Exploding GE Color TVs, 1960s

Hello, I am new here.
I had my own TV repair shop from 1962 to 1968 and have not worked on TVs since. However I have taken an interest in GE color TVs from the early 1960s because of other reasons not related to the restoration of these sets.
There have been claims that these early GE color sets had tended to explode (implode) magnetic wise. That is, they suddenly became an intense magnetic field that was generated inside the TV set in a split second that caused any near by steel items (including nails in the walls) to be pulled to the GE TV set with great force.
In one instance during 1965 or 1966 one GE color TV set did this in Chicago and claimed the life of a child that was watching the GE color TV. The child was not killed by the TV, but was killed by a metal item from the room that passed through his body on it's way to the GE TV set.

Claims indicate that only GE color TVs (or TVs made by GE sold under other names) of the early 1960s were involved, no other brands of color TVs were known to have this problem.

I am interested in these GE TV sets of this time frame for this reason and any information on these sets would be of great help to my investigation of the cause of these "explosions". Also I would like to aquire a Sams copy on these GE sets for study.

CRTs and yokes are of great interest in this quest.

I know this request seems unusual, but I really could use the information and I do understand analog electronics, so I can keep up to speed during a conversation related to these devices.

Thank you,
Newton

[MRX37]

I don't believe any TV could generate a magnetic field powerful enough to pull nails out of walls. This sounds like a myth to me.

[Eric H]

Sounds like Urban Legend to me, it would be impossible for any TV to generate enough magnetic force to pull nails out of the wall or even nearby objects.

There was some concern about excess X-Rays from sets at that time and I think GE was one of the biggest offenders, but even that was overblown.

Wow, the way you describe your story combined with the likelyhood that GE could have and would have kept the media hushed through secret illegal methods bring me to think it could be true.
This is very likely to be the best place to find out for sure. Many extremely well-educated and honest people are often here.

I can hardly wait to get to the bottom of this!
I just hope that the one or two guys that may know are not still being paid or threatened to keep thier mouth shut!

You can search and find many GE color sets here. Some are from your time frame with beautiful pictures on them.

Maybe GE had a handful of very oddly defective color sets with some wild engineering blunder or parts from china... I guess back then japan was more likely to supply.

Could japan have been like china today? Causing us trouble by pretending not to know lead is in thier products? Like lead won't cause multitudes of people to aquire cancers or even worse to cause multitudes to not be able to think very well. Gee... I wonder if that is part of the reason people like me can't keep our thoughts straight half the time?
I saw one product from china recently that had a hole in the package telling you to touch it! Like people need to touch a cell phone cover to like it better?

[oldtvman]

I don't remember which series but Generous Electric did have to sets that the HV would go as high as 40k, could cause you to glow in the dark I suppose.

[oldtvman]

Come to think of it maybe they used those tv's to help make the Eldridge disappear. The Naval ship involved in the so-called Philadelphia experiment.

[Sandy G]

That still sounds like an Urban Legend to me...

[MRX37]

I can believe abnormally high X ray emission, and possible radiation poisoning. I can believe a defect in the picture tube causing it to implode during operation, sending flying glass everywhere, but a magnetic field strong enough to pull nails out of the wall? No. I'd bet money that's a myth.

[blue_lateral]

Some calculations might be in order here to determine how much magnetic force would be needed to pull the nails from the walls as you describe. I'll bet there isn't one thousandth of the copper needed to do that in ANY television set ever made. There is also the problem of a power supply. Only so much current is available through that teeny cord. Calculations of the electromagnet needed to do this will show you how much current would be needed. If the current did not come from the wall, an electrical charge would have to be stored inside the set. I think you'll find that enough capacitance to do this would have been cost-prohibitive in the early 60's, and probably also would not fit inside the cabinet.

John

[kbmuri]

Hey! I wonder if I could duct-tape an old GE color TV to the front of my truck and use it to make those people who drive slow in the left lane move over.

Seriously, no.

Newton is a lawyer, chumming for a class-action suit, maybe? If one TV expert here would just say, "yeah, that might happen", then there's a chance to establish "reasonable doubt".

Maybe the one case mentioned, if not completely urban legend, there was a spinning cyclotron in the next room... Or maybe it happened in Almogordo.

Brach,
Thank you for the reply. Yes I agree the whole thing sounds strange, but this happened not just once, but several times with GE color sets of the 1960s. All the "exploding" (actually imploding) GE TVs were turned on at the time this intense magnetic event occured.

According to the claims, the GE design engineers were at a loss about the whole thing and were unable to come up with an reason why or how this would happen. But it was just GE color sets, no other brand.
GE may have tried to push the whole thing under the rug at the time. Not sure.

Since this happened in 65 or 66, I would guess that the sets would have to be made before that date. The Chicago incident stood out because of the death of the child watching the GE color TV in the living room. His mother was in the kitchen and escaped injury. The GE color TV set was the exact center of the "explosion" (implosion).

The child was killed, not by the TV, but by a metal object in the room that passed through his body on the way to the TV. The nails in the wall were pulled out with enough force to twist them. The TV was destroyed, but no damage to the apartment, other than the displaced metal (iron steel) objects.

It appears that for a split second, "something" caused the TV to create a very intense magnetic field that caused the "explosion" (implosion).

Of course, we all know a CRT can implode, but this was "something else" very different.

My next step is to scan the Chicago news papers 65 66 to see if I can find any thing, but this could be a long process as there was no fire, justs a exploding TV set and a death.

I am investigating the "something else" part.

Newton

[blue_lateral]

Originally Posted by Newton

.....But it was just GE color sets, no other brand.
GE may have tried to push the whole thing under the rug at the time. Not sure.

Since this happened in 65 or 66, I would guess that the sets would have to be made before that date.

Well, If nobody else will come out and say it, I will. This is absolute bunk. GE color sets of the early 60's had RCA chassis. They would have been ctc12, ctc15, or ctc16, or clones. These chassis were sold by the millions in RCA and many other brands. They are the most common color roundie on the planet. If there was a problem, It would have been noticed in all these other sets that had the same insides, long before it would have been noticed on the relatively rare GE's.

I hate to be a wet blanket. In life, most things are possible. This isn't. But, welcome to AK. Hope you enjoy it here

John

[David Roper]

Originally Posted by blue_lateral

Well, If nobody else will come out and say it, I will. This is absolute bunk.

I think I kinda sorta hinted at that conclusion, but you get points for brevity and directness.

Mr Arkay was also generous enough to clue me in.
I did think he may be spoofing but the initial story sounded possible to me because I thought nobody in a group of such highly intelligent, well-educated and considerate people would bother to think and type so much just to fool strangers. To me that is not at all funny but I don't mind and my previous words CREEPY AS HELL were not reflective of any anger towards anybody. I just thought it was creepy to say what I was part of was creepy. Now I guess it was creepy afterall but not as creepy as praising Heath Ledger as though he had accomplished anything important in his life.

Earlier in the day I was watching a special on Egypt tomb carvings showing the helicopter, speedboat, and plane all next to eachother as I described previously and other specials that brought me to believe there are wilder possibilities in life than I thought. Another showed many people out west claiming to have seen ships come out of the ocean. A 911 call desribed overhead huge craft. Much else was presented with info on magnetic possibilities for these vessels. It was about something I had never heard of but it seemed logical to me.
I am frustrated not being able to figure out what is true or not. I thought I was getting smarter but now I think I may have some brain damage.
I should have known I would have heard about the exploding sets if it was true but I thought if UFO's are real than this story could be also.
I can't believe I'm that slow. I guess the person who wrote the story will get a real thrill from making a fool of me? I think this was good for me but I just feel kinda creepy.

[Arkay]

Actually, these TV sets have a flawed design that under the right conditions inverts magnetically. Since they are plugged in when this happens, it causes the usual polarity of the wires running through the walls --which, like everything else, is normally aligned with the fundamental electro-harmonic resonance of the Earth's magnetic field, and therefore causes no problems-- to reverse itself. As soon as this polarity reversal occurs, the wires in the walls REPEL the nails, pushing them out of the walls at high speed, like bullets. This requires less energy than pulling them out would, since you are just reversing the direction that the nails were put in, using a reversed polarity. Since the wires are connected to the city's electrical grid, they have plenty of power available to do this; it is not dependent on what is inside of the TV; all that does is initiate the reversal. Then the power of the city's electrical grid provides the rest of the energy needed. Sometimes when this event occurs, the neighbors' electricity supply "stutters" a little. Ever had your lights flicker or your TV set stutter a bit? It was probably due to this happening somewhere nearby in your city. So you see, the nails don't get sucked into the TV, they get pushed out of the walls.

Once any one of them touches the TV, though, it discharges the imbalance and stops the process, much the way a spark from your hand to a doorknob discharges a static buildup. The kid was just unlucky enough to be in the path of one, before the first one hit the television.

At the risk of oversimplifying, perhaps the easiest way to explain this comes out of the movie "Young Frankenstein": You connect the plus to minus, and minus to plus...

I think I have seen to many 1950s sci-fi flicks...