Constantin Perskyi

Constantin Perskyi was a Russian scientist who is credited with coining the word television in a paper read (in French) to the 1900 Paris World Exhibition 's 1st International Congress of Electricity . At the time, he was Professor of Electricity at the Artillery Academy of Saint Petersburg. His paper referred to the work of other Russian experimenters in the field, including Nipkow and Bachmetiev, who were attempting to use the photoelectric properties of selenium as the basis for their inventions.

It is likely, considering the relative dates of various historical documents, that German experimenters first coined the word Fernsehen, which the Russians then translated to televisija, and which Perskyi then translated from Russian into French as télévision. This was immediately reported in The Electrician magazine as television.

References

• Constantin Perskyi, "Television by means of electricity", from the International World Fair of 1900, International Congress of Electricity (Paris, August 18-25, 1900), reported under the authority of Mr. E. Hospitalier, General Reporter, Gauthier-Villars, printer and publisher, Paris, 1901.
• The Electrician, London, 21 September, 1900.