Donald F. McLean CEng FIEE is European Director of a consulting practice in a multi-national professional services company. His professional career started in R&D but after several years the attraction of management made him move into the professional services sector. It is in his spare time that he has been pursuing his interests in restoring the earliest-known recordings of television and in communicating through the media these dramatic findings.
'a fascinating read. The book goes a long way to help the reader
appreciate the significance of these recordings and the era in
which they were made. A TV historian's delight providing a
refreshing 'new look' history in both words and pictures.'
*Electronics World*
'the author's passion for his subject and scholarship shine clearly
through, making this the most authoritative book on Baird's work
yet published, this is an excellent book that is unlikely to be
equalled'
*British Journal for the History of Science*
'provides a unique and thoroughly unexpected glimpse at how
television looked in its paleolithic era.'
*Invention & Technology*
'Scholarly research and 'can't put it down' writing are rare
companions. Don Mclean has succeeded magnificently in conveying the
excitement of unearthing and restoring recordings Baird's 30 line
TV pictures.'
*British Vintage Wireless Society Bulletin*
'As the title suggests, this book deals largely with the retrieval
and restoration of Baird's 30-line television pictures recorded on
shellac and aluminium discs over the period 1927-35. Many authors
writing about the history of television are faced with the
difficulty of finding something new and prefer not to quote too
often from earlier accounts written by other people. Donald McLean
manages to avoid most of these problems since he is in the unique
position of being able to describe a form of television archaeology
never attempted before. Written in a conversational style, this
book covers a considerable amount of new ground. It is copiously
illustrated and 40 of the photographs have never been published
previously. The flavour of the infant years of television is
captured most successfully and the book represents essential
reading for everybody with an interest in those days.'
*extracted from NBTVA newsletter*
'Our Review Copy arrived yesterday and we were immediately
impressed by this amazing book. It is in ten main sections covering
just about everything there is to know about Baird and the
recording of television pictures.'
*TV Graphics Review*
'Don McLean has presented a revision of the history of television
presenting a new perspective on the work of Baird the inventor of
'failed' technologies. I have long thought that history written
from the perspective of 'successful' technologies is an
unnecessarily restricted exercise. It is too easy to dismiss
'yesterday's technology' as misguided, primitive, crude, and
leading into blind alleys and so on. McLean's work is interesting
on several levels, ranging from the representation of Baird and his
work to a truly fascinating account of the discovery of and the
unravelling of the content of early video recordings. This lively
and engaged work presents the history of television in a way rarely
seen, and introduces a new approach to an understanding of the
process of invention that Baird applied.'
*Dr Colin A. Hempstead, University of Teesside*
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