George Boris TownsendMBE was an English physicist who specialised in television engineering. He published a number of books and papers on television engineering.
Early years
Townsend was born in London during 1919. At school his hard work and good results won him a scholarship from an LCC Primary School to a Grammar School, where he became Captain of Athletics as well as School Captain. As a small schoolboy he was televised by John Logie Baird although he had to stand on a box to bring his face up to the scanning disc. Baird was at the time holding his first public demonstration of television at Selfridges department store on Oxford Street in London, a short distance from where Townsend lived. Baird was demonstrating his 30-line system at 5 frames per second, and was only able to generate silhouettes. It was nonetheless fitting that the 6 year old Townsend happened to be shopping with his mother and come across the very start of television at the start of his own life. He was awarded the Sambrooke Scholarship to King’s College, University of London, where he read Physics, and continued to develop his passion for playing rugby. His rugby career culminated in him playing for the now famous London based Saracens FC. Townsend’s main studies were in atomic physics and Maxwell’s electro-magnetic theory. In 1940 he graduated from King’s College with a first class honours degree in Physics and a diploma in Divinity. Townsend would eventually earn a Ph.D from University of London.
Professional life
At the age of 21 Townsend joined the British General Electric Co. Ltd at their Hirst Research Laboratories in Wembley, London and soon became one of the senior research engineers. For the remainder of the Second World War he worked on various secret projects including torpedo guidance systems and radar. Most notably he was the senior engineer of the team that created the first airborne radar system, which for the first time allowed allied aircraft to find and track enemy planes both at night and in cloudy conditions. With the end of the war in 1945 he started work on television transmission and reception just before the television service reopened. During the second world war the UK government had shut down the television service to concentrate on the war effort. The valves developed by Townsend and his team at the GEC Research Laboratories for radar, were later used in the creation of their colour television design. While working for GEC, on 31 October 1958 he filed a patent application for specific elements of his television design which was later granted. Townsend had a number of other patents filed under his own name including the Automatic Saturation Control for Colour-Television Receiver and a Compensator for colour-television receivers for chromaticity variations in ambient light. In 1961 after 20 years in the Research Laboratories of the GEC, he set up and became Manager of the Television Department of GEC Ltd, making professional colour television monitors. It was here that he designed the first colour television to be mass-produced in the UK. Part of his team's accomplishments was the setting up of a complete colour studio in the New Horticultural Halls in the Victoria district of London. It was from here they broadcast the first public demonstration in the UK, of a live colour television studio production titled "The New TV Show" on 19 August 1961. He moved to Rank Cintel Television at Sydenham in 1963, first as Technical Manager where he was concerned with the development and manufacture of telecine machines and video tape equipment along with other professional studio equipment, then as Manager. Townsend obtained his doctorate from the Faculty of Science at the University of London in 1965 for his thesis on colour television. A year later he joined ABC in March 1966 and later that year was made a fellow of the Royal Television Society. As colour television became more widespread, he was instrumental in establishing the new techniques required for making film with the correct characteristics suitable for colour television transmission. After several years at ABC Television – which became Thames Television – as Head of Engineering Research, in 1972 Townsend joined the Independent Broadcasting Authority Headquarters staff where he became Head of Engineering Information Service. Townsend was well known for his ability to convey complex technical principles in a clear and interesting manner, frequently including an entertaining anecdote. He was widely considered to be a leading expert in his field and was on occasion called as an expert witness in court cases such as a patent action in the 1970s for EMI. Townsend was regularly quoted in the media about how he saw the development of television progressing, with what turned out to be with great accuracy. the New Scientist on 9 March reported him predicting that we would see dedicated communication satellites being used for broadcasting television pictures over multiple countries from one satellite, with different sound tracks available simultaneously in different languages. He also predicted that the same satellites would be used by foreign news reports to send live reports direct to our homes. Townsend claimed to have tried his hand at most jobs in television, from acting in front of the cameras to designing and making most types of equipment. He has served on numerous national and international committees, including the European Broadcasting Union committee concerned with the choice of standards for the European colour television system.
Works
Townsend presented a paper titled "The physiology and psychology of colour" at the BBC International Television Design Conference – Colour – on 8 November 1968 at the Television Centre, White City, London. It has since appeared as an article in the British Journal of Photography and was published by the British Board of Television Advertising in 1969. The BBTA commissioned him to write two further papers on Colour Television Reproduction, Colour Telecines and Standardisation, Technical standards of colour film for television advertising. While at GEC Townsend and his team built up a great deal of knowledge of the NTSC television system. This knowledge produced Townsend's most noticeable books on colour television engineering. His first book published in 1961, Colour Television: N.T.S.C. System, Principles and Practice, covered the basic principles and in particular the NTSC system, while the second book, Colour Television in collaboration with his GEC colleague Peter Carnt, covered PAL, SECAM and other systems. Townsend's first two books on colour television engineering quickly became some of the definitive reference books in their field, often cited as references in other publications, and even in patent disputes.
Lectures
Townsend presented the prestigious RTS Fleming Memorial Lecture titled "A Television Service Fit for Artists" on his birthday 13 April 1972. This led to him giving a number of prestigious lectures including the Sylvanus P Thompson event for the IEE. Townsend's superb presentation skills were put to good use in "The Entreating Electron" lecture which he presented with his colleague Howard Steele. They toured the UK in 1975 and 1976, presenting this elaborately staged series of IEE Faraday Lectures attracting large audiences. It proved so popular that it was broadcast on the UK television network HTV in 1975 as well as being released on VHS video cassette.
Later years
After his retirement from the IBA in 1984, Townsend worked as a senior consultant on television engineering projects around the world, through John Tucker Associates on Craven Street, London.
Awards and honours
Townsend was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List of 1982 for his contribution to television engineering.
