Quote:
Originally posted by Marlin Mackley
Hello folks:
I registered just today after seeing this mentioned in the Antique Radio Forum, and thought why not? I am sorry I do not have a CT-100 to show you, but I do have a Westinghouse H-840CK15...
Respectfully submitted by Marlin Mackley
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Marlin,
Welcome aboard our new Vintage TV Forum! Congrat's on finding a copy of the first all electronic color TV to be offered for sale to the public in March of 1954, a full month before RCA was able to launch their better known CT-100. I guess you know that you are now a member of a pretty exclusive club. I also was fortunate to stumble across the requirements of a membership in this tiny fraternity and I am trying to keep an account of how many of these Westinghouses turn up. The number of known survivors is probably closer to 8 now. I'd be interested in knowing the chassis s/n of your set and whether it contains a 15GP22 CRT or a C-73599. The chassis number is on a white rectangular tag at the right rear of the main chassis. It starts with ME 000XXX, the X's being the three digits which mean something. The CRT should have a tag up on the neck somewhere, possibly under the purity coil (the coil closest to small end of the tube). Your grille cloth seemes to have the same weave as the original but is the only one I've seen in a different brown color to the normal grey. This makes me think yours has been stained by a previous owner. Is there any evidence of this you can see?
As for my story, I was searching through one of those free picture ads bargain finder type tabloid newspapers one Sunday morning about 3 years ago and my eyes passed a dark, poorly lit photo of a cabinet that looked like a portable dishwasher. I don't to this day know what made me stop long enough to read the text underneath. I still have the ad, saved for posterity. It read "1954 Westinghouse color TV, G.C. w/service manual. $price. Location. Ph.#."
I knew about the CT-100 but I was not familiar with this set at the time and what I was looking at was a cabinet with closed doors, it didn't look anything at all like a color TV, precious or otherwise. I called the seller immediately and when I asked what CRT it had in it was told 15GP22. That was all the verification I needed to hear! I was so excited by this point I couldn't stop shaking as I quickly had a shower and got in my Safari minivan to drive the merely four hours round trip (this thing was close!) needed to fetch this great piece of treasure.
It was filthy and the entire chassis was coated with a 1/2 inch layer of spider webbing which actually turns out helped preserve the copper plated finish. In my cleaning operation I removed the mumetal shield around the CRT neck to reveal the CRT tag and discovered that I had the developmental precursor to the 15GP22 in my set, the C-73599....Bonus!
I tried to soft start mine and everything looked great as the speaker started to crackle and the horizontal output stage started to whistle until the gun end of the CRT lit up with a bright pink inside and at that point I knew I was snookered. The CRT was gassy. That is as far as I have taken my electronic restoration. If I can resist temptation and leave the darned thing original, no recapping, nothing I think it will be more valuable way down the road. Pictures of the back and chassis' in my set may be seen here.
http://www.tvhistory.tv/advertising3.htm
I have come to a theory that Westinghouse labs had a stock of the C-73599 CRT's and decided to use them in the first sets out the door. This enabled them to beat RCA which was having trouble getting production capability for 15GP22's on-line. I heard that an attempt to tool up for production of these tubes in the RCA plant in I believe Argentina ended in total failure.
Who would'a figured the first reply post would be from an H840CK15 owner? Is this a high quality forum or what!?
Great stories are out there! We'd love to hear them.
Rob