I don't get this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1954-Press-Photo-Lee-Sherman-Television-Picture-tube-/390732801230?pt=Art_Photo_Images&hash=item5af97d64ce

I wonder if the CRT is under vacuum??

Hi it probrably was under vacuum less safety regs then.

Could be completely staged, could be something holding up the kid. It's textured plywood, possibly done outside with the kid's weight not on the tube, and there could be people just out of frame, set the kid and tube in there and snapped it really quick....

Probably not very risky unless the kid had something hard to scratch it.

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The entire surface of the tube normally withstands 14.7 pounds per square inch (one atmosphere) and I believe that most designs were tested to 2 or 3 atmospheres. The additional weight of the child (20-30lbs?) is really small in comparison.
jr

That wasn't the last "Kid with Big Tube" ad, either. Eimac put out this one in 1971...

My all time favorite scary CRT publicity picture is this early DuMont photo:

http://www.videokarma.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=169908&d=1301008843

Looks to me as if the getters in the 20 incher are silver but perhaps the smaller tube is up to air? :scratch2:

jr

The picture you want is 11,000 20 inch tubes under water in
a lake, with people in a boat examining them.

Imagine what would happen if one under water broke ....
many, many others would break due to the shock.

This actually happened! 7000 broke. These were photomuultipliers.
Google Super-Kamiokande accident.

My all time favorite scary CRT publicity picture is this early DuMont photo:

http://www.videokarma.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=169908&d=1301008843

Looks to me as if the getters in the 20 incher are silver but perhaps the smaller tube is up to air? :scratch2:

jr

That gal is smiling, but I DON'T think she's entirely HAPPY...

I had friends who did random work on used or junked TV sets in the early 1980s. One time, they showed up at my house driving a Suburban-type large wagon with only a front seat (or maybe the back seat was folded down). The entire back was filled with large CRTs. Loose ones! They were not even in a single layer or all face down if I remember right. I just imagined what would have happened if they hit a good bump in the road, much less had had to hit the brakes hard.

When I was In High School, my first job was at a local TV repair shop. We used to collect a bunch of CRT's that had no dud value. After a while we had to get rid of them, so we would load up 15-20 of them and take them to the town dump. Another kid my age worked there too, and the two of us were usually elected to get rid of the tubes. To make this more fun, we used to see how far we could throw them; the best implosion on ground contact won. Amazingly out of all those tubes, only one or maybe two would make any significant noise. Most survived being hurled 20-30 feet. It seemed that only the 110 degree tubes were easy to break. From this experience, I discovered that despite common folklore, these tubes were very strong.

Now just because I said they are hard to break doesn't mean you should be foolish around one. Be sure to take all safety precautions when you handle one. It only takes one bad implosion to ruin your day.

Looking after the baby seems to be a common theme:

http://www.tvhistory.tv/1935-TV-TODAY-Part2-pg69.jpghttp://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/pr/332147672/SSPL_10432267_preview.jpg

She looks scared to death:

http://earlytelevision.org/images/ustv_1.jpg

Looking after the baby seems to be a common theme:

http://www.tvhistory.tv/1935-TV-TODAY-Part2-pg69.jpghttp://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/pr/332147672/SSPL_10432267_preview.jpg
IMHO that's a baby actually worth having. One-time investment, no noise, no mess.