It was sort of the grandfather of todays LCD TVs??? Found the picture on the Internet, apparently it was shown on a consumer electronics fair in 1961, in Chicago if I am not mistaken. I have two questions:

A) Was it really a working prototype or just a non-functional prop?

B) If it was a real working TV, what technology did it use?

Not sure what this is. The father of the LCD, George Heileman, was still working at RCA in 1961, have a look at the pocket tv on the cover of the May '63 issue of Mechanix Illustrated to see what they were up to back then. No working prototype of the size in your photo existed then.

What piques my curiosity about this is it reminds me of a technology I read about in a 1950's childrens' science book found in a thrift store. The CRT discussed had the gun at the far end of an asymmetrical envelope, a physical appearance similat to one of those melted beer bottle ashtrays or a Sony Walkman CRT.

Perhaps something like this:

http://uv201.com/Tube_Pages/flat_crt.htm

Variations of the Aiken flat CRT design have been around since about the mid 50s, but I believe that the Sony watchman "lollipop" design was about the only practical use of a flat CRT design.

jr

According to the description accompanying the photograph, it seems to be a working model, and also a colour TV. Here is a link:

http://www.magazine13.com/the-world-in-1961/

According to the description accompanying the photograph, it seems to be a working model, and also a colour TV. Here is a link:

http://www.magazine13.com/the-world-in-1961/

I interpreted that to say it did NOT work.

"24.Caption from 1961: TV viewers of the 1970s will see their programs on sets quite different from today’s, if designs now being worked out are developed. At the Home Furnishings Market in Chicago, Illinois, on June 21, 1961, a thin TV screen is a feature of this design model. Another feature is an automatic timing device which would record TV programs during the viewers’ absence to be played back later. The 32×22-inch color screen is four inches thick."

a thin TV screen is a feature of this design model. Another feature is an automatic timing device which would record TV programs during the viewers’ absence to be played back later. The 32×22-inch color screen is four inches thick.

Bolding mine. Reading between the lines of the description it is clearly just for show.

However, the set appears to be plugged into an AC outlet in the floor.

Illuminated transparency? :cool:

The general layout reminds me of the 1958 Teleavia from France.

http://antiqueradio.org/PracticalTelevision.htm

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

http://antiqueradio.org/art/PracticalTelevisionCover.jpg

Looks like one of RCA's "Sets of the Seventies" program they did in the early Sixties. I started writing an article about that program for my radio club's bulletin--eight years and I haven't finished it.

All hail The New Frontier ! (grin) NOTHING was impossible in 1961...Or thereabouts...

I like how these "future products" examples have new ideas but the designs themselves fit right into the era they were announced. Sort of like, if personal computers or cell phones had been discussed in the early 1970s, they would have been avocado green or harvest gold in the "homes of the 21st century".

Chris, I couldn't agree more. Those ads are perfect examples of it.
in my mind, it reminds me of the common 80s-90s refrigerators with woodgrained metal handles and accents...Some had icemakers and LED digits for temp.

Looks like people were already working on "thin TV" technologies around 1957:

http://www.earlytelevision.org/pictures_on_flat_panel.html

http://www.earlytelevision.org/fairchild_crt.html#aiken

http://www.earlytelevision.org/flat_tv_tube.html

And it was always "ten years off" for the next thirty years.

Wasn't a US company the developer of LCD TV in the early 1970's? I though I heard they sold it to a Japanese company. Not saying it was RCA. I though I recall Fairchild, but that's probably wrong...:no:

Wikipedia says Westinghouse, in 1972.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_crystal_display#Brief_history