Guillermo González Camarena
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Guillermo González Camarena (February 17, 1917 - April 18, 1965), was a Mexican engineer who was an inventor of modern color television, and who also introduced color television to Mexico.
Born in Guadalajara in 1917, his family moved to Mexico City when Guillermo was almost 2 years old. Since he was very young, he made electronically propelled toys. At the age of twelve built his first Amateur radio.
In 1930 he graduated from the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineers (ESIME) at the IPN; he got his first radio license two years later.
He was also an avid stargazer -- he also built his own telescope, and became a regular member of the Astronomical Society of Mexico.
Camarena invented the "Chromscopic adapter for television equipment", an early color television transmission system. As it is written in the patent:
| “ | The invention relates to the transmission and reception of colored pictures or images by wire or wireless. Even though the invention was not already adaptable to standard television equipment then in use; the invention was considered easily to adapt to any transmitter or receiver of black and white television equipment. He applied for this patent the August 14, 1941 and obtained the patents for color television systems the September 15, 1942 (U.S. Patent 2296019), 1960 and 1962. | ” |
In August 31, 1946 González Camarena sent his first color transmission from his lab in the offices of The Mexican League of Radio Experiments, at Lucerna St. #1, in Mexico City. The video signal was transmitted at a frequency of 115 MHz. and the audio in the 40 metre band.
He obtained authorization to make the first publicly-announced color broadcast in Mexico, on February 8, 1963, Paraíso Infantil, on Mexico City's XHGC-TV, a station that he established in 1952. By that time, the Mexican government adopted NTSC as the television color system.
He died in a car accident in Puebla on April 18, 1965, coming back from inspecting a television transmitter in Las Lajas, Veracruz.
In 1995, a Mexican science research and technology group created La Fundación Guillermo González Camarena (The Guillermo González Camarena Foundation), which benefits creative and talented inventors in Mexico.
At the same time, the IPN began construction on the Centro de Propiedad Intelectual "Guillermo Gonzalez Camarena" (Guillermo González Camarena Intellectual Property Center).
