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Old 07-23-2006, 05:15 PM
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Einar72 Einar72 is offline
Chasin roundies since '79
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Federal Way, Washington
Posts: 936
The problem we face is that RCA ran as fast as it could from the 15G once the "BIG Color" models went into production. The 15G was the end result of research goals going back to the 1940's, and was simply out-of-date. Once they had made the leap to the 21-inchers, the marketing folks had no reason to dote on the smaller tube, they wanted, no, they HAD to sell the new models. We forget, deep in our intoxicating nostalgic fog, that this was a business risk, and RCA had to work desperately to keep it's dream alive financially. It would be years before color TV sold worth a darn. Our longing for spare 15G's just wasn't anticipated back then, future nostalgia is not factored in to the end-of-life decisions all manufactured goods face. Manufacturing resources were simply shifted to producing the big tubes. At some point, It had no bearing on the bottom line, the materials specific to it were used-up or even discarded, the production line retooled, the documentation archived, only to be tossed at some recent date. I cannot accurately guess when the last 15G was produced new, but I was surprised to find the one I submitted to Pete's site with the 1959 date-code was the only one he'd seen. It is probably a rebuild.

Having said that, one last hurdle is the Grim Reaper. If you were an engineer in your prime, oh, say, age 40-50 in those days, you are now just plain old dead. Much of the knowledge we collector/restorers thirst for went to the grave with those brilliant minds long ago. I personally tried getting archived RCA data from a kid on the phone at GE back in the '90's, and it proved fruitless. With the sale to Thomson, then to the new owners, I don't hold out any hope. But keep looking!
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