Guillermo gonzalez camarena

Photograph of the Ing. Guillermo González Camarena, Inventor Mexicano de la Televisión a Colores.

Guillermo González Camarena (Guadalajara, Jalisco, February 17, 1917- Las Lajas, Veracruz, April 18, 1965) was a Mexican scientist, researcher, engineer and inventor.

He founded Channel 5 in Mexico City in 1952.

In 1940 he invented the field sequential trichromatic system (known as STSC), a system for transmitting color television. He also invented later, in the 1960s, a simpler system for generating color, the simplified two-color system. González Camarena launched color television in Mexico years before the implementation of the NTSC standard.

Biography

Childhood and youth

He was born on February 17, 1917 to his parents Arturo Jorge González (1874-1923) and Sara Camarena Navarro (1883-1952); her maternal grandfather was Lic. Jesús Leandro Camarena (1832-1889), distinguished lawyer from the Jalisco Forum and Constitutional Governor of the State of Jalisco (1875-1876 and 1877-1879). He was the youngest of seven brothers, among them the painter, muralist, and sculptor, Jorge González Camarena.

After living in Guadalajara, his family moved to Mexico City when Guillermo was two years old. While still a child he made toys powered by electricity, at eight years old he managed to make his first radio transmitter and at twelve years old he built his first amateur radio; It should be noted that from an early age he showed a very marked interest in electricity and electronics, there were those who assured that Guillermo's real interest was in trying to "transport things from a place to another by means of electricity". This apparently derived from an experience together with his friends when contemplating in the sky something that today would be called a flying saucer.

In 1939 he graduated from the Higher School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering of the National Polytechnic Institute (ESIME, IPN); he obtained his first radio license two years later.

He was also an amateur astronomer; he built his own telescopes and was a member of the Mexican Astronomical Society. His interest in observing the sky and considering the possibility of traveling through space led him to carry out numerous tests, together with Humberto Ramírez Villareal, of experimental rockets, to the point of developing flying saucers that he called & # 34; Electrodisco & # 34; # 3. 4; and "Dossieres".

In 1938, González Camarena invented the "Chromoscopic Adapter for Television Sets", the first color transmission system for television, which was patented on August 19, 1940. On August 10, 1942 entered the patent application in the United States of America. From this first system, different more elaborate procedures began to emerge in various countries, but all based on his original idea. In addition, the inventor filed improvements to his patent for color television systems in 1958.

On August 31, 1946, González Camarena sent the first color transmission from his laboratory at the offices of La Liga Mexicana de Radio Experimentos, at Calle de Lucerna No. 1, in Mexico City. The video signal was transmitted on the 115 MHz frequency and on the 40 meter audio band.

In the field of broadcasting he also made contributions when in 1945 the Ministry of Communications and Public Works commissioned him a study on the volume, noise and attenuation of electrical communications systems, in order to establish the legal units of reference in the dial of the radius. In 1946 the engineer González Camarena obtained authorization to operate "meteorological balloons" in Mexico City, with which he raised his radio equipment into the stratosphere. With this he studied how far the images transmitted by him reached; In the same way, he took the opportunity to do flight tests of his & # 34; Electrodisco & # 34;, which were very favorable, designing and building a definitive device in 1947.

Two years later, he was responsible for drawing up the legal provisions that regulated the functioning and operation of national broadcasting stations, which included television, frequency modulation, short wave, long wave, and facsimile radio.

In 1948 he founded the Gon-Cam Laboratories, where they began to work, spontaneously, with other radio experimenters.

The Ing. Guillermo González Camarena, in his office.

The work of González Camarena extended to the field of medicine when television began to be used in black and white, later in color, as a teaching medium for the subject.

Patents

GonCam Camera for the Chrome Adapter for Television Attachments.

System viewer invented by González Camarena.

On August 19, 1940, the Ministry of the National Economy (currently its powers are held by the IMPI) granted him a Patent with the number MX-40235 under the Australian Patent Classification 05.8. Said patent refers to a field sequence Trichromatic system, using the primary colors red, green and blue, for capturing and reproducing images. On August 14, 1941, González Camarena filed the patent application in the United States of America, before the (USPTO), with the serial number US406,876. On September 15, 1942, he obtained the granted Patent US2,296,019. The grant of the "US" acknowledges its Mexican priority right to MX-40235.
In the first paragraph of the Patent Description it is observed:

"My invention relates to the transmission and reception of colored pictures or images by wire or Wireless, and has among its objects and advantages the provision of an improved chromo scopic adapter for television equipment and operated with cathode rays.& #3. 4;
That is to say, "My invention is related to the transmission and reception of color images or images both by cables and wirelessly, and in addition to its objectives and advantages to provide a better "chromoscope & #34;, adapted for television equipment and operated with cathode rays"

From this first system, different more elaborate procedures began to emerge in various countries, but based on his original idea.

On March 2, 1954, he applied for a patent for the invention: "Adaptation for the Third Dimension in Television Sets". On September 22, 1954 he was granted Mexican patent MX-55141, Australian Patent Classification: 53-4.

On October 16, 1962, he applied for a patent for the invention: "Bicolor Procedure for Color Television". On July 30, 1966 he was granted Mexican patent MX-72473, Australian Patent Classification: 05-8.

On May 20, 1963, he applied for a patent for the invention: "Bicolor Screen for Color Television". On September 22, 1966 he was granted Mexican patent MX-73936, Australian Patent Classification: 05-8.

First internationalization of the Mexican color system

In 1950, Columbia College in Chicago asked the young Mexican researcher to manufacture the television system and color television equipment designed and manufactured in Mexico was exported to the neighboring country. In January 1951 he was commissioned by Radio Panamericana, S.A., to locate and locate the first Mexican television repeater station, which was installed in Altzomoni, between Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl, in a place known as Paso de Cortés.

In 1951, he married María Antonieta Becerra Acosta, whom he met on XEW-AM when she went to ask for autographs from famous presenters of the time. The González Becerra family had two sons: Guillermo and Arturo, to whom the engineer dedicated entire Saturdays and Sundays.

Implementation of the color system and annexation to Telesistema Mexicano

In the mid-1960s there was a boom in the purchase of televisions, so that the engineer González Camarena with his Channel 5 merged with Channel 2 in 1954 and later, on March 26, 1955, channel 4 joined them to form Telesistema Mexicano, and González Camarena was appointed technical advisor. In 1960 he carried out the first recording tests in Guadalajara for the transmission of the color image, received with great approval by the Guadalajara viewers.

In November 1962, the engineer González Camarena was authorized to broadcast in color from January 1963, and on the 21st of that month, color transmissions began on Channel 5, XHGC, whose official name is Televisión González Camarena, S.A. (the last two letters of its initials correspond to the initials of González Camarena), with the series Children's Paradise. The engineer insisted that television in the afternoons should mainly serve children, for whom he always expressed great interest.

The engineer's fundamental concern was that his inventions could be enjoyed by the general public, including people with limited resources. Since there was no international color television standard, on May 6, 1963, the Mexican inventor presented his simplified two-color system, which was well received internationally, since it also solved the problem of the economic aspect that it represented for future buyers precisely because his system was based on the black and white system of the time (since it was not implemented in other countries, it delayed the arrival of color for almost another decade in them). With the same objective, he became interested in manufacturing receiving devices on his own, and in 1964 the first large-scale manufacturing model appeared. The following year he established an agreement with the Majestic factory (company), owned by Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta, and in May 1965 the sale of color television sets already built in Mexico began.

Guillermo González Camarena was interested in having his system used to teach literacy and, in coordination with the Secretary of Public Education and the broadcaster Álvaro Gálvez y Fuentes, projected what would later be known as the Telesecundaria Education System.

He finally presented his simplified two-color system at the New York World's Fair.

Death

On April 18, 1965, when he was returning from inspecting the repeater transmitter of Channel 5 on the hill of Las Lajas, Veracruz, to extend the signal of the television network generated in Mexico City to that eastern region of the country, found death at 48 years of age in a car accident in the municipality of Amozoc. The news of the unfortunate event was broadcast on radio and television, as well as the funeral events. As a sign of mourning, television broadcasts were interrupted throughout the day.

The Ing. Guillermo González Camarena, with the composer Agustín Lara, was the last photo of the inventor, since on the return trip he died in a vehicle accident.

Crisis of the future of color in Mexico

After the death of González Camarena, Mexican television went through a crisis to select the color system that would be used by future television broadcasts in the country, since several countries had their color systems in development: Germany, United Kingdom, France and the United States.

Mexico already had its own, but mainly due to the death of Ing. González Camarena, and, coupled with the proximity of the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games, Telesistema Mexicano was at the crossroads of deciding what the transmission system would be to be implemented for the whole world in those Olympics: there was the European PAL/SECAM color system, the NTSC standard of American origin and the two-color system of González Camarena. At the meeting, a group of engineers could not reach an agreement with the president of Telesistema Mexicano Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta, since Azcárraga had supported Guillermo González Camarena until the end of his days in all his projects and inventions for television, but he had to decide on the future of color transmission in Mexico after the death of its creator. Thus, taking into account that there was little chance that someone would continue with the development and large-scale implementation of the Mexican color system in a short time, it was decided to use NTSC, which is used to date by much of America and some countries. from Asia.

Implementation of the Mexican color system at NASA

During the 1960s and 1970s, television equipment based on González Camarena's patent was sent into space on NASA's Apollo and Voyager missions to receive images from the moon and planets of the solar system, although the United States The United States already had the NTSC, the size occupied by the electronics of this equipment, due to volume and weight, it was impossible to implement it in the reduced capacity of the ships, so its Trichromatic Sequential Field System patented in Mexico was used as an observation instrument. and other countries.

Foundation in his memory

In 1995, the National Federation of Inventors siglo XXI A.C., concerned with scientific and technological research in Mexico, established the Guillermo González Camarena, A.C. Foundation, which seeks to promote the talent and creativity of national inventors. By naming the foundation after him, homage is paid to the creativity of the distinguished scientist from Jalisco, who achieved one of the inventions with the greatest global impact: a color television system.

Similarly, the IPN, to honor its name, built the "Guillermo González Camarena" Intellectual Property Center.

Ancestors