Zenith G2322 "Claridge" restoration

[nasadowsk]

Oh, was the wacky year porthole with the funky chassis? Yeah, never understood those. I suspect Zenith gave up on portholes in general because, as good a set a Zenith was, the styling was a turn off, as everyone started to have an idea of how a TV “should” look…

Note the UL sticker. Approving everything is nothing new to them…

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by nasadowsk

Oh, was the wacky year porthole with the funky chassis? Yeah, never understood those. I suspect Zenith gave up on portholes in general because, as good a set a Zenith was, the styling was a turn off, as everyone started to have an idea of how a TV “should” look…

Note the UL sticker. Approving everything is nothing new to them…

Porthole sets were the logical result of, round CRTs, no measurement standard, and a market starved for bigger screens. You can claim more square inches with a double D mask than a rectangular mask, and even more still if you dispense with the mask and show the whole CRT face.
Around the time Zenith and others gave up the porthole sets larger rectangular tubes were reaching market which made portholes pointless.

I think the idea of the 6BN6 was 2 fold...1.) make something that nobody has a patent on so the difference between paying royalties and receiving royalty payments from other companies pays for the R&D several times over. 2.) Make a tube that is both detector and first audio to reduce tube count and complexity/cost.

[Zenith26kc20]

First time I saw one of those sets the thing that stood out most was the tuner. I was used to seeing the small Admiral turret tuner but this one was impressive!