Scophony Ltd.
Dean Street, London, W1 (1930)
Thornwood Lodge, Campden Hill, London NW8.

Scophony-Baird Ltd.
Lancelot Road, Wembley, Middlesex (1949)

Scophony was one of the most highly original television manufacturers of the 1930s. Their innovative optical-mechanical television systems produced large-screen high-definition pictures for both the home and cinema.

The company’s contributions to television’s technological history have certainly not received the attention they deserve, in part because the Television Committee formed in 1935 made its decisions before Scophony’s technologies had been fully developed, and because no complete Scophony television sets survive today either in museums or private collections. The most complete Scophony television in existence belongs National Science & Media Museum, Bradford.

In late 1948, Scophony merged with John Logie Baird Ltd. to become Scophony-Baird and later in 1954 was acquired by Hartley Electromotives Ltd.

Entrepreneur Solomon Sagall after seeing a demonstration of low-definition television in Berlin by Denes Von Mihaly in March 1929 decided to begin his first venture into television by purchasing the British rights to the Telehor television system from Mihály, founding a company called British Telehor Ltd. 

In 1932 Ferranti invested £3,500 in the company, however in 1934 Ferranti turned down the option to invest a further £10,000 to re-structure Scophony Limited, and in 1935 EKCO replaced Ferranti as the company's main investor.

In April 1935 Scophony Limited was registered as a private company with a capital of £140,000 in shares of £1 to take over from a previous company of the same name certain processes and world patent rights in the field of television, cinematography, and commercial communications, which are in the main the invention of Mr. G. W. Walton.

The Board consisted of:

• Sir Maurice Bonham Carter, K.C.B., K.C.V.O., Director of 0. T. Falk & Co., Ltd., Chairman.
• Mr. W. S. Verrells, Chairman of E. K. Cole, Ltd., Deputy Chairman.
• Mr. S. Sagall, Managing Director of the old Scophony, Ltd., Managing Director.
• Mr. R. E. Cornwall, Director of the London & Yorkshire Trust.
• Mr. 0. Deutsch, Director of the old Scophony, Ltd., and Chairman of Odeon Theatres, Ltd.
• Mr. A. Levey, Director of the old Scophony, Ltd.
• Mr. G. W. Walton.
• Mr. L. L. Whyte. [1]

Scophony's system used several innovative devices:

1.  A split-focus optical system invented by G.W. Walton, developed specially for use with mirror scanning systems. Light beams were focused by crossed cylindrical lenses, concentrating the light in two planes. This allowed the use of smaller lenses and mirrors, thus reducing size and cost. This was particularly important to Scophony since they intended to produce extremely large images.
2.  A light modulator developed by J.H. Jeffree in 1934 and known as the Jeffree cell, a cell filled with a transparent fluid that used mechanical oscillations to modulate the light beam passing through it. It was a substantial improvement over the previous Kerr cell, with 200 times as much modulated light being available on the screen.
3. High-speed synchronous motors that could be relied on for 1000 hours of use, some lasting longer without noticeable wear. The Scophony system used two: a low-speed scanner which operated at 240 RPM and a high-speed scanner which ran at 30,375 RPM for 405-line transmissions or 39,690 RPM for the American 441-line system.

In September 1936 Scophony, Ltd., became a public company to increase the capital from £140,000 to a nominal capital of £300,000 consisting of 1,200,000 in 5s. shares.
The company, it is stated, holds about 117 granted patents all over the world, while 105 more are still pending.  E. K. Cole, Ltd., are substantial shareholders. [2][3]

An Ekco-Scophony receiver was shown at the 1936 radio show, which although probably never entered production was enough to demonstrate the performance of their system. It produced a relatively bright picture clearly superior to the 10 x 8 picture obtained from the early 12-inch CRTs. [4]

In 1938 the Scophony company demonstrated three types of 405-line mechanical television receivers at the Radiolympia exhibition in London: a home receiver, with a picture area of approximately 24" x 22" and two systems intended for theatre operation, one producing a 6ft x 5ft image and the other a 9ft x 12ft image.

With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the British Broadcasting Corporation stopped television broadcasting. Consequently, it became impossible for Scophony to continue in the commercial development, manufacture, and sale of television equipment in England.

It therefore sent personnel to the United States, opened an office in New York City, and began demonstrations of its product and other activities preliminary to establishing a manufacturing and selling business in this country.

In February 1940 the company experimented with using the Skiatron in a large-screen projection television Projection. [5]

Late in 1948 Scophony Ltd. acquired John Logie Baird Ltd. and its associate company W. Andrew Bryce and Co. of Lancelot Rd, Wembley; a new factory was opened at Wells and expansion of television production at the Wembley factory. [6]

In late 1948 the company name changed to Scophony-Baird Ltd.; offering for sale a line of four Baird-branded television sets the following year.

1949 Scophony Ltd. became Scophony-Baird Ltd., of Lancelot Road, Wembley, Middlesex. [7]

1949 W. Andrew Bryce and Co. and John Logie Baird Ltd. were voluntarily wound up. [8]

1952 In September, Scophony-Baird Ltd. changed its name to Baird Television Ltd.

In 1954 Hartley Electromotives Ltd. acquired Baird Television Ltd; a new company Hartley Baird Ltd. was formed. 

[1] Television & Shortwave World May 1935, Page 290.
[2] Television & Shortwave World July 1936, Page 399.
[3] Television & Shortwave World Sep 1936, Page 484.
[4] Television & Shortwave World Nov 1936, Page 631.
[5] Electronics & Television & Shortwave World Feb 1940, Page 52.
[6] The Times, 30 November 1948.
[7] Wireless World Mar 1949, Page 106.
[8] London Gazette, 22 November 1949.