When the Farnsworth family moved to their new farm in 1919, eleven-year-old Philo was surprised to find it wired for electricity. This unusual circumstance contributed to his fate -- to become an important inventor of the twentieth century. By thirteen, Farnsworth had become a self-taught electrical engineer. He was able to fix the farm's generator when none of the adults could. In 1922, he read an article about a new idea of John Baird, a Scottish scientist, who had been working with the cathode ray tube   for the transmission of electronic pictures and wanted to attempt it himself. Farnsworth studied everything he could find on the subject. Although many older engineers with money backers were already developing television, Farnsworth made a bold decision -- he was going to perfect a working model of it before anybody else. In college, Farnsworth continued his research with cathode ray and vacuum tubes, but the death of his father, the only money maker in the family, forced him to give up this research and find a job. His first job was for George Everson, with whom Farnsworth discussed his dream of television. While acknowledging the achievements of those who came before, Farnsworth thought that he could get closer. Everson agreed to risk $6,000 for the research. Backers came in 1927 to see the first American television, one year after Baird's. They were astonished to see the image of a single white line resolve itself on the screen before them, and agreed that this new invention was worth putting money into. In 1930, Farnsworth won a patent   for his all-electronic TV. By the time he died, he had earned over 300 American and foreign patents for electronic and mechanical devices. When Farnsworth was at a young age, he   _
had to drop out of school to help on the family farm was sent to school to study electrical engineering wanted to be the first person to invent the television had shown a surprising ability in the electrical field