DISTANT VISIONS

A continuation of Pemberly Farnsworth’s story:

This is a continuation of Pemberly Farnsworth’s story: I rejected the unhappy memory of losing my mother and began again to wonder what had happened to Phil (Philo T. Farnsworth). Pacing the room, I became keenly aware for the first time of the dreary walls that enclosed me and the much used furniture in the bridal suit. I was fast losing the perfume-and-roses ambience that had surrounded me on this, my first wedding day. I was the neglected bride…where was my bridegroom? What if something dreadful had happened to him? Now I really began to worry. I had created a rotating carousel of emotions and had resumed pacing the floor before I heard Phil’s key in the lock.

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I cut off his apologies with a kiss. I was so happy to see him alive and well. Releasing me from a tight embrace, he held me off, and looking deep into my eyes he said, “Pemmie, I have to tell you there is another woman in my life.” Then before I could faint from the shock, he added,”…and her name is ‘Television.’ The way I see it, my work is going to be taking up most of my time. The only way we will have the time together I would like is for you to work for me. How about it? It will be exciting. We’ll be working right on the leading edge of discovery.”

“But, Phil, I could never catch up to you, let alone keep up with you.”

“You can if you want to bad enough, because I’m going to help you.” He felt bad that he had ruined our wedding night. We decided that since the magic of this all important night had been lost and our train was to leave at six the next morning, we could celebrate our wedding the following night, on the train en-route to Los Angeles and to our new lives together…

Philo, the Boy…

The question is often asked, “How could a fourteen-year-old farm boy ever devise something as technically complex as television?” As improbable as it seems, young Philo Farnsworth not only proved it was possible, but he did it. How could that happen? It was a matter of early motivation and circumstance, or, as Phil said, there was a certain amount of guidance from a higher intelligence, God? Phil often referred to the sequence of events that constituted our lives as a “guided tour.” Phil’s inventiveness was characterized by a series of inspirations that moved him toward some distant vision. So that you may draw your own conclusions, let me begin at the beginning.

Philo Taylor Farnsworth was born August 19, 1906 to Lewis Edwin and Serena Amanda Bastian Farnsworth at a place called Indian Creek near Beaver Utah, in the log cabin built by his paternal grandfather, for whom he was named. Serena was descended from a long line of independent, seafaring Norsemen. Her father, Jacob Bastian, Sr. was a modern Viking in blood, in physique—a Great Dane of the sea. He was well over six feet tall, raw-boned with a firm chin and deep set blue eyes. As a ship’s carpenter and cabinetmaker, he had saved a considerable sum to build a home for his beloved Gertrude. When Gertrude joined the Mormon Church and banded with a group of members to sail to the new country of America, Jacob left his wealth, his family, and way of life and cast his lot with poor Mormon immigrants. They endured a traumatic voyage across the Atlantic, only to find at the Missouri River they were faced with the appalling prospect of pulling handcarts across the plains to the Great Salt Lake Valley.  The voyage had left Gertrude in poor health, and Jacob wanted to outfit them with the best equipment to make it easier on her, but she would not leave her friends. Many of them had no money for provisions, and Jacob with his tools built the handcarts for these people, and filled them with provisions. To be continued…