beam passing through it. It was a substantial improvement over the previous Kerr cell, 200 times as much modulated light being available at the screen. High speed synchronous motors which 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. Company The company Scophony Limited was established by entrepreneur Solomon Sagall in the early 1930s to exploit the patents of inventor George William Walton and William Stephenson. 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 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 and two systems intended for theater operation, one producing a image and the other a image. Several of the theatre systems were installed and operated successfully but none of the receivers were sold as production was halted due to the impending war. Scophony Limited operated as a television manufacturer in Britain up to WWII and then in the USA. During WWII Scophony moved to Somerset and worked on war work. "Of all the electro-mechanical television techniques invented and developed by the mid-1930s, the technology known as Scophony had no rival in terms of technical performance." In November 1948, Scophony merged with John Logie Baird Ltd to become Scophony-Baird; offering for sale a line of four Baird-branded television sets the following year. See also Ulises Armand Sanabria Joshua Sieger References External links Scophony system at TV History website Scophony system at Early Television website Solomon Sagall obituary: NY Times Ferranti History of television History of science and technology in the United Kingdom Television technology