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Vintage Television and Video Vintage television and video equipment, programmes, VCRs etc.

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Old 24th Dec 2017, 10:31 am   #1
mark pirate
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Default Interesting letter from 1953

Reading through the August 1953 edition of Practical Television, I came across the following letter:

OLD RECEIVER RESULTS
SIR, -The following may be of interest. I purchased a television and radio, receiver. (3 bands) in 1939.
It was used for televising before the war, during the war was used for broadcast reception, it went through the "blitz" in South London, it has
been serviced only once, three or four small condensers replaced on sound only. Otherwise everything
is as purchased, same 12in. tube and valves,
there is a slight " ion burn " on . tube, but the
picture is still 100 per cent. at Croydon, using an
inside aerial. I am not certain, but I think I paid £45
for the set in console cabinet, and it all looks as good as new today. I wonder if there are any more veterans giving such service. ALFRED RYALL (Croydon).

I love the fact it was referred to as a Veteran at only 14 years old!
I wonder when it was finally retired from service, and if it still exists somewhere today?

Mark
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Old 24th Dec 2017, 10:57 am   #2
peter_scott
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Default Re: Interesting letter from 1953

£45 seems quite a good price for 12" console set including a 3 band radio in 1939. It got me wondering which make and model it might have been. The nearest I could think of was the Baird T18. Perhaps there was quite a bit of discounting as the international situation worsened.

Peter

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Old 24th Dec 2017, 11:58 am   #3
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Default Re: Interesting letter from 1953

I used to have a huge Marconi TV & radio on which the sound had to be tuned in on a special section of the radio. It had a vertical tube viewed in the mirror and a lethal mains-derived HT. I had to get the EHT transformer rewound, after which it worked perfectly. I recall watching the maiden flight of Concorde on it from Rowridge with a home brewed converter to shift the frequency down to the AP frequency.

The sad thing is that while in Australia I lent it to a country TV shop for display and never went back to collect it...
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Old 24th Dec 2017, 2:11 pm   #4
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Default Re: Interesting letter from 1953

I think the pre war models were on the whole very reliable. The electrostatic models were probably less so due to the high number of high voltage capacitors involved. Very few actually survived into the 50's.
Many of the EMI models soldiered on until the EHT transformer failed. J.
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Old 24th Dec 2017, 11:33 pm   #5
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Default Re: Interesting letter from 1953

A very interesting letter.
An interesting question arises, What percentage of the total number of television receivers were destroyed through enemy action as presumably most of them at this time were still within the London region and were at a high risk from aerial bombing.

Christopher Capener
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Old 25th Dec 2017, 12:23 am   #6
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Default Re: Interesting letter from 1953

Good question Christopher but it might be easier to research the numbers manufactured in the first place, rather than those wiped out by enemy action-if they were that is! I've seen one or two articles over the years from people talking about the London second handmarkets post war [a salvage economy]. One major collector said he would be up at 3am [sleeping in a chair, in his clothes] and go down to certain areas where vans and lorries brought "antique" stock in and this would be traded among dealers before regular market business commenced. He described lots of radio gear he had obtained very cheaply [20's/30's] and would be home by 6am... going back to bed.
I can't recall a mention of TV's in particular but bombed out housing doesn't necessarily mean lost TV's perhaps or maybe not at that particular point?

Dave
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Old 25th Dec 2017, 3:12 pm   #7
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Default Re: Interesting letter from 1953

I seem to have the following television production figures from the Radio Manufacturers Association:

1936 427
1937 1,627
1938 7,194
1939 (production stopped in September) 9,315
Total 18,999

Peter
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