Nipkow disk

A Nipkow disk is a mechanical, geometrically operating image scanning device (by itself, it performs neither image acquisition or reproduction), invented by Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, which was primarily used as a fundamental component in mechanical television.

Disadvantages

Unlike the line resolution provided by a Nipkow disk, which is potentially very high, the maximum number of scanlines is much more limited, and precisely, it's equal to the number of holes on the disk, which in practice was comprised between 30 and 100, with rare 200-hole disks tested.

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Another serious disadvantage when reproducing images with the aid of a Nipkow disk, is that the images are typically very small, as small as the surface used for scanning, and which on the practical implementations of mechanical television was the size of a postage-stamp, for a 30 to 50 cm diameter disk.

Related Topics:
Mechanical television - Cm

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Further disadvantages include the previously illustrated non-linear geometry of the scanned images, and the sheer size of practical implementations of the disk, at least in the past.

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In fact, the Nipkow disks used in early TV were roughly 30cm to 50cm in diameter, with 30 to 50 "holes". The devices using them were also noisy, heavy and picture quality was very low, with a lot of flickering. Things weren't better regarding the acquisition part of the system, which required very powerful lighting of the subject.

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