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In the history of science and technology in our country, there is a special cultural relic that has witnessed the rise and changes of New China. It is an ancient and bulky black-and-white TV that is now treasured in the National Museum.

The outer shell of this TV is made of thick wood, with metal components scattered throughout. The five glass electron tubes and the picture tube are particularly eye-catching. Three-quarters of the front of the TV is covered by a solid protective screen, with only a small picture screen embedded in the middle of the protective screen. The words "Made by the State-owned Tianjin Radio Factory" and "Beijing Brand 820 TV Receiver" are printed below the back panel of the TV, but these words have long been blurred. Standing in front of it, we seem to be able to travel through time and space and return to the early days of New China, which was full of passion and dreams.

This TV set is very special. It is one of the first batch of "Beijing Brand" 820-type 35cm black-and-white TV sets in New China. In the context of the times, its appearance was hailed as "China's first screen" and became a milestone in the history of Chinese television development.

Make Chinese people's own TV

In the mid-1950s, the global television industry had flourished, with more than 500 TV stations and 40 million TV sets spread all over the world. However, in my country, television broadcasting was still a blank. In order to change this backward situation, in 1957, the state decided to vigorously promote the development of television broadcasting.

This important task fell on the shoulders of the 10th Bureau of the Second Ministry of Machinery Industry, the department in charge of the electronics industry. They gave the task of developing the TV transmission center equipment to the Beijing Broadcasting Equipment Factory, and the task of developing the TV receiver to the state-owned Tianjin Radio Factory.

After accepting the task, Tianjin Radio Factory quickly set up a TV trial production team. At that time, a group of engineers and technicians from the Radio Science Research Institute of the Central Broadcasting Bureau had just returned from studying television technology in the Czech Republic, and they also participated in the development of the TV center equipment of the Beijing Broadcasting Equipment Factory. In order to master the design technology of television sets as soon as possible, the factory sent engineers and technicians to the Beijing Broadcasting Equipment Factory to gain an in-depth understanding and learn the development process of the TV transmission center equipment.

During this process, they also collected some Soviet "Record" and "Pioneer" TV sets brought back by people who had traveled abroad as prototypes for research. Through the analysis of these prototypes, they found that the circuit design of Soviet TV sets was ingenious, the workmanship was good, and the performance was superior, but it was not completely consistent with the actual situation in my country. This is because there is still a large gap between the supporting level of my country's electronic industry and that of foreign countries. Many components and materials required for TV sets cannot be produced independently, so foreign designs cannot be completely copied.

Faced with such difficulties, they knew that if they wanted to launch domestic televisions in a short period of time, they had to be self-reliant and forge their own research and development path.

The first black-and-white television test broadcast was successful

At the beginning of 1958, after a series of intensive research and technical preparations, the research and development team, based on my country's actual situation, including component matching capabilities and process processing levels, proposed an innovative television design plan - using domestically produced electronic tube devices, combining television and FM reception functions, and with the control knob located in the front.

The conditions at that time were very difficult. There were no special instruments for television and no broadcast television signals to actually test the reception quality of televisions. However, our researchers were not defeated by these difficulties. With perseverance and wisdom, they overcame many key technical problems, such as large current magnetic deflection technology, ultra-high voltage generation and insulation technology, electromagnetic interference isolation and shielding technology, and high-fidelity audio and video technology.

According to the circuit design, structure design, instrument design and other requirements of the research and development team, the test personnel worked day and night, and after two months of hard work, they finally successfully completed the block test. What is exciting is that the first experimental TV prototype was finally assembled in early March 1958.

Although the prototype has been successfully assembled, there are still concerns about its actual reception effect. On the evening of March 17, 1958, my country's TV center tested TV programs for the first time in Beijing. In the test hall of the Tianjin factory, two TV sets were placed side by side, one was from the Soviet Union, and the other was our homemade prototype. At 7 o'clock in the evening, a clear image appeared on the TV screen on time, and the sound quality was not inferior to that of the Soviet TV. At this moment, the researchers realized that my country's first TV set was successfully trial-produced!

In order to commemorate the fact that this was the first television set in my country and the product of the first television set manufacturer in China, the country decided to name it after the capital, “Beijing”. This is the origin of the “Beijing Brand” television.

The birth of this TV set filled the gap in my country's TV industry and created a TV development process from nothing to something, from little to many, and from simple to refined. The state-owned Tianjin Radio Factory won honor for the country and also marked a new chapter in China's TV industry. In the past few decades, my country's electronics industry has experienced rapid development, gradually established a complete production system, and the scale of the industry has continued to expand.

In addition, my country's military electronics has also made significant progress, greatly enhancing its ability to provide supporting military equipment. In the fields of satellite telemetry and remote control systems, satellite-borne payloads, solid-state long-range warning radars, integrated electronic warfare systems, etc., my country has approached or reached the international advanced level. The research and development of some key components has also filled the domestic gap, demonstrating my country's strong strength in the field of science and technology.

Reference sources: Huanqiu.com, "History of Chinese Television", "Contemporary Chinese Electronics Industry"