Seventy-five years ago, these servicemen with the Patton Brothers firm of Benton Harbor, Michigan, speed up television repairs thanks to the use of modern test equipment. Because of the 6 MHz bandwidth of the TV signal, this includes the need for a sweep generator covering the entire TV broadcast range, with a sweep of at least 10 MHz.
The device is discussed in detail in the September 1949 issue of Radio News, on whose cover this illustration appears.
Fifty years ago, the August 1974 issue of Popular Electronics offered some pointers for hobbyists thinking of going into business for themselves repairing televisions. It reminded that in some jurisdictions, a license was required, and that high voltages were present, so you had to be careful. But for those who wanted to ease their way in, the initial investment might be as little as fifty dollars for a set of tools, and the most common tubes. As you eased your way in to the business, you could upgrade, and the magazine gave recommendations for the parts, equipment, and chemicals you should keep on hand.
The magazine also reminded that in some cases, the experience and test equipment required might be out of your league. Therefore, if possible, it was wise to make a deal with a full-time service shop to tackle the jobs you couldn’t handle.
Sixty years ago today, the July 17, 1964 issue of Life Magazine carried this ad showing the 19-inch offerings of Admiral TV. Shown are the Catalina (P9750 Series), the Spectator (P9640 Series) and Futura (P9430 Series) models. All featured all-channel tuning (channels 2-83) and private listening earphones. The Catalina and Spectator featured timers to turn the set on or off at a pre-set time. All were “portable,” in that they could be moved from one place to another by one person. But they spent most of their time in the same place, near an electrical outlet of course.
The set I watched as a child resembled the “Catalina,” although ours didn’t have the timer or the earphone.
Fifty years ago, this duo were among the first Britons to enjoy playing a video game, thanks to the project shown in two issues of Practical Wireless, starting in July 1974. The game, dubbed Tele-Tennis, appears to be a clone of Pong, which first hit arcades in 1972. The home version didn’t hit American Sears stores until 1975, so these two were way ahead of the curve. The construction article was careful, however, to avoid the “Pong” name.
The magazine noted that the television, the most sophisticated instrument in most homes, wasn’t living up to its potential being used only to watch Bugs Bunny or Coronation Street. It noted that the game was sweeping pubs and clubs in America, and that the British experimenter could duplicate it.
Initially, the author was afraid that the circuit might be too complex for the amateur constructor. But thanks to a careful design, the use of IC’s, and a printed circuit board, the project could be undertaken by anyone with reasonable soldering ability. Both the circuit boards and cabinet were available for purchase.
Seven decades ago, the job of TV repairman involved a lot of manual labor. More often than not, a home service call meant hauling the set back to the shop for repair. And since the set was contained in a large piece of furniture, it wasn’t necessary to haul the whole thing back. The chassis could be removed. Sylvania offered this cart to get it safely to the shop. It would accommodate up to a 27 inch picture tube, and cradle it, protecting not only the TV, but the customer’s floor and furniture.
It was a value of $19.95, but Sylvania would give you one for free in exchange for purchasing your tubes from them.
The ad appeared in the June 1954 issue of Radio-Electronics.
We can’t think of anything that could possibly go wrong in this picture, which appeared on the cover of Radio News 70 years ago this month, April 1954.
It shows one Walter Schott assembling a Walsco Model 4450 UHF Corner Reflector in sunny California. On top of the set is the UHF converter made by the same company.
Sixty years ago this month, the January 1964 issue of Electronics Illustrated noted that it had been just over six decades since Marconi bridged the Atlantic without wires or ships in 1901. In the intervening years, the job had been done with satellites such as Telstar I and II.
But on July 26, 1963, a new experimental satellite, Syncom, had been launched from Cape Canaveral. The satellite was new in that it was synchronous. Its orbital period was 24 hours, so it seeming hovered at the same longitude. Since it was launched from 33 degrees north, it actually did a figure 8, hovering between 33 north and 33 south. But that was good enough to be continuously visible from both America and Europe and 22,300 miles.
The magazine noted that if such a satellite were launched from the equator, then it would stay above a single point on the earth’s surface. The magazine didn’t use the word, but this is what we know today as a geosynchronous orbit, although most geosynchronous satellites are today launched from other locations, first into a geostationary transfer orbit before being maneuvered into geosynchronous orbit. According to the magazine, the satellite’s two transmitters put out about 2 watts on 1915 MHz.
Here is a snapshot of which TV stations were on the air 75 years ago. The coasts were where most of the action was, but it was clear that TV would soon blanket the nation, as there were stations on the air in places like Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Texas. This listing appeared in the December 1948 issue of Radio News, and lists the stations on the air as of November 1.
This illustration from the November 1923 issue of Science and Invention fits squarely into the category of very interesting things that never caught on for want of a practical application.
It is a system for showing motion pictures from your phonograph. The phonograph is busy spinning at 78 RPM, and this system allows you to use that phenomenon to project movies. The frames of your movie are printed on the edge of a paper disk which is placed on the platter, just like a phonograph record. Two bright lights shine on the image, and the opaque image is projected through a prism onto the screen.
A single disk will give you a movie of about 1/78 of a minute long. To provide for longer movies, the disk bends up automatically as it passes under the prism, which allows the layer below to be shown.
The magazine refers to it only as the “Jenkins movie machine.” That is probably a reference to Charles Francis Jenkins (1867-1934), a pioneer of early cinema. He went on to television, as the principal of W3XK, the first television station in the United States, which began broadcasts to the general public in 1928.
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