How it's made. 1950's Televisions
 

Came across this YouTube presentation today looking at how TVs were made in the 50s.

Fascinating footage , looks like it was an American RCA Victor Tv plant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxQS58t39_U

Re: How its made. 1950s Televisions
 

"Kinescope", not Cathode Ray Tube - How fancy can you get ? 8-)
Actually, I have seen that word used for a C.R.T. many years ago in an American "toob" data book. Tony.

Re: How its made. 1950s Televisions
 

Re: Kinescope, this was used in a roundabout way fairly recently wrt crt sets in various manuals, the abbreviation AKB (Auto Kine Bias), which was of course meant for the automatic greyscale feedback signal on more modern sets, some of Japanese origin and some of Turkish origin.

Re: How it's made. 1950's Televisions
 

and if you prefer something a little more British.... ;D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGzu7vpowHY

Re: How it's made. 1950's Televisions
 

I've heard Kinescope used as an American term for a telerecording, ie a programme made with electronic cameras recorded onto film.

Re: How it's made. 1950's Televisions
 

Nearing the end of the film the commentator says the sets are not lifted by hand during production but the chassis was fitted by hand to the cabinet and pushed into place by the woman's stomach on the back of the tube. Note also the lack of protective clothing/goggles etc. when handling tubes and in other processes. We didn't have 'elf-n-safety in those days.

Re: How it's made. 1950's Televisions
 

BVWS members will have the Video Disks of GEC and Bush manufacturing as for tube safety they were tough back then.

Cheers

Mike T

Re: How it's made. 1950's Televisions
 

I think the "kinescope" term was created by RCA to describe the receiver CRT at the same time that they named the camera tube as the "iconoscope".

Peter

Re: How it's made. 1950's Televisions
 

As an aside, the original monitor for the TRS-80 model 1 was an RCA portable TV with the tuner and IF board removed and a video input board fitted. The service manual for it is mostly pages from the RCA manual along with a circuit diagram for the video input board. Anyway, it refers to the CRT as a 'kinescope', shortened to 'kine' (for example the parts list might include 'bracket, kine mounting')

Re: How it's made. 1950's Televisions
 

Apart from obvious quirks and anomalies that are easy to spot these days, it's a good film. It's PCB production heavy, but that would have been the jewel in the crown in around 1960. It's such a shame that the British R&TV was overtaken by the Japanese and other countries, but we only have ourselves to blame I guess. Hey, we'd not long won a war and believed, mistakenly, that we were top dogs in the world at everything and always would be. What a difference a few years made. BTW, at the beginning, the graphics on the screen seem unable to choose between 'GEC' and 'GE' - what was going on there?!

Also, the commentator, he used to be on hundreds of such short documentary films, what was his name?

Re: How it's made. 1950's Televisions
 

I have now seen both the American and British 'How TVs were made' You Tube videos and, as expected, the processes shown in the two are broadly similar, since both were dealing with the Mass Production of black & White sets of the same era, and which, broadly speaking would surely have been similar in design, aside from the obvious differences in the TV broadcast standards, and the mains voltage/frequency difference. Incidentally I'm assuming that U.S. TVs were basically 'live chassis' sets, as ours were.

Re: How it's made. 1950's Televisions
 

Hi,
I've wondered about American tellies having 'live chassis'technology. Wouldn't the line voltage be too low to supply the various HT supplies required without depending on the boost HT circuits?
I have an old French 819 line TV that uses a transformer because the national supply back then was 110 volts. My telly has a voltage selector from 110 to 250 volts, and 'E' series valves.
Rummaging through boxes of valves on flea markets, rallies, etc. I have never seen any 'P' types.
Cheers, Pete.

Re: How it's made. 1950's Televisions
 

Most 'color' american 'tube' sets use a mains transformer. I think the mono ones are a mixed bag, certainly less live ('hot') chassis sets than in the uk where it's almost a given that they are. There seemed to be a liking for metal-cabinet sets as well, (on a 2-pin cable!) either with a wood grain photo transfer or some 50's garish coloured enamel paint job.