The 455-line standard, also known as 450-line, was a French

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

analog television Analog television is the original television technology that uses analog signals to transmit video and audio. In an analog television broadcast, the brightness, colors and sound are represented by amplitude, instantaneous phase and frequency, ...

broadcasting Broadcasting is the distribution (business), distribution of sound, audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio ...

norm employed between 1937 and 1939. It was later replaced by the 441-line format, which remained in use until 1956.

Historical Background

In 1931, in Paris,

Georges Mandel Georges Mandel (5 June 1885 – 7 July 1944) was a French journalist, politician, and French Resistance leader. Early life Born Louis George Rothschild in Chatou, Yvelines, he was the son of a tailor and his wife. His family was Jewish, originally ...

, the Minister of Posts, provided support to the Compagnie des Compteurs (CdC) in conducting mechanical television experiments. Engineer René Barthélémy was granted a studio on Rue de Grenelle,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

for this purpose. The resolution gradually increased from 30 to 60 lines and then to 180 lines by 1935, and the transmitter was located to the

Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; french: links=yes, tour Eiffel ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Locally nicknamed "'' ...

. Robert Jardillier, the next Minister of Posts, launched in 1936 a call for tenders to provide television with higher definition, based on the

iconoscope The iconoscope (from the Greek: ''εἰκών'' "image" and ''σκοπεῖν'' "to look, to see") was the first practical video camera tube to be used in early television cameras. The iconoscope produced a much stronger signal than earlier mecha ...

and

electronic television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, e ...

. A test period would follow and enable the best standard to be chosen. Broadcasts became regular from January 4, 1937, from 11 to 11:30 am and 8 to 8:30 pm on weekdays and from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm on Sundays. Grammont performed its tests in 441 lines, the Compagnie Française de Télévision in 450 lines, and

Thomson-Houston The Thomson-Houston Electric Company was a manufacturing company which was one of the precursors of the General Electric company. History The Thomson-Houston Electric Company was formed in 1882 in the United States when a group of Lynn, Massa ...

in 455 lines. In July 1937, the administration chose the 455-line system designed by Thomson-Houston, followed by public demonstrations at the International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life. Broadcasts using the previous mechanical system continued alongside the new electronic system until April 10, 1938. In July 1938, a decree of the Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones Agency defined the French terrestrial television standard as transmitting on 455 lines

VHF Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF ...

(46 MHz, positive visual modulation, 25 frames per second), to be adopted throughout France within three years. 455-line TV sets from brands like Pathe-Marconi,

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

, Radioindustrie, CdC, Grammont, and Emyradio began to be sold to the public. In 1938, the transmitter, located at the Eiffel Tower, changed to this 455-line format, making it the most advanced and powerful broadcasting system in the world, boasting a transmission power of 30 kW. Radiodiffusion Nationale (RN Télévision) starts its broadcasts from Paris, and expansion for other cities like

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

and

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

is planned. In the spring of 1939, tests are conducted in

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...

. The Rue de Grenelle studio closed on July 31, 1939, and after this point, Radiodiffusion Nationale only broadcast films, documentaries, and recorded news using telecine. When France entered

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

on September 3, 1939, the military authorities ordered the cessation of broadcasts and took control of the Eiffel Tower transmitter. A few broadcasts were still broadcast episodically for transmitter maintenance purposes. On June 6, 1940, the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

took action to sabotage this equipment to prevent its utilization by the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

. However, in 1942, the occupying forces decided to repatriate the equipment for their

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

station and replaced it with 441-line equipment.

Historical Background

References

See also