On September 7th 1927 John Logie Baird demonstrated his infra-red ‘Noctovision’ system to members of the British Association meeting in Leeds, where he successfully ‘noctovised’ the distinguished scientist Sir Oliver Lodge. It was at that meeting the idea of a ‘Television Society’ was born.
Now, almost exactly 80 years later to the day, and coinciding with the British Association’s Festival of Science in York, Baird’s grandson Iain Baird talked to a gathering of the now Royal Television Society and British Association members and their guests about his grandfather’s considerable achievements.

The venue this time was the National Media Museum in Bradford, and over an 80th anniversary glass of wine we were surrounded by those early technologies in the museum’s splendid Television Gallery.

Iain’s uniquely personal account of his grandfather’s pioneering work and indeed of those early days of the Television Society, embellished with anecdotes about his father and grandfather, made for a fascinating evening.

The high-risk early experiments, where Baird and his colleagues risked roasting, scalding and flying bicycle lamp lenses, remind us what a health and safety conscious industry we are now.

Equally seismic are the remarkable advances in technology, described by Iain at the conclusion of his talk. In the space of an hour we were whisked from 30 lines to 1080 lines and beyond; from the nipkow disk to Ultra High Definition TV. And this time nobody was noctovised.