john-logie-baird

JOHN LOGIE BAIRD (1888-1946) Inventor of Mechanical Television 22 FRITH STREET, LONDON W1 In the 1920’s Soho was (as it still is) a magnet for the bohemian, arty, hedonistic crowd with its cosmopolitan cafes, clubs and bars. The streets were teeming with low life, high society, street walkers, street traders and performers from the Theatres on Shaftesbury Avenue. At the same time a sickly Scotsman named Logie was upstairs watching the television. Television is not the only thing that Logie Baird had a go at – while making a synthetic diamond he shorted out Glasgow’s power supply, he patented the Baird Undersock for people with cold feet and, perhaps most unnecessary for either Scotland or Soho, made pneumatic insoles for shoes which resulted in people walking as though permanently drunk.