SKF NTSC medical color TV 1957

[old_tv_nut]

postcard sent to MDs

[Carmine]

Good to know there was something on TV to gross me out long before Discovery Channel came along.

[John Folsom]

Thanks Wayne. I had not seen that postcard anywhere before. I keep hoping one of those SKF systems will be found somewhere one of these days.

[KentTeffeteller]

SKF used the old CBS Scanning Disc color system in that era. Ed Reitan had some data on that on his site. These colorcasts were actually closed circuit for medical personnel only.

[Steve McVoy]

Actually, they had switched to NTSC by then:

http://www.thewritingworks.com/nostalgia.html

[Sandy G]

Yeah, seems like I remember reading that one of the ways they were trying to "sell" color TV back then was the medical/instructional/industrial angle.

[julianburke]

If you like that, you will really enjoy these pictures of medical television. Someone had posted these URL's of TK41's and CTC5's. Also some other custom RCA color microscope cameras. (TK45's) I have no idea what the guy with the tux is doing to the man in the chair with what looks like a bong!! Also there is a patient on a stretcher that looks like he is gagged. What kind of doctors are they anyhow??

Great pictures of the cameras and you can enlarge them to see more detail! Notice in one picture all three cameras have the top front acess doors open because of the heat problems these TK41B's had. There is a gang of HO type tubes under there and this is before RCA was installing a fan on that door.

http://images.google.com/hosted/life...d20114dce490b4

[marty59]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

postcard sent to MDs

I don''t know what kind of procedure they're doing in that picture, but the kitchen fork adds a nice touch!!

[Sandy G]

I like the one w/the little monkey about to get a BIG hypodermic needle...An' he looks to be about as happy about it as I would be...

[KentTeffeteller]

Hi,

Interesting use for early color TV. Thanks for clearing up that NTSC Color was in use by then. That RCA Microscope Color camera is very interesting. Would be neat if Julian could find one of those trucks intact.

[old_tv_nut]

Here's the section on the microscope and surgical camera from RCA's "Color Television Manual for Technical Training" (2nd ed., 1959)

More about the TK-45 can be found at
http://www.oldradio.com/archives/hardware/TV/RCA-TV.htm

The sensitivity of this camera was pretty terrible. Suitable for operating theaters, perhaps, I think the microscope version would have overheated any live specimens, but may have been OK for stained slides.

I remember the one at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago was brightly lit by a long row of PAR bulbs behind the valence. The lighting was at a high angle, which made people's eye sockets look like two black holes. Even with the high angle, it was nearly impossible to look out and actually see yourself on the monitor. Also, the background mural would show through anyone who didn't stop for a few seconds, due to the high lag of the vidicons.

[dtuomi]

I wonder if any of these cameras were ever used in film chains?

David

[julianburke]

I doubt that any of the TK45's still exist. Most likely less than 10 systems were built (if that many) as they had to be horribly expensive for what they were and the amount of equipment involved. Only a handfull of gov't organizations could actually fund those projects esp when color TV was still new and pretty much a science fair project for that moment. I know of none anywhere, anyone else know of one or pieces of one?

[old_tv_nut]

I have to agree with Julian's estimate. This camera was so marginally useful, I can't imagine them selling many.

The museum has strange bits and pieces of old exhibits in storage, but I have no hope that they would have this camera. After all, it had a huge amount of rack-mounted gear at the far end of the cable to make it work. Plus, I could imagine RCA reclaiming it just for spares for the one or two that might still have been in use when the exhibit closed.

The museum had a color TV with a blank raster and visitor-adjustable RGB levels to demonstrate color mixing and a magnifier to show the phosphor dots. - This set *was* kept, and adopted into the museum-sponsored optics exhibit long after the RCA-sponsored color TV exhibit disappeared, and was kept running I think as a labor of love by a museum exhibit technician. Also, in an interview, the museum director described something in storage which sounded like the mehanical TV setup that was part of the old RCA black and white TV exhibit. (This TV only showed an RCA logo, and avoided sync problems by having the camera and monitor disks on opposite ends of the same motor.)

They also have shown as an "item from our attic" a Western Digital model 41:
http://www.earlytelevision.org/western_television.html

By the way, since we have determined that only about 250 TK-41s were ever built, my guess is that the number of TK-45s is not more than one or two greater than the total we see in pictures from Walter Reed, U of M, and the Museum. They had no qualms about reusing the model number later, so they must have known that no-one would be confused.

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by dtuomi

I wonder if any of these cameras were ever used in film chains?

David

Vidicon cameras, yes, but not this model. The rotating gradient neutral density wheel for exposure was a technique also used in vidicon film chains.

See the Tk-26 here:
http://www.oldradio.com/archives/har.../RCA-TV.htm#q2

edit: "TK-25" typo fixed to "TK-26"