Searching Craigslist a week ago, I found an ad for "Aunt Edna's Old Tv". It was a one sentence ad saying that the seller had a 1949 Sentinel that was in bad shape, but looked like all the tubes were there. I replied just for the heck of it, and they actually responded! I picked it up today, not quite sure what I was going to get.....

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It's a 17" set from 1954-the only one in that screen size Sentinel made that year, so I guess they were using up the old stock of their 17" tubes. The lady who owned it was selling the house, and clearing out. This was in fact her Aunt Edna's television, that they inherited from her in 1980. For the rest of that decade, this WAS their only tv! She said it never broke down, they just finally got a modern color set.

I did power it up briefly, and the sound and raster came up, so this must be a pretty indestructible set. Not surprisingly, the crt is pretty worn, testing lower than anything I have ever tested before. But it's been cooking at 8v for a while now and appears to be coming up...

Here are some scans from the dealer sheet that I think is the same model as Aunt Edna's tv. The list price as a July 1, 1953 was $179.95.

Steve

That's the one! Thanks for scanning that in! I've been looking the stand over. While the finish doesn't quite match the cabinet, the trim has been cut to match the trim on the tv, and they fit perfectly together. The stand is held together with thumbscrews, so it breaks down pretty easily.

After about four hours of cooking, the crt registers just within the passable range of my Sencore meter. The lifetest is pretty poor as well. I'll let it cook for a bit more, and we'll see what we have. These early squared crts seem to have gotten a lot of use-most of the ones I find are typically shot.