On Thursday, May 19, 1932, at 4:00 p.m., the Minister of Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones, Louis Rollin, visited the Paris offices of the daily Le Matin, where he was greeted by Admiral Docteur, the chairman of the board. The minister was shown into a small booth, from where he could see and speak with Théophile Bader, CEO of Galeries Lafayette, who was at his store. This remote conversation was presented as a world-first in videotelephony.
How the videotelephony worked
“Three telephone lines were used: one for the conversation and two for transmitting the images of the participants in both directions,” reported Le Matin. “The system worked by converting variations in light into electrical signals using a photoelectric cell, and reversing the process with a neon lamp.
An ingenious optical mechanism broke the image down, allowing the device to transmit roughly 10,000 light variations per second.”
From Friday, May 20, to Saturday, May 28, department store customers could attend demonstrations from 10:00 a.m. to noon and 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., linking the Galeries Lafayette stores in Paris and Lyon with Le Matin’s headquarters.
Not bad for a first try
What were the results? “The participants had some difficulty staying fully in view of the device, causing their faces to disappear partially at times. Additionally, variations in the brightness of successive lines seemed to affect the clarity of the image,” noted La Revue générale de l’électricité.
The system was developed by British engineer John Logie Baird. He partnered with Nathan to establish the Baird-Nathan company in France and commercialize the invention. The May 1932 experiment aimed to introduce the videotelephony system to the public. Unfortunately, the company went bankrupt, and videotelephony remained largely forgotten until German trials in 1936.
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