I was digging through the endless stack of vintage paper around here looking for some old NBC Sports docs and found this. I have no idea when or where I got it and it is a bit tattered...maybe bug chewed corners. It is a RCA Camden receipt for a "AS IS" TRK-12 with kinescope bought and shipped on 12/30/40. $100 delivered to an upscale suburb north of Philadelphia. The date puts it in the TRK-120 era. Factory closeout? Employee buy? Can I still get one? Now off to find the family if they are still around.

Now off to find the family if they are still around.A novel idea (novel to me, anyway). I have sometimes done research to find the previous owner of a set that I found, but it never occurred to me to track in the other direction -- start with a purchase document and work forward to see if the set can be located.

Phil Nelson

Way cool! Not many houses in that location even now.
Too bad it doesn't have the serial number of the set to see if it is one of the known survivors.
It might still be sitting in a garage or barn in its original location.

Very cool document Dave. The employee price list I have from March 26 1940 shows the TRK-12 at $250 so this was a substantial price drop from that. The fact yours says "AS IS" might suggest it was a used set and the CRT already had some hours on it.

Darryl

The fact yours says "AS IS" might suggest it was a used set and the CRT already had some hours on it.



Maybe a floor sample or demonstrator.

Perhaps a well "broken in" TRK12 that was at the Worlds Fair display...:)

Very cool! From what I read it seems television basically bombed in the pre-wars days, so that might explain the drop in prices at that time. It took WWII, unfortunately, to give it the major boost it needed in both improved technology, and the desire for the very optimistic post-war American to get the latest gadgets.

Wow! A factory invoice direct to the customer? That's a weird one. Cool find!

One of the pioneer early television collectors (Jeff Lendaro) acquired part of his extensive collection by using the RCA annual reports from 1939 and 1940. They included pages with photos and names of their television engineers.

Jeff then used the phone book to find them (or their descendants). He was given several prewar sets, paper, and equipment.

If I recall correctly, he did this when he was a teenager, or maybe in his 20s.

Very cool! From what I read it seems television basically bombed in the pre-wars days, so that might explain the drop in prices at that time. It took WWII, unfortunately, to give it the major boost it needed in both improved technology, and the desire for the very optimistic post-war American to get the latest gadgets.

I own two prewar sets, a TT5 and a TRK12, and early postwar sets.

There really are only two technology differences.
First the IF frequency is higher,
using stagger-tuned single tuned circuits or overcoupled transformers rather than the prewar 8-12 MHz bandpass filters.
Second is the user of flyback generated HV for the CRT rather than
AC line 60 HZ power and a very expensive HV transformer.

Other than that, and a certain great additional complexity due to color,
the 1954 CT-100 looks awfully similar.

Now the prewar British sets did have a extremely different look, both circuit-wise (thyratrons as sweep oscillators!) and construction-wise (very military looking tag boards). The early US sets did have some military-ish features, not much.

Then ... well post-war, the word Muntz and all it implies appeared.

Dave,

Here's the intersection of Alden Rd. & Fetters Mill Rd. in Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Good hunting.

-Steve D.

I would submit that there was a third technological advance (if it even constitutes an advance, which is arguable) that really differentiates post-war sets, at least a majority of them, apart from the pre-war offerings: intercarrier sound.

That $100 in 1940 is equal to $1,715.97 in 2016 dollars :yikes:

Everyone in Bryn Athen belongs to the local Swedenborgian church. I have found a few searches as to his being in the church. Pitcairn of the autogyro fame was a member. I think an early Pitcairn founded the beginnings of Eastern Airlines. Also the Asplund arborist family is around. It all sounds like a TRK neighborhood...with a discount. A visit there is in order. And this is also Philco engineer home territory nearby in the day. I got my first TV123 up there. Glad you are all having fun with this.

Odd they bought the set five days after Christmas, maybe they wanted to watch Dick Clark's Rockin New Years Eve on it? :-)

The odds of the original family still living there are pretty slim, and Mr Simons is almost certain to be pushing up Daisies by now.

I think it was Paul Whiteman's Rockin' New Years Eve. Paul lived up north of there along the river and was a local tv star on early WFIL-TV in the 50's after his 30's band fame faded.

My search at the church is to find the kids. This church is a large church to be dealt with.

Great find! I love seeing the old paperwork.

I have a note to the pastor of the local church to see what I get back. After that I will use Steve's view of the neighborhood to knock on doors and get arrested as crazy. Stay tuned. And thanks to Steve McVoy for adding this to ETF.

Good luck Dave!!! This makes for great reading!

This got very interesting today. The pastor kindly answered back with the full name of Mr. Simons...a late congregant at his Bryn Athyn church and memorialized with his own Wikipedia page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keneth_Alden_Simons

Keneth is beyond brilliant and historic in broadcasting and cable. As to his need of a TRK-120 I am now thinking he did not need a new/used set but maybe parts for another invention for $100. Just a guess. Add your own guess.

I answered the pastor offering to donate the paper to any of his family still around and did note that I was interested in the fate of the set. If not, I will send it to Steve. I think one daughter and son are still around the area. Another daughter is an artist in the New Orleans area. The whole family is very thick in this church. I hope the pastor will help as he seems to be a good guy from his email tonight...and I offered free Phillies tickets. I am now not going to inflict myself at someone's doorway and will wait for help from the pastor.

Look at the CRT on the right rear side of his bench as pictured on the wiki page. Looks like the TRK120 was put to good use...

My my...this IS getting interesting :lurk:!

Interesting stuff:

1. This fellow was born in 1913 so he would have been only 27 in 1940.

2. The $100 was not chump change. Per the CPI calculator, $100 in 1940 equals $1,715.97 in today's dollars.

3. Per the Wikipedia article, this fellow was pretty busy in the years around 1940.

"In 1938 he graduated from the Moore School of Electrical Engineering of the University of Pennsylvania,with distinction and recipient of the A. Atwater Kent Prize in Electrical Engineering] (see Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia) He then became a television field engineer for RCA. On one occasion in 1939 he and another field engineer installed a television set in the honeymoon cottage of movie stars Robert Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck, and Simons showed her how to operate it. Later Simons helped run the RCA television exhibit...at the 1939 World’s Fair. In the summer of 1940 he was sent by RCA to run the public address system and make recordings of speeches on the campaign train of Wendell Willkie, the Republican candidate for president that year."

4. Given his TV-related activities for RCA, why would he have to buy this set? He sounds like one of their go-to guys for TV matters.

Interesting stuff:

1. This fellow was born in 1913 so he would have been only 27 in 1940.

2. The $100 was not chump change. Per the CPI calculator, $100 in 1940 equals $1,715.97 in today's dollars.

3. Per the Wikipedia article, this fellow was pretty busy in the years around 1940.

"In 1938 he graduated from the Moore School of Electrical Engineering of the University of Pennsylvania,with distinction and recipient of the A. Atwater Kent Prize in Electrical Engineering] (see Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia) He then became a television field engineer for RCA. On one occasion in 1939 he and another field engineer installed a television set in the honeymoon cottage of movie stars Robert Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck, and Simons showed her how to operate it. Later Simons helped run the RCA television exhibit...at the 1939 World’s Fair. In the summer of 1940 he was sent by RCA to run the public address system and make recordings of speeches on the campaign train of Wendell Willkie, the Republican candidate for president that year."

4. Given his TV-related activities for RCA, why would he have to buy this set? He sounds like one of their go-to guys for TV matters.

Regarding your fourth entry!
Most firms, if not all, don't give anything away for obvious reasons. Liability and maybe disention from other employees. Anyone that worked for a firm, for any length of time, knows what thats all about. Children come in all ages.
Many times an item is posted and bid on.

We have come to the end of the road and it is not as we hoped but common for the time. Phil was right in the reverse chase and the family did come through with an email this morning from one of Ken's daughters that got my notes from the pastor. She is spot on as to the set and it's demise. The internet is a great thing.

I have excerpted her email so as to not identify her. Her response;

"I am not sure, but I believe the TV you have a receipt for is the old one we had for years with the lift up lid. The sad story of this is that Pop saved it for many years and one day while cleaning his workshop, he decided it was of no use and broke it apart and burned it. As the story goes, three weeks later the Smithsonian called about it and Pop regretted this until the day he died."

Now it sounds like a family set and not a shop queen. As to it's fate, I am thinking back to a Smithsonian observance of the 50th anniversary of television they mounted in a few rooms in the summer of 1989 with a great display of old sets. Somewhere around here I have photo prints of the event as I went to see it. And I still have my coffee cup from the gift shop.

She continues;

"I will check through the family photos to see if we have any pictures that include it. We also had an early TV with a large round screen that I remember watching as a child. I don’t know what happened to this one but I will check with my brother to see if he knows."

"As for the receipt you have, feel free to keep it and it would be nice if you want to donate it to the Museum. I haven’t a clue how you have this receipt and I can tell by looking at it, that it is a piece of memorabilia that survived out family house fire on Oct. 1952."

Her mention of a large screen could refer to the 15" or so larger screen on Ken's bench but that would not be what a child would watch. Ken was busy with screens. Chuck A sent me a note as to him having met Ken in the 70's in his cable days and noted that Ken wrote the book on early cable. And now we know about the jagged edges of the paper surviving a house fire. How I got it is up for guess. I think it may have been in a bunch of paper I bought which may have been passed along numerous times. If Steve wants it I will frame it and send it to ETF.

You may now all turn your cars/vans/box trucks around and return home from SE Pennsylvania. Delete all you Google map photos and return to Craigslist for the find of all time. And check your paper you have stashed that you never think about.

"I rely on the kindness of strangers." Blanch DuBois

And a happy 4th of July to all the fans of this thread.

If the Smithsonian wanted it I wonder if it was one of the 39 Worlds Fair sets?

Hard to read about it's fate but it's probably similar to the majority of the sets we now consider so collectible.

The World's Fair sets were TRK-12 sets. Ken's discount TRK-120 set was later...$800 later. The fate is not surprising given the day.

The World's Fair sets were TRK-12 sets. Ken's discount TRK-120 set was later...$800 later. The fate is not surprising given the day.

How do we know that it is a 120? The receipt says that it is a 12.

How do we know that it is a 120? The receipt says that it is a 12.

Exactly, he bought the set directly from RCA at basically a scrap price, I would think the only reason they would do that is if the set was used for some purpose within the company then retired.
Too bad the receipt doesn't have the serial number of the set on it, unless it didn't have a serial number because it wasn't a retail set.

Guilty of overthinking this. I was thinking the invoice was in the 120 neighborhood. The 12 is obvious from the invoice and it does look like a leftover from the day...and stayed around a while.

The Worlds Fair sets were modified with voltage doubler HV power supplies to make the picture brighter and line level inputs. The CRT's in these sets didn't last long and were replaced often. While some of the stuff from this exhibit still exists, (a power supply and the master receiver) I doubt any of these sets were kept or sold off after the Fair.

Darryl

Interesting back story on this invoice, the history behind it, and the cast of characters involved. Really loved reading this thread.

If anyone wants to go on a treasure hunt, I'll put it out here that the equipment from station W6XAH in Bakersfield, CA. still exists, and could possibly be purchased by someone. It was through the former owner of this equipment that I acquired a large pile of Lee DeForest's notebooks and papers (he was associated with the station). Some of you know of this station, which went on the air in 1932 and was a mechanical system similar to the Jenkins system.

Where do we start? My thread on the TRK is now ended. Time for a new hunt and yours sounds fun. What could be found?

All of the broadcast equipment from the station and various extra parts from the early 30's. I helped to move the stuff out of its original location to where it now sits in the mid 80's. It was purchased from the original owners, Pioneer Mercantile Company by a good friend and fellow collector by the name of Jesse Parker. Mr. Parker passed away some years ago, but his widow, Nevvie, and his daughters are still around. There are pictures of some of the equipment on the ETF website. In fact, I have spoken to Steve Mc.Voy about this on one occaision a few years ago. I'll have to contact a few people out there and see if I can get some more information.

One last gasp on this. I have received more replies from the Simmons family and they are thankful for our interest. The one thing they do not have is any photos of dad at the Worlds Fair. They have been in contact with the Sarnoff Collection but they do not have any photos. Sarnoff made sure he was in them.

If anyone knows of a collection of WF 1939 RCA photos I would like to help them see dad at the WF.

We would be very interested in the Bakersfield equipment. Years ago I was in contact with the guy who had it, but he had an unrealistic idea of its value. Maybe he would have a different take now. If anyone knows how to get in contact with him I'd like to try again to get it for the museum.

It would be nice to see the Bakersfield stuff come out of storage. It's been unused since the mid-30s and stored in its current location for nearly 30 years now.

If you google RCA 1939 Worlds Fair with images option you will see a lot of pictures of RCA at the world fair. At one of the early ETF conventions the collection manager from Sarnoff museum at the time sold individual pictures of RCA at the worlds fair. I bought a couple 8X10 photos from him but they are somewhere in my storage unit.

One last gasp on this. I have received more replies from the Simmons family and they are thankful for our interest. The one thing they do not have is any photos of dad at the Worlds Fair. They have been in contact with the Sarnoff Collection but they do not have any photos. Sarnoff made sure he was in them.

If anyone knows of a collection of WF 1939 RCA photos I would like to help them see dad at the WF.

Just a crazy suggestion: Arnold Chase (remember him?) was a huge collector of everything related to RCA at the '39 World's Fair. He had filing cabinets filled with items from the fair -- from the family of the RCA executive charged with creating the exhibit. Chase's extensive collection went to Moses Znaimer in Toronto -- including the restored lucite TRK-12 (that was also exhibited at the Smithsonian in 1989.) So...maybe the MZTV Museum in Toronto would have photos that include this engineer's photo?

One last gasp on this. I have received more replies from the Simmons family and they are thankful for our interest. The one thing they do not have is any photos of dad at the Worlds Fair. They have been in contact with the Sarnoff Collection but they do not have any photos. Sarnoff made sure he was in them.

If anyone knows of a collection of WF 1939 RCA photos I would like to help them see dad at the WF.

It's a very long shot because none of the following is probably RCA-sourced, but you can find collections of world's fair photos on CD here:
http://www.worldsfairphotos.com/nywf39/photos.htm
Click on a CD label to see a contact sheet.

Just a crazy suggestion: Arnold Chase (remember him?) was a huge collector of everything related to RCA at the '39 World's Fair. He had filing cabinets filled with items from the fair -- from the family of the RCA executive charged with creating the exhibit. Chase's extensive collection went to Moses Znaimer in Toronto -- including the restored lucite TRK-12 (that was also exhibited at the Smithsonian in 1989.) So...maybe the MZTV Museum in Toronto would have photos that include this engineer's photo?
I remember Arnold! I saw him as a kid on a morning show in the early '80's discussing various sets from his collection. I was fascinated with the 1920's sets and loved the little Pilot TV-37. It set me off to want to collect vintage TV's. I heard he sold off his extensive collection at one point, but I always wondered about it.

I remember so well having lunch w/my long time friend the late TV collector/historian Ed Reitan. Also joining us that day was Arnold Chase who was visiting Los Angeles. Great afternoon discussing all things TV. This at Ed's favorite restaurant El Cholo on Western Ave. Miss these guys so much.

-Steve D.