# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/alan-archibald-campbell-swinton
# Generated: 2026-08-15T08:37:58.517Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/alan-archibald-campbell-swinton"
name: "Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton"
slug: "alan-archibald-campbell-swinton"
description: "Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton FRS was a Scottish consulting electrical engineer, who provided the theoretical basis for the electronic television, two decades before the technology existed to implement it. He began experimenting around 1903 with the use of cathode-ray tubes (CRTs) for the electronic transmission and reception of images. Campbell described the theoretical basis for an all electronic method of producing television in a 1908 letter to Nature. Campbell-Swinton's concept was central to the cathode ray television because of his proposed modification of the CRT that allowed its use as both a transmitter and receiver of light. The CRT was the system of electronic television that was subsequently developed in later years, as technology caught up with Campbell-Swinton's initial ideas. Other inventors would use Campbell-Swinton's ideas as a starting-point to realise the CRT television as the standard, workable form of all electronic television that it became for decades after his death. It is generally considered that the original credit for the successful theoretical conception of using a CRT device for imaging should belong to Campbell-Swinton."
tagline: "Scottish electrical engineer (1863–1930)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Alanacs.jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "United Kingdom"
  isoCode: "GB"
category:
  name: "Scientists"
  slug: "scientists"
profileType:
  name: "Scientist"
  slug: "scientist"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q39631"
birthDate: "1863-10-18"
deathDate: "1930"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           48.8
  momentum:             19.40525587828493
  historical:           5.341654666666667
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     35
  profileCompleteness:  70
  trendDirection:       "BREAKOUT"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
sources:
  - url: "https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Archibald_Campbell-Swinton"
    title: "Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Archibald_Campbell_Swinton"
    title: "Alan Archibald Campbell Swinton"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Archibald_Campbell-Swinton"
    title: "Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://sh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Archibald_Campbell-Swinton"
    title: "Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://mg.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Archibald_Campbell-Swinton"
    title: "Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Archibald_Campbell_Swinton"
    title: "Alan Archibald Campbell Swinton"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q260729"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Imported from discovery source: wikidata-dump