Televoice TR114T - age?
 

We’ve been offered one of these sets for the Black Country Living Museum, but sadly I think it’s too early for their planned 1959-60 shop displays.

Televoice were a Birmingham setmaker but the only references I can find don’t include this particular model of set.

Can anyone please help with a more accurate date of manufacture?

Thanks,

Phil

Re: Televoice TR114T - age?
 

As it doesn't seem to have a channel selector, unless it on the side it will be pre 1954/55 although it appears to have a rectangular CRT so I think that would put it at not long before then.

Peter

Re: Televoice TR114T - age?
 

Thanks, Peter for the very quick reply! We only have two photos, neither of which show the left-hand side, but those were my thoughts too. The focus adjustment slot in the back suggests that it’s pretty old too.

Re: Televoice TR114T - age?
 

I will add it to my list of sets (http://www.thevalvepage.com/tvmanu/t.../televoice.htm). Can I use the photo ? I've never seen a picture of any Televoice set.

If the museum doesnt want it, I can think of another good home also in Brum ;);D Otherwise a picture of the insides would be greatly appreciated - Plessey chassi perhaps ?

TTFN,
Jon

Re: Televoice TR114T - age?
 

Oh, hi Jon! Your site was the only other mention of Televoice that I found. We haven’t persuaded the Curators to accept it yet, but we’re working on it...!

Feel free to use the photo, perhaps you could just credit it to the Black Country Living Museum?

Re: Televoice TR114T - age?
 

Thanks Phil,

I suspect its a 1953-1954 model if there is no channel selector. I have very little information on them, the only mentions I've found are the first two models I listed were announced in the Trader Magazine for Jan 1950, whilst the last two were mentioned in an Ediswan/Mazda 1953/4 valve book.

TTFN,
Jon

Re: Televoice TR114T - age?
 

Hi Jon,

Thanks very much, that's most helpful. If it's from 1953 it will be the same age as me, but probably in better condition... 8-\

I'll reply to your PM shortly.

Re: Televoice TR114T - age?
 

Jon, you have a PM. Thanks very much for putting the photo and hyperlink on your website!

I have made a strong case to the Museum that they should accept this set. If it is indeed from 1953, it could have been one of the flood of sets sold in the run-up to the Queen's Coronation on the 2nd of June that year. Such a purchase would have been very expensive, and the set itself would have probably been kept working for a decade afterwards, so it would not appear out-of-place in any 1950s room setting.

Thanks again for your help,

Re: Televoice TR114T - age?
 

Dont want to drift off topic, but was there really much of a flood of sets for the Coronation ? Neither the official Board Of Trade figures for TV set production nor the number of TV licenses in force suggest this was the case.

TTFN,
Jon

Re: Televoice TR114T - age?
 

I'm sure you're right, Jon. It just struck me that small manufacturers such as Televoice may have seen a business opportunity and jumped on the bandwagon, till the bigger setmakers caught up with demand. I was just thinking about what I've been told by family members, friends and Museum visitors, and it seemed like a lot of people had been motivated to get a TV set in order to watch the forthcoming Coronation. My wife's grandparents were the first in their road to own a TV, and she recalls being told of neighbours crowding into their living room to watch it. Perhaps sales grew after the event? I can't speak from experience, being a mere three months old at the time!

Re: Televoice TR114T - age?
 

The focus magnet suggests it's one of the earliest 14" sets, probably has an ion trap too. It's a new set to me as well, I thought I had seen most of them, I was in the trade from 1954 but it seems there are quite a few that have escaped my notice.

Peter

Re: Televoice TR114T - age?
 

Here's another picture of the set.
Plessey chassis inside?

DFWB.

Re: Televoice TR114T - age?
 

Hi Fernseh, I do wonder if sets such as the Televoice were rental sets, or at leaset buy-or-rent. Remeber the two Griffin sets ? Almost unknown manufacturer, then two identical sets turn up in the same place, one BandIII-ified the other not, makes me think they were rental sets.

A few years ago I spent quite some time going through the Brum newspaper archives - originally for Coronation/TV related stuff and similarly for the Brum TV opening, no sign of any of the smaller manufacturer's adverts. And if you were to buy something as expensive as a TV back then, would you buy Cossor/Bush/A.N.Other big name, or a Televoice-who !? which makes me wonder about them being rental sets?

I think Peter could be right and the Televoice TR114 could be '52; a lot of teenie manufactures sprang up around late 49/50, no doubt enticed by new provincial transmitters opening up, only to vanish around 1952. With sets now mass produced the little manufacturers would struggle to compete with the big players, plus the huge 1952 purchase tax rise to 66% didn't help (thats what did for Etronic).

TTFN,
Jon

Re: Televoice TR114T - age?
 

Hi Jon,
it does look like that the cabinet was cheaply made, the sort of thing you'd find on rental sets. Those control knobs look very Plessey, the same type fitted on early fifties Co-op Defiant TV sets.

The CRT mask is off-set to the left.

DFWB.

Re: Televoice TR114T - age?
 

Many thanks for everyone’s interest and advice. If (when) we get our hands on the actual set, I’ll try to remember to post a few pictures here.

I’m hoping it’ll be young enough not to have mains-derived EHT 8-o

Re: Televoice TR114T - age?
 

It's always interesting to find out about smaller companies that weren't around for a few years.

I imagine a few companies with leftover electronics production capacity from the Second World War saw television as a growing market that was worth getting a foothold in before the bigger companies started full scale production.

Did any shops simply buy a chassis & build their own cases to house them, badging them with their own name?

I've been interested by the kits available for anyone brave enough to assemble a set from them, along with the reconditioned chassis sold caseless from the likes of Duke & Co of Romford Road.

Apart from Rediffusion did any other rental companies made their own sets?

Certainly many had workshops that could strip down & rebuilt a set from scratch, with some sets being a "Trigger's broom" by the end of it's life.

Re: Televoice TR114T - age?
 

DERWENT [not DER] produced high quality receivers for rental and purchase at their factory Perivale. J.

Re: Televoice TR114T - age?
 

Radio Rentals made their own TVs, through their subsidiary Mains Radio Gramophones of Bradford. When Radio Rentals acquired the rights to use the Baird brand name, they badged their sets"BAIRD".