John Logie Baird transmitted images of ventriloquist dummies across the Atlantic in 1927
A unique archive relating to Scots inventor John Logie Baird's first transatlantic broadcasts could be set to leave the UK unless a buyer can be found, it has been warned.
UK Culture Minister Ed Vaizey has placed a temporary export bar on its sale in the hope that someone would "save it for the nation".
Experts said it would be a "serious loss" if the archive went overseas.
It is hoped that a UK buyer will match the £78,750 asking price.
The materials in the archive include log books and other records of the transmissions made between 1926 and 1927.
They document the experiments of Logie Baird and his assistant Benjamin Clapp.
The archive has an asking price of £78,750
The pair developed the idea of rigging up a receiving station and television receiver in America and transmitting pictures over telephone lines from Logie Baird's laboratories in London to Clapp's house in Surrey, and from there, by wireless, to the east coast of the US.
The notes contain the first ever use of the abbreviation "TV" for television.
The material also includes the earliest surviving video recording - a "Phonovision" disc made on 20 September 1927, which shows images of Stookie Bill, one of Baird's famous ventriloquist dummies.
Dummies were used in the transmissions because the lights used under the cameras were too hot for humans.
Some of the private collection had been on loan to the National Media Museum in Bradford, where it was on display until 2014.
'Huge importance'
But the sale of the archive prompted the Arts Council of England to call for a temporary export bar.
Mr Vaizey said the material was culturally important and should stay in the UK.
He said: "Britain led the world in the development of television technology in the 1920's, all due to the pioneering work of John Logie Baird and his colleagues.
John Logie Baird made the first transmissions from his laboratories in London
"It belongs in Britain where it would be of huge importance for the study of the history of television, and I hope a UK buyer will come forward to save it for the nation."
Christopher Rowell, who sits on an Arts Council England committee which reviews the exports of arts, said the archive was of "outstanding significance".
He said: "The excitement of the achievement rests in these objects, which we hope will remain in this country as a permanent testament to Logie Baird and his team.
"Their departure abroad would also be a serious loss to scholarship."
The decision on the export licence will be deferred until 28 September 2015 and could be extended further if a serious bid to raise the recommended £78,750 asking price is made.
