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-   -   Cliff Benham, stop it already! (http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=268979)

old_tv_nut 05-10-2017 04:27 PM

Cliff Benham, stop it already!
 
2 Attachment(s)
November 15, 1950 (Chicago) - Three-judge court headed by J. Earl Major, Chief Justice of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, issues temporary injunction restraining start of CBS color TV.

Do you think there might have been some court-shopping on the part of RCA?

wa2ise 05-12-2017 04:00 PM

Of course, every big corporation would do it...

zeno 05-12-2017 08:49 PM

As you know RCA was once a huge & powerful corp. They
were famous for suing the crap out of any competition. Also
I have met several old RCA engineers that HATED them
because they invented things & got zero credit. The contract
stated all inventions were property of RCA BUT even the slightest
credit was not given. Others years after leaving RCA were sued
because they claimed they invented things while on RCA's time.
As far as CBS goes it may have been OK for a few years but
NTSC color was better & served us well for over 60 yrs........

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

cbenham 05-12-2017 10:11 PM

NTSC was the best compromise of all the world's television systms. However, it had a few drawbacks that linger till today. The choice of 3.579545 Mhz for the color subcarrier
still causes work arounds being sought in the conversion of NTSC programs to PAL and the various SECAM standards, not to mention all the modern digital standards because of the vertical frequency being 1000/1001. This leads to the need for "Drop Frame Time Code" to keep things in sync. The 1000/1001 choice was made to protect a few hundred thousand B&W non-intercarrier TV sets from the early 1950s which showed moire in the pictures when displaying the original choice of color which used 3.583125 as the color subcarrier frequency. Finally, if David Sarnoff had gone immediately to a non-compatible [with NTSC 525-60] color system, we would have had color much earlier. It took until 1970 for color to really catch on and become popular. That only happened because of the 12 inch Sony 12 inch Trinitron TV. THAT'S MY STORY and I'M STICKING TO IT!!!

Jon A. 05-13-2017 01:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zeno (Post 3183791)
As you know RCA was once a huge & powerful corp. They
were famous for suing the crap out of any competition. Also
I have met several old RCA engineers that HATED them
because they invented things & got zero credit. The contract
stated all inventions were property of RCA BUT even the slightest
credit was not given. Others years after leaving RCA were sued
because they claimed they invented things while on RCA's time.
As far as CBS goes it may have been OK for a few years but
NTSC color was better & served us well for over 60 yrs........

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

Unfortunately that's how most adults settle their differences, all the while telling their kids to play nice and share. I guess that's where the phrase "Do as I say, not as I do" came from.

I doubt I'll ever own another RCA set except if I intend to mine it for parts. Not only is it a lack of interest on my part, to me they're a reminder of Sarnoff's extreme greed.

Titan1a 05-13-2017 02:29 AM

I have a five inch color portable that's RCA in name only. RCA, through Sarnoff, wanted television bad and did all he could to shaft Farnsworth and Armstrong. The real stinker is the US Government established RCA! This collusion with the feds not only set television back for years but stymied development with both AM and FM radio. The more I read the history of communications, the more I despise RCA, GE and Westinghouse who were all in this together. None of these exist in consumer electronics, thank God! Philco and Zenith existed in spite of them.

Phil Nelson 05-13-2017 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zeno (Post 3183791)
The contract stated all inventions were property of RCA BUT even the slightest credit was not given.

That's a very common contract provision in companies that do research & development of new technology. When you take such a job, you agree that everything that you invent in that area becomes the property of the company. Otherwise, you might covertly patent your best ideas and sell them to the competition -- or hold them for ransom unless your employer pays a big bonus for your "private" inventions.

I didn't work for RCA, so I don't know whether some people were overlooked, but you can find plenty of articles like the following one from RCA Review, where the author (an RCA engineer) credits various RCA engineers in a note at the end:

http://antiqueradio.org/art/RCACT-100TunerArticle.pdf

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

Findm-Keepm 05-14-2017 02:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zeno (Post 3183791)
....Also
I have met several old RCA engineers that HATED them
because they invented things & got zero credit. The contract
stated all inventions were property of RCA BUT even the slightest
credit was not given. Others years after leaving RCA were sued
because they claimed they invented things while on RCA's time......

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

ALL RCA patents have an inventors name or names, with RCA as the assignee. This is the same for any 20th-century company that did R&D.

Your beloved Zenith did the same - as did Rauland. http://www.freepatentsonline.com/res...&search=Search

Most companies also had agreements with employees limiting their employability after they left the company, to avoid collusion on any un-patented ideas or products. This was over and above the "non-compete" clause in the contract.

Interestingly, most NASA patents are assigned to both NASA and the NASA director at the time of the patent.

wa2ise 05-15-2017 07:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Findm-Keepm (Post 3183844)
ALL RCA patents have an inventors name or names, with RCA as the assignee. This is the same for any 20th-century company that did R&D.

Most companies also had agreements with employees limiting their employability after they left the company, to avoid collusion on any un-patented ideas or products.

I got several patents at RCA, and RCA pwned them, though I still had bragging rights. See them at http://pw2.netcom.com/~wa2ise/radios/patents.htm The 11 older ones are RCA's. Looks good on a resume. The latest 2 are Zoran's.

As for "collusion on any un-patented ideas or products" I got laid off, which implies that they don't think I have anything they value anymore. So F 'em... :D

old_tv_nut 05-15-2017 07:51 PM

You prompted me to go looking for my patents - thought I had a complete list, but I don't.

Try searching for your patents by inventor name on Google - also comes up with some other patents that reference yours - interesting. Seems there were as many improving on mine or working their way around them, as there were originals.


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