I have a scan of the Sams manual. If you go to
http://antiqueradio.org/contact.htm and send me your email address, I'll send it to you.
That TV's actually kind of cool looking, a little like my Philco Miss America.
I'm not familiar with this set, but I see 560V boost voltage on the height control and 255V on the horizontal hold, so if there were something funky around one of them, hijinks might ensue. After you get the schematic, you can check out components in the neighborhood where you saw arcing and also determine whether some previous "repairman" did dodgy things.
Looks like sort of a bare-bones design: only 12 tubes, including the CRT. That's good news in a way, since there are fewer parts to go bad and need replacement.
This is a series-string chassis, so use caution just as with an AC/DC radio. Come to think of it, the plastic straws on those adjustment pots might be factory-installed, to insulate you from Bzzzt.
"Bumblebee" or similar plastic-coated paper capacitors are always questionable, as are electrolytics.
I wouldn't be ashamed to give it a whirl, anyhow. B/W TV design had been pretty well figured out by 1959, so even a bare-bones set might perform better than you think. Who knows, maybe you can just throw in a few new caps and have it back on the road.
Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html