Sir Isaac Shoenberg (1 March 1880 – 25 January 1963) was a British electronic engineer born in Belarus. He is most famous for his work in the development of television. He led the EMI research team that created the 405-line (Marconi-EMI system), which was the first fully electronic television system used in regular broadcasting. This system was introduced with the BBC Television Service in 1936 and later used by other television organizations worldwide.

As the head of research at EMI, Shoenberg supervised Alan Blumlein when Blumlein invented stereophonic sound in 1931. In 1954, Shoenberg was awarded the IET Faraday Medal by the British Institution of Electrical Engineers. In 1962, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

Biography

Shoenberg was born on 1 March 1880 to Jewish parents in Pinsk, Imperial Russia (now Belarus). He studied subjects like mathematics and electricity at Kiev Polytechnic Institute.

He met his wife, Esther Aisenstein, while they were both studying at Kiev Polytechnic Institute. Esther was the first cousin of his friend and longtime collaborator Simeon Aisenstein. Their children included the British physicist David Shoenberg and the psychiatrist Elisabeth Shoenberg.

Career

In 1905, Shoenberg was hired to design and install the first wireless stations in Russia. However, in 1914, his family moved to London so that Isaac could study for a doctoral degree at Imperial College.

The start of the war caused him to stop his studies. He was hired by Godfrey Isaacs to work at the Marconi Wireless and Telegraph Company. In 1919, he became a British citizen, and in 1924, he became Marconi’s joint general manager. In 1928, he was hired as general manager by the Columbia Graphophone Company. In early 1931, Columbia and the Gramophone Company merged to form EMI, and Shoenberg became director of research at EMI’s new Central Research Laboratories in Hayes, Hillingdon. At this time, he supervised Blumlein, who invented stereophonic sound.

In 1932, Shoenberg’s team applied for a patent for a new device they called “the Emitron,” which was the key part of the television cameras they designed for the BBC.

In 1934, EMI formed a new company with Marconi. Shoenberg led the research team alongside Marconi’s Simeon Aisenstein. Using patents developed by Vladimir Zworykin and RCA, they made important contributions to television, including creating the electronic Marconi-EMI system, the world’s first electronic high-definition television system.

According to the book Global Communication Since 1844 by Peter J. Hughill, a group of Russian Jewish scientists wanted to advance military technology for a possible war with Germany. They raised money for research at EMI-Marconi. This account, credited to British scientist Brian Callick, is supported by other evidence. The group, which included Simeon Aisenstein, Vladimir Zworykin, and David Sarnoff, knew each other from Russia and saw military uses for their television work, even though Zworykin was raised as a Christian. They raised one million pounds sterling (about $5 million at the time) from US donors. The work took place at EMI-Marconi in the UK and helped Britain develop television technology. This led to the launch of a public television service on 2 November 1936. Military applications also advanced radio-location (later called radar). The production of television equipment helped improve technologies like cathode ray tubes, VHF transmission, and wideband circuits. A former British defense minister, Lord Orr-Ewing, said in a 1979 BBC interview that this work helped win the Battle of Britain.

Shoenberg’s team studied how the iconoscope (or Emitron) produced an electronic signal and found it was only about 5% efficient. They improved this by developing and patenting two new camera tubes in 1934: the super-Emitron and CPS Emitron. The super-Emitron was 10 to 15 times more sensitive than the original Emitron and iconoscope tubes, and in some cases, even more.

In 1934, the British government formed a committee called the “Television Committee” to advise on TV broadcasting. The committee recommended a “high definition” service (defined as 240 lines or more) run by the BBC. They accepted two bids: one from the Baird company for a 240-line mechanical system, and one from EMI for a 405-line all-electronic system using the Emitron. The committee could not choose between the systems and advised both be tested together. Broadcasting of the BBC Television Service began on 2 November 1936 from Alexandra Palace, initially sharing time with the Baird system. In January 1937, after three months of testing, the Baird system was stopped, and the 405-line Marconi-EMI system was used exclusively. This was the first regular high-definition television service and became the standard for British TV until the 1960s. It was later used by TV organizations worldwide. The Emitron was used for the first outside broadcast: the BBC’s coverage of the Coronation of George VI and Elizabeth in May 1937.

In 1955, Schoenberg was appointed to EMI’s board. He was awarded the IET Faraday Medal by the British Institution of Electrical Engineers in 1954 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1962.

He died in London in 1963 and was buried in the Liberal Jewish Cemetery, Willesden, in the London Borough of Brent.

In fiction

In the 1986 TV movie The Fools on the Hill, created by Jack Rosenthal, Leon Lissek played the role of Schoenberg. The film tells the story of the first radio broadcasts by the BBC from Alexandra Palace in 1936.