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Originally Posted by zenithfan1
So, I still have the '59 RCA at the middle school. I was caught up on work orders and such last night so I figured I'd see if she works or not. I took the back off to find a brightener on the tube. All chassis tubes appear to be original. So I plugged it in and it came on without any caps going. It was very dim but brightened up after 15 min. I then covered it and took it down to the Lake Forest cable tv station just down the hall. They let me hook it up and see what the picture looked like. They got a kick out of seeing such an old set. The picture was bad at first but then brightened up nicely and got very sharp. I think the brightener was not needed, the thing comes on bright and sharp every time now, I'll bring the CRT tester and see the actual condition later. The caps are all orange drops and maroon drops with no paper/wax ones or white time bombs. The cans run cool as a cucumber as well. This is the best part, after it warmed up and had a nice picture the Cub Scout troop came in for a tour of the tv station. Everyone was amazed by this tv that bores me. It was really cool though, they all were asking questions about it and old sets in general. I never get one person that wants to hear that stuff so a whole room full was awesome. It was really cool to see the little 2nd graders so wowed by that set, as they all come from mansions and you would not expect that reaction. I turned on the Simpsons and a whole crowd of kids sat down in front of the set. This was the first time it was used in over 20 years according to the original owner. One kid asked me why it said "12" the guy from the tv station said that is what channel it was on. The kid said he'd never seen a tv where you have to turn a "knob" to change the channel. So even that was cool to them. One parent said that is before remote control. I of course told the group all about Zenith and the first practical remote. So, the timing was really good for them as they got to see the tv station and got a lesson of tv history. It was really fun teaching the kids about that stuff. I just figured I'd share that with you guys.
Mark
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I'm glad you received such a positive response from those kids. What a change from the usual snotty nose, spoiled brats that we often have to deal with. When I was in jr. high; I would bring old radios to my American history class to show off. My history teacher had an interest in old tube radios; so, that's how that all came about. Some of my classmates were really interested in those old radios and were in awe that I had stuff that old and could actually fix them. Most of the kids, however, thought I was some sort of nut case for fooling with stuff that old. Some didn't even know what these items were until they were told that they were radios.