Editorial use only . Captioned: Farnsworth adjusts a television camera during a demonstration of his television system at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA, August 28, 1934. Philo Taylor Farnsworth (1906-1971) was an American inventor and television pioneer. He made many contributions that were crucial to the early development of television, but is remembered for inventing the first fully functional all-electronic image pickup device (video camera tube). He called it the image dissector and it was the first fully functional and complete all-electronic television system. Farnsworth developed a television system complete with receiver and camera, which he produced commercially in the form of the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation, from 1938 to 1951. He held 165 patents, mostly in radio and television. In 1999, TIME magazine included Farnsworth in The TIME 100: The Most Important People of the Century.