American History, Unfiltered: Guillermo González Camarena

American History, Unfiltered: A post series highlighting people from traditionally marginalized groups who accomplished great things for America.

If part of your Valentine’s Day plans tonight are to watch Netflix and chill, you might want to take a minute to see who you have to thank for colored  television.

Today we are talking about a man named Guillermo González Camarena, who was born in February 17, 1917 in Mexico. When he was only 23 years old (in 1940)  he received a patent for a chromoscopic adapter with which black and white cameras of the day could capture color. It was the world’s first patent for the colored TV. NASA used the technology to capture images from Jupiter. 

The fact that you can see color on the device you’re using to read this now is something you can thank Guillermo for.