Affairs) for a trip of two young inventors abroad, with the aim of acquainting themselves with the works of "Telefunken" firm. In all other aspects his support was priceless.

In 1930, for a number of reasons it became impossible to continue the work on improving the telephot (particularly because of the interference by the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs), and both friends had to separate. B.Grabovskiy went to Sochi (Crimea) and I.Belyanskiy - to Saratov (Russia). The first subsequently lived in the contemporary city of Bishkek until his death. The latter passed the war, gained officer's rank, became a cavalier of many military awards, and over many years after the front engaged in cultural communications with other states.

In the 1960s in various publications of our country articles appeared, devoted to the 40-year anniversary of the remarkable event. On the 16^th of April 1971 the director of UNESCO's department of scientific information sent a letter to I.Belyanskiy with the acknowledgement of significance of the works of our compatriots in the development of television. In France the newspaper "Electronique actualite" recognized the primogeniture of our country in creation of television. Unfortunately, already in the 1970s this anniversary was forgotten and now no one remembers it for many years. I would like to remind one more time - it is our Republic, our capital which is the native land of the first electronic television transmitter.