HOW IT'S MADE: 1950's Televisions

Thought you might like a trip down memory lane…
in the presentation mention is made of tubes being tested
in such a manner to determine durability…some 5000 hours some 10,000 hours
some 50,000 hours…wow

Enjoy

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I’m old enough to remember RCA TV technicians coming to our house with a satchel full of tubes when our 21" black and white RCA TV “went on the blink” and needed repair.

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glad you enjoyed the trrip down memory lane…

My family’s black and white RCA was
huge, heavy, blew a lot of fuses (the screw in kind), and only caught on fire once! :grin:

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When my mother wasn’t swearing at it because of repairs needed she was swearing by it as the best babysitter she could’ve asked for.

I remember watching test patterns on Saturday mornings until the cartoons started and the National Anthem was played.

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Oh, yes. Andy’s Gang, Sky King, Fury and all the rest.

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Don’t forget Howdee Doodee and Buffalo Bob. :joy:

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Oh, never could forget them. Simpler times, for sure.

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Roy Rogers, Rin Tin Tin, Gene Autry and many more…

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Don’t forget Hopalong Cassidy!

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Different programs but similar memories. I used to particularly enjoy the transmitter information cards in the early afternoons.
Years later of course we all became teletext addicts…

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I remember when I was a child, my father had a problem with our TV. He took the vacuum tubes out and we went down at the local drug store where they had a tube testing machine like the one above. Then he would test each tube until he found the bad one. The machine was stocked full of replacement tubes.

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I remember my grandparents all tube television with a mechanical clicker remote. In a way, the craftsmanship and manufacturing expertise that went into mass production of large diagonal size tube displays themselves was remarkable.

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I have two headphone amps that can sub this tube. It was original designed for tubed TV tuners vertical hold duties.

https://www.tubesandmore.com/products/vacuum-tube-12b4a-triode-low-mu

Me too…

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My father had a portable tube tester. He was often the most popular guy in the neighborhood. Our local hardware store stocked the tubes.

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My family’s first TV was a Bendix with a ten inch round picture tube, and push button varactor channel selectors for channels 1-13. Yes, you read it correctly. It had Channel 1. Only two stations, apparently, ever used that frequency. One was is Scottsdale, AZ, and I think the other was in NYC. Channel 1 went bye-bye about the same time as the DuPont Network, if memory serves me, circa 1955.

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The Channel 1 you’re referring to was most recently an “educational” station in existence from 1989 to 2018.

Channel One was an underground comedy ensemble co-founded by Chevy Chase in 1967. A comedy club in Manhattan (Greenwich Village I believe) with the same name was a most interesting experience. I attended it with my eventual-to-be wife. It was pitch black inside with the only illumination being cast by television screens scattered around the club. Seating was movie theater style. Chevy Chase appeared on screen in a number of sketches that were shown including one memorable skit entitled “The Sexual Olympics” another was him slapping a bald man’s head in time to the tune of “Me and My Shadow.”

It helped if you were in a certain frame of mind while viewing. :roll_eyes:

The Cannel 1 I am referring to has nothing in common with the one you are referring to. The one I am referring to operated in the 44-50MHz region which hasn’t been used for television since around 1950 or so.