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  #1  
Old 07-28-2006, 01:30 PM
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Mexican Mystery

Since everyone is doing so well with the British 1953 color question in the other thread, here's one with even less evidence to go on:

The brochure from the Mexico pavilion at the 1964/65 New York World's Fair mentioned development of an original color TV process in Mexico. I haven't been able to locate anything about this. I have a very vague recollection of a proposal for a two-color process way back when (but I don't think it was Baird's proposal). On the other hand, my recollection could be (probably is?)totally false.

Here's a scan of the brochure page.


Bythe way, the official fair guide book (1965 version) said that the Mexico pavilion was showing tourist attractions on closed circuit color TV. My surmise is that they had an RCA set somewhere in the building and RCA occasionally put travelogs on the closed circuit network. I've raise this question with the NYWF enthusiasts at
www.peacethroughunderstanding.org.
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File Type: jpg Mexico Pavilion Brochure industry page.jpg (105.4 KB, 161 views)
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Old 07-28-2006, 07:19 PM
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As far as I can recall about color broadcasting, there were three methods that we ddiscussed. Two are still used today, but only one for commerical broadcast. The one we use here is NTSC (Never The Same Color) with a 3.58 mhz burst signal. The second, still in use, but not for commerical use, was by CBS, which used a color wheel to get correct colors. NASA still has them. The last, but not least, was the thought of using a black and white set to use the full spectrum of light that was available to do "color". If I recall, the only color produced was green and it was a picture of a Coke bottle and it had a fair amount of noise in the picture, most likely the bottle, too!
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Old 07-28-2006, 08:04 PM
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Yeah, IIRC, that color wheel thingy was what they used when they got the 1st color TV pics of the astronauts on the moon..for some reason-I'd say it was a lack of space- they didn't send a std color TV camera to the moon, at least not initially...
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Old 07-28-2006, 08:46 PM
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Down Mexico way...

[QUOTE=old_tv_nut]Since everyone is doing so well with the British 1953 color question in the other thread, here's one with even less evidence to go on:

The brochure from the Mexico pavilion at the 1964/65 New York World's Fair mentioned development of an original color TV process in Mexico. I haven't been able to locate anything about this. I have a very vague recollection of a proposal for a two-color process way back when (but I don't think it was Baird's proposal). On the other hand, my recollection could be (probably is?)totally false.

old_tv_nut,
This may jog your memory:

In Mexico, Guillermo González Camarena (1917â€"1965), invented an early color television transmission system. He received patents for color television systems in 1942 (U.S. Patent 2,296,019), 1960 and 1962. The 1942 patent (filed in Mexico on August 19, 1940) was for a mechanically scanned color filter adapter for monochrome television, similar to field sequential color systems already employed at the time by RCA and CBS in the United States.
In August 31, 1946 González Camarena sent his first color transmission from his lab in the offices of The Mexican League of Radio Experiments in Lucerna St. #1, in Mexico City. The video signal was transmitted at a frequency of 115 MHz. and the audio in the 40 metre band. He obtained authorization to make the first publicly announced color broadcast in Mexico, on February 8, 1963, of the program Para Infantil on Mexico City's Canal 5.

-Steve D.
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Last edited by Steve D.; 07-28-2006 at 08:54 PM.
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Old 07-28-2006, 08:58 PM
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Amazing. I didn't realise there was any indigenous TV/radio experimentation/research in Mexico....Learn somethin' every day...
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Old 07-28-2006, 09:20 PM
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I found info on the 1942 patent but not the 1960s stuff - where did you find it? Would like to know what technology he used in 1963!
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Old 08-05-2006, 04:21 PM
Tom_Ryan Tom_Ryan is offline
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I did some snooping about and found some information that references Camarena broadcast in August 31, 1946:

http://www.blinkbits.com/blinks/televisions

In Mexico, Guillermo González Camarena (1917–1965), invented the early color television transmission system. He received patents for color television systems in 1940 (U.S. Patent 1942 (2296019), 1960 and 1962. The 1942 patent was for a mechanically scanned color filter adapter for an existing monochrome electronic transmission system.

In August 31, 1946 he sent his first color transmission from his lab in the offices of The Mexican League of Radio Experiments in Lucerna St. #1, in Mexico_City^. The video signal was transmitted at a frequency of 115 MHz. and the audio in the 40 metre band.


I decided to also look up the patent info. Checking with the US Patent Office for the mexican inventor named: Guillermo Camarena I was only able to find a single US patent fro this inventor. Copy the entire link into your web browser to view (you need a TIFF browser plug-in to view it)

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-P...o+AND+Camarena)

I couldn't find any patents for 1960 and 1962. If anyone's interested in actually reading the original 1942 patent, I've attached it as a Microsoft DOC file and then zipped it to save on cyber bandwidth.

Tom
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File Type: zip G.Camarena_2296019.zip (733.1 KB, 7 views)
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  #8  
Old 08-05-2006, 04:59 PM
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Looks like the Blink Bits Article was paraphrased from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guiller...A1lez_Camarena

Guillermo González Camarena
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Guillermo González Camarena (Guadalajara, Jalisco, February 17, 1917 - Puebla, April 18, 1965), was a Mexican engineer that invented the color television and founded the first television station in Mexico from his basement. Making his first video camera from scrap materials at age 17, he patented the first color television in 1940. That same year, he started the first television broadcasting station in Latin America. Some years later he invented a remote control and presented other patents that would lead to lower costs of color television sets. His ideal was to build economical TV sets so everybody could have one.

[edit]
Biography
Guillermo's family moved to Mexico City when Guillermo was almost 2 years old. Since he was very young, he made electronically propelled toys and at the age of twelve built his first Amateur radio. In 1930 he got matriculated at the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineers (ESIME) by the IPN in Mexico City and got a licence for radio operation two years later.

Working for the radio station from the Department of Public Education (SEP) while keeping on doing experiments at his basement laboratory, in 1934 he built his own video camera, at the age of 17. He kept on working in his basement with his television equipment, and in 1940 he patented his trichromatic system both in Mexico and the USA, and with it the first color television. The next year, he became a chief operator at the radio stations XEW and XEQ in Mexico City.

In 1942 he began experimenting with live television broadcasting from his house, and in 1946 he founded the first experimental television station in Mexico called XEIGC. The only two receptors were built and installed by him at the Mexican League of Radio Experimenters and in the XEW radio station. The same year, he was authorized to operate meteorological balloons in Mexico City that he used to elevate his radio equipment to the stratosphere with the aim of studying the reach of his television broadcasting signal.

He founded the Gon-Cam Laboratories in 1948 to manufacture television transmission equipment. Two years later, he exported television sets to Columbia College Chicago. In the mid 1950s, there was a big demand for television sets and his television channel 5, called XHGC, formed part of the company Telesistema Mexicano, S.A. (currently Televisa) together with another two channels.

From 1962, González Camarena was authorized to transmit in color starting next year with a series for children. One of his main interests was to make television available to everybody. In 1963 he patented a new color television method called simplified bicolor that made it possible to reduce production costs of color television sets. The first commercial model of television sets appeared in 1964 and, next year, in association with the company Majestic, property of Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta, they started to sell color television sets made in Mexico.

González Camarena was a versatile person who could do research and still had time to compose songs and play several music instruments. Among other things, he built his own telescope and became a regular member of the Astronomical Society of Mexico.

He died in a car accident in Puebla on April 18, 1965 coming back from inspecting a television transmitter in Las Lajas, Veracruz.


Wow, this leads to wealth of info pickings. The reference to Gon-Cam Laboratories is very interesting. I wonder if any of the television apparatus sold to Columbia College Chicago in the 1940's still exist today?

A very interesting fellow. He had a HAM radio license XE1GC which might explain why his early experimental station was broadcast sound on 40 meters. But ....I'm no further ahead understanding Camarena technical work in the 60's that focused on his SBS (Simplified bi-color system) Tv Color television system. I still can't find any patent info unless it wasn't licensed in the US? This reference is interesting:

http://www.jalisco.gob.mx/nuestroedo...zcamarena.html

Steve, got any other gems of wisdom to add?
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  #9  
Old 08-05-2006, 08:01 PM
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I wonder if the account is accurate. In any case, it wasn't the first color system (Baird did this in 1928), or the first electronic color system (again, Baird in 1941). It also wasn't the first two color system (one version of Baird's Telechrome CRT was two color).

Also, I wonder if two-color receivers were actually ever manufactured. I can't believe that a two color CRT was made, and I'm not sure how a two color system would be much cheaper than three.

The whole thing sound like an urban legend that has been embellished over the years.
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  #10  
Old 08-06-2006, 02:38 PM
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I thought I remembered a 2-color system proposal; now I wonder if it was mentioned in some book or magazine that I can't put my hands on.

Thanks, guys, for all the input! I can't do much with it right now, as my desktop computer crashed and I'm having a devil of a time getting a new drive installed.
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Old 08-06-2006, 06:03 PM
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While working at a local high end electronics store as a repair tech in the late 70's, there was a self contained, front projection television that use two crt's. One was cyan and the other magenta. It was the type of set where the screen was mounted on top of the large base cabinet with the crt's pointing forward onto a flip out mirror that reflected the image back on the screen. I can't remember the model or manufacturer of the set. As I recall it did not have the color quality of a three crt set, but I was taken by the two color system.

Darryl
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Old 08-06-2006, 06:15 PM
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When I was in high school in the late 50s there was an article in Scientific American by Edwin Land, of Polaroid fame, about two color photograpy. I used my 35mm camera to photograph still objects on black and white film through first a cyan and then a magenta filter. I then used two slide projectors with filters to project the slides on a screen. The results were amazing, considering that there were only two colors used, but didn't come close to the quality of 35 mm color slides. Some colors (I can't remember which ones) were reproduced very poorly. I think Polaroid may have actually made 2 color film?

At the 1993 Early Television Convention we had a presentation about a two-vidicon color camera that the presenter (Gary Davis) had built, in the early 60s, I think. The design came from an article in Radio Electronics.
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  #13  
Old 08-06-2006, 06:16 PM
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A two-color system is cheaper to make but poorer quality like the 2-color dye photocopy process. However, getting back to Steve McVoy's comment about urband legends that could be possible too. Right up their with the Tales of Zorro or the Lone Ranger... I'd be better convinced of Camarena epic journey into two-color if more evidence turned up to support it.
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Old 08-07-2006, 07:41 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve McVoy
When I was in high school in the late 50s there was an article in Scientific American by Edwin Land, of Polaroid fame, about two color photograpy. I used my 35mm camera to photograph still objects on black and white film through first a cyan and then a magenta filter. I then used two slide projectors with filters to project the slides on a screen. The results were amazing, considering that there were only two colors used, but didn't come close to the quality of 35 mm color slides. Some colors (I can't remember which ones) were reproduced very poorly. I think Polaroid may have actually made 2 color film?
AFAIK, Polaroid never produced a two-color film (at least not as a regular market product), but they did produce some of the very few 3-color additive films ever made by anyone (Polavision 8mm instant movies and Polachrome 35mm instant slides). [Practically all other color photographic films ever made have been subtractive in nature rather than additive.]

You're right that Edwin Land was very involved in color vision research. An interesting example/illustration of the *one* color version of the Land Effect (was) available at: http://land.taylor.com/ but the site doesn't seem to be working now. A while back I saved one of the photos on that site though. I don't know if I should attach it or not, since it's not my image. Anyway, it's a picture of a cheeseburger created using only red and white (grey) pixels, but gives the illusion of a full color (but poorly saturated) photograph. Really weird!
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  #15  
Old 08-08-2006, 10:42 PM
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Actually, there were several additive color film processes developed int he early 1900s. Dufaycolor was one of the more successful, but none of them got the mass market that came about with (subtractive) Kodachrome.

http://www.screensound.gov.au/glossa...r?OpenDocument
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