Television Day at the Museum Sept 10th 2016

[petertheorgan]

Ladies and Gentlemen

Can I take this opportunity to remind everybody about the Television day at the Museum this saturday ,

The 405 line television service was opened on the 2nd November 1936. It was the first high definition television service to transmit regular programmes that were listed in advance in the Radio Times. To mark this occasion the BVWTVM at Dulwich will be holding a TV extravaganza day on September the 10th to celebrate the 80th anniversary of television.
The day will be an interesting one with attractions to keep us all interested and involved.
Vintage television display including some interesting Murphy examples from Mike Barker's collection.
Vintage TV footage
Restoration advice and tips
Your problems solved
Bring your own TV receiver to demonstrate on the museum's new 405/625 RF installation system
There will also be a restoration competition. Don't be put off by this. Judging will be carried out more on the technical result than the polish on the chassis!
Bring and buy
Sale of TV and radio items duplicated at the museum
Museum tours
Food and drink will be available and entry will cost just ten pounds, less than the price of a couple of EF50s!

Please feel free to bring your own sets ,

We hope to have a very large display of working vintage television receivers from 1936 onwards .

If you have any questions or ideas ,please feel free to call the museum on 0208 670 3667 or to contact , John wakeley ( heatercathodeshort ) or myself

I hope to see lots of you on Saturday

Peter

John Wakely and Peter Sanders, joint curators of the television dept BVWTVM Dulwich London.

At what time does this start?

[petertheorgan]

I would guess that a good time to turn up would be between 11.00 and 12.00 noon

[Viewmaster]

Pity I cannot get there as I have a CAT9 water cooled triode valve I could show....If I could carry it safely!
Type used in o/p stages of sound and vision in 1936.

[dragonser]

Hi,
I hope to be able to get along to the event. But I haven't managed to spend the time to get a 405 line Tv set working to bring along.
regards Peter B

[ukcol]

I would be interested in attending this event but I'm concerned about the journey. I have been to Rosendale Road before but I was on a visit to London at the time and simply took a train ride followed by a short walk.

This time I would be coming by road from Lincolnshire down the A1 and would then allow my sat nav to guide me across London to south of the river.

So here's a couple of questions. What is it like travelling through London on a Saturday, is it horrendous or straight forward? Should I consider coming by train instead?

Any advice will be gratefully received.

[neil29]

I'm also thinking of going too. and I'm wondering whether there will be anywhere to park etc.

Cheers
Neil.

[Stuart R]

Colin,

Based on three journeys made in recent years, I've never had an easy journey to Dulwich from the A1. I've tried cutting straight through town via Vauxhall Bridge and also around the North/South Circular.

Both routes will take you via a number of busy High Streets. Bus lanes are usually active, so a lot of the traffic is stacked-up in one lane at junctions. It's slow going, but not horrendous - although I'm used to London driving. I have to allow anything between 2-3 hours and I'm only at Junction 9 of the A1.

Do check Transport for London's (TFL) website. As well as roadworks, you need to look out for planned demonstrations, marches or cycling events that can close roads and cause chaos parts of Central London.

Neil, I've never failed to find parking on the street, but it does get very busy close to the museum and so if I see a space, I don't waste any time in squeezing into it. Don't bring a bus!

Don't let that put you off going though, it sounds like a good day!

Regards,

SR

[ukcol]

Thanks for your input Stuart.

I have just had a look at the TFL site to see what it would be like to use public transport from Oakwood station on the Piccadilly line. Oakwood is a place I know quite well and can get to reasonably easily. But even that public transport journey doesn't look all that straightforward.

Looking at the map it looks like going south on the A1 to the M25, and then clockwise on the M25 to join the south circular to Dulwich could be reasonably straight forward. What do you think?

[Stuart R]

Hello Colin,

So long as the Blackwall Tunnel is behaving, I'd suggest A1, M25 Clockwise, M11, A406, A12, Blackwall Tunnel.

Out on the A2 from the Blackwall Tunnel and after the Kidbrooke turn you can pick up the South Circular.

This cuts out a large chunk of the M25 and possible Dartford Crossing misery and has saved me a lot of time when visiting friends in SE London.

I've not gone as far as Dulwich from this approach, and it looks like you'll still be travelling down some High Streets but the start of the South Circular from the East used to be a much better road than the Western side.

Hope this is useful,

Stuart.

[audiomagpie]

It's a residential area and parking is it not a problem, there aren't any meters or time restrictions. If you can't find a space on Rosendale there's a few side streets, usually spaces in Myton Road just a 100yds before the museum.

See you there!

[Mikey405]

Alas I'm not able to make the event but I hope everyone has a brilliant time tomorrow.

Well done to John and Peter for organising and may there be many more.

Kind regards.

From Mike.

[ukcol]

Originally Posted by Stuart R

Hope this is useful

Yes it is, thanks Stuart.

[1100 man]

Hi there,
I hope to be able to go tomorrow. My plan is to come down the A12 from Chelmsford, through the Dartford tunnel, up the A2 and round the A205 South Circular. Should be easier than going across London and hopefully quicker! See you there
Cheers
Nick

[dragonser]

Hi,
just to say thank you to everyone there for making a nice interesting event, with good food and cups of tea.
regards Peter B

[ukcol]

I visited Dulwich yesterday, I picked up the M11 at its top end and then followed Stuart's suggested route through the Blackwall tunnel. It was a pretty straightforward (if long) journey. Thanks for your help on that Stuart.


It was a very enjoyable day and I had a number of quite long conversations with some charming, knowledgeable and interesting people, most of whom I had not met before.


The first picture below shows Mike Barker's Murphy display.

The first set on the left is a 1967 dual standard set (V1913 I think). These were available with painted cabinets of various colours. If you couldn't afford a colour TV in 1967 you could always tell your friends that you had a "coloured" TV.

The set in the middle is from the early 1950s (pre-dating ITV). Model V204 I think.

The last TV I think is a V350 from 1958 able to receive VHF bands 1 and 3 being a post ITV set.

The last item on the table is a piece of vacuum technology. Mike explained that it is a valve from the Alexander Palace band 1 television transmitter that would have run at an HT voltage of about 15kV in parallel with a number of identical valves in the output stage. The valve is water cooled and has provision to pump air through the water to improve cooling. The metal work at the left hand end of the valve is a water jacket surrounding the anode and is at anode potential. Obviously (I hope) it is not practical to have a water cooling system at 15kV above earth and so the anode is earthed and the cathode supplied with the 15kV (negative). The metal work visible through the glass is not part of the valve proper, that is all inside the water jacket hidden from view. It is there to provides a rigid structure to support the valve electrodes.

I hope I have remembered correctly what Mike told us about this valve.


In the second picture we see some single standard colour sets.

The first on the left is from Thorn (using the 3000 chassis ?) and would have been marketed in slightly different cabinets under the Ferguson, HMV or Marconi name. I am not sure if Thorn still used the Ultra name at this time.

Next to it is a Sony KV1320UB. I believe this set used a colour decoder circuit that claimed to be a non-PAL decoder in order to avoid paying Telefunken for a licence to manufacture a PAL decoder. This decoder had a hue control usually found on NTSC sets.

I didn't take note of the other two later sets on the table but I think the far right one is another Sony.


The last picture shows another display of monochrome TVs in the main house at the museum.


I must have been distracted at some point because I failed to take any more photographs as I had intended.

In the outbuildings at the bottom of the garden were a number (possibly 2 dozen) of sets of various ages and designs and all of them running. All those valves and dropper resistors would have kept the room nice and cosy had it been mid winter.

The display included a 1950s projection TV. A number of manufactures produced projection TV uses the Mullard MW6-2 CRT. This CRT was only 2 1/2 inches in diameter and ran at an EHT of 25kV. The tiny (but bright) picture was projected onto the rear of a relatively large screen using the Schmidt optical system. The picture on this CRT was so bright that special circuitry had to be included in the design so that the screen would be blanked in the event of a field timebase failure. If this was not done a line would be burnt into the CRT phosphor pretty quickly.

In the workshop was another small display and John was explaining various technical aspects of television to an interested audience.

Finally, I took the opportunity to look around the rest of the museum for the first and only time since my first visit over 10 years ago.

[terrykc]

Originally Posted by ukcol

The first picture below shows Mike Barker's Murphy display.

Colin, you seem to have forgotten the pictures!

I was at the far end of the display area in the Shed when I heard a voice from the hallway just outside the door announcing that its owner had to leave to get back to Lincolnshire. A quick glimpse and he was gone!

I assume that was you ...!

[ukcol]

Your right, perhaps the text will make more sense now.

Yes I was saying goodbye to John.

[Heatercathodeshort]

Thanks for the pictures! Has anyone any more? I failed to take any of the fantastic event. There were around 50 sets in our TV room at the bottom of the garden all working from 1946-2000. It was a unique day. We must have been the only gathering of people watching such a collection of genuine 405 line television via VHS tape and DVD's in the World.
Two interesting models were stripped of their cabinets to show the internal workings, the Murphy V180C and the Vidor 369A. The Murphy V114 and some others with mains EHT worked faultlessly for over eight hours. We also had a good representation of colour with the Decca 1830, Thorn 3000, Toshiba 22" [Bush branded] the Ferguson TX100 and many more. The Dual Standard GEC will be overhauled soon.
We worked out we had around a 4kw load of 405 running yesterday afternoon and nothing blew up!
Peter and myself would like to thank everyone who attended and all the museum helpers [with special mention of Eileen] that made the day such a friendly and enjoyable one. The food was provided by Eileen and was very well received. Sorry I could not chat to you all but no doubt we will meet again. Regards, John.

[Rejectostat]

Originally Posted by Heatercathodeshort

Thanks for the pictures! Has anyone any more?

Yes I took a few, but I cannot download them for a week or two. It certainly was a very good day, and there is no doubt that the television section of the Museum is now very impressive. My wife commented that the main television display area reminded her of a television showroom from years gone by with rows of televisions all on at the same time showing similar things.

John.