Boris Lvovich Rosing (5.05.1869-20.04.1933) was a Soviet physicist and inventor and the founder of electronic television. He was born in St Petersburg. He graduated from St Petersburg University (1891) and was kept on at the university to prepare for a professorship. In 1894-1918 and 1924-31 he worked at the St Petersburg (Leningrad) Technological Institute, and in 1931—33 at the Arkhangelsk Forestry Institute.
His work was in magnetism, electricity and radiophysics. He was the first to introduce (1892) the concept of the molecular field in ferromagnets, which causes their spontaneous magnetisation. From 1897 he began research on the transmission of images over a distance. In 1907 he invented the first electronic system for producing a television image, in which he was the first to use a cathode-ray tube with a fluorescent screen to reproduce the image in the receiving device and a special inertia-free photocell in the transmitting device, and in 1911 he was the first to transmit an image over a distance, demonstrating the reception of simple geometrical figures. The use of the cathode-ray tube marked the transition from optical-mechanical to electronic television systems. He made a number of improvements to transmitting and receiving devices and to the design of the tube, and proposed new ways of modulating the electron beam. He created more than 120 different circuits and systems of television devices. His work was also in quantum physics, electrodynamics and the photoelectric effect.