Zwor·y·kin (zwôr??-k?n, zvôr?y?-), Vladimir Kosma 1889-1982. Russian-born American engineer and inventor of the iconoscope (1923), the first practical television camera.American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.