John Logie Baird demonstrated the first working television system in 1925 using a mechanical scanning device.
Baird, a Scottish inventor, showed a recognizable flickering image in London on 25 October 1925. The subject was a simple mannequin head, and the image was produced by scanning it with a rotating Nipkow disk. In January 1926, he gave a more formal public demonstration to members of the Royal Institution.
Baird’s system was mechanical rather than fully electronic. It used spinning disks to divide an image into lines, while later television systems used electronic cameras and displays. His company also developed early color television and stereoscopic television experiments.
A common mix-up is crediting Baird with inventing all television. Television developed through the work of many people, including Charles Francis Jenkins, Vladimir Zworykin, and Philo Farnsworth. Baird is specifically associated with the first successful public demonstrations of working mechanical television.