By the end of the 1970s, colour television had transformed many homes across Australia and its position as the centre of home entertainment was only being strengthened by the arrival of the home computer and video cassette recorder. Yet in laboratories around the world, the successors to the colour cathode-ray tube (CRT) were starting to take shape. Nevertheless, like many inventions before them, the success of these new display technology rivals lay in the research of decades past.
1936: Liquid-Crystal ‘Light Valve’
Guglielmo Marconi is often described as the ‘father of radio’ for his pioneering work in wireless communication in the late-1890s, but he also built one of the most important technology companies of the era, the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company (MWTC). By the 1930s, the electronic valve and the domain of electronics in general had matured to a point where new applications were being investigated in a seemingly ever-increasing array of fields during a golden age of research.
But despite it being said that Marconi, himself, had no real interest in television, his company had begun working with Electric and Music Industries (better known as ‘EMI’) in London in December 1931. Their collaboration would peak in the battle against the Baird Television Company to launch the world’s first TV-broadcast service (see Part 2 of this series).
Like all good tech companies, MWTC was known
