<shrugs>

At some point it probably did, but being a test bed of sorts it seems to have been in a constant state of change since day one. I wouldn't be the least bit surprized if upon power application the horizontal and HV section started spooling up, same thing goes for vertical deflection. The real mystery here is how does it handle color, and how do we get that color image to appear on the developmental CRT?

This is waaaay cool!

That's effin' amazing Nick! too bad I was so busy this weekend! I'da loved to see that light up for the first time in person! That tube looks like it could have a great picture on it once a chassis is set up right for it. I think your money was wisely spent on this piece of history.:yes: Now, if that chassis can be made operational, I think people will be knocking on your door from states away to see it work!

It was a good day for color TV history, but don't worry there will be other opportunities in the future to view this one in the flesh. My hope is to have the entire thing ready and working for next years ETF, but we have a lot of work in front of us to get to that point.



That could be, Pete already drove 5 hours to see it! :smoke:

If I can't make it to next years ETF for whatever reason, a video will be made to show the masses in the banquet hall. Probably be a good idea to have something better than my Handycam to take the pictures with, though.

Some of my 'first light' photos...
 

1. Hello. What’s in there?

2.
Out of the box comes a C73547.

3. Beltron test of C73547.

4. Here Bob is checking numbers discovered on the tube rim. I found them while cleaning dust and grit from the tube. They were hand-punched, obviously before final assembly. It is unclear what they represent.

5. Only seconds after first raster.

Pete

6. Overall CRT light-up configuration.

7. Another view showing, in better perspective, the location of the 15GP22-based yoke on the C73547 neck. We were mindful of the 20 kV covering the bell and being so close to the yoke. The purity coil is positioned on the neck based upon the proper location for a 15GP22 installation. In this flash shot the screen is washed out, but there’s Dorothy shining through!

8. Nick and Tom, who’s gotta be the luckiest vintage TV devotee on the planet, enjoying some Wizard of Oz footage on the C73547.

9. Who was there? Seven people witnessed the event. Tom (Electronic M), his Dad, his Mom, Bob Galanter, Nick Williams, his wife, and Pete Deksnis. The ladies it seems quickly turned their attention to more pressing discussions. After the hi-fives, I called John Folsom in Florida (that's his cradle the CRT is resting on). A bit later, Ed Reitan and John Folsom were on a conference call with Nick.

Pete

Great stuff Pete,

That's what you want to see when you test a tube. Simply incredible.

Thanks for posting,
-Steve D.

This just has to be one of those .... oh my gosh!!! moments!!!

I'm keeping up to date with this thread skim reading the main parts and looking at the pics and I am so impressed with the progress made with this set in such a short time!!! :D It is totally amazing to see that the picture tube is excellent and displaying a picture and I look forward to seeing colour pictures on this tube once you get the prototype chassis up and running with the tube mounted in and configured to display colour pictures! :D This is absolute amazement and I look forward to further progress with this TV set in terms of restoration work and also identifying exactly what prototype it was and when it was manufactured, keep up the good work mate!!! :D

Pete, Great photos and commentary. Almost as good as being there!

After seeing the photo of the number stamped on the rim of Nick's prototype CRT, I closely examined my two down-to-air metal bell prototype CRTs and discovered numbers on their rims I had never noticed before. One had D76, the other had D111. Both of my tubes have 14 pin stems and bases, which I believe places them somewhere earlier in the prototype tube progression. By March of 1953, RCA had provided 477 tricolor CRT samples to 177 companies.

I speculate that these rim numbers may represent a serialization of the metal bells used to assemble the tubes.

This is all just so astounding...Like watching history being made...Yeah, I know, I'm silly...

I went back to my original photograph and checked for what I thought at the time were four integers. The first and fourth were lighter than the others and so I projected that they were hand stamped. Upon closer inspection, the first character could well be a 'D' with 205 following. If that is correct, and when he can find the time (Nick is young guy, not retired like us!;)), Nick might be able to confirm or deny my supposition. If so, this 20-pin prototype would fall right along the timeline.

Pete

Pete, I agree. When I get a chance, I will examine my other two metal bell prototypes. Unfortunately, they are both in sets (the Sparton and CBS prototypes), and getting to where I can read the rim numbers is a very non-trivial task. But I guess now I need to do it. One of these tube is a 6-bolt 20 pin base type, the other is a 3 bolt 20 pin base type. I would expect the rim numbers to be greater than Nick's if our theories are correct.

Phil Nelson posted on his great vintage TV site this CT-100 ad from RCA. Read the text for the amounts and brief history of RCA's prototype and CT-100 tubes made available to other manufacturers in the early '50's.This was not totally altruistic on RCA's or Sarnoff's part. They wanted color TV in the public's hands and if it took other manufacturers to get the ball rolling, so be it.

RCACT-10015GP22KinescopeAd.jpg
http://antiqueradio.org/art/RCACT-10...inescopeAd.jpg


-Steve D.

I do believe the stamping said D205, but I could be mistaken. I'll have a closer look when I get home, and photograph it with my macro lens. I'm assuming all the talk of pin counts is important because as development progressed, the 20-pin 15GP22 was the ultimate result? So earlier on they were using different basing if I understand this right, which would place my tube later on in the development timeline and peg tubes with different pin counts as earlier ones?