Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
iconoscope
References
Images
Labeled diagram of an iconoscope television camera tube showing internal components including the electron gun, deflecting coils, anode, mosaic, signal plate, and scanning beam path.
Britannica AI Icon

iconoscope

camera device
Written by
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Information Architects maintain a master list of the topics included in the corpus of  Encyclopædia Britannica, and create and manage the relationships between them.
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last updated

Quick Summary

Labeled diagram of an iconoscope television camera tube showing internal components including the electron gun, deflecting coils, anode, mosaic, signal plate, and scanning beam path.
Figure 6: Iconoscope camera tube.

The iconoscope was an early electronic camera tube used in television. Invented by Vladimir K. Zworykin in 1924, it contained an electron gun and a light-sensitive screen. When an image was focused on this screen, each cell produced an electrical charge proportional to the light intensity. An electron beam then scanned this pattern, converting the optical image into electrical signals that formed the basis of the television picture signal. This technology was a significant advancement over earlier mechanical scanning methods and paved the way for modern television cameras, though it has since been replaced by solid-state imagers.1

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
3 Britannica Sources
  1. iconoscope
  2. television - Electron tubes
  3. image orthicon

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.