julianburke
07-17-2012, 06:44 PM
Back in the fall of 1969, RCA made a really cute little 9" tube type B&W TV that had a wood cabinet to look like a Early American console TV. This TV was sold for a kitchen set or where ever else a small TV was needed. Being over 43 years old they seldom turn up anymore except on evilbay and almost always are touted as a "Salesman Sample" which they think it makes it worth more and in reality is NO SUCH THING!! If you type in salesman sample to ebay, you will find about 95% of all items are strictly BOGUS because if an item looks miniature, they automatically think salesman sample because they don't know any better. I suppose people think salesmen always carried miniature TV's, pianos, fridges and cast iron stoves to name a few like they never carried catalogs which they did for over 100 years.
Well I just got back from Indianapolis and love that area because of the RCA plant (and Western Electric) that used to be there and the hamfest and I always run into and look up old friends who still live there that were engineers at RCA. I was chatting with my friend Jim who was an RCA engineer and the earlier TV came up in conversation and said he had engineered the HV network in that tube set, then he told me of the 6 prototypes that he and the cabinet shop built (who were capable of building any cabinet from a drawing, picture or from a napkin drawing) and were wanting to bring this nice little set back into production (with doors this time) for the 1972 model year using the stock solid state AC/DC design we see fairly often from that time. It never made it into production and of the 6 prototype concepts made, 5 were destroyed (verified by other engineers) and forgot to turn this one in. The only other difference besides being AC/DC solid state and NOT being a plain "console", is that it had doors on the front of it! This set and some of the others were the "Picture Prototypes" for internal marketing for a decision to make or not to make for the 1972 Christmas season. THIS SET IS THE ONLY ONE YOU WILL EVER SEE OF ITS' MODEL. It is 15 1/2"W X 11 1/2"H X 11"D.
PS, The model and serial number was affixed to get it out of the plant and will not be a real model number to look up. Oh yeah, it is also not FCC or UL type approved. Notice on the back that a hole had been made for the AC/DC power cord and at the bottom where the AC power cord would have been was closed up. BTW, this set still works good.
http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/5/6/4/2/6/0/webimg/590643909_o.jpg
http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/5/6/4/2/6/0/webimg/590643923_o.jpg
http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/5/6/4/2/6/0/webimg/590643941_o.jpg
Well I just got back from Indianapolis and love that area because of the RCA plant (and Western Electric) that used to be there and the hamfest and I always run into and look up old friends who still live there that were engineers at RCA. I was chatting with my friend Jim who was an RCA engineer and the earlier TV came up in conversation and said he had engineered the HV network in that tube set, then he told me of the 6 prototypes that he and the cabinet shop built (who were capable of building any cabinet from a drawing, picture or from a napkin drawing) and were wanting to bring this nice little set back into production (with doors this time) for the 1972 model year using the stock solid state AC/DC design we see fairly often from that time. It never made it into production and of the 6 prototype concepts made, 5 were destroyed (verified by other engineers) and forgot to turn this one in. The only other difference besides being AC/DC solid state and NOT being a plain "console", is that it had doors on the front of it! This set and some of the others were the "Picture Prototypes" for internal marketing for a decision to make or not to make for the 1972 Christmas season. THIS SET IS THE ONLY ONE YOU WILL EVER SEE OF ITS' MODEL. It is 15 1/2"W X 11 1/2"H X 11"D.
PS, The model and serial number was affixed to get it out of the plant and will not be a real model number to look up. Oh yeah, it is also not FCC or UL type approved. Notice on the back that a hole had been made for the AC/DC power cord and at the bottom where the AC power cord would have been was closed up. BTW, this set still works good.
http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/5/6/4/2/6/0/webimg/590643909_o.jpg
http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/5/6/4/2/6/0/webimg/590643923_o.jpg
http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/5/6/4/2/6/0/webimg/590643941_o.jpg