any suggestions on links to find pictures of old usa tv manufacturing factories ( past during production years & current abandoned )

The Philco factory that made radios and TVs until 1975 is still standing and can be found at google maps

"E Tioga St & C St Philadelphia, PA 19134"

Maybe somebody has some pictures of the factories during operation.

Doug Harland has posted some great photos of the old Zenith plant in Chicago. I spent some time the other night trying to find the old thread but without any luck. It wouldn't surprise me if he has something on YouTube.

Either here or on ARF there is a former Curtis Mathis employee whom has put up a site dedicated to their products, and has posted pictures of their plant as it currently sits.....Googleing the company might lead to his site.

Didn't the parts go in before the name go on at 1900 Austin Avenue? I remember a guy named Jay that a long-ago employer used to send a bunch of stuff to.

Doug Harland has posted some great photos of the old Zenith plant in Chicago. I spent some time the other night trying to find the old thread but without any luck. It wouldn't surprise me if he has something on YouTube.
It's definately on U-tube and very well put together, as only Doug can do it.
I just watched it again. Just type drh2381 and look at the entries.

Hey Dave, his handle is drh4683. It's not 2381.:D

Hey Dave, his handle is drh4683. It's not 2381.:D

I find myself doing that a lot lately. :sigh:

My Capehart-Farnsworth 661-P article has a couple of photos of the old Farnsworth factory in Fort Wayne, IN.

http://antiqueradio.org/CapehartFarnsworth661-PTelevision.htm

One shows an assembly line, the other the factory exterior. There were some articles in the local paper about the demolition in 2010.

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

I THINK the old Hallicrafters plant in Chicago is still there. Mostly radios & ham stuff, but they did make TVs til the mid '50s-Supposedly even a few 15GP22 sized color sets..

I picked up a tv in New London Conn years ago. The old Temple radio and tv factory was there but long since abandaned. I met another collector in MD who was a building inspector who said he was once in the Jenkins mechanical tv plant in Baltimore MD. He said he searched the entire building for a sign of Jenkins television and found nothing.

Richard

Here's a video from the Springfield PBS station on the old Motorola plant in Quincy, Illinois. At one time it was the largest radio factory in the country. They also made portable tv's starting in the mid 60's. About the 22 min mark they show a couple of portables and a Teleplayer.


http://youtu.be/9QLEb8ggz3A

Thanks for that! I know I met Olin Shuler way back when I was at Motorola, can't recall what it was in conjunction with - could have been the EVR (Teleplayer) project. I was the video circuit engineer for the EVR player, up in Franklin Park, IL, and developed color circuits for it that could tolerate non-linearities in the flying spot scan without shifting hue all over the place. I also developed a test signal generator that simulated the film non-linear scan frequencies so the electronics could be aligned in the factory before being mated with the film deck.

Thanks for posting the link to the PBS special about the old Motorola facility. It was interesting :)

Very interesting video. old_tv_nut, I would like to hear some more about your connection with the TV and Radio industry. Sounds like it would be good reading.

Here's a video of the 1959 RCA "Designing and Making Televisions". Covers a prototype from inception to finished product in Cherry Hill, NJ. Lancaster, PA roundie color CRT manufacturing plant and Bloomington, IN assembly plant. Lots of fun stuff!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2si4pop4kDE

Thanks for posting the link to the PBS special about the old Motorola facility. It was interesting :)
I never knew Motorola had the Quincy plant that long.
I remember that they made both color and B/W portable sets there, as they had a "Q" in the serial number.
I thought all the radios were made in the Augusta Blvd plant.
Later on, they built the color and B/W consoles in Franklin Park. :yes:

I think the woman's comment about enjoying the assembly line work should be noted. It has forever been fashionable to trash manufacturing jobs as stultifying, but there are people who take pleasure and pride in doing painstaking tasks well and doing them well repeatedly. Reminds me of a lucky friend's wife - although she likes to redecorate often, she also likes painting the trim.