It's virtually impossible to have a large collection of vintage televisions simply because they take up so much room. If you want to know about older TV Sets, you really need to get this book:

The Collector's Guide to Vintage Televisions
We bought our copy at Zap & Company
315 N. Queen St, Lancaster Pa (717-397-7405), about $15

Posted October 31, 2002

Projection Television

This cartoon is very interesting to me, because it is the only instance that I have found in which an early projection TV is represented.

I am certain that only a few of you have ever heard of a Projection TV, so here is some history:

(l.) The TRK-12 (as sold) and (r.) in See-through Lucite

The 12" mirror-in-lid TRK-12 was RCA's first television to be sold to the public. Priced at $600.00, it was RCA's most expensive yet most popular pre-war model. The pictures were viewed indirectly by reflection in a mirror built into the cabinet lid. The length of picture tubes (Kinescopes) available at the time necessitated the mirror-in-lid design. Vertical orientation of the tube minimized the protrusion of television cabinets out from the living room wall, and the mirror lid could be closed, enabling the television and radio to be hidden when not in use. The Lucite "See Through" model was made for the 1939 World's Fair and was very popular among fair-goers.

Never Say Never...

One of my readers sent this cartoon, taken from a 1947 book called Addams and Evil. So, now there are two cartoons with a projection TV...

I have shown this to a few people and they don't get the gag at all, so here goes.

• First, the only things that were shown on early TV were sporting events (like baseball games).
• Second, in the old days, you could actually buy a bottle of beer at the ballpark.
• Third, the cameramen in the early days took pictures of the crowd -- it was a big thing to have said thaqt you "had been on TV" and viewers were VERY interested to see their relatives on TV.
• Fourth, the exact nature of TV was unknown to most people, and it was common to believe that almost anything could be transmitted remotely.

SO -- the wife comes home, sees the vendor on TV and the husband with a bottle of beer. She asks incredulously "Where did you get that [bottle of beer]" The husband says that he got it from the refrigerator. The joke is the wife's misperception of Television -- something that could only be funny in 1946...

Ad for Sylvania Tubes

"Just wait until after the war when all these amazing things will be around..."

From The Saturday Evening Post December 9, 1944

This ad from Sylvania promises that the Post-WWII future will include a TRK-12 in the Living Room.

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Posted July 31, 2002

1947 DuMont Teleset

This is the DuMont Clifton RA-102 (serial number 6230) made in 1947, a VERY early Teleset, as these things were known in the 1940s. It is entirely handmade, the case is solid mahogany, and weighs a ton. This is an extremely significant piece.

Why is this so important?

The reason follows, but befor you read on, place in your mind the epic battle between VHS and Betamax, or more lately, the battle between Netscape and Internet Explorer. Every technological revolution produces a struggle for market domination. As you read on, bring to mind your images of Apple vs Microsoft

In the 1930s and 1940s, Allen DuMont was at the forefront of TV technology and programming. DuMont Laboratories perfected the first practical cathode ray tubes (CRTs) and the first all-electronic TV receivers.

In the 1930s DuMont, an electrical engineer and vice president of a New Jersey radio-parts firm, began working in his garage on an inexpensive, long-lasting CRT. In 1939, people were crowding around DuMont television sets to watch President Franklin Roosevelt open the World's Fair.

One of DuMont's early inventions was the "tuning eye", which he sold to RCA for $20,000 (for some background on this device, click here). DuMont developed the first long-lasting cathode ray tube, the basis of electronic television, and was first to offer a home television receiver to the public in 1939. DuMont also applied for an experimental television station in New York City, which went on the air as W2XWV in 1942. Two years later, the station was licensed commercially as WABD, channel 5 (for Allen B. DuMont). DuMont also owned WTTG in Washington, D.C. (originally W3XWT), also on channel 5, which received its commercial TV license in 1945.

By 1947, DuMont had the beginnings of a television network, with stations in New York, Washington and Pittsburgh. Because of his partnership with Paramount Pictures, the FCC refused to permit DuMont to acquire more stations.

To survive, his network relied on innovative strategies. In 1947, with "The Small Fry Club" DuMont established television's first children's program. "Captain Video and His Video Rangers," an outer-space adventure, also became hugely popular.

It was on the DuMont Network that comedian Jackie Gleason developed the format for ''The Honeymooners,'' the classic 1950s series that was later broadcast by NBC. And here, reporter Mike Wallace first aggressively questioned public figures on the air.

DuMont pondered how to counteract successful competitors like ''Texaco Star Theater,'' starring Milton Berle. Rather than offer another comedy, the DuMont Network aired Bishop Fulton J. Sheen's ''Life Is Worth Living,'' a religious show that developed a loyal following.

In 1952, the Dumont Network aired professional football and basketball, but in time, lost out to other networks that could afford to pay more for the television rights. Eventually, DuMont was forced to sell his stations, but the DuMont Network's legacy in programming remains an important chapter in television history.

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Posted July 31, 2002

Very early 21 Inch Color TV

The RCA 21-CT-55, a 21 Inch Color Television made in 1955.

Why is this significant??

In the early 1950s, two competing color TV systems emerged. CBS proposed a system which transmitted an image in each of the three primary colors sequentially. A wheel with segments of red, green, and blue rotated in front of the camera, while a similar wheel rotated in front of the television screen, synchronized to the one at the camera. The advantage of the system was that it was inexpensive. Eventually, the wheel at the receiver could be replaced with a tri-color picture tube when the cost of these tubes came down. Unfortunately, the system was not compatible with the black and white standard.

The other system was proposed by RCA, and was eventually adopted by the FCC. It used no mechanical parts, and was compatible with black and white sets.

For a few months, test broadcasts were done using the CBS system. Some manufacturers, such as Admiral, made sets for the CBS standard.

Later, the FCC adopted the RCA compatible system. The first color television sets for this system were sold in 1954. They used a 15 inch screen. Later that year, 19 inch sets were made, and by 1955 all sets were made with a 21 inch picture tube; The RCA 21-CT-55 is one of these. Several manufacturers made 15 and 19 inch sets, most in very small quantities.

The first set was made by Westinghouse, and sold for $1295. RCA introduced the CT-100 a few weeks later, at a price of $1000.

GE sold its 15 inch set for $1,000, Sylvania's cost $1,150. Emerson rented color sets for $200 for the first month and $75/month thereafter.

By the summer of 1954 there was already a shakeout. A headline in the New York Times said "Set Buying Lags - Public Seen Awaiting Larger Screens, Lower Prices". Motorola and CBS promised a 19 inch screen at $995.

In 1955, Raytheon introduced a 21 inch set for $795 and CBS offered a trade-in of up to $400 for their black and white sets towards the purchase of a $895 21 inch color model. The 21-CT-55 came out in 1955 and cost $898.

RCA Victor started production of the 21-CT-55 on December 1, 1954. RCA released the 21CT55's service literature, "1954 No. T13", on November 24, 1954. RCA also published a Television Service Clinic booklet, "Technical Features of the RCA Victor Model 21CT55 Color Television Receiver". To quote from it:

"The RCA Victor Model 21CT55 color television receiver is a direct-view console which reproduces high-quality television pictures in full color from a standard color television signal, and automatically, with no adjustment or attachments, high-definition black-and-white television pictures from a standard black-and-white television signal.

The picture displayed on the screen of a 21-inch tricolor kinescope, the 21AXP22, has an area of approximately 255 square inches (2 1/2 times the prior year's 15 inch CT-100). The 21AXP22 employs electrostatic focusing and electromagnetic convergence. Ultor voltage is 25,000 volts. In conjunction with the 21-inch tricolor kinescope, the convergence and purity arrangements provide ease of adjustment, and increased accuracy and stability of color registration.

One of the customer convenience features in this receiver is that convergence and focus are no longer customer adjustments from the side of the cabinet but are internal and are preset by the service technician.

Additional features include: a removable top panel to facilitate servicing and adjustment, and the location of most of the functional controls at the receiver front. These control are located under the tilt-down control cover or behind the removable wood panel directly below the control cover. Dual loudspeakers are provided for sound reproduction."

By the end of 1957 only 150,000 color sets had been sold.

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Posted July 3, 2002

Airline Television

We just discovered this marvelous artifact from the early 1950s. It seems that our friend Carl Kirtley bought a house that had been condemned. It had been uninhabited for many years and the owners were sort of "Packrats". This is an understatement. When we peered into the house, we felt like Howard Carter and King Tut's Tomb. These people never threw a thing away from 1940 through 1990. There are three complete kitchens -- the cabinets and appliances were not discarded, but simply moved to the basement. No doubt, you will see many things from Carl's Treasure House. The first items to be "rescued" are electronics, which had to be relocated to my workbench for testing.

This is a television from about 1951. It is the Airline brand, which was distributed by the Montgomery Ward Company. This is going to be the first full scale TV that I have worked on, so it is going to take a while. The internet is relatively dim with respect to Vintage Television, so you will learn along with me.

At the moment, I can tell you that the cabinet is actually solid mahogany! No veneer -- real mahogany!

The Airline TV sat in a corner of the workshop from 2002 to the Spring of 2006, waiting in vain for a new picture tube to materialize on e-bay or at the shows. No such luck. So, regretfully, I did the next best thing. I carefully preserved the innards (minus the broken picture tube...) and refinished the case. Then I put a brand new Panasonic television inside the case. The remote even works through the speaker grille. I even refinished a little table to match the TV. The newly "restored" set went into the bedroom until I found a pair of drive-in movie speakers at a yard sale.

After looking at the speakers for a while, I thought that it would be interesting to display them in the bedroom. (Those of you who actually went to Drive-Ins in your youth will understand this). The, an ad stuffed in the Sunday Paper heralded the fact that Circuit City was selling a Zenith DVDPlayer/Home Theater system for about $90. I went to the store and they had an open box Zenith that they sold me for $50 because it was missing one speaker. I planned to use the Drive-In speakers as the rear Left and Right. It was fairly easy to rewire the innards of the Drive-Ins and to put brand new speakers inside. (Any good 4" speaker will fit just fine.) When I took the Zenith speakers apart, I found that they were junk, although the subwoofer was serviceable. I had LOTS of better speakers around the house --- inside some of the radios that I planned to restore. So, the five speakers in the Home Theater System are actually inside old radios that are cleverly distributed around the room.

Here's what the final setup looks like:

The Airline TV in Its 21st Century Configuration

You will note that some additional equipment has been added to the basic TV -- much in keeping with the evolution that took place during much of the 1950s. The Television Set had been TOO EXPENSIVE to throw away (early ones cost the equivalent of two months wages for the average working man). Thus, as technology changed, it was necessary to add some "peripherals."

In the late 1950s, the thirteen VHF channels were not enough to supply the demand for television programming. Thus, short wave users were booted off the air and 99 Ultra High Frequency (UHF) channels were created. The FCC mandated that all new television sets be wired to tune in UHF signals, but those with sets made before this ruling had to buy a UHF Converter as shown below. This was simply connected between the VHF antenna and the RF input on the main TV, as supplemented by a small loop UHF antenna.

The UHF Converter

Signal strength depended on the antenna being aligned with the RF source. In metropolitan areas with strong signals, this did not really matter and people got by quite well with the "rabbit ear" antenna that came with the set. However, in suburban and rural areas where signal was weak, it was very important to have a properly aligned antenna. Thus, the external folded dipole (looks like a part of a trombone) antenna was erected on the roof. In some areas, even this did not suffice and folks webt outside to rotate the antenna to catch a distant signal. For the more affluent, you could buy a Tenna Rotor sold by the Alliance Corporation in numberless commercials during the late night movies. This was a little box, shown below, that allowed you to orient the antenn from the comfort of your living room. Some models had an automatic tuning circuit (below, third diagram) that would "seek" the best signal. To illustrate this more, I have also reproduced the Canadian Patent Drawings for the Tenna-Rotor.

The Tenna Rotor Control Unit

 


The Tenna Rotor Patent Diagrams
Canadian Patents 497534 and 636446

The final "modern accessory" wasn't so modern at all -- it was a "Tymeter" faux digital clock. This was invented in 1935 by Mr. Frederick A. Greenawalt, for which he received US Patent 1,990,645. It was marketed under various guises by the Pennwood Numechron Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. However, this nifty little model with a face that looks like a Television set really took off, and soon it was de rigeur to have a Tymeter to keep up with the Joneses. This model has alight AND it glows in the dark! A sticker on the back indicates that it was made in October 1957 at the height of the fad.

The Numechron Tymeter



The Tymeter Patent Diagram
US Patent 1,990,645

So, the old Ward's Airline is souped up and ready to go for another 50 years. After spending all this money and time, I can now watch DVDs of old kinescopes of The Honeymooners.

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Posted November 28, 2001

This is a radio and phonograph. BUT, it is HIGHLY significant for Television. Read on to see why.

This gorgeous Farnsworth Model EK-263 Style-Moderne radio-phonograph console was left for junk at Dixon's Auction (nobody bid on it!) I grabbed it up and brought it home. In all fairness, it was a real wreck. I really wish that I had made "Before" and "After" photos. The turntable and radio actually work, although they have been augmented by a modern amplifier, a tape drive, an FM tuner, and a 100CD changer. This required BOTH extensive carpentry and a whole lot of electrical fidgeting.

Now, this was made by the Farnsworth Company somewhere around 1947. Why is that significant? Click here to learn about visionary inventor and businessman Philo Farnsworth, the man who ACTUALLY invented Television as we know it today. Believe me, this is worth the diversion...

The Tube Lineup is:

• 6SK7 (RF Amp)
• 6SA7 (Conv)
• 6SK7 (IF Amp)
• 6X50T (Rect)
• 6SQ7 (Det Avc, 1st Audio)
• 6V6GT (Output)

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Posted January 10, 2002

This isn't from the Swing Era, but it is one of the very first generation of SONY Watchman portable micro-televisions. I bought this when they were first announced and I was thoroughly annoyed that the only model they had came with a "New York Giants" emblem (I had wanted one for the Steelers...) They were initially sold to sports fans who carried them to football games to catch the instant replay. I also have the aftermarket lens magnifier that made the small picture somewhat more viewable.

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Posted January 10, 2002

I used to travel about 75,000 miles a year when I was in the Oil industry. All of my miniature "Conveniences of Home" were of great value to me. This little TV provided a lot of entertainment along the way. This has a little input jack and can be adapted to a VCR or a cable system. It has a very good LCD picture and performs very well.

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Ad From LIFE Magazine, October 6, 1941
Most Folks Would Have to Wait 8-10 Years to Experience This

Ad From LIFE Magazine, September 18, 1941
Bob Feller was a Legendary Pitcher from 1936-1956
He Pitched 3 "No-Hitters"

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