Zara effect
Fe del mundo invention.
Filipino scientist Gregorio Y. Zara demonstrating his “telephone-television” invention in 1954.
Gregorio zara invention
Photo: National Academy of Science and Technology Philippines / Facebook
This is neither an April Fools’ joke nor a viral Internet hoax. On March 30, 2016, the Philippine National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) posted on Facebook a photo from 1954 of Filipino engineer Gregorio Y.
Zara demonstrating his latest invention: a two-way television telephone, or videophone, patented as a “photo phone signal separator network.”
The post quickly became popular especially among Filipino Internet users, who appreciated learning that a Filipino invented a videophone as early as the 1950s.
Here’s the full caption of the Facebook photo:
Before there was Skype and Facetime, a Filipino scientist invented a television-telephone. Aha!
National Scientist Gregorio Y. Zara, a physicist, invented a device that makes it possible for two persons to see each other on a television while
